Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

The Championship 4 is set, and the only thing left to do now is crown this year’s NASCAR Cup Series title winner.

Joey Logano, Christopher Bell, Chase Elliott and Ross Chastain are prepared to battle in the desert in the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday afternoon (3 p.m. ET, NBC, Peacock, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Prepare for title weekend with everything you need to know below:

RELATED: Weekend schedule | Cup Series standings

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

Unlike most weekends throughout the 2022 Cup schedule, teams will have a full 50-minute practice session Friday evening (8:05 p.m. ET, USA Network, NBC Sports App, MRN). The session will be open to all entries, and teams will be allowed to work on their cars in advance of qualifying.

Qualifying to set the starting lineup will take place on Saturday afternoon (3:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The Championship 4 drivers and teams will be ordered by their previous race metrics and assigned to Group A or B by the usual odd/even metric procedures. Playoff teams will be the final cars to qualify in their respective groups.

This week, Chase Elliott and Ross Chastain will be the final qualifiers in Group A. Kyle Larson, Joey Logano and Christopher Bell will qualify last in Group B. Every driver will post one timed lap during their time trial. The fastest five drivers from each group will advance to the final round of qualifying, where those 10 drivers will set one more circuit to fight for the Busch Light Pole Award. The driver who sets the quickest lap in the session will start first on Sunday.

MORE: Paint Scheme Preview | Qualifying order

PHOENIX STORY LINES

— For the first time since 2018, four different organizations are represented in the Championship 4. This is the fifth time it’s happened since the elimination format was introduced in 2014. Joey Logano represents Team Penske; Christopher Bell represents Joe Gibbs Racing; Chase Elliott represents Hendrick Motorsports; and Ross Chastain represents Trackhouse Racing.

— The average age of the 2022 Championship 4 is 29 years, 3 months, 19 days — the youngest ever.

— The top four drivers in average finish in the 2022 season are the Championship 4 drivers.

— Kyle Larson’s Homestead-Miami win locked the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team into the Championship 4 for the owners’ championship. Only twice in Cup have there been a separate owners champion and driver champion: In 1963, Joe Weatherly won the drivers’ title, and Wood Brothers won the owners’ championship; in 1954, Lee Petty won the drivers’ championship, and Herb Thomas won the owners’ championship.

— Logano (2018) and Elliott (2020) are each seeking their second career Cup title, while Bell and Chastain eye their first, respectively.

— 19 different drivers have won this year, tied for the most all time.

— Christopher Bell’s Martinsville victory was also Joe Gibbs Racing’s 200th win, making it the third organization with at least 200 wins.

— Three of the last six champions won the opening race in the Round of 8, including Joey Logano in 2018. Logano won this year’s Round of 8 opener at Las Vegas.

— Chastain advanced to the Championship 4 for the first time in his career, taking Trackhouse Racing there for the first time as well. This is Trackhouse Racing’s second season, and it locked both of its drivers into the playoffs (Chastain, Daniel Suárez).

Source: Racing Insights

GOODYEAR TIRES

Teams will have familiar tires to work with Sunday in the Arizona desert.

Goodyear returns to the 1-mile tri-oval with the same tire setup utilized in the Next Gen’s inaugural Phoenix race back in March. Since then, teams have also run these tires at Richmond, Worldwide Technology Raceway and New Hampshire. Two of this year’s Championship 4 contenders have already won with this Goodyear configuration — Joey Logano was victorious at WWT Raceway, and Christopher Bell won at New Hampshire.

“This is an important weekend for the sport as we crown our 2022 champions,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing. “In the Cup Series, we’ve had an exciting season with the introduction of the Next Gen car. As has always happened, the learning curve with a new car is steep, and teams work hard at improving their performance as the season goes on.

“We got up to speed fairly quickly at Phoenix after an organizational test at the track in January and then a race in March. Coming back with this same tire setup at four more races at three different tracks throughout the spring and summer, Cup teams have been able to remove that variable as they developed their car setups. Everyone should know what to expect from this tire setup, and that helps the teams as they prepare for Championship Weekend.”

PHOENIX HISTORY

— Phoenix Raceway opened in 1964 with hopes of becoming a western beacon of open-wheel racing and held its first race on a road-course layout. AJ Foyt won the track’s first oval race in March 1964.

— Richard Petty won the venue’s first NASCAR-sanctioned event, a Winston West Series victory in 1978.

— In 1988, three years after Buddy Jobe purchased the track from Dennis Wood, Phoenix held its first Cup Series event, won on Nov. 6 by Alan Kulwicki, who celebrated with the first “Polish Victory Lap” by driving the opposite direction around the track.

