Junior in driver's seat: JR Motorsports, co-owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr., enters the playoffs with the top three drivers in the standings, and all are separated by no more than five points. William Byron holds the series lead with 2,025 points. That's two more than teammate Justin Allgaier and five more than Elliott Sadler, the regular-season champion. Sadler also won the playoff series opener at Kentucky last season.
Add in teammate Michael Annett, seeded No. 12 in the playoff standings, and JR Motorsports has filled one-fourth of the playoff field.
Byron, a rookie, has a series-high three wins (excluding Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers) and made his Kentucky Speedway debut earlier this season where he started fifth and finished seventh.
The field: The 12 playoff drivers come from eight different racing teams, with Stewart-Haas Racing (Cole Custer) and Jeremy Clements Racing (Jeremy Clements) making their playoff debuts. Four rookies are in the field with Byron, Custer, Matt Tifft and Daniel Hemric. Chevrolet has a playoff-high nine cars in the field compared to Ford's two and Toyota's one.
Crashing the party: Though his driver isn't in the championship chase, Beavercreek native Gary Keller will field a car for Ross Chastain. Chastain, who is 15th in points with one top-five and two top-10 finishes this season, makes his 100th Xfinity Series start Saturday in the No. 4 JD Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro.
“It’s been a great ride so far,” Chastain said, “and I’m excited to see how the next 100 races go. Kentucky is a very challenging track, especially since the repave, but I’m confident that my No. 4 crew will set me up with a great ride.”
Girl power: Angela Ruch became the fifth woman to compete in the Xfinity Series at Kentucky Speedway back in July, and returns in an attempt to make Saturday's race. She pilots the No. 78 Chevrolet for B.J. McLeod Motorsports, and started 40th and finished 30th in July. She joins Johanna Long, Danica Patrick, Jennifer Jo Cobb and Shawna Robinson as Xfinity Series drivers at Kentucky. Long and Patrick are tied for the best finish at Kentucky with 12th.
Race center: The VisitMyrtleBeach.com 300 is a 200-lap race around the 1.5-mile track. Stage One ends on lap 45, stage two ends on lap 90 and the final stage gets the checkered flag on lap 200. The race is on NBCSN.
After Kentucky the series moves to Dover and Charlotte to complete the first round. The top eight drivers advance either with a win or on points. The field is trimmed to eight drivers after races at Kansas, Texas and Phoenix.
The champion is crowned at Homestead-Miami Speedway with the final four drivers in a winner-take-all race. Daniel Suarez won the title last season.
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