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Power Rankings: How all 12 Championship 4 drivers stack up
By Pat DeCola | Tuesday, November 3, 2020
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NASCAR.com's Pat DeCola ranks all 12 Championship 4-eligible drivers across all three national series before this weekend's title-deciding races at Phoenix Raceway.
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12. Zane Smith
Comment: Smith is a good example of the strength of these final dozen drivers, as he's coming off two straight third-place finishes in a career-best season and it wouldn't be a shock to see him win in spite of the 12th-place ranking here. He showed he's capable of winning this year, and while he's yet to race at Phoenix, he booked a trip to Victory Lane at the same-length Dover earlier this season.
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11. Justin Haley
Comment: Haley has come into his own this year and has had some high spots in the playoffs, but there's one thing going against him this weekend: Phoenix is not a superspeedway track, where all of his Xfinity wins (and the one in Cup) have come. He has, however, improved in each of his Phoenix starts, so it's not out of the question.
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10. Sheldon Creed
Comment: Creed's 2020 season has turned heads all year, with his four wins and 560 laps led both tops in the series. He led 16 laps at Phoenix in this race last year en route to a 12th-place finish and notched a P10 the year before, so he'll really need to hit a home run with two of his teammates -- one of whom is a former Phoenix-winning champion -- also vying for the title.
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9. Austin Cindric
Comment: This feels dangerously low for one of 2020's best drivers, with a stacked resume of five wins and four straight top-eight finishes at Phoenix. Therein lies the problem with such a talent-packed crop of drivers competing for their respective titles. My main concern is that his wins have come on tracks nothing like Phoenix, but he certainly can put the pieces together to land his first national series crown.
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8. Brad Keselowski
Comment: Keselowski should be a strong threat on Sunday, particularly if the car he's bringing -- the very same that won Loudon and Richmond -- still has the same magic it has provided the No. 2 team this year. That's my concern, though ... will it hold up? Assuming it does, Keselowski has been one of the best drivers since the May restart, with four wins, laps led in seven of nine playoff races and a dazzling Round of 8 to propel him to where he sits now.
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7. Denny Hamlin
Comment: It wasn't that long ago that Hamlin would've gotten strong consideration for the top spot here, but a somewhat baffling nine-race start to the playoffs sunk his favor a bit. It's remarkable that he snuck through to the Championship 4 -- especially given his 2020 counterpart in Kevin Harvick had more wins and was cut -- but his playoffs in a way inversely mirror his stretch run of 2019. He infamously came short at Miami in that one despite all the momentum in the world, so perhaps he echoes his teammate from a year ago and wins it all when it seems somewhat unlikely.
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6. Grant Enfinger
Comment: Speaking of momentum, perhaps Enfinger finds a way to translate his Martinsville mojo into his first title this weekend. In a career year for the veteran, he capped off a series-best four wins with a thriller at the 'Paperclip' and seems to have a knack for shorter tracks (along with the really big ones). The one knock on him is he doesn't tend to lead a ton of laps. If he's still winning races, however, he must be doing something right.
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5. Justin Allgaier
Comment: Is this the year? The patriarch of the Xfinity Series is back in the title hunt once more and in some ways this feels like it could be his time. The longtime JR Motorsports driver is the only one of the four with Championship 4 experience and has just seemed a certain degree more determined in 2020. He's also the only driver among the quartet with a Phoenix victory under his belt, and he's got two of 'em.
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4. Chase Elliott
Comment: Boy, I sure wouldn't want to race against a driver and team that have won the past two elimination races with everything on the line at Phoenix. Elliott and Co. have clearly shown to perform when it counts the most, and there's no reason to think they won't come ready to play on Sunday. Elliott has led the most laps of the Championship 4 (1,094) and 93 of them came from the Phoenix pole -- that he earned on speed, back when qualifying was happening -- back in the spring. He'll be fast.
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3. Brett Moffitt
Comment: Moffitt does have only one win -- that he just earned a few weeks ago -- but actually already owns more top 10s than his six-win, championship-winning year in 2018. He's been a constant at the front of the field this year, too, leading double-digit laps in 11 of 22 races, and won this particular race in '18. This one feels a little more of a hunch, but it's hard to see him not being in the mix at the end.
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2. Joey Logano
Comment: Based on the first four races of the season, it would be no shock to see Logano here. Based on the regular season, this would seem preposterous. Logano, however, turned it up in the playoffs and it's clear that his team has built itself into a powerhouse and they're built for this exact moment. His last win before Kansas was at Phoenix before the pandemic break, and I have a feeling they'll pick up right where they left off.
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1. Chase Briscoe
Comment: Perhaps Kevin Harvick is still kind of in the playoffs -- he just races in the Xfinity Series and his name is Chase Briscoe. The most dominant driver of his series this year put together a most impressive campaign for Stewart-Haas Racing before he moves up next year to be Harvick's teammate, and he has three races -- all top-eight finishes -- at Phoenix under his belt. This thing is his to lose.
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