Deja vu: Cup drivers could benefit from watching Xfinity, Gander Trucks endings

Posted on November 7, 2020 by Terrin Waack

New tires win championships.

Or at least that was the case both Friday and Saturday at Phoenix Raceway.

Sheldon Creed beat out the Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series field on an overtime restart Friday in their season finale to win the 2020 title. Austin Cindric then did the exact same thing Saturday in the Xfinity Series.

“I watched Sheldon Creed do it last night,” Cindric said. “So why couldn’t we?”

WATCH: Austin Cindric wins Xfinity title | Sheldon Creed wins Gander Trucks title

They could, and they did. And maybe the Cup Series should, too.

NASCAR’s premier league races on the same 1-mile Arizona track Sunday (3 p.m. ET on NBC/NBC Sports App, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski and Chase Elliott make up the Championship 4. Hamlin and Elliott are going for their first title – much like Creed and Cindric (another foreshadow?) – while Logano and Keselowski are aiming for their second.

If they’re smart, they watched the other two series’ finale and took notes.

“I laughed about it when the caution came out at the end there because I couldn’t believe how similar it was to the truck race,” Justin Allgaier said. “… When we took our set of tires with 30 to go, I really thought we had done the right thing. I really thought we made the right choice. So did Grant last night, and it didn’t work for him.”

He’s talking about Gander Trucks driver Grant Enfinger, who – like Allgaier – stayed out with old tires when the final yellow flew. Enfinger and Allgaier both restarted on the front row in their respective races. Come checkered flag two laps later, Enfinger was 13th and Allgaier was fifth.

Creed made his run to first from ninth. Cindric fired off third on his race-determining restart.

“Those are some tough calls,” said Cindric’s crew chief, Brian Wilson. “I based that on what I saw in the truck race last night. I’m good friends with Jeff Stankiewicz (Creed’s crew chief), and I watched him make that call, talked to him about it this morning. Just between watching that and what I saw in the Cup race in the spring, it seemed like tires really mattered.”

Creed and Cindric weren’t the only ones to pit under caution. A bunch of trucks and cars did, which really helped their odds. It made the buffer between them and the leaders thinner. They didn’t have to make up all that much ground to fight for the lead.

Phoenix’s track also allows for some unpredictable, fanned-out restarts. Heck, Cindric was behind Allgaier when the green flag waved. He then sandwiched himself between Allgaier and Allgaier’s teammate, Noah Gragson, who was not title eligible. Cindric pulled forward, and the race was his to win.

All that’s left now is the Cup Series. Another championship could very well come down to tire strategy.

“I hope not for their sake,” Allgaier said. “From a fan standpoint, it obviously adds a lot of action. The folks that were here tonight got a great show at the end. The folks at home watching on TV, they obviously got a great show.

“Anything can and will happen in these things.”

Posted on November 7, 2020November 7, 2020 by Holly Cain

After establishing the pace most of the afternoon, 22-year-old Austin Cindric ultimately relied on raw determination to claim the 2020 NASCAR Xfinity Series championship. The Team Penske driver pulled off the most clutch lap-pass of his young career to take the race victory in Saturday’s Desert Diamond Casino West Valley 200 and earn his first NASCAR title.

After pitting for tires just before a final overtime restart, Cindric was able to work his way forward at the final green flag and got around Noah Gragson on the last lap — driving away to a .162-second victory for his sixth win of the season, easily the most celebrated of his career.

After celebratory donuts in his car, Cindric pulled himself out of the driver’s window, climbed on top of his bright yellow No. 22 Team Penske Ford and flashed No. 1 victory signs on both hands before waving a giant champion’s flag.

“There was a lot of work put into this race car,” a grinning Cindric said, carefully taking the time to thank everyone from his team owner, NASCAR Hall of Famer Roger Penske, to his sponsors, his team, pit crew, spotter and ultimately his mom and dad.

“I’m speechless, I can’t believe it. You know the equipment you’re in is the best of the best and the people you’re working with are the best of the best,” he added.

Certainly as exuberant as Cindric understandably was, the other three members of the Championship 4 felt disappointment and dismay. Veteran Justin Allgaier, who led a race high 76 laps — four more laps out front than Cindric — was in position to try and secure his first NASCAR title.