— International Speedway Corporation purchased Phoenix in 1997.

— The track was first reconfigured and repaved in 2011, widening the then-frontstretch by 10 feet while extending the backstretch dogleg by 95 feet and tightening its radius. Progressive banking was also added in Turns 1 and 2.

— The track was again reconfigured and renovated in 2018 as part of a $178 million project that saw the start/finish line move to the exit of what was previously Turn 2. Enhancements were made to provide a new pedestrian tunnel as well as upgrade the media center, Victory Lane and garage area.

— Sunday marks the 53rd race at Phoenix and third championship race, with the first coming in 2020.

Source: Racing Insights

BET IT ON THE HOUSE?

Since the elimination-style format was introduced in 2014, the season finale has been won by the champion, a streak that’s lasted eight years.

Naturally, this year’s Championship 4 are the favorites to win this year’s race at Phoenix as well. Chase Elliott enters as the preliminary favorite at 5-2 odds, according to BetMGM. Elliott, who won a series-high five races in 2022, leads the league in average finish (12.0) and drove to the 2020 championship at Phoenix. Hendrick Motorsports has won each of the two title races held at Phoenix.

Behind Elliott on the odds board is Christopher Bell at 13-4 (+325) odds. Bell is a four-time winner in the NASCAR Cup Series, but no one has been more clutch in the 2022 season than Bell. The third-year driver for JGR found himself in must-win situations to advance from the Round of 12 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course and again to advance from the Round of 8 at Martinsville Speedway and delivered both times. Factor in that he has a win on this tire package at the 1-mile New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and Bell could prove to be a wise pick.

At 4-1 odds sit Joey Logano and Ross Chastain. The duo find themselves on opposite ends of the spectrum — Logano was the earliest to lock himself into the Championship 4 thanks to his win at Vegas while Chastain needed a desperate Hail Mary in the final corners at Martinsville to propel past Denny Hamlin and advance to the championship round. Logano’s advantage is that his No. 22 team had ample time to prep for Phoenix. But Chastain has proven he’s never out of it with a series-leading 14 top-five finishes this year.

MORE: Complete list of odds for Sunday

FANTASY LIVE

Want to manage a team and race your way to the top of the leaderboards? Check out NASCAR Fantasy Live, which reset for the playoffs. The free-to-play game lets you choose your drivers each week and show off your crew-chief instincts by garaging a driver by the end of Stage 2, and there is a $10,000 prize for the playoff winner.

The 2022 Fantasy Live points leaders are Chase Elliott (1,186), Joey Logano (1,087) and Ryan Blaney (1,078).

In addition to Fantasy Live, NASCAR.com is offering the Playoffs Grid Challenge presented by Ruoff Mortgage during the playoffs.

How to play: Fantasy Live | Set up a team today!

ALSO ON NASCAR.COM

Get additional camera views by logging on to NASCAR Drive, where each week, the full field of in-car cameras will be available — as well as a battle cam and an overhead look.

NASCAR has partnered with LiveLike to add fan engagement to the NASCAR Mobile App. Log in to the mobile app during the race for polls, quizzes, the cheer meter and more — and see instant results from NASCAR fans like you.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

ThorSport Racing driver Ben Rhodes hasn’t been front-and-center lately, but runner-up finishes in each of the first two rounds of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Playoffs (at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park and Talladega Superspeedway, respectively) were enough to propel him into Friday night’s Lucas Oil 150 title event at Phoenix Raceway (10 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Accordingly, Rhodes will try to defend the championship he won with a third-place finish in last year’s title race at Phoenix. If he’s successful, Rhodes will be the second driver to win back-to-back championships in the division. Teammate Matt Crafton (2013-14) is the only driver to have accomplished the feat so far.

RELATED: Weekend schedule for Phoenix | Ranking the Championship 4 drivers

Rhodes claimed his only victory of the season on the Bristol Dirt Track in April. Teammate Ty Majeski, on the other hand, arrives at Phoenix with considerably more momentum, having won two of the last three races, at Bristol (pavement) and Homestead-Miami Speedway.

In the title race, the ThorSport Racing drivers will face off against two Smiths — Zane and Chandler (no relation).

Zane Smith will be trying to break out of the runner-up rut on Friday. He has finished second in the final Truck Series standings for two straight seasons, he enters the Phoenix race second in points, and he has collected five second-place finishes without a win in his last 11 Truck Series starts.

Both Smiths have posted three victories this season. Though he didn’t qualify for the Championship 4 last season, Chandler won the season finale at Phoenix from the pole.

“I feel like last year, the last three quarters of last year, we showed what we were going to have in store for this year,” Chandler said. “We were really good at the end of last year—started getting wins and running up front every single week and were the truck to beat almost every other week—where the year before we were hit-or-miss.

