Sunday’s NASCAR season finale culminated with a first Cup Series title for newly crowned Chase Elliott, but Phoenix Raceway also cheered another historic first — its debut as host track for the sport’s championship weekend.
The 1-mile track in Avondale, Arizona, minted three new national series champs last weekend: Chase Elliott (Cup Series), Austin Cindric (Xfinity Series) and Sheldon Creed (Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series). The events were a generally well-received success, though the protocols necessary to prevent the spread of COVID-19 restricted attendance for each race of the tripleheader. Socially distanced fans sold out the limited allotment of grandstand seating, and portions of the infield and camping areas were also opened up.
Last weekend was meant to be a showcase event for the recently renovated track, which received a $178 million face-lift that included a reconfiguration of the layout and the addition of many fan-friendly amenities. Though the limits on attendance may have dampened a bit of the race-day pop, NASCAR President Steve Phelps praised track president Julie Giese and the work of state and local leaders to create a buzz around the season-ending events.
“The facility looks fantastic. It’s just unfortunate that everyone can’t experience it,” Phelps said. “It’s a bit bittersweet, but I do think this market has responded incredibly strongly to us coming here. Visually when you go around the city, you know that our championship is here. That’s heartwarming.”
Phoenix was installed as the 2020 season’s closer after an 18-year run at Homestead-Miami Speedway in south Florida. The shift moved the final weekend from an intermediate-sized circuit to a venue with a short-track feel to it. “In general, I think NASCAR was built on the smaller tracks and the championship being awarded on them feels right to me,” said Brad Keselowski, who wrapped the year as the Cup Series runner-up.
Phoenix appears in the same time slot on the 2021 schedule, a move that was applauded by other members of this year’s Championship 4, though some suggested a rotation system for the final weekend.
NASCAR’s All-Star Race has slowly begun to break away from its long-standing home at Charlotte Motor Speedway, being run at Bristol last summer and shifting to Texas next year. Why not the championship?
“I think that I’m good with it moving around. I’m good with it staying here for a little bit,” said Denny Hamlin, a two-time winner at Phoenix. “I certainly think that Phoenix Raceway invested money into the fan experience, and any track that does that deserves to have a big race. To me, facilities is a big hitter in my mind for the fan experience, and they invested money in it.
“The city is a sports town. A lot of stuff goes on in this city beyond racing, other sports. We always have had great crowds here no matter what’s gone on, whether we’ve raced two races a year here. If it was a playoff race or not, it was a packed crowd. This place deserves the race that it got.”
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt everyday life in the United States. Even with a vaccine in the works, there are still so many unknowns when it comes to the virus that flipped the world upside down back in March.
Yet, Sunday night saw NASCAR complete its 36th and final race of the 2020 Cup Series season, right on schedule.
“If you can get through a year like this and you’re NASCAR, it certainly bodes well,” said Brad Keselowski, 2020’s runner-up in the final driver standings. “The only thing left was an asteroid strike.
“No, I thought it was really amazing what the sport was able to achieve, that we were able to get all the races in. To be here today and have a great race for a championship, I think that’s really impressive. And NASCAR maybe doesn’t get enough credit for being able to pull that off, considering the landscape.”
NASCAR crowned three brand-new champions this past weekend at Phoenix Raceway. For starters, Sheldon Creed scored his first-ever Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series title Friday. Austin Cindric followed up with his first Xfinity Series championship Saturday. And Chase Elliott capped off the action Sunday, hoisting the ultimate Bill France Cup for the first time in his career.
The entire industry should have collectively released a sigh of relief when that final checkered flag waved and welcomed the offseason.
Despite a nine-week pause just four weeks into the season, NASCAR managed to execute a 2020 schedule that ultimately required 85 revisions due to the ever-changing status of local and state COVID-19 restrictions. Of the 91 events across all three national series, 84 were impacted by the coronavirus, even if dates and locations didn’t change.
“If you think about it, it’s been an awesome year of good racing, and I think our sport has probably done as well as or better than any other sport,” Hendrick Motorsports championship team owner Rick Hendrick said. “We got them all in. Hopefully we’ll get a vaccine and have fans back.”
As normal as the actual racing appeared, race day itself was anything but.
NASCAR prohibited full occupancy at all tracks after the COVID-19 shutdown. Spectators were limited, if allowed at all. Teams couldn’t invite sponsors or partners. Even drivers’ families did not travel until the finale. It was truly essential personnel only.
