Posted on by Pat DeCola

Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of four stories examining why each driver could win the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series championship.

Tuesday: Denny Hamlin
Wednesday: Brad Keselowski
Thursday: Chase Elliott
Friday: Joey Logano

• • •

Chase Elliott will win the 2020 championship because …

He’s built for this moment.

NASCAR’s playoff format and the whole concept of the Championship 4 is inherently eventful, and Elliott is arguably NASCAR’s biggest superstar — for reasons that extend beyond his last name. Superstars tend to take part in the biggest moments in sport, Elliott being a prime example of that as recently as last weekend at Martinsville Speedway.

With his back against the wall last Sunday, the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports driver took the checkered flag in one of the most pressure-packed and intense races in recent memory to secure a title shot for the first time in his career. It was his second straight playoff cutoff race victory, and there’s no remaining doubt that when things are on the line — such as needing to fend off three competitors all vying for the same season-long prize in one race — Elliott won’t shrink from the moment.

The 24-year-old has been making an impact in the sport since before he even turned 18, stretching all the way back to wrecking Ty Dillon coming to the checkered flag north of the border at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park to become (at the time) the youngest winner in Camping World Truck Series history. A dominant run to an Xfinity Series title followed not too long after, too.

Think back to some of the most vivid and impactful NASCAR memories you have over the past five-plus years and there’s a strong chance a good number of them include Elliott, from a nose-first dive into the Turn 1 wall at the Charlotte Roval and subsequent victorious return to that spot for a burnout a few moments later to telling driver No. 18 he was No. 1 earlier this season. NASCAR’s (likely) soon-to-be three-time Most Popular Driver certainly inherited some of that clout from his Hall of Fame dad, but he’s done plenty to back it up over recent years. His Championship 4 appearance is the furthest thing from a fluke. He earned it.

RELATED: Odds for Phoenix race

Statistically-speaking, 2020 is the best season of his career, with four wins, 14 top fives and 21 top 10s. His 1,083 laps led are second only to the season’s elite driver in Kevin Harvick and those four wins could’ve easily been six or seven if a small handful of things had gone slightly differently.

Elliott has yet to win at Phoenix, and hasn’t won on a similarly-configured track, but he’s shown to be much, much more than just a road-course ace. Wins at the very different Dover, Kansas, Charlotte, Talladega, Rovals at Charlotte and Daytona and now Martinsville show he’s tremendously well-rounded and it’s only a matter of time before he knocks a track like Phoenix off his list.

After leading 93 laps from the pole in the spring race, it could be this weekend. And it could be for the championship.

MORE: Chase Elliott through the years

Posted on by Terrin Waack

The NASCAR Xfinity Series’ Championship 4 drivers combined to win 20 of the 32 races throughout the 2020 season, and now there’s only one trophy left up for grabs.

Chase Briscoe, Austin Cindric, Justin Haley and Justin Allgaier are the final playoff contenders vying for the title. Whoever has the best finish Saturday at Phoenix Raceway (5 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) will be crowned this year’s champion.

RELATED: Championship weekend schedule

Forget best finish, these four are entering this finale with a must-win mindset.

“We have all watched the Xfinity races enough this year to know that we are going to be pretty aggressive as far as whether that is just packing air on each other or maybe some contact,” Cindric said Wednesday during virtual Media Day. “I am not going to make any speculation, but I am sure everyone will be giving 100 percent.”

Briscoe leads the series with nine wins. Cindric has a second-best five, while Allgaier and Haley have three victories apiece.

The most recent winner among the group is Briscoe. He clinched his Championship 4 berth with a win at Kansas Speedway in the Round of 8 opener. The other three advanced on the basis of points.

“The confidence is high,” Briscoe said. “I feel like we’ve been the best team all year long, and there’s no reason why we can’t go to Phoenix and be the same way. I feel like we’re going in there with nothing to lose and everything to gain.”

Sounds a lot like his competition.

“Obviously we have a lot of confidence,” Haley said. “We feel very confident in what we’ve done on the simulator this week, we feel very confident about what direction we’re going in, we feel confident how our car looked on the setup plate, on the pull-down machine. … I think that we, going into it, have an advantage because we have nothing to lose.”

The Championship 4 may be the only drivers still alive in the championship battle — their only focus — but there are 33 other competitors listed on the entry list. To them, it’s another opportunity to score points, win a race and raise their season stock.

