Below is a look at the NASCAR Xfinity Series Round of 8 Playoff drivers at Texas Motor Speedway (in order of seeding):
Chase Briscoe heads to the race at Texas in the most comfortable spot of everyone with a lock in the Championship 4 at Phoenix. Briscoe has four starts at the track with two top fives and two top 10s. His best finish came earlier this season, finishing runner-up to his Ford teammate Austin Cindric. He has an average start of 13.2 and average finish of 9.8 at the track.
Justin Allgaier had a good performance at Kansas last weekend and jumped up one spot in the standings. He now sits in second with 3,068 points and is 11 points above the cutline. Allgaier will make his 21st start on Saturday at the track. He has two top fives and 10 top 10s at the track. His best finish also came earlier this season, finishing third. He has led 135 laps total at the track and has an average start of 12.8 and average finish of 12.2.
Brandon Jones made a huge jump in the standings after his performance at Kansas. Heading into Kansas, he was below the cutline and now he is sitting nine points above it in third in the standings. Jones has nine starts at Texas with one top five and four top 10s. Earlier this season, he finished seventh, but he has a best finish of fourth at this same race in the 2019 season. He has an average start of 8.7 and average finish of 17.9.
Austin Cindric fell in the standings after his early incident with fellow Playoff driver Noah Gragson at Kansas. However, he is taking the final spot above the cutline right now, two points to the good. What better racetrack to come to than Texas where he won earlier this season? This will be his sixth start at the track with one win, three top fives and four top 10s. He has an average start of 10.0 and an average finish of 5.4. He has also led 82 laps.
Justin Haley is sitting in fifth in the standings with 3,057 points and is only two points below the cutline. Saturday will be Haley’s fourth start at Texas. He has two top 10s and finished eight at the race earlier this season. His first start was in 2019 and he finished seventh.
Ross Chastain heads to Texas in sixth place in the standings. He has 11 starts at Texas and one top five and two top 10s. Earlier this season, he finished ninth and his best finish came at this race in 2019, finishing runner-up to Christopher Bell. He has an average start of 17.6 and average finish of 17.0. He is currently 12 points below the cutline with 3,042 points.
Ryan Sieg jumped up one spot in the standings and is now in seventh with 3,042 points. His third-place finish last weekend but not enough to jump ahead of the cutline. He is currently 17 points below the cutline. He has made 13 starts at Texas in his career and has three top 10s. He did not have a good run earlier this season because of a suspension issue and ended up finishing 29th.
Noah Gragson took a huge hit last weekend and plummeted from above the cutline to the last spot in the Round of 8 standings. He is in a must-win situation at this point when it comes to Texas and Martinsville. He is 33 points below the cutline heading to Texas. This will be his fourth start at the track. Unfortunately, he did not finish the race in his last two starts because of crashes. His best start came at his debut in 2019, starts 16th and finishing 13th. He will have to fight for points and a good finish on Saturday.
