Posted on by Staff Report

Tune in: Ford EcoBoost 400, 3 p.m. ET Sunday on ESPN

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Sprint Cup Series Practice 2 | Results

Kevin Harvick continued to produce faster times around Homestead-Miami Speedway than the other three NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship contenders on Saturday. In fact, Harvick was faster than everyone else, too, in the day’s first session at the 1.5-mile track.

In the No. 4 Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing, Harvick posted a best speed of 175.069 mph in the first of two scheduled 50-minute sessions. That was better than Denny Hamlin (fifth, 173.969 mph), Joey Logano (sixth, 173.589 mph) and Ryan Newman (12th, 172.712 mph).

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Newman had trouble that extended beyond being the slowest of the group, too. He came to his pit stall so his crew could look at his No. 31 after radioing in that "something broke." FOX Sports 1’s Wendy Venturini reported that the team fixed the busted bead blower on his right front tire, but damage to the splitter would require the crew to replace it between practice sessions.

Following Harvick, and rounding out the top-five fastest of the session, were Jeff Gordon in second (175.029 mph), followed by Brad Keselowski (174.498 mph), Jimmie Johnson (174.222 mph) and Hamlin. Gordon won the Coors Light Pole Award on Friday night.

Earlier this weekend, Harvick led the other three title contenders in Friday’s opening practice, then qualified best among the group Friday night. His No. 4 Chevrolet will line up fifth in Sunday’s Ford EcoBoost 400 (3 p.m. ET, ESPN). Hamlin will start the race eighth, with Logano in ninth. Newman qualified 21st.

Saturday’s opening practice session — the second of the weekend — was delayed early on when the No. 33 of Brian Scott dropped fluid on the track.

Sprint Cup Series Practice 3 | Get results

Jimmie Johnson led the final NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice of the season Saturday, a 50-minute session at Homestead-Miami Speedway in which the four drivers in contention for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship all finished inside the top 15.

Johnson’s speed of 175.200 mph in his No. 48 Chevrolet paced all cars, and "Six-Time" was the only driver to top the 175-mph mark. He led teammate Kasey Kahne, who logged a spot of 174.820 mph.

Kurt Busch, AJ Allmendinger and Matt Kenseth rounded out the top five.

Joey Logano finished seventh (173.127 mph), just ahead of fellow championship hopeful Kevin Harvick (173.099 mph). It was the only time all weekend there was on-track activity in which Harvick was not the fastest of the Chase cars. He topped the other three drivers (and finished second overall) in Friday’s opening practice, qualified fifth for Sunday’s race and set the pace in Saturday’s first practice.

Ryan Newman, whose team planned to swap his splitter in between practice sessions, finished 12th — matching his placement from the day’s first practice — at 172.806 mph. Denny Hamlin was 13th at 172.756 mph.

There was a brief caution period when Kyle Larson spun in Turn 4 coming to pit road.

The Ford EcoBoost 400 is scheduled for Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN.

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Posted on by Zack Albert

Importance of Nationwide Series not lost on team owner

MORE: Final Nationwide Series owner standings

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Chase Elliott salted away his first championship last weekend at Phoenix, rendering the NASCAR Nationwide Series drivers’ standings race anticlimactic for Saturday’s season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. But a little suspense still lingered on the team owners’ side.

In the end, Brad Keselowski wheeled the Team Penske’s No. 22 Ford to the Nationwide Series team owner championship in the Ford EcoBoost 300. Keselowski needed only to finish 25th or better to seal the title over Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 54 Toyota team; he wound up in eighth place compared to Kyle Busch‘s second in the JGR entry, clinching Roger Penske’s second straight crown by 23 points.

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"It’s obvious the Nationwide (Series) means so much to us because it’s the proving ground," said the 77-year-old Penske. "It’s the testing ground for our crew chiefs, young drivers. And there’s no question, when you see Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson and the people who come up through that series, it means a lot to us, but it also ‑‑ the mechanics and the over-the-wall guys that we train there."

Last season, Penske’s No. 22 prevailed in the season-long team owner championship hunt by just one point over the Gibbs No. 54. This year, the Team Penske entry prevailed with a larger margin, but an equally diverse cast of drivers in the seat.