“We ended up getting our stuff together, we were more consistent, winning races and I told the guys next year we are out for blood—we’re going to go get them next year. And look, we’re sitting here talking about running for a championship, and it has just been an amazing experience.”

Posted on by Staff Report

The Championship 4 of Joey Logano, Christopher Bell, Ross Chastain and Chase Elliott will all join NASCAR Studios host Alex Weaver for a live discussion together on Thursday afternoon from Championship Media Day.

NASCAR.com will stream the conversation live from the Phoenix Convention Center at 5 p.m. ET. Tune in here or watch via the NASCAR YouTube channel.

Logano, Bell, Chastain and Elliott will battle for the NASCAR Cup Series Championship on Nov. 6 at Phoenix Raceway (3 p.m. ET, NBC, Peacock, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Logano and Elliott eye their second career Cup titles, respectively, while Bell and Chastain are in the Championship 4 for the first time.

Logano was the first to clinch his spot in the championship round thanks to an Oct. 16 win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Bell claimed his place with a second walk-off win in as many rounds, scoring the upset at Martinsville Speedway last weekend.

Chastain’s Hail Mary through Turns 3 and 4 at Martinsville rocketed him into position at the checkered flag, while Elliott found himself above the elimination line in the closing laps.

Posted on by Brandon White

A thrilling and competitive 2022 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season is in the books with veteran driver Jon McKennedy having scored his first championship.

The Chelmsford, Massachusetts, native was competing in his second full-time Tour campaign, and he managed to hold off Ron Silk, Eric Goodale and Justin Bonsignore in points while driving for a new team led by Tim Lepine.

McKennedy’s championship was one of many highlights from a year that featured one of most compelling title fights in the history of the series. Many different drivers also managed to find success across the 16-race campaign that spanned from the Northeast all the way to Florida.

Below are some of the defining figures from the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour’s 38th season of competition.

RELATED: Final NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour point standings

Jon Mckennedy celebrates after winning the Virginia Is For Racing Lovers 200 for the Whelen Modified Tour at Martinsville Speedway on October 27, 2022. (Veasey Conway/NASCAR)

1: The amount of races Jon McKennedy won during his championship season. McKennedy’s lone victory came at Claremont Motorsports Park on July 29.

3: The number of drivers who won a race for owner champion Tommy Baldwin Jr. Those drivers were Doug Coby (Riverhead Raceway, Lee USA Speedway and Langley Speedway), Jimmy Blewett (Wall Stadium Speedway) and Mike Christopher Jr. (Jennerstown Speedway).

3: The final position for veteran Eric Goodale in the Tour point standings. It was his best result across 14 full-time seasons in the series. Goodale’s previous best points finish was fifth, which came during the 2017 season.

4: The number of drivers who had a chance to win the 2022 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship ahead of the season finale at Martinsville Speedway. They were Jon McKennedy, Ron Silk, Eric Goodale and Justin Bonsignore.

Justin Bonsignore celebrates his win during the Eddie Partridge 256 at Riverhead Raceway on September 17, 2022 (Mike Lawrence/NASCAR)

4: The amount of races Justin Bonsignore won during the 2022 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season, more than any other driver this year. His victories took place at Richmond Raceway, Monadnock Speedway, Oswego Speedway and Riverhead Raceway.

4: The number of drivers who scored their first NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour victories in 2022. Mike Christopher Jr. won at Jennerstown Speedway, Kyle Soper won at Riverhead Raceway, Anthony Nocella won at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and Corey LaJoie won at Martinsville Speedway.

4: The number of poles Justin Bonsignore scored during the 2022 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season, more than any other driver. Of the races he started on pole, (Richmond Raceway, Monadnock Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Riverhead Raceway), the only one he did not win came at New Hampshire, where he placed 12th.

5: The number of drivers who recorded double-digit top 10s during the 2022 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season. That list includes the four championship contenders in Jon McKennedy (13), Ron Silk (12), Eric Goodale (11) and Justin Bonsignore (11), as well as Doug Coby (11).

5: The final position for 2022 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour rookie of the year Austin Beers in the point standings. Beers was the only Rookie of the Year candidate to compete in all 16 races on the schedule, scoring a season-best finish of third at Langley Speedway on Aug. 27.

Tommy Baldwin Racing team celebrates their NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour owner’s championship at Martinsville Speedway on October 27, 2022. (Veasey Conway/NASCAR)

6.1: The average finish owners champion Tommy Baldwin Jr.’s No. 7 Modified recorded during the 2022 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season with Doug Coby, Jimmy Blewett and Mike Christopher Jr. sharing driving duties.

