Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) The Xfinity Series has its first elimination race of the season with four drivers facing the end of their playoff hopes. Austin Cindric, Ryan Truex, Ryan Reed and Brandon Jones enter the race below the cutoff line. Here is all the info for today’s race: (All times are Eastern) START: Mike Cote, Bar Harbor President and CEO, will give the command to start engines at 3:07 p.m. The green flag is scheduled to wave at 3:14 p.m. DISTANCE: The race is scheduled for 200 laps (200 miles) around the 1-mile oval. STAGES: Stage 1 ends on Lap 45. Stage 2 ends on Lap 90. PRERACE SCHEDULE: Garage opens at 8 a.m. Driver/crew chief meeting is at 1:15 p.m. Qualifying is at 12:05 p.m. Driver introductions are at 2:30 p.m. NATIONAL ANTHEM: Nikki Briar will perform the anthem at 3:01 p.m. TV/RADIO: NBCSN will broadcast the race beginning at 3 p.m. Coverage begins at 2:30 p.m. with Countdown to Green on NBCSN. Motor Racing Network’s radio broadcast begins at 2:30 p.m. and also can be heard at mrn.com. SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will have MRN’s broadcast. FORECAST: wunderground.com calls for cloudy skies with a high of 72 degrees and a 6 percent chance of rain at the start of the race. LAST TIME: Ryan Blaney beat 2017 playoff contender Justin Allgaier by nearly five seconds. Allgaier is playoff eligible again in 2018, but Cup regulars will not compete. STARTING LINEUP: Click here for starting lineup<doc-sep>DOVER, Del. — A sudden rain shower in the afternoon of an otherwise dry day soaked the concrete racing surface at Dover International Speedway and forced cancelation of Friday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series knockout qualifying session. As a consequence, with the field set according to owner points, Kyle Busch will lead the 39 Cup drivers to the green flag in Sunday’s Gander Outdoors 400 (2 p.m. ET, NBCSN) at the Monster Mile, the opening race in the Round of 12 of the NASCAR Playoffs. Kevin Harvick will start on the outside of the front row, and the remaining 10 playoff contenders will line up in owner-points order on Rows 2 through 6. MORE: Starting lineup from Dover Busch thought the rainout was a net positive for his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing team, in terms of potential spots gained. “Probably six or eight spots or so, I believe,” Busch said. “It definitely bodes well for us. I thought we had a decent car in practice, the way that it felt — it felt pretty good. It just didn’t show the speed on the speed chart. “But as practice was going on, and guys were making their second and third runs, they were kind of coming back to us in lap times, where our car was really consistent over the run and running the same lap times … “It certainly better for us not to have to go out there and bust off a really fast lap. Speeds were way high here this morning (in practice). With cooler temperatures, it seemed like it was going to be way fast.” Martin Truex Jr. will start from the third spot next to Brad Keselowski. Only 15 points separate fifth-place starter Clint Bowyer from 12th-place Alex Bowman, with the next three races set to determine the drivers who will advance to the Round of 8. Busch, on the other hand, has a 47-point edge over ninth-place Chase Elliott, who was fourth fastest in Friday’s opening practice behind Kyle Larson (10th in the playoff standings), Harvick and Kurt Busch (seventh). NASCAR also postponed Friday afternoon’s scheduled K&N Pro Series East Race until 9 a.m. ET Saturday.<doc-sep>AJ Mast/Associated Press The 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs waved goodbye to racing great Jimmie Johnson during the first wave of eliminations. Those left standing are headed to Dover International Speedway for the Gander Outdoors 400, a new wrinkle in the playoff journey after realignment. There, names like Martin Truex Jr. will try to overcome the after-effects of a major end-of-race wreck last time out as drivers attempted to stave off elimination. With only 12 drivers remaining and plenty of those on the outside looking in, aiming to play spoiler, Dover should once again hold one of the top events of the year. Here's everything to know about Sunday's affair. Viewing Details Where: Dover International Speedway Video Play Button Videos you might like When: Sunday, 2 p.m. ET Watch: NBCS Live Stream: NBC Sports Live Tickets: StubHub Gander Outdoors 400 1. Kyle Busch 2. Kevin Harvick 3. Martin Truex Jr. 4. Brad Keselowski Note: Qualifying rained out; full start list set by points. 