Logano continues to be the best driver in this Chase format, and his clutch Phoenix win – after nearly having it all end on the first lap after contact with Kyle Larson – was about as impressive as they come.
MORE: Logano wins Phoenix, advances
Busch advanced at the expense of his teammate Matt Kenseth, but once he gets over that awkwardness he’ll be happy to know he has a shot to become the first back-to-back or two-time winner in the current iteration of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
Johnson has a shot at NASCAR history in less than a week, with a 1-in-4 chance to become the sport’s third seven-time champion. He’s finished ninth in the past three Miami races, however, which likely won’t cut it.
MORE: Why ‘Six-Time’ will become ‘Seven-Time’
With his three other competitors riding a wave of momentum as the most recent winner, most recent champion, and most recent six-time title-winner, Edwards will likely be looked at as the Championship 4 underdog. He’ll let his Miami numbers (series-high 568 laps led to go with two wins) do the talking.
MORE: Meet the Championship 4
The law of averages finally caught up to Harvick at Phoenix, and his failure to win his sixth of eight races in the desert will prevent him from being the only driver to advance to the Championship 4 in every year since its 2014 inception.
MORE: ‘We just came up short this year’
Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin said they’d wreck a teammate to move on, and we now know which teammate: Kenseth, albeit unintentionally. The No. 20 car was poised to move on to Miami late at Phoenix before a chain reaction from contact between the Nos. 18 and 88 took him out of it.
MORE: Late spin eliminates Kenseth from Chase
Busch was another Stewart-Haas Racing driver who turned in a valiant performance that came up just short at Phoenix. Both he and Harvick basically needed a win to advance, and neither did.
A late strategy to stay out during a caution nearly worked for the No. 11 crew … until another caution followed quickly after. Hamlin was unable to move on, which is a shame for him because Homestead is among his best tracks.
Keselowski will certainly do everything he can to ensure Team Penske cohort Joey Logano lands in Victory Lane at Homestead, but if there’s one driver out there who wouldn’t mind playing Chase spoiler, it’s him. A No. 2 win is a major possibility if it isn’t for the No. 22.
Truex had a rough weekend at Phoenix from the get-go, and things didn’t improve for him in the race. A costly penalty and ultimately a wreck ended his chances of playing Chase spoiler at Phoenix.
MORE: Truex penalty explained
Elliott has one race left to avoid being winless in his rookie season. Even if he fails to land in Victory Lane on Sunday, the young driver still met or exceeded just about all expectations of him.
Larson spun on the very first lap at Phoenix, and later mixed it up a bit with Ryan Newman (again!). Check out where he finished, though: third. Kid’s got talent, but we already knew that.
While Dillon has recently found a knack to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, we saw major improvement from the No. 3 driver in 2016 and it’s not a stretch to think he could be battling for a title late in the Chase next season.
Unless things turn around at Miami, McMurray’s 14 laps led in 2016 will be the lowest of his career. He even led more (97) in just six starts in 2002.
Stewart appears to be doing all he can to quietly bow out of his final season with grace. That’s great and all, but that’s not the “Smoke” we know. Here’s hoping he shakes things up in Miami.
One more week and Buescher and Co. can look back on 2016 as a relative success and focus on next season. Until then, expect another finish in the high 20s/low 30s.