Take Harrison Burton, for example. He captured the last two checkered flags and boasts four wins overall. Burton is currently ranked eighth, which leaves room for improvement. Then there’s Brandon Jones, who won at Phoenix earlier this season. He sits seventh in the standings with three wins.

The highest somebody not title eligible can finish in the final standings is fifth.

“You never know what your three other competitors are going to do for a win,” Allgaier said. “You never know what the other drivers on the race track are willing to do for the win. Right? It’s the last race of the year. Everyone wants to end on a high note.”

JAYSKI: Justin Allgaier returning to JR Motorsports in 2021

As Jones made the March trip to Phoenix’s Victory Lane, Haley came in fifth, Briscoe was behind him in sixth, Cindric sat two cars back in eighth and Allgaier ended up outside the top 10 in 13th.

Allgaier is the sole Championship 4 driver with a previous Phoenix win — two actually, in 2017 and 2019. Cindric is next-best with a fourth-place run in 2018. Both Briscoe’s and Haley’s strongest career finishes were earlier this year.

This is the first time Phoenix is hosting the championship, though. All bets are off.

“This is racing at a pretty high level, and I think we are all professionals,” Cindric said. “I expect that out of my competitors, a professional level of racing. At the same time, I expect them to go for it.”

Posted on by Zack Albert

The NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series is racing to an especially chippy conclusion to its 2020 season, and the Championship 4 field has the potential for a 3-on-1 teaming-up among the finalists.

A trio of drivers for GMS Racing — Sheldon Creed, Brett Moffitt and rookie Zane Smith — will vie for the Gander Trucks crown with Grant Enfinger, ThorSport Racing’s lone title hope, in Friday night’s Lucas Oil 150 (8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Phoenix Raceway. The GMS group has shown strength in performance this year, and now has it in numbers for the season finale. The notion of a triple-team squeeze, however, may not exactly be a layup.

RELATED: Analysis: Gander Trucks finalists | Phoenix weekend schedule

“Yes and no. I think the four of us just need to race each other the first two stages and then obviously, I think it’s gloves off after that,” said Creed, making his first appearance as a finalist after a four-win season. “Then we go out there and race. I don’t think all of us are going to be in the same area all at once. Some of us might struggle; some of us might be really fast, so I don’t know. We won’t know until Friday, but I don’t know. I think we still have respect for each other, and I think racing the 98 (Enfinger), we should have respect for him, too. But I think that third stage, gloves come off and we do what we have to do to get to the lead or put yourself in position to win.”

Smith, in his first Championship 4 after a two-win campaign to get there, paused and half-laughed at the four-driver dynamic.

“I probably don’t have any teammates this Friday,” said Smith, a 21-year-old product of the NASCAR Next program. “I feel like we’re kind of all on the same page on that. There’s just so much on the line, especially for me. If I could win this deal in my rookie year, that’s a really big deal. That’s how I’m looking at it. I’m not going to go out there and wreck my teammates, by no means, but I’m going to race them just as hard as I would race anyone else.”

Enfinger will be going it alone in some senses, but he’ll have teammates competing alongside him in Matt Crafton, Ben Rhodes and Johnny Sauter for Friday’s finale. Crafton and Rhodes just missed qualifying for the championship round, while Enfinger’s clutch victory last week at Martinsville Speedway clinched his berth.

MORE: Matt Crafton, Ben Rhodes among those ousted from playoffs

While Enfinger said he’d have welcomed some company in the final from his ThorSport teammates, his approach for the season-ending race won’t change, no matter the odds.

“We’re going against those guys, but I don’t feel like we necessarily have to race any differently,” said Enfinger, a 35-year-old Alabama native. “Our strategy going in there is just to win the race flat-out. I feel like with the competitors that we’re going against that any one of them are capable of pulling off the win. They’ve all won races this year. I feel like at the end of the day that may not be how it looks when the green flag comes out, but I feel like by the time the checkered flag comes out you’re gonna have to have won this race to be the champion.”

This time around, winning might require some finesse — or blunt force, rather — with the bumper, especially if the series’ frenzied competition in recent weeks is any indicator. The racing at both Texas Motor Speedway and Martinsville in the postseason’s previous round ruffled tempers and fenders, ramping up the intensity and sometimes dispensing with on-track courtesies.

“I think it’s over the line, for sure,” said Moffitt, who is aiming for his second Gander Trucks title in the last three seasons. “I feel like I’ve had to, I guess, stoop down to a lot of their levels and get more aggressive and use the truck up a little more to get by people, especially at the short tracks. It just seems like everyone’s doing that these days, and you’re not going to win unless you’re as aggressive as they are.”