Former NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski piloted the No. 22 to five victories in his 11 starts, and Ryan Blaney notched one win among his 10 appearances behind the wheel. Joey Logano (nine starts), Alex Tagliani (two) and Michael McDowell (one) shared the rest of the driving duties. The common thread was crew chief Jeremy Bullins, who kept strong performances a constant while adapting to several different drivers.

"I’m proud to be a part of it," Keselowski said. "It’s a season-long task, so it’s not a one-night accomplishment, it’s a lot of different things. Quite a few different drivers in this car and I’m honored to be one of them. I feel like I contributed to the program, I don’t know, but it’s a lot of fun and the team does a great job. You kind of take these things for granted sometimes, having great cars and great teams, and I’m trying not to. It’s a very pleasurable experience. I’ve been at the other side of this where I didn’t have great cars and life was really tough, but we’ve had a season of great cars and I’m thankful for that."

Busch and Sam Hornish Jr. shared the seat of the Gibbs No. 54 this season, with Busch notching seven victories and Hornish one. Although placing as a runner-up in Saturday’s race and in the team owner standings was bittersweet, Busch was pleased with the overall effort.

"It’s been fun the last couple of years," Busch said. "You know we’ve come up short just a little bit last year by one point, a little bit more than that this year, but, shoot, besides winning more races, finishing every single race in the top four besides (Daytona), I don’t know what else I could have done. We did our part and we had some great races, and we did have a successful year, so nothing to hang our hats about, but there’s one other guy or team out there that was a little bit better than us."

Said Gibbs: "Yeah, you’ve got to give them credit. The Penske group, you’ve got to give them a lot of credit and what they did there. They put a lot of drivers in the car and raced great. We had just a couple of bad situations that happened to us which cost us again. We don’t like it, but we’re committed to come back and try to go after it again. We appreciate getting an opportunity to race against real good race teams, and when you do that, you’ve got a chance to come out on the short end. Like I said, we love the series. We’re going to be back next year roaring."

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Posted on by Zack Albert

Final four drivers offer their Saturday plans, what they think of their cars

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HOMESTEAD, Fla. — The final preparations for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship race are complete with Saturday afternoon’s two 50-minute practice sessions featuring a pair of near-misses but no major incident for the four title-contending drivers. The next time the quartet hits the track at Homestead-Miami Speedway, it will be for the chance to hoist the Sprint Cup trophy for the first time in their careers.

Their pre-race track time complete, the only thing left for Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano and Ryan Newman before their Sunday showdown is to relax, rest and get in the right frame of mind for the season-ending Ford EcoBoost 400 (3 p.m. ET, ESPN). All four were among the top 15 in Saturday’s two practice sessions, hinting that they’ll settle their final championship battle near the front of the pack.

A glance at how NASCAR’s final four fared on the eve of the season finale, in order of Sunday’s starting position:

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Kevin Harvick, Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Chevrolet

Starting position: 5th.

Saturday’s practice: 1st in second practice; 8th in final practice.

Saturday recap: Harvick was consistent in the amount of laps he ran, completing 30 in Saturday’s first session and running 29 in the final practice. His speed, though, dipped from a high-water mark of 175.200 mph early to 173.099 mph late. "We never got the balance right to run it really far enough into the run, to run 20 or 25 laps," Harvick said.

Down time: Harvick was concise in predicting his evening activities, offering a one-word answer: "Eat!"

Sunday’s outlook: Harvick starts nearest to the front of any championship hopeful, but said there’s still work to be done to get the handling just right on his No. 4 entry. "Yeah, we struggled getting the balance right, and I don’t think we’ve really hit it exactly where we need it to be yet," Harvick said. "So, we’ll go back through the stuff that everybody did on our cars and definitely try to improve for tomorrow."

Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 Toyota

Starting position: 8th.

Saturday’s practice: 5th in second practice; 13th in final practice.

Saturday recap: Hamlin avoided trouble at the end of the final practice session when he dipped his tires onto the grass as he overshot the access road below the track apron. Though he said that the car’s ensuing slide was "pretty exciting for a little while," he was pleased with the car’s capabilities, especially if lengthy green-flag stretches develop Sunday. "The car was good. It’s definitely gaining on some things," Hamlin said. "Feel pretty good about it. It’s definitely a long run car — feels really good on the long run."

Down time: Hamlin turns 34 years old on Tuesday and there would be no better birthday present than a first championship at NASCAR’s top level. Before his actual birthdate, the Virginia native planned on an early celebration before Sunday’s big day. "Pretty much have birthday dinner and relax," Hamlin said. "Come in here in the morning ready to go."