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Standings 1. Kyle Busch 3090 2. Brad Keselowski 3040 3. Ryan Blaney 3018 4. Kevin Harvick 3085 5. Martin Truex Jr. 3058 6. Clint Bowyer 3025 7. Joey Logano 3019 8. Kurt Busch 3019 9. Chase Elliott 3013 10. Kyle Larson 3006 11. Aric Almirola 3001 12. Alex Bowman 3000 13.Jimmie Johnson 2097 14. Austin Dillon 2071 15. Denny Hamlin 2053 16. Erik Jones 2046 ESPN.com Drivers to Watch Martin Truex Jr. Mike McCarn/Associated Press Truex is angry heading into Sunday. The Furniture Row Racing driver seemed to have a shot at a checkered flag in the previous race before Johnson came out of nowhere and caused both men to wreck out. It should go without saying, but Truex wasn't exactly thrilled with the situation: Johnson's attempt to save his season was a polarizing move and resulted in Truex's 14th-placed finish at a time when he was finally starting to re-establish momentum. Before the odd finish, Truex had landed third at two consecutive events, breaking himself free of a downward trend that had seen him finish outside of the top 10 in four consecutive events. Now it is back to non-top-10 land for Truex, who has four wins but lost out on some serious playoff positioning as a result of the wreck. He will undoubtedly be motivated to get back on track in Dover, but an erratic couple of months could be hard to overcome with so much at stake for the entire field. Ryan Blaney Mike McCarn/Associated Press The big winner after the Johnson-Truex debacle, Ryan Blaney now has to find a way to keep the momentum going. After playing the points game well all year, Blaney was in the right place at the right time to capitalize on some chaos and grab his first checkered flag of the season. The outcome was a surprise to him as well. "But we put ourselves in a good spot, and it worked out for us," Blaney said, according to USA Today's Michelle Martinelli. "When I was running third, I was just thinking about points. We were good on points, and I was cool with just riding around in third. But then that situation happened, and we happened to be there." Winning in dominant fashion is something fans have been repeatedly hit over the head with this year thanks to the likes of Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick, who have combined to tally 14 wins (seven apiece). But there should still be room in the hearts of fans for an opportunist like Blaney, who sits in a great position on the leaderboard, much like he has in most races this year. If he's picking and choosing his spots the rest of the way—like he has much of the season—he could sneak his way past a few more cut lines. The No. 12 Ford is one to keep in mind while the heavyweights soak up much of the attention on the broadcast. Kyle Busch Chuck Burton/Associated Press Busch made a devastating mistake in Charlotte last time out that saw him land 32nd. Just don't call it a rookie mistake. Most of the press ahead of the race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval centered on the fact it was a great unknown because it was a rare road-course hybrid for a playoff event. Near the end of the race, Busch and other big names like Kyle Larson and Brad Keselowski misjudged a turn and slammed into a barrier, ending their event. Busch spent the post-race media run explaining what happened, as Motorsport.com's Nick DeGroot shared: "We'd just been there the longest we had been on tires, and I guess all of us are just stupid and don't know where to brake for the corner considering what our tires look like, and so we just all drove off into a 90-degree wall for something to do because we had nothing else better to do." Unlike Truex, Busch wasn't hurting to keep a good streak going at least. He's sitting on seven wins, and over his four prior events, he had finished eighth or better, hitting Victory Lane in Richmond most recently. To top it all off, Busch won this race a year ago, so he's looking to make it two in a row as the series returns to a normal event—one he has to enter as the favorite.<doc-sep>
Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) The Gander Outdoors 400 at Dover International Speedway kicks off Round 2 of the playoffs and with Talladega looming next week, the stakes are high. Last year, Kyle Busch passed Chase Elliott coming to the white flag and punched his ticket to the next round. Here’s all the info you need for today’s race. (All times are Eastern) START: Tamara Ward, executive vice president of corporate development, Camping World Holdings, Inc. will give the command to start engines at 2:07 p.m. The green flag is scheduled to wave at 2:16 p.m. DISTANCE: The race is scheduled for 400 miles (400 Laps) around the 1-mile course. STAGES: Stage 1 ends on Lap 120. Stage 2 ends on Lap 240. PRERACE SCHEDULE: The garage opens at 8 a.m. The driver/crew chief meeting is at noon. Driver introductions are at 1:20 p.m. NATIONAL ANTHEM: The Calvary Baptist Choir from Dover will perform the anthem at 2 p.m. TV/RADIO: NBCSN will broadcast the race beginning at 2 p.m. Coverage begins with Countdown to Green at 1:30 p.m. on NBCSN. Motor Racing Network’s radio broadcast begins at 1 p.m. and also can be heard at mrn.com. SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will have MRN’s broadcast. FORECAST: wunderground.com calls for a high of 80 degrees, partly cloudy skies and a 5 percent chance of rain at the start of the race. STARTING LINEUP: Click here for the complete lineup