NASCAR Chicago 2017: Starting grid, lineup for Tales of the Turtle 400

The 2017 NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series playoffs begin Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway. Kyle Busch and Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin will share the front row after topping qualifying for Tales of the Turtles 400, with Busch posting a top speed of 187.963 mph around the mile-and-a-half track.

The complete starting lineup is below.

The first playoff race of the 10 that make up the postseason will air on NBCSN beginning at 3 p.m. ET. Rick Allen will handle play-by-play duties with analysts Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte joining Allen in the broadcast booth. Online streaming is available through NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app.

Busch and Hamlin are two of the 16 drivers making up the playoff a field. A win by any of the title-eligibles Sunday, the first of three Round 1 races, will automatically transfer them to the next bracket. The four drivers with the lowest points totals who don’t have a win are eliminated after the end of every round.

Nine playoff drivers qualified in the top 10, with Joey Logano in seventh the lone exception. Defending race-winner and regular season points champion Martin Truex Jr. starts third, followed by Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski. Harvick (2001-02) and Keselowski (2012, 2014) are each former Chicagoland winners.

Cup Series playoff preview

The format on how NASCAR goes about crowning its champion may be unchanged. However, the points system and how points are distributed within the knockout format is radically different and will have a significant impact.

The advent of stage-racing provided drivers opportunities to collect points that are added to their total in each round. In essence, regular season success for the first time is now awarded in the playoffs, which can factor heavily in who transfers to the next round and who misses out.

Don’t count Jimmie Johnson out in his pursuit of record eighth Cup championship

If they wanted to, the 15 drivers competing against Jimmie Johnson when NASCAR’s playoffs begin this weekend would have reason to think the defending Monster Energy Cup Series champion won’t successfully retain his title.

After all, Johnson just completed a regular season where he recorded career lows in top-fives, top-10s, average finish, and laps led. He may have won three times, but those wins also accounted for his only top-five finishes in 26 races. Not exactly the kind of sustained high-level consistency indicating he and his Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 team are ready to embark on a title run.

Except none of Johnson’s competitors is willing to dismiss his chances of winning the championship this season; they’re too wise. They’ve seen how this story plays out before and it usually ends with Johnson holding the Cup trophy.

Brad Keselowski-Kyle Busch rivalry gets heated on Twitter

The animosity between the two former NASCAR champions bubbled over Friday after Kyle Busch took exception with something Brad Keselowski tweeted.