Weekend events turned into one-day shows, as practice and qualifying sessions were scratched from itineraries in part as a means to limit potential exposure. NASCAR then made up for lost time with doubleheaders and midweek shows.
“The biggest thing we can all take away from this is that we can be more open-minded to change and know that as different as things feel, eventually it becomes a new normal,” third-place finisher Joey Logano said. “I think that was a big challenge for everybody. Change isn’t easy.”
No one knows what 2021 will look like. Sure, the schedule is out. But 2020 proved nothing is set in stone.
And that’s OK.
While it may seem too crazy to believe right now, the 2020 season is indeed officially over. There wasn’t a single race in April, normally an action-packed month, and the schedule still concluded as planned in November.
Think about all the sport overcame. Clearly, anything is possible.
“I applaud NASCAR for what they did,” Hendrick said. “Because if they hadn’t, we wouldn’t have had a season.”
Chase Elliott was just shy of 8 years old when the photo was taken, but it’s etched in his memory.
In the picture, his 48-year-old father — NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott — had just prevailed at Rockingham Speedway for what wound up being the last of his 44 big-league victories. At the other end of career spectrums, 31-year-old Matt Kenseth was celebrating a first, having accumulated enough points to clinch the 2003 Cup Series championship.
The two careers were already intertwined in a way, with Kenseth making his Cup debut in 1998 as a fill-in for Elliott, who withdrew from Dover’s race weekend after the death of his father. Kenseth drove the car to an impressive sixth-place finish. Five years later, game recognized game at Rockingham as Kenseth and the elder Elliott high-fived from their cars after the checkered flag.
That photo sat in Bill Elliott’s office for years, leaving a memory that his son hoped to one day re-enact. Sunday at Phoenix Raceway, with longtime teammate Jimmie Johnson celebrating the end of his full-time run in NASCAR, Chase Elliott got his chance.
“I saw Jimmie kind of taking his victory lap up there and that picture flashed in my head,” Elliott said Sunday, one day shy of the photo’s 17th anniversary. “And I was like, damn, that would be super, super cool to recreate that moment. Yeah, we did. I really hope somebody took that picture because that was really cool. I hope somebody got it.”
Christian Petersen | Getty Images
Chase Elliott now has his own picture, his own championship and all the symbolism that goes with the image after his victory in Sunday’s Season Finale 500. Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet will be inherited by Alex Bowman next season, but the more direct passing of the baton — for both Hendrick Motorsports and the series in general — came Sunday from a past seven-time champion to the sport’s newest champ.
The moment came with unintelligible screaming from their cars, a euphoric outpouring of mutual joy with one career ending and another just beginning to soar. “Can you believe it?!” Johnson recalled Elliott saying through the noise.
“Just so happy for him,” Johnson said. “I’m sure I was saying something along those lines, just how happy I am for him. I saw him on track and left a big donut on the side of his car. I was able to get a high‑five as he was coming around to do burnouts. And I was waving good‑bye. So certainly a couple cool moments.”
The bond for the two drivers runs through Rick Hendrick, the venerable team owner who took a chance on both. It was Hendrick who rolled the dice on Johnson’s Cup Series career, which stemmed from a foundation in off-roading and a moderately successful Xfinity Series tenure. He took his cues from Jeff Gordon and was rewarded with seven championships. More than that, his investment helped produce a driver whose impact and stature as an ambassador for stock-car racing created — with Gordon — another bedrock pillar for his organization.
It was also Hendrick who made a speculative gamble on signing Chase Elliott as a 14-year-old prospect. Those scouting cues came from fellow owner James Finch, who happened to mention, have you seen Chase Elliott drive? … Man, he’s whipping all these guys on dirt. The conversation led him seek out videos of Elliott’s earliest races and to reach out to the teenager’s parents. He was rewarded 10 years later with NASCAR’s newest title winner, an heir to the Most Popular Driver crown and a driver with a career of possibilities ahead of him.
Sunday’s image made the connection between both careers a straight line.
“Jimmie is really special to us, like part of our family,” Hendrick said. “Chase is the new kid coming along ‑‑ not a kid, but… He’s a champion now. It was a special moment to see those two guys embrace.” Hendrick then paused, and his reflex as a fiscally responsible team owner temporarily kicked in. “I think they tore the cars up running into each other out there a little bit,” he added, “but it was a special time and a special place.”