Smith, for one, said his patience level for full-contact shenanigans in the season-ending race would be short.

“I’m just going into Friday where it’s one strike and I’m done with it,” said Smith, explaining that he was on the receiving end of contact from ThorSport’s Sauter last weekend at Martinsville. He couldn’t retaliate, needing to protect his points cushion. “… I guarantee you I won’t be taking any of that at Phoenix, and it’ll be a different situation I’m in next time.”

Posted on by Sean Montgomery

The 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion will be crowned Sunday in the desert at Phoenix Raceway in the Season Finale 500 (3 p.m. ET on NBC/NBC Sports App, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), wrapping up another spectacular season of NASCAR racing.

Before the on-track action, catch up on some important details.

RELATED: Full Phoenix schedule | Championship 4: Who’s in?

TRACK DETAILS

Built in 1964, Phoenix Raceway is a 1-mile desert oval featuring a 1,551-foot frontstretch and a 1,179 -foot backstretch. Turns 1 and 2 have an 8- to 9-degree variable banking and Turns 3 and 4 are banked from 10 to 11 degrees.

Richard Petty won the first NASCAR race in 1978, a Winston West Series event. The premier series has hosted a race every season since 1988.

The track was reconfigured and repaved in 2011, changing the pit stall area, widening the frontstretch, adjusting the dogleg and adding more progressive banking in the turns. In 2018, the start/finish line was relocated in the previous Turn 2 area.

STAGE LENGTHS

Stage 1 will end at Lap 75, Stage 2 at Lap 190 and the Final Stage at Lap 312.

STARTING LINEUP

Chase Elliott earned the final Busch Pole Award of the season, starting on the front row alongside Joey Logano. Championship contenders Brad Keselowski and Denny Hamlin fill up the second row, while Ryan Blaney completes the top five.

The lineup was determined using NASCAR’s competition-based formula, which is a total number based on the previous event: 15% of a fastest lap time position, 25% of the driver’s final race finish position, 25% of the owner’s final race position and 35% of the owner points position.

RELATED: Full starting grid

RULES PACKAGE

Teams will use the enhanced 2020 short oval and road course package, featuring a significantly shorter rear spoiler and front splitter. Cars are fitted with a tapered-spacer engine targeting around 750 horsepower and emphasizing lower downforce due to aerodynamic changes. 

GOODYEAR TIRES

Cup Series teams are provided with nine sets of Goodyear Eagle Intermediate Radials. Goodyear is accounting for the changes made to the series’ short track package by increasing mechanical grip through new tread compounds. Running with lower downforce, tire wear management will come into play throughout the afternoon for teams and may be a key factor in deciding the race winner.

“This package that the Cup cars run at Phoenix — the tires, horsepower and aero — really produced some great racing when we debuted it in March,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing. “The sport as a whole came together to come up with ideas to improve this short track rules package, and that enabled us at Goodyear to bring a tire that adds mechanical grip and wears a bit more. Those are two important factors, as the mechanical grip replaces the loss of aerodynamic grip with the lower downforce, while the ability for tires to wear is always a positive.”

CHAMPIONSHIP STATS TO KNOW

— The season finale has been won by a Championship 4 driver in all six years of the current format. Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Chase Elliott and Joey Logano are this year’s drivers looking to keep the streak alive.

— Logano (2018) and Keselowski (2012), Team Penske teammates, are the only previous Cup Series champions in the 2020 Championship 4 and both started the season with new crew chief pairings.

— Alan Gustafson, crew chief for Elliott, has three wins at Phoenix with three different drivers. His three victories at this track are more than the other three Championship 4 crew chiefs combined.

— Four of the last seven drivers to reach nine wins in a season failed to win the championship, including the last two: Kevin Harvick in 2020 and Carl Edwards in 2008.

Source: Racing Insights

INTERACTIVE COVERAGE

For a more interactive experience, head over to NASCAR.com or the NASCAR Mobile App to check out an enhanced Race Center, live Lap-by-Lap coverage, the customizable live leaderboard with Scanner, and the return of Drive (featuring in-car cameras). We’ll be on board with Jimmie Johnson for his final race in his final full-time season.

Also, Coca-Cola is sponsoring a YouTube in-car camera with Championship 4 contender Joey Logano.

Watch for the pre-race show sponsored by Sugarlands Shine at 11:30 a.m. ET on Sunday on NASCAR.com.

