Denny Hamlin explains why winning Las Vegas playoff race is so important

A win for one of the eight remaining NASCAR Cup Series playoff drivers in Sunday's South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway might just be the ticket to a championship. 

A win on Sunday guarantees a Championship 4 berth at Phoenix, giving the winning team two extra weeks to prepare a car for the championship race. It also allows teams not to stress over next weekend's wild-card of a race at Talladega. 

Denny Hamlin knows how big a win on Sunday could be as he chases his first Cup Series title. 

Winning Las Vegas could pay huge dividends

"If you leave here in a hole, you're then counting on a good Talladega race, and you can't really count on that," Hamlin said in a Saturday news conference at LVMS. "You might as well budget yourself to finish 25th with no stage points. This racetrack (Las Vegas) is certainly the most important.

Obviously, to shift most of your resources to Phoenix is certainly a benefit. If you don't win here, you're going to start working on Martinsville (Round of 8 finale track) right away. If one of us wins, seven of us will be spending more time on Martinsville, where that one has now got an extra week on Phoenix. You don't really have a two-week advantage; it's one week." 

That one extra week of preparation could come in handy should a playoff driver win Sunday's race. One year ago, Joey Logano turned a Las Vegas victory into a Championship 4 bid before going on to win his third Cup Series title. 

Quotes provided by NASCAR Media unless otherwise noted.