RELATED: Championship 4 scenarios for Phoenix | Chase Grid
The inaugural NASCAR XFINITY Chase still has some business to settle, namely determining which four drivers will square off Nov. 19 for the championship in the Homestead-Miami Speedway finale.
With all four berths available heading toward the season's penultimate event, it's a wide-open race.
The XFINITY Series will figure out its Championship 4 contenders in Saturday's Round of 8 finale, the Ticket Galaxy 200 (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM) at Phoenix International Raceway. Put simply, four drivers will advance and four will be eliminated from the postseason field.
Since Sprint Cup Series regulars won the first two events in the three-race round, no XFINITY Series contender has a free pass to the final before Saturday's 200-miler. Daniel Suarez -- driver of Joe Gibbs Racing's No. 19 Arris Toyota -- has the favorable perch as the leader in series standings, 17 points clear of the cut-off line.
But even with the momentum of nine straight top-10 finishes on his side, last season's Sunoco Rookie of the Year said he knows it's a delicate grip.
"With this Chase format you are never in a real comfortable place," Suarez said, "but if we continue to do what we've been doing the last few weeks as a team, I feel like we will be OK. I really enjoy racing at Phoenix and think the track really suits my driving style. We always have such tremendous fan support when we go out there, it's really great to see."
Elliott Sadler, Erik Jones and Blake Koch sit behind Suarez in the Chase pecking order, in position to transfer should they maintain their standing in the points. The remaining four -- (in order) Justin Allgaier, Ryan Reed, Darrell Wallace Jr. and Brendan Gaughan -- have ground to make up.
Allgaier sits the closest, just one point behind Koch at the cut-off line. It's four more points back to Reed, another 15 back to Wallace and 13 more back to Gaughan.
With a certain degree of spacing among the bottom four, any points gains would have to come in sizable chunks. The other, more preferred method of advancing involves a trip to Victory Lane to nix any number-crunching.
"I'm not going to worry about the points situation," said Wallace, driver of Roush Fenway Racing's Leidos No. 6 Ford, repeating a familiar personal refrain. "We just need to go out there and go after the win and then hopefully have a chance at that championship at Homestead. Either way, we are going to have some fun this weekend and give it everything we have."
Sealing a Championship 4 spot in style with a win will mean denying one of seven Sprint Cup regulars in the field. Kyle Busch is a nine-time Phoenix winner who has won five of the last seven XFINITY events on the 1-mile track. And Ricky Stenhouse Jr., a two-time XFINITY champ, will make his first start in the series since 2013, driving Roush Fenway's No. 60 Ford.