7: The number of top-five finishes by Matt Hirschman in as many NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour starts in 2022. His worst finish in Tour competition came at Oswego Speedway, where he finished fifth.

7.2: The average finish champion Jon McKennedy recorded in 16 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour races this year, which ranked higher than any other driver who ran the full schedule. Ron Silk was second of the full-time competitors with a 7.3 average finish.

8: The amount of top-five finishes Ron Silk scored during the 2022 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season, which led all other drivers.

Ron Silk makes a lap around Riverhead Raceway during practice for the Eddie Partridge 256 on September 17, 2022. (Mike Lawrence/NASCAR)

9: The final position for Doug Coby in the 2022 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour point standings despite not running the full schedule. In 12 starts, Coby tallied three victories — at Riverhead Raceway, Lee USA Speedway and Langley Speedway.

9: The number of drivers who earned a pole during the 2022 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season. Justin Bonsignore led the way with four poles, while Matt Hirschman followed closely behind with three. Ron Silk and Jake Johnson each earned two poles while Doug Coby, Tyler Rypkema, Timmy Solomito, Ronnie Williams  and Jimmy Blewett all tallied one each.

11: The number of drivers who scored a victory during the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season. Justin Bonsignore led the list with four wins, followed by Doug Coby’s three victories. Nine other drivers scored one victory each, including Jon McKennedy, Eric Goodale, Craig Lutz, Matt Hirschman, Mike Christopher Jr., Kyle Soper, Jimmy Blewett, Anthony Nocella and Corey LaJoie.

Anthony Nocella reacts after winning the Whelen 100 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on July 16, 2022 (Nick Grace/NASCAR)

13: The amount of top-10 finishes champion Jon McKennedy recorded during the 2022 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season, which led all drivers.

13: The number of points that separated the four championship contenders ahead of the season finale at Martinsville Speedway.

26: The number of drivers who led at least one lap on the 2022 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season. Doug Coby led the way (573), followed by Matt Hirschman (384), Justin Bonsignore (377), Ron Silk (232), champion Jon McKennedy (229), Timmy Solomito (131), Craig Lutz (119), Corey LaJoie (110), Tyler Rypkema (108), Eric Goodale (103), Tommy Catalano (75), Andrew Krause (70), Donny Lia (44), Kyle Soper (39), Patrick Emerling (33), Mike Christopher Jr. (28), Ryan Preece (26), Jimmy Blewett (19), Kyle Bonsignore (18), Max McLaughlin (10), Chuck Hossfeld (5), Jake Johnson (5), Walter Sutcliffe Jr. (4), Anthony Nocella (4), Ryan Newman (2) and Ronnie Williams (2).

Eric Goodale poses for a photo after winning the Phoenix Communications 150 at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park on October 9, 2022 (Rachel O’Driscoll/NASCAR)

27: The number of drivers who scored at least one top-five finish during the 2022 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season.

38: The number of drivers who scored at least one top-10 finish during the 2022 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season.

67: The number of drivers who competed in at least one NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race during the 2022 season.

573: The amount of laps Doug Coby led during the 2022 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season, which ranked higher than any other driver despite Coby missing four races on the year.

Austin Beers looks on during the Toyota Bud Mod Classic 150 at Oswego Speedway on September 3, 2022. (Bryan Bennett/NASCAR)

597: The amount of points Jon McKennedy scored during the 2022 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season to claim the driver championship.

633: The amount of points Tommy Baldwin Jr. scored during the 2022 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season to claim the owners’ championship.

2,746: The amount of laps Eric Goodale completed on the 2022 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season, which ranked higher than any other driver. Rookie of the Year Austin Beers followed closely behind Goodale by completing 2,745 laps.

Posted on by Staff Report

Editor’s note: Tune in live or set your DVRs for Episode 10 tonight at 10 ET on USA Network. The previous nine episodes are currently available for streaming on Peacock.

The 10th episode of USA Network’s unscripted series “Race for the Championship” airs tonight at 10 ET, and it provides an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the field throughout the three-race Round of 8 — including the incredible finale at Martinsville Speedway that saw Ross Chastain haul the wall to clinch a spot in the Championship 4.

Chastain’s last-gasp, last-lap bout of ingenuity is among the highlights in Episode 10. Although fans may have watched his final dash to the checkered flag on replay countless times since Sunday, the “Race for the Championship” crew captures an alternate angle of Trackhouse Racing team owner Justin Marks celebrating. He’s mic’d for sound, too, when he rushes onto pit road to greet Chastain, who is bound for the Championship 4 this weekend alongside Joey Logano, Christopher Bell and Chase Elliott.