Sunday’s outlook: Hamlin projected a care-free approach in events leading up to Sunday’s finale, but it’s also translated into his determination to erase the heartbreak of past defeats. "As high as it should be," Hamlin said of his confidence level. "We’ve got a car that we can compete with and that’s the main thing. You worry when you come down here if it’s going to be like it was or how it was previous years and how it was in the test, but it’s pretty good."

Joey Logano, Team Penske No. 22 Ford

Starting position: 9th.

Saturday’s practice: 6th in second practice; 7th in final practice.

Saturday recap: Logano was right on the edges of the top five in both 50-minute practices Saturday, with his best lap in the final session less than a tenth of a second slower than his early speed. Logano said his Team Penske crew will lean heavily on the information it gathered in a two-day test session here at the end of October, but that the team learned plenty in this weekend’s practice about running different grooves on the Homestead track. "I still think the top is preferred for everybody," Logano said, "but you have to be able to move around a little bit and I feel like our car can do that."

Down time: Logano offered a detailed description of what the hours ahead would hold, including the likelihood of a pineapple chicken dish prepared by his fiancé, Brittany. "I will do the same thing I do any other time except hopefully we are celebrating a (team owner) championship on the Nationwide side," Logano said. "That would be a good thing. From here I will go debrief with (crew chief) Todd (Gordon) and get a read on what our car did. We will go to our team meeting and make some good adjustments for tomorrow and then watch the Nationwide race. I suppose later I will watch some TV and then go to sleep. The Nationwide celebration should go fairly late and we will enjoy that. That is a lot of hard work so hopefully we are able to do that. Then we will go home — I say home, but to the motor home — and we will have some dinner. Brittany and I will talk. We have been watching ‘Boy Meets World’ like nobody’s business so we will probably watch an episode of that and go to sleep."

Sunday’s outlook: Despite the pressure-packed intensity of the season finale, Logano insists his team won’t deviate from the game plan that’s worked for 35 races so far this season. "I think we treat it like any other Sunday. Why change what we have been doing? We will approach it the same. Obviously there will probably be a couple extra thoughts that we don’t typically have, a couple of moments of reflection. We have had those moments and raced the last few weeks with those thoughts in our minds of what we need to do to get through the Chase. We will just keep it how we have been doing things."

Ryan Newman, Richard Childress Racing No. 31 Chevrolet

Starting position: 21st.

Saturday’s practice: 12th in second practice; 12th in final practice.

Saturday recap: Newman escaped one of the close calls from the first practice session. Shortly after Brian Scott pulled his car off the track with engine failure, Newman reported to his RCR crew that he’d run over a piece of debris. The team replaced a rattling bead blower fan and changed out the scratched-up splitter in a fairly minor repair job. Overall, though, he hoped for improvement on Sunday after posting the slowest average over the two Saturday practices of any of the Championship 4. "It could have gone better, but we got a lot of good information," Newman said. "Still just working on the balance of the race car a little bit and making it so it’s fast. It seems like I can put it anywhere, just got to get a little bit more speed out of the car doing that."

Down time: Newman’s night before the championship doesn’t look much different than a Saturday evening for many of the tailgating fans camping out on the Homestead-Miami grounds. Newman said he planned on a small cookout near his motorcoach, spending time with friends and family. "I don’t ever have a high-pressure night," Newman said. "Just try to keep an even keel, I guess."

Sunday’s outlook: Despite starting midpack in Sunday’s 400, Newman hasn’t let his position on the grid pose a concern. Though he’s heard the label of underdog applied to him in the days leading up to the season finale, Newman starts Sunday on even footing in terms of the points standings. "Oh, confidence isn’t an issue," Newman said. "We are having fun. Our starting spot is not where we want to be, but our finishing spot hopefully is a lot better."

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Driver offers idea for tweak to Chase scoring system

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HOMESTEAD, Fla. — The heartbreak of coming up one point shy of competing for his fifth NASCAR premier series championship, with that quest thwarted just a quarter-mile from the checkered flag at Phoenix last weekend, understandably left Jeff Gordon in a funk heading to the season finale. The title hopes may be gone, but Gordon is doing his best to channel the setback into motivation.