Be sure to set your lineup in Fantasy Live and make your picks in the NASCAR Finish Line App!

2019 RACE WINNER

Denny Hamlin’s clutch win at Phoenix in last year’s playoffs punched his ticket to the Championship 4 after being 20 points out of the final transfer spot. Hamlin led 143 laps in the race, outpacing Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch for his second win at the track.

RELATED: Championship weekend Power Rankings

ACTIVE PHOENIX WINNERS

Kevin Harvick (nine wins); Jimmie Johnson (four wins); Kyle Busch (three wins); Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano and Ryan Newman (two wins each); Kurt Busch (one win).

Posted on by Pat DeCola

Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of four stories examining why each driver could win the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series championship.

Tuesday: Denny Hamlin
Wednesday: Brad Keselowski
Thursday: Chase Elliott
Friday: Joey Logano

• • •

Brad Keselowski will win the 2020 championship because …

He’s likely to have the fastest car this weekend.

Two of the most dominant performances of 2020 came out of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford at New Hampshire and Richmond, with Keselowski leading close to 400 combined laps en route to victory in those two races. Additionally, those two tracks are perhaps closest in nature to Phoenix’s layout, with the same rules package — one in which Keselowski has arguably performed better than anyone this year — used for all three. Crew chief Jeremy Bullins will bring the same car that won both contests to the desert this weekend to complete the hat trick.

Assuming that car holds up to the rigors of another race (remember, there’s no practice or qualifying to fine-tune, make adjustments or uncover anything seemingly awry), there’s no reason to think the No. 2 Ford won’t be one of, if not the, fastest cars on the track Sunday.

RELATED: Ranking all 12 Championship 4 drivers

But a fast car can only go as far as the driver behind the steering wheel is willing to take it, and the 2012 champ has done his part this year to squeeze just about everything out of his ride.

Keselowski’s 2020 season is on an even pace with his title-winning season (that was somehow almost a decade ago), and the pair square off at the top of his resume for the best two campaigns of his career.

2012: 5 wins, 13 top fives, 23 top 10s, 10.1 average finish, 735 laps led

2020: 4 wins, 12 top fives, 24 top 10s, 10.3 average finish, 936 laps led

For much of the regular season since the sport resumed from a two-month break in the spring, Keselowski was in that tier just below the untouchables in Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick, all four of his wins coming since May. Now that one of those drivers (Harvick) is eliminated and the other has had a somewhat up-and-down postseason run, this could be the perfect opportunity for the Cup veteran to land his second title in his first Championship 4 appearance since 2017.

As far as Phoenix goes, Keselowski by his own admission is snake-bitten at the desert track, seeing another win slip from his grasp this past spring after leading 82 laps in March and eventually watching his teammate and fellow Championship 4 driver celebrating in Victory Lane while he came home 11th. Keselowski has just two top 10s there the last six races, though one was a runner-up finish.

Phoenix, however, has not been an entirely barren wasteland for him, nearly producing a season sweep in 2014 with a victory in the spring race and a P2 in the fall. 

If Keselowski and Bullins can put all the pieces together and the hot rod they’re bringing to the track holds up to the high standard it has set, Keselowski could cruise to his second Cup Series title and further cement his NASCAR Hall of Fame resume.

MORE: Brad Keselowski through the years

Posted on by Staff Report

Chase Elliott won the Busch Pole Award for Sunday’s season-ending race at Phoenix Raceway (3 p.m. ET on NBC/NBC Sports App, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), which hosts the championship weekend for the NASCAR Playoffs this year for the first time.

The Cup Series lineup was determined using NASCAR’s competition-based formula, which is a total number based on the series’ previous event: 15% of a fastest lap time position, 25% of the driver’s final race finish position, 25% of the owner’s final race position and 35% of the owner points position.

RELATED: Learn more about the new lineup formula

Joining Elliott and the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet on the front row will be Joey Logano in the No. 22 Team Penske Ford.

In the majority of national series events since NASCAR’s May return, starting lineups have been set by random draws. This structure, first introduced in early August, draws on performance from both individual races and season-long results, rather than leaving a range of starting spots up to chance.