The “Race for the Championship” docuseries debuted Sept. 1 with an episode dedicated to the beginning of the NASCAR season. As the series and season have both evolved, it’s caught up to real-time now with tonight’s episode.

NBC Universal previously announced that the entire season so far of Race for the Championship will be available on Peacock starting Oct. 7. Episodes 7-10 of Race for the Championship will still debut on USA Network before being available on Peacock the next day.

So after watching tonight’s Episode 9, be sure to stream previous episodes or any you may have missed on Peacock.

—

How to find USA Network | USA Network streaming on the go

Posted on by Pat DeCola

Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of four stories examining why each Championship 4 driver could win the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series championship. For more on Chastain and the Championship 4, tune in to the “Race for the Championship” docuseries at 10 p.m. ET Thursday on USA Network or set your DVRs.

Tuesday: Joey Logano
Wednesday: Christopher Bell
Thursday: Ross Chastain
Friday: Chase Elliott

• • •

Ross Chastain will win the 2022 championship because …

… if there were such a thing as a mojo meter, the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing driver would be off the charts.

Chastain’s Martinsville move-heard-round-the-world electrified the sports social sphere this week, with the viral clip of his “video-game move” seemingly on every inch of the internet and beyond — even landing at No. 1 on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” top plays list. Being the guy that everybody is talking about; the guy that just locked himself into the championship race in the most remarkable way possible? (Not to mention the guy whose dang team owner is Pitbull?)

Yeah. Everybody wants to be that guy.

RELATED: Odds to win 2022 championship

I’m honestly not sure there was a soul outside the Trackhouse Racing shop that saw a Ross Chastain Championship 4 appearance as even a possibility in February when the season started. And that’s not intended to be a knock on him or them; this run to a title shot — much like his move at Martinsville — just quite simply hadn’t been done before.

There’s hesitation to call them underdogs right now because Chastain and Co. at this point are anything but at this juncture, but here are some facts. The organization itself is only in its second year of existence, and this is the first season for Chastain’s No. 1 team. He’d started 115 Cup races before 2022, finishing in the top 10 in just nine of them, with a best standings finish of 20th last year.

The 2021 season was a foundation-building, inaugural campaign for Trackhouse with driver Daniel Suárez. While he had some bright spots, he ultimately finished below Chastain — running with Chip Ganassi Racing at the time — in the standings in 25th. Justin Marks and Pitbull then outright purchased CGR’s assets, signed Chastain and set themselves up for a two-car operation this season. Sure, you could expect them to build on Year 1 and maybe get one of the drivers into a crowded playoff field.

Instead?

Both claimed their first career Cup victories and the automatic playoff berths that come along with them. They both proved to be legitimate championship contenders, and the No. 1 driver has set the racing world ablaze all season long with a style of racing that perhaps we’ve never seen before — and it’s working.

MARKS: Trackhouse owner on Chastain’s ‘absolutely lethal’ potential

2022 March27 Ross Chastain 2 Main Image
Jennifer Fisher | NASCAR Digital Media

Chastain laid claim to a series-best 14 top fives this season, tying fellow Championship 4 competitor Chase Elliott with the series lead for top 10s (20). His average finish of 13.5 is second-best in the series, and honestly, considering his aggressive tendencies have taken him out while racing at the front of the field on occasion, that number theoretically could’ve been even better.

The Florida native’s finished fourth or better in four of the last five playoff races, has the most top 10s and best average finish (10.56) in the playoffs and was runner-up at Phoenix in the spring. He ranks as the best restarter in the series in 2022, and his team on pit road ranks first on average four-tire pitstop time.

There’s just absolutely nothing to not like about his potential to win this race and the championship — unless you still believe retribution could still be coming his way from one of his many run-ins throughout the season, which feels less likely to happen at this point.

Trackhouse Racing has yet to make a single misstep since its debut in the sport, and in a lot of ways, this really does feel like theirs and Chastain’s championship to lose.

And it’s hard to see them doing so.

MORE: Fewest starts before first Cup championship


Posted on by Staff Report

Richard Childress Racing driver Tyler Reddick announced Wednesday that he has been cleared to race this weekend at Phoenix Raceway for the season’s final race.

Reddick underwent evaluations this week following his early departure from Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway.

Reddick pulled his No. 8 Chevrolet to the garage area after voicing concerns over the radio that he was feeling unwell.

RELATED: Official results | At-track photos

Upon exiting the car at Martinsville Speedway, Reddick was taken to the infield care center, where he was later evaluated and released. He later said he was involved in an on-track stack-up of cars that led to him exiting Sunday’s race early.