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Gordon began the season-ending weekend on the right foot, winning the 200th Coors Light Pole Award for Hendrick Motorsports in Friday’s qualifying. The achievement lifted the spirits of both driver and team, giving Gordon a prime starting perch for Sunday’s Ford EcoBoost 400 finale (3 p.m. ET, ESPN).

Gordon said he was in "disbelief for a good 24 hours" after the season’s penultimate race last weekend at Phoenix, when Ryan Newman‘s brash move to overtake rookie Kyle Larson in the final turn made the crucial one-point difference.

"You know, I think even if we win this race on Sunday, that’s only going to make it hurt a little bit more in some ways because we could have won the championship if we were here," Gordon said. "I think it’s not that I’m over it yet, but I’ve definitely ‑‑ getting to the race track, it allows all of us to focus on what we do best, which is go and compete, and when you’re fine‑tuning the setup of the car and making laps, especially at this place, right up an inch off the wall every lap, that takes your mind off of it. That part has been nice, and this is certainly a great achievement for us to start the weekend and something that’s positive that we can smile about and be proud of."

Despite a stellar campaign where he claimed four victories and led the points standings through the heart of the season and in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs, Gordon was ousted following the Eliminator Round, despite a pair of runner-up finishes in the three-race segment. His downfall wound up being the 29th-place run at Texas Motor Speedway, when late-race contact with Brad Keselowski triggered a spinout and dramatic loss of track position.

NASCAR chairman Brian France said that the chances of modifying the Chase format after its inaugural season were "very modest, modest to zero," but that minor alterations were possible. That opened the door for Gordon to propose a separate points structure among the Chase drivers that could potentially minimize the impact of a subpar finish behind non-Chasers.

"I think it’s a good system, number one. I like how important it is to win, how that moves you from one round to the next," Gordon said. "I would say that the one thing that I thought about ‑‑ and this would not have moved me to the final round, but I think it’s the right thing to do ‑‑ and that’s you have a separate points system just for the 16 and then for the 8 ‑‑ or the 12 and then the 8. I just think there’s so many factors with all the other competitors out there that you should be racing those guys. You should be racing them in points, not necessarily racing them and all the other competitors out there. I think you’ve earned that right.

"So I would like to see a few of the highest finishing, then you get 16, 15, 14, 13, but it doesn’t matter if you finish 25th. And that just allows you to kind of throw out one of those bad races. I think you’ve still got to be consistent, winning is still going to get you through, but it allows you to race those guys, not necessarily go race everybody else."

Though any potential tweaks come too late to save Gordon — despite title contender Kevin Harvick‘s jokes that he was half-expecting to see him added as a fifth championship driver — he still has hopes of playing spoiler again in a race he won in 2012. While Gordon would’ve welcomed another round of Chase stressors for the chance at a fifth crown, he’s instead hoping to bask in a victory celebration that carries well into wintertime.

While he said winning would carry a sour taste with thoughts of what could have been, the only worse alternative would be falling flat in Sunday’s finale.

"While we wish we had stress on us, there’s just a lot less stress, and so we can just go focus on competing and competing at a high level," Gordon said. "But I can tell you, if we come out here with a bad finish, it’s going to sting. It’s going to hurt. That’s not the way you want to go into the offseason. With everything that’s happened for us the last couple weeks, we need to have something really good to carry into this offseason to think about for next year."

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Reps for vehicle manufacturers break down Hamlin, Harvick, Logano and Newman

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HOMESTEAD, Fla. — One is said to exude quiet confidence. The other’s a leader from the cockpit. Another’s laser-focused while the fourth is charging.

That’s how officials from their respective automakers described this year’s four championship contenders Saturday here at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano and Ryan Newman each will head into Sunday’s Ford EcoBoost 400 seeking a first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship.

The four are all that remain of the original 16 in this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup field, advancing through three rounds to reach one final stop.

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The highest-finishing driver leaves with the title, meaning a win isn’t necessary. But none of the four wants to go out with anything less than a checkered flag. And the championship trophy.

Hamlin’s been here before, under somewhat different circumstances. In 2010, he led Jimmie Johnson by 15 points heading into Homestead but by most accounts let the pressure of the title get in his way. Johnson won handily, and Hamlin hasn’t forgotten.

Dave Wilson, president and GM for Toyota Racing Development USA, said that experience should prove valuable to the 34-year-old Hamlin, as well as other recent near misses for the Toyota camp.