Johnson’s memories run deep as well. He recalled his long-established friendship with the Elliotts, snowboarding with Bill in Colorado years ago as Chase, a quiet grade-schooler on skis, tagged along. His father’s racing career was winding down, but Johnson was already watching his son grow.
Elliott’s eventual rise to NASCAR’s top tour created another lasting image with Johnson. After Elliott’s first Cup Series victory at Watkins Glen in 2018, his No. 9 Chevrolet sputtered out of fuel on the cool-down lap. Ever the helpful teammate, Johnson offered a push back to pit road.
Johnson’s helpful nature delivered again on Sunday with a final word of encouragement. After two failed trips through pre-race inspection, Elliott’s car was forced to drop to the rear of the field for the start — an unexpected hurdle for his title quest. Upon hearing the development, Johnson reminded Elliott that his record-tying seventh championship in 2016 came under similar circumstances, a start at the back of the pack that still resulted in a clinching race victory.
Chris Graythen | Getty Images
“I shared that with him, and he smiled and he said, I hope that’s how it goes today. And it did,” Johnson said. “We didn’t think of it as a passing of the torch, but I tried to share some of my experience with him before the race.
“He doesn’t need my help. He’s plenty good on his own. I’m glad it worked out for him.”
The day also worked out for Johnson with an inspiring fifth-place finish — best in class among the non-title-eligible drivers. When nudged by crew chief Cliff Daniels to join Elliott in a celebratory dual burnout, Johnson demurred. “Those donuts are for Chase,” he radioed back.
It didn’t stop the two from sharing one last moment as teammates, creating an image that may one day compete for wall space with the 2003 picture in Bill Elliott’s office.
“Today I feel like symbolized a lot of great things, and I feel like there’s a lot of things from today I’ll look back on in a week or a month or a year, and I’ll be like, dang, that was really cool. That being one of them for sure,” Chase Elliott said. “Jimmie and I have shared some really cool moments on track, and they’ve been in really big moments of my career. The moment we shared after Watkins Glen, the road to that first win. And then for the greatest of all time to be kind of hanging it up today and to win a championship on that day, I mean, that’s just a really cool thing.
“As a fan of his, number one, and as a person that’s looked up to Jimmie in many ways over the years, I’m not sure I could have dreamt that any better.”
Whoever said nice guys couldn’t finish first never met Jimmie Johnson. The driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet has conducted himself with class and dignity throughout his career, whether he was hoisting his seventh championship trophy or having one of those days when patience was tested.
That sort of attitude, backed with historically impressive results on the track — 83 wins, seven titles, 18,937 laps led, we could go on — has endeared Jimmie to fans young and old across the world.
So when the seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion announced his plan to retire from full-time NASCAR racing at the conclusion of the 2020 season, he did so with an unspoken expectation of celebrating his final run surrounded by those who cheer for him the loudest – his fans in the stands.
Unfortunately, 2020 had other plans. The COVID-19 pandemic shut down the sport for nearly two months. Races were postponed, a schedule was rebuilt.
When NASCAR returned safely and swiftly, fans were either not permitted to attend the event, or attendance was drastically reduced for safety and health reasons. It ended up being a season unlike any Johnson had experienced
Enter Chevrolet, the manufacturer with which Johnson has driven throughout the entirety of his Hall of Fame NASCAR career.
Making great use of its @TeamChevy social media platforms, Chevy developed a creative way to ensure Johnson felt the connection from some of his biggest fans ahead of his final race as a full-time series driver.
Fans on social media were asked to share their favorite Jimmie Johnson memories, and the text from those posts was gathered and artfully created into a portrait of the GOAT himself. The ad is made of an ousting 5,000 words and 26,000 characters, and it tells the story of Jimmie Johnson the man just as much as Jimmie Johnson the racer.
The #JimmieTribute full-page ad ran in USA Today on Nov. 6; if you missed that keepsake, you probably saw the massive #JimmieTribute display banner at Phoenix Raceway.
As the outpouring of tributes showed beyond doubt, Jimmie is clearly a great driver – but he is, somehow, perhaps an even better person.
Chase Elliott won his first NASCAR Cup Series championship Sunday night. Jimmie Johnson competed in his final race as a full-time NASCAR Cup Series driver.
One might have wondered if these two will ever be seen in the same field again.
Well, that might come sooner than anyone thought. Like, in a couple of months.
Hendrick Motorsports owner Rick Hendrick indicated the two may team up for an entry in the prestigious Rolex 24 sports-car race in late January at Daytona International Speedway.