The 34-year-old driver of the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet kept the field honest consistently throughout the evening but ultimately on that last restart Allgaier was unable to hold off Cindric who had fresher tires and was able to muscle around Allgaier and Allgaier’s JR Motorsports teammate Gragson.

Allgaier finished fifth and the other Championship 4 drivers, Justin Haley and Chase Briscoe, finished eighth and ninth, respectively.

Gragson (second), Brandon Jones (third) and Michael Annett (fourth) were the non-playoff drivers to finish in the top-five. Harrison Burton, Ross Chastain, Haley, Briscoe and Jeremy Clements rounded out the top 10.

CHAMPIONSHIP 4 REACTION: Justin Allgaier | Chase Briscoe | Justin Haley

“So close but so far away,” Allgaier said. “First of all, hats off to Austin and the entire Team Penske group, they’ve been strong competitors all year. To have the race they did tonight, they were obviously the best car and they deserved to win. I’m proud of my guys, proud of everybody at JR Motorsports.

“We had a shot at it at the end and when it’s all said and done, that’s all you can really ask for.”

For most of the race the title contending quartet ran up front. In addition to Cindric and Allgaier, the Stewart-Haas Racing driver Chase Briscoe showed the speed that had made him the winningest driver in the series this year. He won a career-high and season-best nine races and led 41 laps on this championship night, but a struggle to get his car comfortable, a late-race spin and the loss of track position were setbacks he ultimately couldn’t overcome.

“Just a frustrating day, this is by far not my best race track,” said Briscoe, who will move into the SHR team’s No. 14 NASCAR Cup Series ride next year.

“At the start of the race for me, just to lead laps here, I was like ‘wow this is different.’ I was just so loose at the beginning of the race and as the night came I was freer and freer and I don’t know how many times I about wrecked into one. I ended up hitting the wall. I’ve got to do a whole lot better job. There’s just something about this place that I really struggle at. We have a lot of homework to do.

“Definitely frustrating to finish fourth in the championship after the year we had, but overall to win nine races, it’s been a phenomenal year.”

Haley, a three-race winner in 2020, didn’t lead any laps in his No. 11 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet, but he rallied from a slow start and kept his car competitively among the top 10.

“It’s been awesome,” Haley said of his playoff berth. “Just the growth of this Kaulig Racing team from when I stepped into it last year and were out in the first round of the playoffs.

“Just the courage and the faith and everyone at Kaulig Racing, we bet on each other. I love it. I love everyone there. Super excited and super blessed to have another year. Doesn’t sting as much because I know next year I get another chance at it.”

NOTE: Post-race inspection was clear, no major issues. The Nos. 7, 8 and 22 each had one lug nut not safe and secure in post-race inspection. Engine tear down will take place tonight for Cindric’s car.

Posted on November 7, 2020November 7, 2020 by Staff Report

Austin Cindric secured the 2020 NASCAR Xfinity Series title on Saturday at Phoenix Raceway. The driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford bested fellow Championship 4 contenders Chase Briscoe, Justin Haley and Justin Allgaier to score his first NASCAR national series championship.

Cindric came from behind Allgaier during an overtime restart and passed him and Allgaier’s JR Motorsports teammate Noah Gragson for the race win and the title clincher. Crew chief Brian Wilson had Cindric come to pit road for fresh tires during the race’s final caution period, and that proved to be the key to winning the restart over Allgaier, who was on older tires.

It was Cindric’s eighth career Xfinity win and it came in his 100th career start. It was also his sixth victory in a breakout 2020 season for the 22-year-old from Mooresville, North Carolina.

“I watched Sheldon Creed do it last night, so why couldn’t we?” Cindric said about coming to pit road late. “Amazing effort by this 22 team. Brian Wilson and all the guys. Everybody back at the shop. There was a lot of work put into this race car.”

Though he made a name for himself as a road-course ace last season — his two wins coming on that track type — Cindric earned his first win of 2020 by mastering an oval. It was early evidence that the driver had developed into a contender to win on any track type and would be a threat to win the championship.

Cindric actually went back-to-back at Kentucky Speedway in July during the Xfinity Series’ first doubleheader weekend, then followed up those victories with a third at Texas Motor Speedway the next weekend.

Cindric still flexed his road-course prowess, winning at Road America and the Daytona International Speedway Road Course. The wins, yet again, were back-to-back. It was the Xfinity Series’ debut on the Daytona Road Course, too and marked a stretch that saw him win five time in six races.