See the full starting lineup for Sunday’s race below (P = playoff eligible):

Start Driver Car # Team
1 Chase Elliott (P) 9 Hendrick Motorsports
2 Joey Logano (P) 22 Team Penske
3 Brad Keselowski (P) 2 Team Penske
4 Denny Hamlin (P) 11 Joe Gibbs Racing
5 Ryan Blaney 12 Team Penske
6 Alex Bowman 88 Hendrick Motorsports
7 Kurt Busch 1 Chip Ganassi Racing
8 Kyle Busch 18 Joe Gibbs Racing
9 Clint Bowyer 14 Stewart-Haas Racing
10 Aric Almirola 10 Stewart-Haas Racing
11 Kevin Harvick 4 Stewart-Haas Racing
12 Matt DiBenedetto 21 Woods Brothers Racing
13 Martin Truex Jr. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing
14 Erik Jones 20 Joe Gibbs Racing
15 Cole Custer 41 Stewart-Haas Racing
16 Matt Kenseth 42 Chip Ganassi Racing
17 Christopher Bell 95 Leavine Family Racing
18 Austin Dillon 3 Richard Childress Racing
19 Ryan Newman 6 Roush Fenway Racing
20 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing
21 Tyler Reddick 8 Richard Childress Racing
22 Ty Dillon 13 Germain Racing
23 Bubba Wallace 43 Richard Petty Motorsports
24 Ryan Preece 37 JTG Daugherty Racing
25 William Byron 24 Hendrick Motorsports
26 Jimmie Johnson 48 Hendrick Motorsports
27 John Hunter Nemechek 38 Front Row Motorsports
28 Corey LaJoie 32 Go Fas Racing
29 Michael McDowell 34 Front Row Motorsports
30 Daniel Suarez 96 Gaunt Brothers Racing
31 Chris Buescher 17 Roush Fenway Racing
32 JJ Yeley 27 Rick Ware Racing
33 Timmy Hill 66 Motorsports Business Management
34 Quin Houff 00 StarCom Racing
35 Brennan Poole 15 Premium Motorsports
36 James Davison 53 Rick Ware Racing
37 Joey Gase 51 Petty Ware Racing
38 Josh Bilicki 77 Spire Motorsports
39 Garrett Smithley 7 Tommy Baldwin Racing
Posted on by Staff Report

On Thursday, Nov. 5 at 11 a.m. ET, The NASCAR Foundation will host a live stream announcement on NASCAR.com to reveal the winner of the 10th annual Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award.

Each of the four finalists will be celebrated with a “watch party” in their markets, hosted by the following:

  • Nashville Superspeedway will host Daryl Farler (Amputee Blade Runners) at the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corporation
  • Daytona International Speedway will host Charlene Greer (Boys & Girls Clubs of Volusia / Flagler Counties)
  • Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta will host Larry Jordan (Angel Flight Soars)
  • Richard Childress Racing Museum will host Rich Langley (Roc Solid Foundation)

Each of these finalists has secured a minimum $25,000 donation from The NASCAR Foundation to their chosen children’s charity. The live-stream announcement follows the culmination of an online fan vote to determine the winner of a $100,000 donation from The NASCAR Foundation.

Only a few chances remain to cast your vote at NASCARfoundation.org/Award. Voting closes Wednesday, Nov. 4, at Noon ET.

Posted on by Staff Report

Jimmie Johnson will wheel a special silvery No. 48 Chevrolet in his final race as a full-time NASCAR Cup Series driver.

RELATED: Phoenix weekend schedule

On Tuesday, Hendrick Motorsports revealed the paint scheme for Johnson’s No. 48 in Sunday’s Cup Series finale at Phoenix Raceway (3 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM). The familiar purple colors of primary sponsor Ally will have a silver backdrop for the 312-lap race, which will mark Johnson’s transition into the next stage of his motorsports career.

Johnson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammates will also pay tribute to the seven-time champion, as the cars for title contender Chase Elliott and teammates Alex Bowman and William Byron will sport yellow numbers, which have been a trademark of Johnson’s rides during his career.

HMS offered a behind-the-scenes look at Johnson’s final-ride design Tuesday:

Posted on by Staff Report

NASCAR officials issued fines to two teams Tuesday for lug-nut infractions during last weekend’s races at Martinsville Speedway.

In the Cup Series, officials found the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with one lug nut not safely secured after finishing ninth in Sunday’s Xfinity 500. Crew chief Adam Stevens was fined $10,000 for the safety violation specified in Section 10.9.10.4 in the NASCAR Rule Book.

RELATED: No Martinsville penalties for No. 20 team

In the NASCAR Xfinity Series, the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet of runner-up Justin Allgaier was also found with one unsecured lug nut in a post-race check after Saturday’s Draft Top 250. Officials handed No. 7 crew chief Jason Burdett a $5,000 fine.