The playoff intensity is about to start for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.
And then it will be on hold. And then on hold again.
The way the schedule broke down this season with the race in Canada moved a week earlier, the first round of the playoffs now stretches over seven weeks.
After Sunday's opener (2:30 p.m. ET, FS1) at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park road course, the drivers will have two weekends off before a Sept. 14 event at the 1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Then they'll have three more weekends off before the Oct. 13 restrictor-plate race at the 2.5-mile Talladega Superspeedway to end the opening round.
"When you're riding momentum like we are, you want to keep going to the racetrack," said regular-season champion Johnny Sauter, who won his fifth race this year by capturing the regular-season finale at Bristol. "You hate to see breaks like that sometimes when things are going the way you want them to go. But that's the way the schedule is laid out.
"The racetracks we're going to are really good racetracks [for me]. ... It's just part of the deal."
For the drivers with a points cushion, it might be easier to have the breaks. There are eight drivers in the playoffs, and the six drivers who either win in the round or have the most points advance, while two get eliminated.
"When you're riding momentum like we are, you want to keep going to the racetrack. You hate to see breaks like that sometimes when things are going the way you want them to go."Johnny Sauter
With the key being to win or avoiding being one of the two worst playoff drivers in points after the next three races, Sauter opens the playoffs with a 33-point cushion on seventh-place Justin Haley. Other drivers opening the playoffs above the cutoff are Brett Moffitt (18 points on Haley), Noah Gragson (16), Ben Rhodes (five), Stewart Friesen (three) and Grant Enfinger (two). Haley is two points behind Enfinger, while Matt Crafton is eight back.
"It will be hard to get into a rhythm," Gragson said. "They're three different kind of racetracks, so that will be a challenge."
Some drivers will race in other series.
"I hope to go test my short-track [late model] car some," Sauter said. "I hope to work on that. My kids will be going back to school pretty quick, so hopefully I will get to drive them back and forth to school every day.
"I'll spend time at the shop, continue to work out, exercise and get myself in better shape for the stretch. Getting prepared mentally is the biggest deal. My short-track stuff keeps me sane and I've got to get that going better."
Friesen, in his first playoffs, will do some additional racing as well and will take the time to "test" the only way teams can.
"I'll try to run the big block [modified] ... as much as I can and just keep battling and keep trying to stay sharp," Friesen said. "I'm used to battling all season for championships, so seven weeks shouldn't be nothing.
"I'll try to get on the [Chevrolet NASCAR] simulator as much as I can."
With the opening race on a road course, there is more potential for those eight drivers to have a bad day or get caught up in someone else's mess.
"I'm not sure why we go to one course a year and it's in our playoffs," said Moffitt, who has four wins this year. "It is what it is and we'll go race. Hopefully we get off to a good start at Canada and can breathe over those few weeks off."
The length of the first round at least allows drivers who haven't necessarily had the best years to regroup.
"We haven't been ourselves this year," said two-time series champion Crafton, the last driver to get in on points. "I don't want to know what it is. ... I know with the packages we've worked on here lately, I feel real good going into the playoffs."
The good news? This lengthy first round only will occur this year. Next season, because the November Truck race at Texas was moved to April, the first round will have Bristol and Canada in back-to-back weekends and then the Las Vegas race three weeks later.
"It is great that we have this break because we need it to rebuild our trucks," ThorSport Racing's Rhodes said. "We need to get our resources right. We need to build the trucks better and faster."