Posted on by Terrin Waack

AVONDALE, Ariz. — John Hunter Nemechek’s chances of winning the 2021 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series title went from likely to unlikely in less than a mile.

On the first lap of Friday’s season finale at Phoenix Raceway, the No. 4 KBM Motorsports Toyota scraped the outside wall of the 1-mile track in Arizona, sustaining damage to the left side of the truck and eventually a flat tire. Nemechek fired off 16th and dropped to 30th. When the checkered flag waved 149 laps later, Nemechek had managed to make it back up to seventh, ultimately finishing third out of the Championship 4 drivers.

2021 Jhn Dg
Dontre Graves | NASCAR Digital Media

“It’s more frustrating knowing that we were so fast and nothing to show for it, right?” Nemechek said. “I definitely thought we were one of the best playoff trucks, if not the best playoff truck.”

RELATED: Race results | Ben Rhodes wins 2021 title

Chandler Smith, who was eliminated from the playoff battle after the Round of 8, was the Lucas Oil 150 race winner.

Ben Rhodes won the 2021 title with his third-place showing. Zane Smith came in fifth to end up second in the final standings for the second straight season. Matt Crafton was then 12th to round out the finalists’ results.

Rhodes’s No. 99 ThorSport Racing Toyota took the Championship 4 lead with eight laps remaining in the 150-lap event, nudging the left-rear bumper of Smith’s No. 21 GMS Racing Chevrolet to make a pass on the inside. Smith expressed no hard feelings toward the move, only toward falling short for the second year in a row, especially since he doesn’t have a ride lined up for 2022.

2021 Zs Dg
Dontre Graves | NASCAR Digital Media

“Definitely sucks,” Smith said. “I mean, the championship would have probably fixed a whole lot of things, but I don’t know. I guess I need to be better and figure out what I need to do better in those situations, which I really don’t know. Like if I was to go to sleep tonight, I don’t know what else I could have done different.”

Crafton, who is much more of a veteran, had a piece of advice.

“You keep your head up,” Crafton said. “Nemechek has a long career. Zane will, too. I mean, he’ll land on his feet. He’s got a lot of speed, he won races and done well, and he finished second two years in a row. He has nothing to hang his head on. I mean, it’s easy to get yourself down. But at the end of the day, he was here fighting for a championship, that’s a whole hell of a lot better than fifth on back in points.”

A three-time champion, Crafton has been competing full time since 2001. Rhodes has six seasons under his belt. This was Nemechek’s first full-time schedule since 2017 and Smith’s second overall.

2021 Mc Dg
Dontre Graves | NASCAR Digital Media

Crafton’s No. 88 ThorSport Racing Toyota never made it to Victory Lane this year. Smith won one race – actually Martinsville Speedway last week to launch himself from below the elimination line and into the Championship 4. Rhodes had two wins – the first two races at Daytona International Speedway. Nemechek, meanwhile, boasted a series-high five.

“I’ve gotten asked the question of, is this year a failure if we didn’t win the championship?” Nemechek said. “Now that I’m there, no, it wasn’t a failure.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

AVONDALE, Ariz. — A bantamweight boxer in the training room, Ben Rhodes punched like a heavyweight on Friday at Phoenix Raceway.

On Lap 142 of 150 in the Lucas Oil 150 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship race, Rhodes tapped the tailgate of Zane Smith’s Chevrolet with the nose of his No. 99 ThorSport Racing Toyota, nudged Smith up the track in Turn 2 and made the pass that secured his first title.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos from Phoenix championship weekend

At the time, the pass was for fourth place — as Chandler Smith was running away to victory in a No. 18 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota that featured superb long-run speed.

Rhodes, who uses boxing as the favorite part of his training regimen, eventually passed Sheldon Creed for third and held that spot to the finish, but he crossed the stripe ahead of the other three championship contenders — Smith in fifth, John Hunter Nemechek in seventh and Matt Crafton in 12th.

“That was the hardest last 40 laps I think I have ever driven in my life,” said Rhodes, who won the first two races of the season and none since. “I was doing things to the race car I probably shouldn’t have been doing. It was dumb, but I had everything to lose.

“And we brought it home and won it. I don’t even know what to say. This is crazy. Bookends for the season—I’m so proud of my ThorSport Racing group. This wasn’t like a vision we had, right, everyone wants to win it, but you just don’t know, it’s so hard. I just can’t thank (owners) Duke and Rhonda (Thorson) enough. They are the reason I’m here tonight.

“I can’t even talk right now, I’m so excited.”

Rhodes’ title was the fourth driver’s championship for ThorSport Racing, with Crafton having won the first three in 2013, 2014 and 2,019. It was the first owner’s title for ThorSport.

Entering the race as the favorite, Nemechek never had a chance. After a disappointing 16th-place qualifying effort, he scraped the wall in Turn 1 on the opening lap and got clipped on the left front by the No. 02 Chevrolet of Kris Wright.

Six laps later, Nemechek limped to pit road with a flat left-front tire, lost two laps during the unscheduled stop and spent the first two stages fighting to regain the lead lap.

Though Nemechek recovered the second of his lost laps as the highest-scored lapped truck under caution for Tate Fogleman’s stalled truck on Lap 101, he could drive up only to seventh before the finish.

“Yeah, I got run in to the first corner, got into the fence, somebody else ran in to us on the left side and this thing is killed pretty much,” Nemechek said. “Had a left front tire go flat, went down two laps, got both of our laps back, but just needed more laps, I guess. After all, felt we had the best truck tonight, playoff-wise for sure.”

RELATED: John Hunter Nemechek frustrated with outcome at Phoenix

Zane Smith passed Rhodes for third place on Lap 110, five laps after the final restart. Though Chandler Smith got past both trucks during the final 45-lap run, Zane Smith held the championship position for 32 laps as Rhodes pursued and finally made the title pass.