"Denny thinks a lot, and he’s been here before, and I think that really helps him," Wilson said. "We’ve, as a manufacturer, been the bridesmaid three out of the past four years; Denny has had a second‑place finish, Clint Bowyer has had a second‑place finish, then of course last year Matt Kenseth. But Denny is comfortable. He’s confident, quietly confident I would say."

Wilson also noted that Hamlin has enjoyed success on the 1.5-mile track, winning twice in the past five years, including last season.

"I think it gives him just what he needs to do the job Sunday," he said.

Hamlin (Joe Gibbs Racing) won once this year, at Talladega Superspeedway in April. His best Chase finish came last week at Phoenix where he was fifth. He has led multiple laps in five of the nine Chase races.

Chevrolet, with Harvick and Newman, is the only manufacturer with multiple representatives going for the title. To some, they represent the most likely and the least likely to emerge with the championship.

Harvick (Stewart-Haas Racing) has four wins this season while Newman (Richard Childress Racing) is winless. Raw speed has been the calling card for Harvick’s No. 4 team while Newman has relied on consistency and an ability to avoid the disastrous finish.

"Ryan just keeps coming; he keeps getting stronger race after race, and that team has just gotten in a great rhythm … every single race," said Chevrolet’s Jim Campbell, U.S. vice president, performance vehicles and motorsports.

"Now, they haven’t won a race yet, but they are charging."

Harvick, he said, is more representative of his boss, fellow driver and three-time Sprint Cup champion, Tony Stewart.

"He’s focused, he’s mentally tough and he’s a leader from the cockpit of the car," Campbell said. "When I think about the last time Stewart-Haas won the championship … in ’11, Tony had a lot of those same attributes.

"And so we’ll see where these two guys net out. The competition is tough. Anything can happen, and we expect there’s going to be some curveballs and surprises in how the teams react. Same focus, calm, and the guys leading from the cockpit with the team is going to have the best chance to win."

Logano is in his second season with Team Penske after a four full seasons at Joe Gibbs Racing that produced just two wins and no Chase appearances. He’s yet to not make the Chase since joining the Penske organization.

Two of his five wins this year have come in Chase races.

"Joey Logano, when he came into the sport was billed as a phenom, and indeed he is a phenom," Jamie Allison, director of Ford Racing, said. "He’s got the talent, and with the team around him, I think he’s very poised to succeed. He is driven and the goal is in sight, and we expect him to succeed.

"This is a sport of teams. You’ve got to put that in context. It’s Joey, it’s Todd (Gordon, crew chief), it’s Penske, it’s Ford. When you put that ensemble together, this season has been an absolute standout season."

While there is much on the line, none of the three automakers has ramped up its assistance to the individual teams. Instead, most have continued to provide the technical and engineering support that’s been the framework of the relationship from the beginning.

"There are tendencies in the sport during the race that can be gleaned from mining data that could give a crew chief an opportunity to make a decision based on data rather than just simply on gut feel," said Allison. "The field of analytics is wide open. So really when you’re coming down to the final race from a hardware (standpoint), it’s largely in the hands of the teams. But in terms of enabling decision making on in‑race situation, that’s one scenario."

With 19 wins among all Chevrolet teams, and a 38th manufacturer’s title in the wings, Campbell said he saw no reason to increase input.

"Stick to the fundamentals in terms of providing the right parts, the right engineering people and the right engineering tools and then follow through," he said.

Wilson agreed. And while Hamlin likely learned a lesson from his 2010 shortcoming, so too did the manufacturer.

"I think we collectively overthought the gravity of it and played from a defensive position," Wilson said.

"I think what everyone has seen this year is a different feel. Denny is loose. It’s business as usual. The performance that we’ve collectively brought to the table is what has gotten Denny to this position, and we’re just going to execute as a team and see what that brings tomorrow afternoon."

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Rookie locked up title in Phoenix last weekend; coronation came in Florida

MORE: Chase Elliott’s championship timeline

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — It wasn’t the way Chase Elliott had hoped to end the 2014 season.

But with the NASCAR Nationwide Series title already in hand, Saturday night’s 17th-place finish in the Ford EcoBoost 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway stung only so much.

"Definitely disappointed. It’s my fault for sure," Elliott said long after being presented the 2014 championship trophy from NASCAR President Mike Helton. "We could have come home with a top-five (finish), maybe even a top-four.