Sunday will be Reddick’s final race in the No. 8 Chevrolet. The 26-year-old will drive the No. 45 Toyota for 23XI Racing beginning next season.

Posted on by Dustin Albino

From the ripe young age of 8, Luke Lambert knew what his future held: Racing.

This weekend, his destiny could be fulfilled, serving as crew chief for Noah Gragson and the No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet as the duo battles for the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship at Phoenix Raceway Saturday ( 6 p.m. ET, USA Network, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM).

RELATED: Full Phoenix schedule | Xfinity standings

Between 8-year-old Luke and this weekend in Phoenix, it’s been quite the journey:

Lambert, who raced when he was younger, graduated from North Carolina State University in 2005 with a mechanical engineering background, and he competed on the school’s Formula SAE team.

Lambert landed a job as an engineer out of college at Richard Childress Racing. After six years of working with RCR, he replaced Todd Berrier as Jeff Burton’s crew chief midway through the 2011 season.

The following year, he became the full-time crew chief for Elliott Sadler in his final year at RCR in the Xfinity Series. Lambert returned to crew chief Burton in 2013 in his final Cup campaign at RCR. Once Ryan Newman came over in 2014, Lambert led the way for the No. 31 team for the next five years — picking up his lone Cup win in 2017 at Phoenix  — and stayed with Daniel Hemric in 2019.

“The Cup Series is tough,” Lambert said. “It’s a challenging series. You have all the best guys in it and it’s a grind.”

For the last two years, Lambert moved over to Roush Fenway Racing to work with Chris Buescher. But when the team rebranded to RFK Racing, Lambert had some soul searching to do. He wanted to compete for championships.

Last December, he met Noah Gragson for the first time for lunch at Field of Greens in Mooresville, North Carolina. Instantly, there was chemistry, though Gragson said he had no say in who would be his next crew chief at JRM, with Dave Elenz leaving for Petty GMS Motorsports in the Cup Series.

Gragson was nervous about a future without Elenz.

“I just saw a lot of the things that Noah, JRM and Dave had done together and saw a continuous progression of improvement and potential every week,” Lambert said. “I felt like the work wasn’t done with where he was heading and he’s continuing to put that work in.”

The duo had success right out of the gates in 2022, though Gragson didn’t find Victory Lane until the fourth race of the season at Phoenix. Those first four races all resulted in podium finishes.

“Have you ever met someone and be like, ‘Damn, how did we not know each other?’” Gragson said of their early success. “Like in ‘Step Brothers,’ doing the same thing, building bunk beds and stuff, that’s how I see Luke and I. ‘Did we just become best friends?’ It happened so quick and easy. We tried to spend time with each other, but it wasn’t forced.”

Away from the track, the pairing is arguably closer than they are at the track. When the Lamberts want a night to themselves, sometimes they’ll call on Gragson to watch their kids: Waylon, 10; Cade, 9; RubyLynn, 6.

Gragson enjoys hanging out with the children, acting as an older brother.

“They’re just cool kids,” he said. “They seem like they’re family to me.”

Gragson has taken the Lambert children to dinner and North Wilkesboro to watch a race, while also riding dirt bikes with them.

“He’s a part of our family,” Lambert said of Gragson. “It’s good for all of us and makes the working relationship that much more successful at times. We get along and have a lot of the same interests and try to enjoy whatever we end up doing.”

At the track, the No. 9 team has found camaraderie. Gragson has won a series-high eight races (he’d won five races in his first three seasons combined) and picked up 20 top-five finishes with an average finish of 8.3.

Some of the success can certainly be put on the shoulders of the addition of Lambert. Gragson has also matured throughout the season and become the championship favorite entering this weekend.

Gragson and Lambert are having such success that Lambert will make the move back to the Cup Series in 2023 to crew chief Gragson at Petty GMS. Lambert is ready to tackle the Cup Series once again.

“[Petty GMS] asked who I wanted to be the crew chief and they could give us the option,” Gragson stated. “I was like, ‘I’d like to keep this together if I can.’

“I was nervous because I didn’t want to move up to the new car with a new guy and trying to learn a new guy and new car together.”

Lambert is excited to learn a new craft in the Next Gen car. He was waiting for an opportunity similar to this, though appreciative of his one season at JRM.

“What’s important to me in my job in racing is to be with a team that is successful and to work in a situation where we have an opportunity to compete and contend for wins and championships,” he said. “The relationship that we’ve forged during this time racing together makes it more clear to me that’s where I want to continue and work towards.”

Before departing JRM, Gragson and Lambert have one mission left, winning the Xfinity Series championship. It would be the ultimate payoff for the team that’s been most dominant in the series in 2022.