This is Team Penske’s second driver championship in the Xfinity Series. The other belongs to Brad Keselowski from 2010, two years prior to his run to the NASCAR Cup Series crown.

Although Cindric entered the Phoenix win without a win since August, he advanced through the playoffs on the basis of points. In the six-race slate prior to the championship, he had four top-10 showings. The two outliers came at Talladega Superspeedway (34th, wreck) in the Round of 12 and Kansas Speedway (28th) in the Round of 8. His best finish was fourth at Texas, the Round of 8’s middle event.

This championship also signifies the first for Cindric’s crew chief, Wilson. The two have worked together for two seasons now. They placed sixth in the final standings last year.

Cindric will return to the Xfinity Series in 2021. He and Team Penske inked a multi-year deal that says Cindric will run one more full-time season in the Xfinity Series before officially moving up to the Cup Series in 2022. Once at the top level, Cindric will take over the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford currently driven by Matt DiBenedetto.

Posted on November 7, 2020November 7, 2020 by Reid Spencer

In the most challenging year in a history that has spanned more than seven decades, NASCAR racing has emerged stronger in the face of a coronavirus pandemic that interrupted the 2020 season, according to NASCAR President Steve Phelps.

“What I would say is that, on March 8th, we were a sport that was coming back, right?” Phelps said Friday during a Zoom video conference with reporters. “Our ratings had stabilized last year. Our attendance was going in the correct direction.

“If you think about where we are as a sport today, I believe we’re stronger as a sport today than we were pre-COVID. I believe that. I think that the momentum that we’ve been able to gain has been nothing short of incredible.”

MORE: Full 2020 Championship Weekend schedule

On March 13, as coronavirus outbreaks multiplied the spread of the virus, NASCAR joined other major sports in shutting down. Ten weeks later, with a gerrymandered scheduled and a cogent plan for competing safely, racing resumed at Darlington Raceway.

With imagination, creativity and careful execution, NASCAR managed to stage a full 36-race schedule in the Cup Series. The 2020 season was one of discovery, as NASCAR ran races without practice and qualifying, doubled up at certain tracks and held primetime events midweek.

“(On Sunday), when we crown a champion in our Cup Series, we will have run all our races,” Phelps said. “We did it through ways that, frankly, probably we didn’t think we could do, right?

“A bunch of midweek races. Three doubleheaders. No practice and qualifying. Things that were kind of significant in bedrock that we do, right? You come to the racetrack, you’re here for three days, you practice, you qualify, you’re on your way, right?

“For us to be the first sport back without fans initially on May 17th in Darlington, to the first sport back with fans, I think it’s an extraordinary achievement.”

After champions in the top three national series are crowned this weekend at Phoenix Raceway, NASCAR faces considerable uncertainty as the 2021 season approaches, as do all sports. The Daytona 500 is scheduled for Feb. 14, 2021, but how the landscape will look at that point is still a major unknown.

“I think I would say, not just for the 500 but for our entire schedule, we have this incredible schedule that has been put together leading off with the Daytona 500 on February 14th,” Phelps said. “Do I believe we’re going to have fans in the stands? I do. What percentage of fans in the stands? I’m not sure. Will we have folks in the garage, fans in the garage? I don’t know. What I would say is I can’t wait till we do have fans back in the garage.

“The hallmark of our sport is about accessibility to the garage, accessibility to the drivers, the crews. We don’t have that. We don’t have that because we need to keep people safe. That’s the only way we’re going to run a race is if we’re going to keep people safe.”

To achieve that objective with respect to the competitors, NASCAR adopted one-day shows for each series to minimize the possibility of exposure to the virus. Next year, 28 of the 36 Cup Series points races will be one-day shows. That will change to some degree in 2022 when the new Next Gen race car hits the track.

“I would say whatever mad scientist would come up with a one day show would have been shot down pretty quickly,” Phelps said. “Really, it was from the pandemic. Really, it was from the industry coming together and saying, ‘Can you do it at race tracks, from an officiating standpoint?’ The resounding answer was yes, obviously.

“The great news is that the racing, again, arguably is as good as it’s ever been. We have 28 one-day shows next year, eight that we do not, (where) we’re going to have practice and qualifying. What does that look like in ’22 as we unveil a new car? Probably a lot more practice and qualifying. How much, and what does it look like? Really, it will be determined when we get a little closer to that particular season.”