"Had I not put it in the fence there, on the race track and during my (celebratory) burnout, then it would have been a pretty good night."

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A rash of cautions during the second half of the scheduled 200-lap race and a gamble to stay out under yellow on one occasion didn’t knock the JR Motorsports driver out of contention. But contact with the wall with less than 10 laps remaining proved to be a bit more difficult to overcome.

"Lack of a driver there at the end," said Elliott, who had wrapped up the series championship a week earlier with a fifth-place finish at Phoenix International Raceway.

"We had a really fast car tonight and we tried to do something different. It only takes one thing — if that run goes green, then we are in a great position and everybody else is in a bad spot. When you’re one of the only people on pit road that can work one of two ways, and unfortunately it didn’t go our way. So we had to bite the bullet and stay out there toward the end on tires.

"Lost a lot of track position, finally got back on equal tires and … drove back up to fight with Kyle (Busch) for fifth."

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series regular Matt Kenseth won the season-ending race, with Busch and Kyle Larson taking second and third. Ryan Blaney and Chris Buescher completed the top five.

JRM teammate Regan Smith, Elliott’s chief competition for the title down the stretch, finished sixth in the race and second in points. With the last race run, he finished 42 points behind the Dawsonville, Georgia, native.

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Elliott Sadler (-59) finished third in points while Richard Childress Racing drivers Brian Scott (-59) and fellow rookie Ty Dillon (-65) rounded out the top five in the final standings.

The son of 1988 NASCAR premier series champion Bill Elliott, the 18-year-old Elliott became the first driver in a national NASCAR series to win the championship as well as rookie of the year honors in the same season.

"We had a solid night," crew chief Greg Ives said. "We didn’t finish where we wanted to. … When Chase gets back to 25th, 28th, whatever, that I put him there on those pit stops, it’s an opportunity for him to grow and learn, and part of it is just keeping it together through the whole race.

"That’s a mental challenge on his part, mental challenge on the whole team’s part, to make that happen. I couldn’t be more proud of what he was able to do, to drive it back to contending for a top-five. … He’s going to give it all he’s got."

It was the first owners’ championship for JRM, owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kelley Earnhardt Miller and Rick Hendrick.

JRM and Hendrick combined resources in 2008, with the goal of the collaborative effort being to groom talent and help employees progress up the ladder.

"Dale and I talked about it … how we could use the company to grow young people, and Dale has always liked to give young drivers a chance, and I’ve always admired him for that," said Hendrick, owner of the Sprint Cup organization for which Earnhardt Jr. drives.

"I’ve known these two since they were kids, and we’ve raced together, we’ve been together, and to see them get the championship really is rewarding to me inside.

"To see Chase — I said I wasn’t going to do any more driver development, and then signed him when he was like 15, and boy, he’s been unbelievable."

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Team owner: ‘I think it’s going to be a level playing field’ in finale

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HOMESTEAD, Fla. — The little needling comments that Kevin Harvick has lofted out this week to potentially tweak championship rival Joey Logano ahead of the season-ending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race have made for interesting exchanges — some humorous, some awkward.

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Roger Penske, Logano’s venerable team owner, said on the eve of the season finale that the barbs ring hollow.

"I respect him a lot," Penske said of Harvick, noting his hometown connection with famed IndyCar racer Rick Mears, a Penske legend. "But I can tell you this, that 24‑year‑old Joey Logano, no one gets in his head. You could see that when he got down last week in Phoenix. We’re standing behind him."

Harvick and Logano will vie for their first Sprint Cup crown in Sunday’s Ford EcoBoost 400 (3 p.m. ET, ESPN) with Denny Hamlin and Ryan Newman, who are also seeking their first Sprint Cup Series championship.

Harvick’s opening salvo of remarks began in Wednesday’s Media Day for the Championship 4 and continued Friday in a post-qualifying media session from Homestead-Miami Speedway.

The talk stops Sunday with the drop of the green flag, and Penske said he expects Logano to be firmly in the mix.

"To me he’s going to be one of the guys that are going to have to get beat," Penske said. "Harvick is going to have to beat him to win. I think it’s going to be a level playing field, and the best guy is going to win."

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Watch the season finale: 4:30 p.m. ET (ESPN2)

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His Team Penske teammate had been faster Friday, but Brad Keselowski sped to the Coors Light Pole Award during group qualifying Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Keselowski’s speed of 166.384 mph puts him on the pole for the Ford EcoBoost 300. It’s Keselowski’s fifth series pole of the season and 19th of his career.