“It’s certainly a lifelong goal of mine,” Lambert said. “I’ve been able to finish second in the Xfinity Series championship and I’ve been able to finish second as a crew chief in the Cup Series championship. The opportunity to close it out is something that is really important to me.”

Posted on by George Winkler

Former NFL safety and NASCAR enthusiast Bernard Pollard (@Crushboy31) got to experience the playoffs from all angles during his nine-year professional football career — from a wide-eyed rookie with the Kansas City Chiefs to a Super Bowl championship with the Baltimore Ravens. So, as NASCAR gets ready to crown champions in all three of its national series this weekend at Phoenix Raceway, we sat down with Pollard to talk about what goes through an athlete’s mind when playoff pressure reaches its peak.

The first time Pollard felt playoff pressure the year was 2006 and he was a rookie safety who played special teams. The Chiefs needed a win in the last game of the regular season against the Jacksonville Jaguars (along with some help) to get into the playoffs. Pollard’s blocked punt and touchdown helped spark Kansas City to a 35-30 win. When the celebrations stopped and the realization that his first playoffs were upon him, Pollard said things felt different:

“The regular season is the regular season. When you get to that postseason, the practices are different, the meetings are different and obviously the atmosphere at the games is different because you understand if you lose it’s over. For us, it was just so crazy. I was a rookie. I didn’t understand.”

Unfortunately for Pollard and the Chiefs their stay in the playoffs was brief as they lost in their first game, 23-8 to Peyton Manning and the eventual Super Bowl champion Indianapolis Colts.

“I thought throughout the week we had good practices, but we just didn’t match the intensity of the Indianapolis Colts. For me as a rookie, I saw the difference and what that looked like. The way that we were playing, the way that they were playing. It was just two totally different teams, two totally different energies. They went on and did some special things throughout the playoffs, and we obviously played that one game and went home. It was a true learning experience for me and definitely helped me later on in my career.”

Pollard spent two more years with the Chiefs and didn’t make the playoffs in either of those seasons, and then he went to the Houston Texans for two seasons where he put up some of his best stats, including a career-high four interceptions in 2009, but again missed out on the playoffs. That hunger to return to the playoffs was strong, and when he became an unrestricted free agent, Pollard jumped at the chance to sign with the Baltimore Ravens, a team that was loaded on defense with All-Pro players such as linebacker Ray Lewis and nose tackle Haloti Ngata.

Joining the Ravens immediately put Pollard right in the middle of some high-pressure situations, including in the biggest games of the playoffs.

“I’m sure you’ve heard it said, pressure bursts pipes. Throughout the football season, there is tremendous pressure on athletes, coaches, the training staff. When you reach the playoffs, it’s that much more intensified. It ramps up. So, for the playoffs, it’s you understanding there are still 15-minute quarters, it’s still a 60-minute game. The errors I can’t make that I made in the regular season. It’s those errors. That’s the biggest thing. You want to play perfect football, but there’s no such thing as perfect football. But you also got to remember the same pressures that are on you are on them. So, it’s about who can make less mistakes. Can’t be self-inflicted. Wanted to have as few of those as possible because the game means that much more.”

But despite their best efforts, the 2011 Ravens fell just short in Pollard’s first season with them, losing a heartbreaker to the New England Patriots in the AFC championship game, 23-20. Going home short of the goal, what was that like?

“It’s heavy because you put so much work during the offseason into your craft and so much time with teammates and in the meeting room. When you’re dealing with athletes, especially when fans are encountering athletes and when they can watch their sport together, for us athletes we see it differently. For me as a football player, I see film differently than a fan. Fans watch it from fan goggles. I’m watching it because I was paid to dissect an offense, paid to dissect a player, understand down-and-distance and situational football.

“Same thing with racing, racers they see things differently. The feel of that car. Their mindset to understand when they’re in a three-wide, when they’re between that wall and an opponent. So, for me, it weighs on me because you put that time and that effort in.

“Understanding the way we lost in the playoffs, a dropped pass, and a missed field goal. A lot of guys let their frustrations out. For Billy Cundiff, our kicker who missed, it was just one of those things. We said we’d be back there, and we weren’t going to lose like that again.”

In 2012, the Ravens didn’t have as good of a record as the 2011 squad and didn’t earn a first-round bye, but they fought their way through the playoffs from the wild-card round and were faced with a familiar foe, the Patriots, in the AFC championship game. This time the Ravens won 28-13 and Pollard’s hit on running back Stevan Ridley caused a fourth-quarter fumble that all but sealed the trip to the Super Bowl.

Now that his first Super Bowl was upon him, what was the pressure like knowing this was the biggest game he might ever play?