“Both of our guys, Chase and Jimmie, will be in the 24-hour race, so I’m looking forward to that,” Hendrick said as part of his post-race press conference.
When asked to confirm if the two would drive in the Rolex, Hendrick said: “Maybe I jumped the gun on that. I’m not 100 percent sure. I heard a rumor, OK, so I can’t confirm that.”
Every 2020 race, except the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, is comprised of three stages — Stage 1, Stage 2 and the Final Stage. The Coca-Cola 600 added a fourth stage. Drivers who finish in the top 10 in Stage 1 and Stage 2 earn additional race points, with the winner of each stage earning 10 points, second place earning nine points, third place earning eight points, etc., down to one point for 10th place. Stage 3 of the Coca-Cola 600 awards points in the same manner as Stages 1 and 2 in the other races.
The Final Stage produces the race results and awards points across the field.
Below is a cumulative running tally of how many stage points drivers have earned this year, as well as their stage wins — a stage win will provide an additional bonus point per win of the postseason.
A stout field of seasoned veterans pressed 24-year-old Chase Elliott throughout Sunday afternoon at Phoenix Raceway, just lacking the closing oomph to take the NASCAR Cup Series championship for themselves.
In the end, Brad Keselowski finished second to Elliott — the newly crowned champ — in the Season Finale 500, followed under the checkered flag by Team Penske teammate Joey Logano in third and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin in fourth. Though the other three were fixtures among the top five throughout the 312-mile event, none were able to stop Elliott down the stretch.
Keselowski actually slipped by Elliott for a Stage 2 win, but his run was slowed slightly by some missed time on pit stops. His No. 2 crew gave up six positions during a competition caution early in Stage 1, lost another four places during the Stage 2 break, then returned him to the track fourth among the Championship 4 after the final green-flag pit cycle. Nevertheless, Keselowski was able to rally, finishing 2.740 seconds behind Elliott’s No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
“It’s a team effort, and just was tough to fight back through,” said Keselowski, who led 16 laps in a quest for his second Cup Series crown. “We got up to second there at the end, and I feel like we were pretty equal. The 9 car and I would have loved to have had a chance to race it out, but that’s not the way it played out.”
Logano led 125 laps — second only to Elliott’s 153 — and won the opening stage. Though he secured his second win of the season at Phoenix back in March, he didn’t have the same closing kick that Elliott did down the stretch in the finale.
Although he had visions of recreating the path to the championship that he carved out at the end of the 2018 season, he wound up two positions short.
“Obviously when you don’t win it, it hurts. It definitely stings,” Logano said. “Yeah, I told the guys before the race started, I said in these races when you get to the Championship 4, you can’t lose. You either win or you become stronger. Unfortunately we got stronger today.
“We learned a lot about ourselves and learned that we are capable. We’re capable of executing when we needed to. We just need to go faster. That was one thing. But I think overall there’s a lot to be proud of throughout the season, where we’ve come from, how much we’ve grown as a team, especially with the crew chief swap in the beginning of the season this year and without practice. That was a pretty big hurdle we had to jump.”
Hamlin entered the event as a trendy pick for pre-race favorite, having amassed seven victories this season — most of the four title contenders. He ended the race as the only one of the Championship 4 who did not take a turn in the lead, struggling at times with the short-track aptitude of his No. 11 JGR Toyota.
“We just didn’t have enough car potential for us,” said Hamlin, still seeking his first Cup Series title. “Our balance was not bad, maybe a little bit off, but just not enough in reserve. I think Penske and Hendrick both had two teammates inside the top 10 before we even got to our next best two other teammates. Our organization has got to get a little bit better on these types of tracks, and especially it being — it going to be the deciding factor in the championship.
“We’ve just overall got to get a little bit better. I knew for me probably around Lap 200 that we needed some special circumstances to kind of go our way.”
Cole Custer was officially awarded Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors in the NASCAR Cup Series after the conclusion of Sunday’s season-ending event at Phoenix Raceway.
Custer, 22, completed his first full Cup Series season for Stewart-Haas Racing, driving the No. 41 Ford. His year was highlighted by a dramatic first Cup Series victory July 12 at Kentucky Speedway.
Custer topped Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell, John Hunter Nemechek, Brennan Poole and Quin Houff in the Rookie of the Year standings. Harrison Burton (Xfinity Series) and Zane Smith (Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series) claimed Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors in NASCAR’s other national tours.