Ryan Blaney, in the No. 12 Ford, had previously paced both Friday practice sessions and was fastest in the second round of group qualifying. He will line up fifth.

Kyle Larson qualified second at 166.353 mph, with Matt Kenseth (166.006 mph) third and Elliott Sadler (165.827 mph) fourth.

Chase Elliott, who locked up the 2014 NASCAR Nationwide Series championship last week, will start 14th. He finished 24th in the opening round and was the last car to advance in group qualifying.

Elliott’s JR Motorsports teammate Regan Smith, who is second in the standings, will start 15th. Smith has a 13-point lead over Brian Scott in the battle to finish second in the final standings.

Derrike Cope, Ryan Ellis, Johnny Jackson, Kevin Lepage and Martin Roy did not qualify.

The Ford EcoBoost 300 is scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m. ET Saturday and will be televised on ESPN2.

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JGR driver holds off Kyle Busch to win final race of Nationwide’s tenure

MORE: Full EcoBoost 300 results | Final Nationwide Series standings

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Charging away from a pack of pursuers on the final restart, Matt Kenseth scored his first NASCAR Nationwide Series win since October of last year in Saturday’s Ford EcoBoost 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Chase Elliott, who had clinched the driver’s championship last Saturday in Phoenix, finished 17th after scraping the outside wall late in the race. Brad Keselowski delivered the Nationwide Series owner’s championship to Roger Penske with an eighth-place result in the No. 22 Team Penske Ford.

In a mere formality, Elliott also received Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors, making the him the first driver to win both a rookie title and a series championship in the same year in any of NASCAR’s top three national series.

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At age 18, Elliott also is the youngest national touring series champion in NASCAR history.

After losing the lead to Kyle Larson after a restart on Lap 199 of a scheduled 200, Kenseth got a second chance when NASCAR threw the 11th caution of the race for a multicar wreck behind the leader moments before Larson was to take the white flag signaling the final lap, which would have made him a winner under the caution.

Instead, Kenseth pulled ahead from the outside lane after a restart on Lap 205 and took the checkered flag on the sixth lap of overtime. Kyle Busch won a drag race to the finish line to take the runner-up spot from Larson, who held third.

Ryan Blaney and rookie Chris Buescher completed the top five.

Kenseth won for Joe Gibbs Racing in the final outing with the company for crew chief Kevin Kidd, who moves to Roush Fenway Racing next year as director of competition in the Sprint Cup Series.

“It’s been a long time since I won a race in anything, so just happy for Kevin,” Kenseth said. “Happy to send him off with a win here. That was pretty cool. Kyle got around me on that second-to-last restart, but when he chose the bottom there, and I had Kyle (Busch) behind me, I knew we had a shot.

“I just had to do a better job than I did the time before, so luckily, we got that one last chance to redeem ourselves.”

Larson, who led 111 laps, spun his tires slightly on the final restart, allowing Kenseth to take the advantage.

“I had good restarts up there until the last 50 laps or so,” Larson said. “Then I finally got a good one underneath Matt (on Lap 199) and was able to get to the lead… I was about 15 feet short of the win. Then we got the yellow, and I thought the 12 (Blaney) had been getting really good restarts, so I wanted to start in front of him (in the bottom lane).

“Spun my tires a little bit, and the 20 (Kenseth) was hanging there. I was side-drafting down the frontstretch, and he was able to swerve at me and get me shaken off him. That spun my tires into (Turn) 1, and got me sideways. I was three-wide there, and that was all the 20 needed to win.”

Penske won the owner’s championship with five different drivers taking turns in the No. 22 Ford: Keselowski, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Michael McDowell and Alex Tagliani. The championship was the fourth for Penske in the last five years (2010 Nationwide driver’s title with Keselowski, 2012 Sprint Cup title with Keselowski and back-to-back NNS owner’s championships).

“Everyone did so much to make this happen, and obviously it didn’t come down until the last lap there until we knew we had it,” Penske said. “Two years in a row, I think we had four championships here over the last few years, and that’s really important to us as we go forward.”

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Becomes first driver to win back-to-back titles in Camping World Truck Series

RELATED: Wallace Jr. wins Ford EcoBoost 200

HOMESTEAD, Fla. – After becoming the first driver to ever win consecutive NASCAR Camping World Truck Series titles, Matt Crafton could talk about making history.

