MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — The first-ever Chase playoff format for the NASCAR XFINITY Series created an intriguing foursome competing for the championship in Saturday’s season finale. The dualities ran deep.

Two pairs of title-eligible teammates from two organizations created a showdown between Joe Gibbs Racing and JR Motorsports, Toyota and Chevrolet, and — because of the wide range of experience among the four — a contrast between veteran savvy and youthful exuberance.

Those contrasts played out with the XFINITY Series crown on the line in Saturday’s Ford EcoBoost 300 with Gibbs up-and-comers Erik Jones and Daniel Suarez squaring off with JRM’s veteran compatriots in Elliott Sadler and Justin Allgaier at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

The final 50 laps saw all four drivers battling fiercly for the lead, but ultimately it was JGR’s Suarez who won the race, outlasting JRM’s Sadler, who gambled late with a two-tire pit stop and finished third. Sadler’s teammate, Allgaier, finished seventh and JGR’s Jones was ninth as they got trapped behind race leader Cole Whitt on the final restart.

The four drivers were in an anticipatory mood during Thursday’s Media Day at the Loews Miami Beach, trumpeting the virtues of having teammates to lean on through the weekend and conjuring up images of a virtual 2-on-2 matchup. But with a winner-take-all structure in place for Saturday’s curtain-closer, the allegiances may only go so far.

“We know already that we are going to help each other as much as we can before the race, and once we get into the race, everyone is on his own, and we know that, and we understand that,” said Suarez, in his second full season of XFINITY competition.

“There is just one trophy, and there are two drivers, two friends here. We have to take care by ourselves and move forward.”

Suarez has a stellar teammate in Jones, who is earmarked for a full-time ride in NASCAR’s premier series next year with Furniture Row Racing. The two worked well this season under the JGR umbrella, combining for six XFINITY victories. But Jones agreed that the notion of teamwork has its limits at Homestead.

“I think throughout the weekend, you don’t change your process at all. We still share information, still lean on each other, help each other when we can,” Jones said. “Obviously in the early and mid-part of the race, we’re not going to do anything to hurt each other’s races.

“Once it gets down to that last hundred, last 50 laps, I think you have to go for it. At some point you’re going to have to race for it. We’re racing for a championship. We don’t want to take each other out of that chance, but at the same time we have to be in it to try to win our team a championship and make it happen. I think that’s the point of this Chase and the point of this format.”

Among the four championship contenders, team alliances created a split, but so has the difference in age. JRM’s Sadler is the eldest of the group at 41 with his teammate Allgaier having just crossed the bridge into his 30s this summer. JGR’s Suarez is 24 years old with Jones the youngest at 20.

Experience can certainly help, but so does pure skill — something the final quartet has in bunches. While variances in their racing backgrounds exist, all four can claim newbie status in regards to the new Chase format.

“I don’t know that the years have really given us any more experience,” Allgaier said. “Who’s to say with the resources and things they’ve gone through that they could potentially have more experience than what I do? I think we got four really talented race car drivers that made the final round. I think you’ve got four great teams in this final round.”