Erik Jones wins pole for playoff opener at Las Vegas

Erik Jones scored his second-career pole in his first playoff race.

Jones will start first in Sunday’s playoff opener at Las Vegas. He beat out Joey Logano for the pole while teammate Denny Hamlin will start third.

Jones got an automatic berth into the playoffs with a win at Daytona in July. He’s been one of the strongest drivers in the Cup Series since then. In the eight races post-Daytona Jones has six top-10 finishes and hasn’t finished any lower than 16th.

Sunday’s race goes green just after 3 p.m. ET. If you’re a racing junkie, you won’t want to leave NBCSN all afternoon. The IndyCar season finale starts after the Cup race’s conclusion.

Starting lineup

1. Erik Jones
2. Joey Logano
3. Denny Hamlin
4. Kyle Busch
5. Kevin Harvick
6. Ryan Blaney
7. Chase Elliott
8. Kurt Busch
9. Alex Bowman
10. Martin Truex Jr.
11. Kyle Larson
12. Jamie McMurray
13. Brad Keselowski
14. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
15. Clint Bowyer
16. Aric Almirola
17. Jimmie Johnson
18. Austin Dillon
19. Daniel Suarez
20. Paul Menard
21. William Byron
22. Ryan Newman
23. Trevor Bayne
24. Michael McDowell
25. Regan Smith
26. Matt DiBenedetto
27. David Ragan
28. Chris Buescher
29. AJ Allmendinger
30. Ty Dillon
31. Bubba Wallace
32. Corey LaJoie
33. Kyle Weatherman
34. Ross Chastain
35. Jeffrey Earnhardt
36. JJ Yeley
37. Landon Cassill
38. BJ McLeod
39. Timmy Hill
40. Reed Sorenson

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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.

Follow @NickBromberg on Twitter