Phelps said the urgency of dealing with schedule restructuring and devising protocols to keep competitors and other essential personnel safe within the garage forced the pausing of discussions with potential new manufacturers.

“We haven’t had a ton of conversations with other OEMs during the COVID situation,” Phelps said. “They’ve kind of had their own issues with supply chains, making sure they’re getting vehicles out.

“When the season ends, we’ll start to kind of restart those conversations. Only a certain number of hours in a day. Those have taken a little bit of a step back — at least a pause, not a step back — but a pause. I think we’ll ramp those discussions back up.

“Again, I’ll go back to it. I think we are actually a more attractive sport today to a new OEM than we were back in March. I believe that to be true. It’s not that we were not an attractive sport for them to make investments in our sport, but I think now more than ever.”

The 2020 season also was one of heightened social consciousness within the sport. With the activism of Black driver Bubba Wallace as a catalyst, NASCAR banned the Confederate flag on race-track premises and reaffirmed its commitment to make the sport as inclusive as possible.

“What we do from a social justice standpoint moving forward really to me is about human decency,” Phelps said. “We want to make sure that people want to come to our facilities. We want to make sure they want to participate in this sport on television, radio, digitally and socially.

“We want them to feel part of this community. It’s a fantastic community — it really is.”

Posted on November 7, 2020 by Terrin Waack

Brett Moffitt did not sugarcoat his words.

The driver of the No. 23 GMS Racing Chevrolet finished 10th in Friday’s NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series season finale at Phoenix Raceway – despite leading a race-high 78 of 156 laps. He even held the front spot with two laps to go in regulation, but then a caution flew to force the Lucas Oil 150 into overtime. His team opted to stay out front – as he put it – “like a sitting duck” on old tires, while many other trucks pitted to freshen up before the restart.

“Race strategy has been a downfall for us all year, for sure,” Moffitt said in a post-race Zoom availability. “We’ve thrown away multiple wins because of it. It’s frustrating to lose a championship because of it.”

Which he did.

Moffitt was a Championship 4 driver. He had the third-best finish of the group, therefore closing out his 2020 season third in the final standings. Sheldon Creed came away with the race win and championship title. Zane Smith placed second in both categories. Grant Enfinger wound up 13th in the race and fourth in the standings.

“I don’t even know what I’m doing next year, so that’s that,” Moffitt said. “This year’s been hell on and off the race track. I don’t know. It’s been a tough year in my personal life with everything that happened. Having a bad year on track certainly doesn’t help that at all.

“Honestly, I’m just glad it’s over with.”

This season marked Moffitt’s second with GMS Racing. He raced for Hattori Racing Enterprises in 2018, when he won six races and the championship in his full-time season in the series.

Moffitt made it to Victory Lane just once in 2020 – Kansas Speedway in the Round of 8 to solidify his spot in the Championship 4. He pointed his way into and through the playoffs otherwise.

In total, Moffitt had the one win, 10 top fives and 16 tops 10s this year. He averaged a 9.7 finish.

“I didn’t hear what Brett said,” GMS Racing team owner Maury Gallagher said. “Anybody in that position is going to be upset and angry. I’m sure in the heat of the battle, he didn’t mean anything because that team has performed all year. Brett arguable was the most consistent driver the entire year in many years.

“Brett is a good guy. We really have enjoyed having Brett around. I’ll go look at the film. If need be, we’ll chat it out.”

GMS Racing president Mike Beam later indicated the team hopes to finalize is 2021 driver lineup in the next two weeks.

As for his aforementioned personal life, Moffitt broke both his legs during a dirt-bike accident back in March. The injuries required his first-ever surgery, and he has admitted in the past the recovery was painful. He didn’t miss any races due to the fact NASCAR had paused all on-track activity at the time due to the start of the COVID-19 outbreak.

“If broken legs isn’t enough of a handicap,” Moffitt said live from pit road on FS1, “race strategy is I guess.”

Posted on November 6, 2020November 6, 2020 by Holly Cain

Championship finalist Sheldon Creed had already apologized to his race team as his No. 2 GMS Racing Chevrolet Silverado began to fall back in the closing laps of Friday night’s Lucas Oil 150 NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series championship race at Phoenix Raceway.

