​When the checkered flag drops on the evening of Sunday, Oct. 2 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the postseason Chase for the NASCAR Cup Series championship will be halfway over.Heading into the South Point 400, Kyle Larson is the leader at the top of the standings with a 26-point edge over regular season champion Denny Hamlin, but Hamlin is the pole-sitter for Sunday’s race and will aim to win a third consecutive race at Las Vegas.And for all the talk after Larson’s win at Kansas about the dominance of Toyota fading on mile-and-a-half tracks, Hamlin will lead a fleet of them at the front of the pack to start the race. The top four spots in qualifying all went to Toyota drivers for Joe Gibbs Racing, with Ty Gibbs, Chase Briscoe and Christopher Bell filling in behind Hamlin. It’s the first time ever that all four JGR cars have swept the top spots in qualifying.The fifth spot went to a Toyota too, with Tyler Reddick’s No. 45 earning that placement for 23XI Racing — the team Hamlin co-owns.Larson will start sixth in his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.“The races that we’ve really succeeded well here, we’ve started up front. Today was executed by the team perfectly, how we approached the week, and the adjustments we made to the car for temperature seemed to be really good changes,” Hamlin said after winning the pole. “I like my car today, and hopefully, I’ll like it (Sunday), but obviously, the track position certainly matters, and we got to keep it.”Chase drivers make up the top 14 spots in the starting lineup for Sunday’s race. The two outliers, Team Penske drivers Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano, will start 20th and 23rd, respectively. To remain in the hunt for the championship, it would go a long way for both drivers to climb to the front of the pack, rack up stage points and salvage solid finishes. The third Penske driver in the Chase, Austin Cindric, will start seventh in his No. 2 Ford.If the Penske Fords can tread water this week and next — another mile-and-a-half at Charlotte — they’ll get three historically strong tracks for them in a row at Phoenix, Talladega and Martinsville.“It can change just as quick if someone else gets hot at the right time. We’ve seen it. We’ve lived it,” Logano said this week. “I’ve got a race ahead of me that I’m fully focused on. (It’s) hard to be someone that looks more than one week ahead. I’ve got to get through this race at Vegas first.”The non-Chase driver that a lot of folks will have their eyes on this weekend is Brad Keselowski, following the news this week that he will be leaving the team he co-owns — RFK Racing — at the end of the season. Keselowski, a Cup Series champion in 2012, remained mostly tight-lipped as to why the relationship between him and others in ownership fizzled.“There’s a lot I can’t talk about at this time. It’s got to play out, but it’s been a hell of a ride. I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve gotten to do with RFK and my career is