“I think it was definitely a rookie season with a lot of peaks and valleys,” Custer said. “It was a really interesting season to be a rookie with no practice, no testing or qualifying, so it was a lot of just learning on the fly, but I think we all managed it very well. We had a really good rookie class of me, Tyler, Christopher, John Hunter, I think we all had really good runs throughout the year and it definitely means a lot to win that.”
Custer ended the season with two top-five and seven top-10 finishes. His Kentucky win came thanks to a bold four-wide move that vaulted him from fourth place to first in the final lap. Custer became the first rookie to win a Cup Series race since Chris Buescher prevailed at Pocono Raceway in 2016.
Custer was the only rookie to qualify for the Cup Series Playoffs. His postseason run ended with his ouster in the Round of 16.
Chase Elliott won the biggest race of his life — rallying from having to drop to the rear of the field on pace laps to cross the Phoenix Raceway finish line first in the Series Finale 500 — earning his first career NASCAR Cup Series championship at the age of 24, the youngest champion in NASCAR’s premier series in 25 years.
Ultimately, Elliott won by 2.74 seconds over fellow title contender Brad Keselowski from Team Penske. Joey Logano was third and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin finished fourth.
Seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson, 45, was fifth in his final race as a full-time driver, and he congratulated his young Hendrick Motorsports teammate Elliott on-track and later on pit lane — a fitting symbol of the sport’s “changing of the guard.”
“Awesome, awesome, awesome,” Elliott screamed into his team radio after taking the checkered flag. “We are the champions!”
Three of the four title contenders led laps at the 1-mile desert oval. Logano was out front 125 laps and Keselowski led 16 laps, but Elliott’s 153 laps led were indicative of his motivation, talent and the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team’s preparedness for this race. He only earned his place in the four-driver championship field with a clutch victory last week at Martinsville Speedway and made the most of that work on Sunday.
Elliott wrestled the lead away from Logano for good with 43 laps of the 312-lap race remaining. It was the result of a determined driver and team after the car failed pre-race inspection multiple times Sunday morning and had to start last in the 39-car field.
His focus was evident, however, from the drop of the green flag. Elliott’s Chevrolet was 15th by Lap 15. He took the lead for the first time at Lap 79 and led eight different times on the afternoon.
Once Elliott rallied to the front, the four title contenders were predominantly the top four drivers on track the remainder of the race — truly settling the championship among themselves.
“Obviously, when you don’t win it hurts, it definitely stings,” Logano said. “I told the guys before the race, you can’t lose. You either win or you get stronger. Unfortunately, we got stronger today.”
With this championship, Elliott and his father Bill (the 1988 series champion) became only the third father-son NASCAR Cup Series championship combination in the sport’s history joining Lee and Richard Petty and Ned and Dale Jarrett. Elliott’s father stood trackside for the race and joked afterward that he had given his son some simple advice for the big day. Advice Chase readily admits went through his head as he challenged for the life-changing trophy.
“He told me, ‘all you have to do is beat three people,’ ” a smiling Elliott said of his father’s pre-race advice. “He said all week he felt confident that we could come out here and do this. And he was right.
“This is a moment I’ve dreamed about. This is all I’ve wanted to do is be a race car driver and race in NASCAR. To be honest, I’m humbled.”
Elliott’s good friend Ryan Blaney finished sixth followed by regular-season champion Kevin Harvick, Matt DiBenedetto, William Byron and Martin Truex Jr.
Clint Bowyer, who is moving to the FOX television booth, and former series champion Matt Kenseth, who is returning to retirement, finished 14th and 25th, respectively, in their final race. Crew chief Chad Knaus, at the helm for Johnson’s seven titles, led Hendrick driver Byron to that ninth-place showing.
“I’m at a loss for words, this is unbelievable,” Elliott said. “Oh, my gosh. We did it. I mean, we did it. That’s all I’ve got to tell you. Unreal.
“Crew chief, Alan Gustafson, is now a NASCAR Cup Series champion, and very deserving. I just can’t say enough about our group. I felt like we took some really big strides this year, and last week was a huge one. To come out of that with a win and a shot to come here and have a chance to race is unbelievable. Heck, I don’t know. I don’t even know. This is unreal.”
The Cup Series’ next race is the 2021 Daytona 500, scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 14 — 98 days away.
NOTE: NASCAR Cup Series post-race inspection is complete. All clear. No issues. Engine tear down is complete and all clear.