And then a yellow flag came out – with three laps remaining. Creed gambled on a pit stop for fresh tires even as the race leaders – fellow championship contenders Brett Moffitt and Grant Enfinger stayed on track. Creed restarted ninth but made an amazing four-wide move on the bottom of the track to pull back into the lead with a lap to go and held off rookie teammate Zane Smith by a mere .617-seconds to earn his first NASCAR national series championship trophy in a dramatic season finale at the one-mile track.

“I can’t believe it, thank you so much,” the 23-year old Californian, Creed screamed into his team radio as he crossed the finish line.

“The caution came out and we were like, ‘we’ve got nothing to lose’,” Creed said of the decision to pit for tires. “I pride myself on my restarts week-in and week-out and just nailed the restart right there.

“I was just driving as hard as I can, I wanted this thing so bad.”

It was particularly heart-wrenching for Creed’s teammate Moffitt, who led a race best 78 of the 156 laps and had held the front position for 59 laps when that final caution came out for Dawson Cram’s spinning No. 41 Chevrolet. The 2018 series champion, Moffitt, was essentially left helpless on the restart as all the trucks with fresh tires – plus a pair of title contenders – came at him in a five-wide title-on-the-line run for the checkered.

“It’s frustrating losing like that,” Moffitt said. “It would have been an honor to win with this paint scheme in honor of [NASCAR Cup Series champion] Jimmie Johnson,” said Moffitt, adding, “I guess if broken legs isn’t enough of a handicap, race strategy is.”

Moffitt, driver of the No. 23 GMS Racing Chevrolet, was referring to an accident he had prior to the COVID-19 NASCAR pause in competition, that broke both his legs. He recovered and valiantly made a run for the title despite the physical setback.

Smith, the third GMS Racing driver in the Championship 4, was similarly frustrated on pit road after the race. He earned two wins on the season and the series Sunoco Rookie of the Year Honors, but the disappointment in Friday night’s outcome was obvious post-race.

“Honestly, I’m happy for Sheldon, he had an amazing year along with us,” said the 21-year old Californian. “Man, nothing hurts more than to be the first loser.”

Non-championship contenders Chandler Smith finished third, Christian Eckes and Raphael Lessard rounded out the top five. Last year’s Phoenix winner Stewart Friesen, Ben Rhodes, Tyler Ankrum, Todd Gilliland and Moffitt rounded out the top 10.

The fourth member of the Championship 4, Grant Enfinger certainly turned in an impressive rally on the night. After earning his championship chance last week in a wild finish at Martinsville. Enfinger was chasing Moffitt down in the closing laps before the yellow flag.

Like Moffitt, he stayed out during the caution and was also passed on the frantic ensuing restart by trucks with fresher tires. He finished 13th in the No. 98 ThorSport Racing Ford.

“We just couldn’t go on a short run,” Enfinger said. “We had good speed on a long run, but just couldn’t pass after that. So we got off sequence. That worked. [Crew chief Jeff] Hensley was leaning towards tires at the end. I was leaning against it just to do something different, and we ended up staying out. That cost us.

“It just is what it is. We didn’t have quite the short run speed to legitimately contend tonight, but, man, a great season by these guys. I’m gonna try not to be too sad leaving here because it’s been a great year. It’s just unfortunate the way it turned out tonight.”

Posted on November 6, 2020November 6, 2020 by Staff Report

Sheldon Creed, a breakout star in the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series, completed his run to the top by winning the 2020 championship Friday at Phoenix Raceway.

Creed finished ahead of fellow Championship 4 contenders Grant Enfinger, Brett Moffitt and Zane Smith at the 1-mile track to claim the crown in his second full-time season driving for GMS Racing.

Creed was running third before a caution came out with three laps remaining. The No. 2 team elected to pit for four fresh tires, which allowed Creed to quickly move up through the field after restarting ninth and take the lead from Chandler Smith on the second-to-last lap.

“My teammate was going to win the championship and I was going to run third,” Creed said. “I pride myself on my restarts week in and week out and just nailed the restart there. Driving this thing as hard as I can. I want this so bad.

“I don’t know how I did it, I just drove as hard as I could,” he added. “My whole family … we have like 20 camp spots out here. I’m going to drink some cold beer tonight.”

Moffitt, who was the leader on the overtime restart, got pressure from third-place driver Ben Rhodes as the trucks went three-wide through the dogleg and into Turn 1. While Creed used the apron of the race track to move to the front, Moffitt slide back to a 10th-place result for third in the playoff standings.

