The NASCAR Xfinity Series’ Championship 4 drivers combined to win 20 of the 32 races throughout the 2020 season, and now there’s only one trophy left up for grabs.
Chase Briscoe, Austin Cindric, Justin Haley and Justin Allgaier are the final playoff contenders vying for the title. Whoever has the best finish Saturday at Phoenix Raceway (5 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) will be crowned this year’s champion.
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Forget best finish, these four are entering this finale with a must-win mindset.
“We have all watched the Xfinity races enough this year to know that we are going to be pretty aggressive as far as whether that is just packing air on each other or maybe some contact,” Cindric said Wednesday during virtual Media Day. “I am not going to make any speculation, but I am sure everyone will be giving 100 percent.”
Briscoe leads the series with nine wins. Cindric has a second-best five, while Allgaier and Haley have three victories apiece.
The most recent winner among the group is Briscoe. He clinched his Championship 4 berth with a win at Kansas Speedway in the Round of 8 opener. The other three advanced on the basis of points.
“The confidence is high,” Briscoe said. “I feel like we’ve been the best team all year long, and there’s no reason why we can’t go to Phoenix and be the same way. I feel like we’re going in there with nothing to lose and everything to gain.”
Sounds a lot like his competition.
“Obviously we have a lot of confidence,” Haley said. “We feel very confident in what we’ve done on the simulator this week, we feel very confident about what direction we’re going in, we feel confident how our car looked on the setup plate, on the pull-down machine. … I think that we, going into it, have an advantage because we have nothing to lose.”
The Championship 4 may be the only drivers still alive in the championship battle — their only focus — but there are 33 other competitors listed on the entry list. To them, it’s another opportunity to score points, win a race and raise their season stock.
Take Harrison Burton, for example. He captured the last two checkered flags and boasts four wins overall. Burton is currently ranked eighth, which leaves room for improvement. Then there’s Brandon Jones, who won at Phoenix earlier this season. He sits seventh in the standings with three wins.
The highest somebody not title eligible can finish in the final standings is fifth.
“You never know what your three other competitors are going to do for a win,” Allgaier said. “You never know what the other drivers on the race track are willing to do for the win. Right? It’s the last race of the year. Everyone wants to end on a high note.”
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As Jones made the March trip to Phoenix’s Victory Lane, Haley came in fifth, Briscoe was behind him in sixth, Cindric sat two cars back in eighth and Allgaier ended up outside the top 10 in 13th.
Allgaier is the sole Championship 4 driver with a previous Phoenix win — two actually, in 2017 and 2019. Cindric is next-best with a fourth-place run in 2018. Both Briscoe’s and Haley’s strongest career finishes were earlier this year.
This is the first time Phoenix is hosting the championship, though. All bets are off.
“This is racing at a pretty high level, and I think we are all professionals,” Cindric said. “I expect that out of my competitors, a professional level of racing. At the same time, I expect them to go for it.”