“When you’re playing for a championship, it is out of this world. It’s still something you’ve been doing for 17 weeks, 18 weeks with a bye. Even for race car drivers you’ve been doing it all year long, just keep doing the same thing but understanding that your mistake means that much more in this circumstance. So, getting tight makes no sense because it’s something you’ve been doing all along.”

The Ravens met their goal this time, defeating the San Francisco 49ers 34-31 to win the Super Bowl. Having been at the pinnacle of the sport, is there any advice for the drivers heading into their championship races this weekend?

“It’s crazy for me with racing, it’s not just only the drivers, they have their skillset and understanding of how to drive the vehicle, but they’re relying on the pit crew to get them in and out of pit road. They’re relying also on the (crew chief) and (spotter) from their headset to know where they’re at and their surroundings on the track. It’s kind of the same with football, but at the same time, I control my movement and my area. Racers, it’s so different, you move somewhere else, someone could be there, you go to move back down, and somebody could be there. I couldn’t imagine myself being in their shoes.

“But for these drivers that are competing and driving for that championship, I say stay true to who you are. We all understand as I talked about, the error, it’s bigger in these situations. We get that. I want the drivers to understand, don’t change. Go drive and drive your butt off. You got a skillset that nobody else has. Yes, the other drivers on the track got the same skillset but understand this means something to you. And just embrace the moment. Embrace it. Don’t panic. Don’t flinch. You keep pounding away. Because we don’t know what can happen. Nobody knows what can happen, nobody knows who’s going to win. But just go drive. And drive fast and skilled.”

MORE: Full schedule for championship weekend


Posted on by Pat DeCola

Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of four stories examining why each Championship 4 driver could win the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series championship. For more on Bell and the Championship 4, tune in to “Race for the Championship” docuseries at 10 p.m. ET Thursday on USA Network or set your DVRs.

Tuesday: Joey Logano
Wednesday: Christopher Bell
Thursday: Ross Chastain
Friday: Chase Elliott

• • •

Christopher Bell will win the 2022 championship because …

… he’s becoming the new “Closer” right before our eyes.

Sure, Kevin Harvick is still racing and should make a competitive run again next season in what could potentially be his final year, but he might as well hand the nickname — he’s got more than plenty to share, anyway — over to Bell before he eventually hangs up the fire suit.

What the No. 20 driver accomplished just in order to reach the Championship 4 was enough to hang a season on in itself, winning with his back against the wall and facing elimination twice on two different tracks that could not be more different. There’s no way this team feels like it’s playing with house money, however, and with Phoenix being essentially the same do-or-die scenario who’s to say they can’t make it three-for-three? One could even argue that his task at Phoenix, while obviously massive, is simpler because the goal is clear: finish ahead of three particular cars, not the entire field. Twice.

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Time will tell if the “clutch” gene runs deep in Bell’s DNA, but for now it sure appears it does. The Oklahoma native and sprint racing star has won all different types of races on all different types of stages, many of which were the top of the top in those respective disciplines. While it’s his first Championship 4, the spotlight doesn’t seem to faze him one way or the other — and let’s not forget he has four other title race appearances in the other two national series, taking home the Truck Series championship in 2017.

Bell’s 2022 season has been at times head-scratching, coming out of the gate with six finishes of 20th or worse through the first 10 races, with a postseason appearance anything but a guarantee as late as July. Things turned a corner with his key Loudon victory over the summer, though, and since then he’s turned in another seven top fives and two playoff victories.

The 27-year-old was adamant all season that his early hiccups were essentially all circumstantial and that his No. 20 Toyota Camry was fast enough to win races. Well, he obviously proved that to be true, but to further the point — Bell tied his fellow dirt maven Kyle Larson for the series lead in poles (four) this year, after never having won one previously. He’s also led the most laps of any Championship 4 driver in the playoffs with 311. No other contender has more than 140, and he’s the only one with two postseason wins and five top fives through the first nine races.

And we haven’t even talked about the guy on top of the box yet.

Bell’s crew chief Adam Stevens felt like a fixture in the Championship 4 during his years guiding Kyle Busch to a pair of titles, racing for the championship together five straight seasons from 2015-19 before parting ways after 2020. This could be the start of a new dynasty if this lethal pairing continues to be as formidable as it appears, and Bell might be championed as the face of Toyota from here if he wins it all.

Looking to become the first No. 20 driver to win a title for JGR since Tony Stewart’s 2005 triumph, Bell would also be the youngest — and only one under 30 — to do it for the championship organization as well. Given he’s won two of the past four races and has all the momentum in the world, the pieces are there.

Just has to close the deal.

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