Smith finished second to earn the same result in the final playoff standings, while Enfinger finished 13th to place fourth out of the Championship 4 contenders.

Creed, 23 from Alpine, California, has raced in 53 career Gander Trucks events. He recorded his first win earlier this season at Kentucky Speedway. He also had wins at the Daytona International Speedway Road Course, World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway and Texas Motor Speedway in the Round of 8 to advance to the Championship 4.

Creed improved in every major statistical category in 2020 when compared to his first full-time season in 2019. That first year included 11 top-10 finishes and four top-five results in 23 races, and he ended the season ranked 10th in the standings. This year, he entered the Phoenix finale with four wins, eight top-five finishes and 12 top-10 results.

Creed started out the 2020 season with a ninth-place finish at the Daytona oval and then posted two more top 10s at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway. After falling out of the top 10 in his next two races at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway, Creed got back up to third at Pocono Raceway before delivering his first series win at Kentucky.

That win came in a rain-shortened event when Creed made a bold three-wide move to grab the lead from ThorSport Racing’s Rhodes and teammate Zane Smith before the race was halted for weather. At the time, Creed said, “Really wish I could have gotten to the finish line and finished that out right, but I’ll take this win.”

That bold style Creed used to get his first win could be traced back to his dirt background.

“That guy can go out there and wheel the thing slap sideways all day and he don’t care,” Creed’s teammate at GMS Racing, Tyler Ankrum, said.

Learning to master the line between taking risks and keeping control has been something Creed said has been the key to his success this season. Creed used those learnings to come on strong at the end of the year with the No. 2 Chevrolet team. In addition to the win at Texas, he also had second-place finishes at Las Vegas and Kansas Speedway during the playoffs.

Creed is signed on again to drive for GMS Racing next year, along with Ankrum, so he will get the chance to defend his title.

Creed also has a title in the ARCA Menards Series he won in 2018 while with MDM Motorsports. Before that, Creed cut his racing teeth in BMX racing and off-road truck racing, where he was a champion in 2015. He also has an X-Games gold medal to his credit.

Posted on November 6, 2020 by Reid Spencer

On Friday morning, before he jumped on a Zoom conference with reporters, Rick Hendrick swapped stories and reminiscences with Jimmie Johnson, his seven-time champion driver.

Hendrick has gone through significant partings before — with Jeff Gordon, who put Hendrick Motorsports on the map more than any other driver, and also with Dale Earnhardt Jr., the sport’s long-time most popular driver.

With Johnson racing for the last time as a full-time NASCAR driver Sunday at Phoenix Raceway, the emotions are bubbling to the surface again.

“I get super close to all of my guys,” Hendrick said. “They’re all like family to me. When the realization that this is the last race, whether it’s Terry Labonte, Jeff Gordon… it meant so much to me. Dale, he filled a void. Jimmie, I won’t say I raised him, but he’s been with me his entire career. I’ve watched him as a rookie come up to be a champion.

“The good news is I try to tell myself that I’m going to have a relationship with these guys. It’s not going to end. That’s what Jimmie and I were talking about today. We’re still family. We’re going to do things together. But the emotional side of seeing this history come to an end with all of these guys, it’s been real emotional.”

Johnson’s career with Hendrick has spanned two decades and includes 83 Cup victories — most by far among active drivers — in addition to the seven titles, which included a record streak of five in a row from 2006 through 2010.

“I just have to reflect back to the guy that got on the airplane with me with a T-shirt on,” Hendrick said. “I waited at the end of a race to bring him home. Then he becomes the champion, then he gets married, then he has kids.

“I think the thing about Jimmie through all that, he’s the same Jimmie Johnson. Never a cross word with him. Never asked him to do anything that he didn’t do. He’s just a guy, never hear him say anything about anybody else. He’s as close to perfect as you can get to be a competitor that can do what he can do on the racetrack. Just a super individual.”

Posted on November 6, 2020 by Reid Spencer

Team Penske owner Roger Penske has two drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4 race for the first time.

Both drivers are former Cup champions. Brad Keselowski won his title in 2012 under the 10-race Chase format. Joey Logano won the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway to secure the 2018 championship.

So how does a team owner allocate his loyalties between his two drivers as they head for Sunday’s Championship 4 event at Phoenix Raceway?

