By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – As competitive as the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs have already been, it’s safe to say the intensity will step up a notch or two on Sunday in the opening race of the Round of 8 – the final round to set the Championship 4.

Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 M&M’s Halloween Toyota, poses with the Virginia Lottery Pole Award after posting the fastest lap during qualifying for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series First Data 500 at Martinsville Speedway on October 27, 2018 in Martinsville, Virginia. (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images)

Regular season champion and defending race winner, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch holds a slim one-point edge over Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick entering Sunday’s First Data 500 (at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

The top four in the standings – Busch to fourth place Chase Elliott – are separated by a larger 37-point margin. And Elliott holds only a three-point edge over Clint Bowyer, Joey Logano and Kurt Busch. Aric Almirola is 12 points below the fourth place cutoff line.

Last week’s Kansas winner Elliott has certainly raised his game for the Playoffs and is the only multi-time Playoff race winner still championship eligible. However, three other members of the Elite Eight have won at Martinsville recently. Kurt Busch won in 2014, Kyle Busch has wins in 2016 and last year’s Playoff race and Bowyer won at the track just this Spring.

It creates an exciting proposition to see who will be able to step-up this weekend and guarantee their position in the Championship 4 for the Nov. 18 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

A win by a Playoff driver may be crucial this week as it’s actually a couple of recently eliminated Playoff contenders – Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin – who have been masters of Martinsville in recent years. Johnson’s nine wins are most among active drivers and Hamlin’s five is second-most. They also boast the two best driver ratings at the track. Kyle Busch and Harvick are third and fifth best, respectively – tops among the current Playoff drivers.

“I think the best position to be in at any racetrack is in the lead,” said Harvick, who has finished fifth in the last two races at the track and scored his only win while still at Richard Childress Racing in 2011.

“You want to be in control of the race and try to get yourself in a position to where you can have a good, clean restart and have as much clear track, especially at Martinsville, just for the fact that there is so much pushing and shoving on the restarts to get to the bottom lane that you want to try to be as far forward as possible.”

Busch has had more recent success, not only capturing last year’s Playoff win but leading an impressive 352 of the 500 laps to win his first race at the track in 2016. He has two victories and two runner-up finishes (including second place to Bowyer this spring) in his last six starts. In fact, his 1,324 total laps out front at Martinsville is second only to nine-time winner Johnson’s 2,862.

“I think it’s going to be good,” Busch said. “I really look forward to this round. I feel like it’s our best round. We run well at all three of those places and we won at Texas in the spring, we won Martinsville last fall and Phoenix has been getting better for us, too.

“We just need to continue to execute and do a good job and make sure that we mind our Ps and Qs. There are certainly some areas that we need to clean up right now and continue to get better because, when you get to Homestead-Miami – you’ve got to get there first, but when you get there – you better be picture perfect, so hopefully we can get it all sorted out.”

Media Center Interviews:

Clint Bowyer – 

Chase Elliott – 

Kyle Busch – 

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series

Next Race: First Data 500

The Place: Martinsville Speedway (Martinsville, Va.)

The Date: Sunday, Oct. 28

The Time: 2:30 p.m. ET

TV: NBCSN

Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Distance: 263 miles (500 laps); Stage 1 (Ends on lap 130),

Stage 2 (Ends on lap 260), and Final Stage (Ends on lap 500)

What to Watch For: Kyle Busch is the defending race winner and has the highest driver rating (103.5) at Martinsville among the eight Playoff drivers. … Nine-time Martinsville winner Jimmie Johnson boasts the best driver rating in the series at 114.6, followed by Denny Hamlin at 106.3. … Kevin Harvick holds the record for lowest finish (33rd) at Martinsville during the Playoffs by the eventual season champion. He did that in 2014. … Chevrolet (11 wins) and Toyota (3) are the only manufacturers to win a Playoff race at Martinsville. ….Five times during NASCAR’s Playoff era, the winner of this race has gone on to win the championship. Johnson did it four times (2006-08, 2016). …Richard Petty is the all-time wins leader at Martinsville with 15. Johnson leads all active drives with nine wins. … Should Johnson win on Sunday he would join only Petty (five times) and Darrell Waltrip (three times) to win at least 10 races on multiple tracks. Johnson has also won 11 times at Dover, Del. …Johnson is the most recent driver to win consecutive races at Martinsville, doing it in 2012/Fall and 2013/Spring. … He also holds the record for winning in the closest margin of victory. He beat Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon by 0.065-seconds to win in April, 2007. …  Hendrick Motorsports boasts the most wins (24) at Martinsville. Geoff Bodine earned the team’s first at the track in 1984. …The pole position has produced the most winners (21). The top-five starting positions have accounted for 53 percent of the race winners. …. The deepest in the field a winner has started is 36th. Kurt Busch won the Fall/2002 race from that starting spot. … Joey Logano holds the record for a qualifying lap (100.201 mph). And he is the one of only five drivers to win three consecutive pole positions at the track (2015 sweep, 2016 spring race). His four pole positions at the track are most in this week’s field.