"Definitely an awesome feeling," Crafton said, after joining Ron Hornaday Jr., Todd Bodine and Jack Sprague as the only drivers to win the NCWTS crown more than once. "To be on the list with those guys is unreal. To say that I’ve done it back-to-back and no one has done that, it’s such a good, good feeling."

But Crafton, sitting between crew chief (Carl) Junior Joiner and ThorSport Racing General Manager David Pepper, wasn’t about to take all the credit.

"To say I made history is definitely very, very cool. But it’s all about the guys that are behind me. Without them, I’m just an average race car driver at best."

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Completing his 14th full season, Crafton, 38, has run his entire NCWTS career for Sandusky, Ohio-based ThorSport and owners Duke and Rhonda Thorson.

"The very first time I sat down with Duke at the end of 2000 he told me going to run this like a business," Crafton recalled. "He said: ‘We’re going to make it better and better each year but I’m not going to outspend myself or go away in two or three years. I’m going to be an owner who will be around for the long haul. If you want to stick it out with me, we’ll win races and win championships.’ "

Stick it out, Crafton did. He didn’t win a race until 2008, finished no higher than fifth in the point standings until 2009 and didn’t win two races in a season until this year when he triumphed at Martinsville and Texas.

"That’s what makes it so much sweeter to be where we are today," Crafton said. "We didn’t have all the resources and all the tools that we have today. I’d say (Duke) has been a man of his word – as has Rhonda – since the day I met him."

Crafton said that after winning his first title a year ago, he promised Joiner the team would lead more laps and win more races in 2014.

"We led more laps and won two races," he said. "We had the capability to win more if we didn’t have bad luck in the middle part of the season. It’s a damn shame, because I feel we should have won at least five races, without a doubt."

But Crafton is hardly complaining.

"I think I’m the luckiest man on earth," he said. "I’m getting paid to do what I love. I’m getting paid to drive a race car."

Crafton entered Friday’s Ford EcoBoost 200 with a relatively comfortable 25-point lead on Ryan Blaney. He knew that a finish of 21st or better in the 36-truck field would get the job done.

He finished ninth, good enough to finish 21 points ahead of Blaney, who persevered for a fifth-place finish despite finishing the race with vise-grips replacing his broken shifter.

He also raced cautiously throughout the first half of the race, maintaining a low line to keep a safe distance from the wall while maintaining his spot within the top 10.

Any hope Blaney had virtually disintegrated during the fourth caution period of the race. The 20-year-old, who had been running second for much of the early going, suffered that shifter problem and dropped all the way to 15th on the restart.

"That was one of the worst trucks we’ve had all year," Blaney said. "I can’t believe we (managed to) finish fifth. That was tough."

Kyle Larson led 96 of the first 100 laps and ended up chasing Kyle Busch Motorsports driver Darrell Wallace Jr. to the finish line in the closing laps. Wallace, driving the No. 54 Tundra, was thrilled to finally "beat the boss."

Kyle Busch Motorsports captured its third NCWTS owner’s championship in five seasons (second consecutively). Erik Jones made 12 starts and Busch drove 10 races in the No. 51 Toyota Tundra, which edged ThorSport and Crafton for the owner’s title by 24 points.

"It’s a great milestone for us," said Busch, who is ineligible to race for the driver’s championship because he is a full-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competitor. "It’s what we can race for. We’ve had a lot of people come to KBM to work who have stayed a long time. Some move on to other things. That’s really what the Truck Series is all about: a proving ground and a growing series."

Wallace’s victory gave KBM 14 wins for the season and provided Toyota with 18 triumphs, tying Chevrolet’s 2010 mark for most wins in a single season.

Ben Kennedy was named NCWTS Sunoco Rookie of the Year, despite settling for 17th in his No. 31 Chevrolet.

"We weren’t really all that great tonight," Kennedy said, "but it pays off for the whole season we put together. It’s a testament to this team and how hard the guys at Turner Scott Motorsports worked. When we were on, we were really on – up there with the top dogs. When we were off, we struggled a little bit, but we worked hard and we worked together to make the most out of each position and each lap."

Kennedy held off Tyler Reddick (sixth in his No. 19 Ford on Friday) for the Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors, based in part on each team’s 14 best finishes of the season.

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