“I think we run as a team, we win as a team,” said Penske, whose third driver, Ryan Blaney, was eliminated in the Round of 16 of the NASCAR Playoffs. “We know when we go to the race track, if we have three cars, only one is going to win. You have to have that DNA throughout your whole organization. It’s tough. These guys are competitive.

RELATED: Team Penske’s wins by driver

“I think the collaboration, quite honestly, our crew chiefs, we have to the ability to share the information. We want them to. That’s a byproduct of what we do in Indianapolis in the IndyCar Series with our teams sitting together after each practice.

“We can’t do that this year because of the moratorium on getting together (because of the coronavirus pandemic). It’s a team effort. To be in a position with two cars, obviously, is envious as far as I’m concerned. We’ve still got to go out there this weekend and perform, but it’s certainly a team effort.”

Posted on November 6, 2020November 7, 2020 by Zack Albert

Phoenix Raceway has been a staple on NASCAR’s top circuit since its debut on the 1988 schedule. Sunday will mark its 49th race for NASCAR’s big leagues, but also a first of sorts — one that could tilt the complexion of the series’ championship hunt toward more of a full-contact fight.

The 1-mile Arizona track will play host to the season finale for the first time Sunday (3 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM), a showcase for the venerable and recently renovated venue. Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano will vie for the title after qualifying for the postseason’s Championship 4 field.

The title shift to Phoenix this season comes after an 18-year run for 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway as the finale host. With the move, Phoenix becomes the shortest track to host NASCAR’s season-ending race since the Cup Series closed the 1970 campaign at .396-mile Langley Speedway in the Virginia Tidewater.

While it perhaps doesn’t meet the textbook definition of a short track, Phoenix has some of the same traits. The slower speeds and tighter confines should produce closer-quarters racing — perhaps not to the magnitude of a Bristol or Martinsville, but to a degree higher than the intermediate-sized tracks that dominate the schedule. “It’s somewhere in between those two, no doubt,” Keselowski says.

With the track comes the opportunity for contact — both unintentional and provoked — and the inviting prospect of creating your own title destiny by bumper.

“Obviously the opportunity for contact is up compared to what it was at Miami because cars can get to each other easier here,” Logano said. “I think the line itself is also running higher on the race track. Presents more opportunity for cars to go in low and try to pull a slide job or do whatever. Who knows.

“I’d say you’re never safe. So you just got to expect the unexpected and try to adapt to the situation around you, be aware of what’s going on around you. Like I said, also stay focused on what makes you you, right? What makes your team good, stay focused on those things more than anything.”

That said, “everyone has got their own etiquette that they play by,” says Hamlin, who like Logano noted the intensity of last weekend’s events at Martinsville. That’s especially been true recently in the Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series with an uptick in beating-and-banging tactics, an approach that Hamlin hinted might be the new normal, but one that he’s tried to avoid.

“The art of working over a pass is such a beautiful thing if you can get it done,” Hamlin says, noting his appreciation of “purer” racing. “And so nowadays it’s just like, you just get frustrated after two laps and you knock the guy out of the way and move on and you don’t even have to say sorry later. It just becomes expected.

“Certainly within this final four, everyone will have their own feelings about what they think is allowed and whatnot, but we’ve seen people within this group also make aggressive moves and everyone else is there watching. So it’s like, well, you can’t be mad if it comes back around to you because you’ve done it in the past. So you kind of give that open invitation when you see that.”

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Phoenix reconfigured its mile-long oval ahead of its fall race in 2018, shifting the start-finish line to what was formerly the exit of Turn 2. And the distinctive track’s races in recent years have also put the expansive apron in the dogleg before Turn 1 into play — an enticing option for those willing to make dive-bomb passing attempts, especially on restarts.

Besides the layout, other key differences from last year to this year include a shorter race (312 miles vs. 400) and a more exacting nature on unforced errors.

“It’s an absolute no-mistakes race,” said Travis Geisler, Team Penske’s competition director. “When you look at Homestead, it’s really a recoverable race track where you can go to the back, have to have a different strategy, do different things, make something out of it.

“At Phoenix, there’s really usually only one right strategy that works depending on how the race plays out. Very few opportunities to re-pit, get tires, drive up back through the field. At Homestead you can do that. If you have a tire advantage, you can make a lot of time. Not a lot of fall-off at Phoenix. All those things to me make it a mistake-free race versus to kind of recover and scramble back to the front.”