NASCAR 2017 live stream: Time, TV schedule, starting grid, and how to watch Martinsville Raceway event online

The half-mile bullring Martinsville Speedway hosts the NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series Sunday where the First Data 500 will kick off the first race of the semifinal playoff round.

NBCSN will televise the race with the network’s coverage beginning at 2:30 p.m. ET and the green flag scheduled to wave at 3:13 p.m. Play-by-play duties will be handled by Rick Allen and he will joined in the broadcast booth by analysts Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte.

Martinsville is the first of three races in the semifinal featuring eight drivers vying for a spot in the four-driver championship final. Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch are the top two seeds, followed by Brad Keselowski, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott.

A win by a playoff-eligible driver at Martinsville, Texas Motor Speedway (Nov. 5) or Phoenix Raceway (Nov. 12) automatically qualifies that driver for the best-finish-wins-the-championship finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway (Nov.19). The remainder of the field will be set by points.

Joey Logano captured the pole in qualifying, with Truex posting the second-fastest speed. Elliott, Blaney and Clint Bowyer completed the top five. Hamlin, Keselowski, Erik Jones, Kyle Larson and Aric Almirola rounded out the top 10.

Johnson, the defending race winner and Cup Series champion, spun on his qualifying lap in the second session and did not post a time. The No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team elected to change the tires on Johnson’s car, which requires him to start the race at the rear of the 40-car field.

And those still in title contention comprise a stacked field featuring a who’s who of NASCAR’s best. The participants are: every series champion since 2012 (Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson and Brad Keselowski); two young talents regarded as future superstars (Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott); the best active driver yet to win a championship (Denny Hamlin); and the 2017 regular-season points champion (Martin Truex Jr.), whose superiority has often been overwhelming.

“They all say I’m a lock because I got so many playoff points,” Truex said. “I’m telling you, it’s not that simple. We got to go out and perform, can’t have an engine failure, can’t get in a crash five laps into Martinsville. We got to focus on one race at a time and do the best job we can do, try to keep the momentum going.”

While the question may be outlandish, it is not wrong to suggest that the reigning champ is facing a must-win at Martinsville. For the majority of the regular season, Johnson’s No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team struggled. Conventional wisdom suggested Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus would turn on the performance come the playoffs, much like they had in so many years — including last year when Johnson won his record-tying seventh title despite not consistently having the fastest car.

But this postseason, the No. 48 team is still largely lagging behind the Toyotas of Truex and Busch and the Fords of Keselowski and Harvick. Johnson’s best path to an eighth championship is by winning, and there is no better track for him to do so than Martinsville. Unlike Texas and Phoenix where aerodynamics and horsepower factor significantly into the outcome, Martinsville is regarded as a track where the driver is the primary difference-maker.