“We were eight laps away from winning a championship,” said Zane Smith, who has not secured a ride for next season. “I tried to use all my tools from my side of the thing, but I just couldn’t turn. We fought that all night.”

Chandler Smith swept the first two stages and won for the second time in his career after taking the checkered flag at Bristol in September. In the process he clinched the Sunoco Rookie of the Year title.

Stewart Friesen took second place, crossing the finish line 4.694 seconds behind the race winner. Creed ran fourth behind the new champion, followed by Zane Smith, Christian Eckes, Nemechek, Todd Gilliland, Carson Hocevar and Austin Hill.

Note: There were no issues in post-race inspection. NASCAR torn down the engines of the No. 18 of Chandler Smith (race winner) and the No. 99 of Ben Rhodes (champion) on Saturday and there were no issues. The No. 16 of Austin Hill and No. 26 of Tyler Ankrum each had one lug nut not safe and secure.

Posted on by Staff Report

Ben Rhodes sealed the deal Friday night at Phoenix Raceway, winning the 2021 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship in his first-ever appearance in the Championship 4. After six full-time seasons in the Truck Series, the 24-year-old ThorSport Racing driver has a truck title to celebrate.

The Championship 4 battle came down to the final laps. Zane Smith appeared to be in championship-winning position, but with eight laps remaining, Rhodes found enough speed in his No. 99 ThorSport Racing Ford to pass Smith, nudging the back bumper of the No. 21 GMS Racing Chevrolet in Turn 2 to get by him.

Rhodes finished the race in third. Smith finished fifth and second in the championship standings.

RELATED: Official results | SHOP: NASCAR gear, champion merchandise

“I thought it was gone,” Rhodes said during the trophy presentation. “When the 21 (Smith) drove past me, I thought it was all over. He just kept driving away further and further and further. The end of the race, when everybody started wearing their stuff out, I didn’t think I had anything left. I was sideways every corner. But we had just enough, just enough.

“… This sounds weird, but this felt special from the time I got here, but I didn’t want to ruin it,” he added. “I didn’t want to say anything, I didn’t want to do anything out of context, I just wanted to stay 100% focused.”

Another Championship 4 driver, John Hunter Nemechek, had his title chances quickly evaporate at the start of the race. A left-front tire went down on his No. 4 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota after the start of the race as a result of some contact with another truck. Nemechek lost two laps after pitting to change tires. He earned both laps back and recovered for a seventh-place finish to finish third in the championship standings.

The final Championship 4 driver, Matt Crafton, fought an ill-handling No. 88 ThorSport Racing Ford throughout the night. Crafton finished 12th and took the fourth spot in the final playoff rankings.

RELATED: Chandler Smith wins race | Nemechek, Crafton, Zane Smith reflect on seasons

Rhodes opened the season with a statement, winning back-to-back races at Daytona International Speedway and the track’s road course layout. Those proved to be his only two wins throughout the remainder of the regular season, but his consistency radiated throughout the year with seven top-five finishes, 15 top 10s and a trio of runner-up finishes this season heading into Phoenix.

The Phoenix finale caps off a career year for Rhodes in the Truck Series, including his first multi-win season, but he’s no stranger to success behind the wheel.

Before landing at the top of the Truck Series standings, Rhodes burst onto the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East (now ARCA Menards East) scene with a stellar 2014 campaign. At 17 years old, Rhodes scored five wins, 11 top fives, 13 top 10s and six pole awards in 16 races. He had just five finishes outside the top four all season, resulting in a series championship. That same year, Rhodes ran four races in the Truck Series and brought home three top-10 results.

That early success landed Rhodes a part-time ride in the Xfinity Series, driving 10 races for JR Motorsports in 2015. One year later, he earned into a full-time role in the Truck Series behind the wheel for ThorSport and hasn’t looked back since. Rhodes joins veteran Matt Crafton (2013, 2014, 2019) on the list of championship drivers for ThorSport.

“I wouldn’t even be here today if it wasn’t for Duke and Rhonda (Thorson, ThorSport team owners),” Rhodes said. “They gave me my opportunity in this sport. They were my very first full-time national team that I raced for and I’ve been with them ever since. They’re so amazing and I can’t even begin to thank them enough. This has just been a ride of a lifetime. I hope it’s not over. I want to keep going now. This is amazing.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

AVONDALE, Ariz. – NASCAR President Steve Phelps stuck to his guns.

In his first state-of-the-sport press conference after taking office in 2018, Phelps acknowledged that NASCAR racing faced significant headwinds but proclaimed, “I do believe as we head into 2019 that our best days are ahead.”

The 2021 season has given Phelps no reason to retract that statement, and the promise of 2022, with the introduction of the Next Gen car for the NASCAR Cup Series, only serves to enhance the optimism. 

RELATED: Learn all about the Next Gen car hitting the track in 2022

“The first time I had the opportunity to do this was in 2018 in Miami,” Phelps said Friday at Phoenix Raceway during his fourth end-of-season session with reporters. “At that particular point, the sport was going through some challenges, some headwinds, right? Those were real. I think we felt that.

“I remember using the phrase that our best days are ahead. I’m not sure everyone in this room or folks around the country, (or the) world, believed that to be true. I did. I think the results that we have seen are more than encouraging. I’m very proud of them, right? 

“It really took an industry coming together in order to make that happen. It took race teams, our broadcast partners, our sponsors, tracks that we own or tracks that we don’t own, that all came together to create an opportunity for our sport to grow, which is exactly what’s happening.”

Emblematic of that growth is the continuity of NASCAR’s presence on television, a reflection of the sanctioning body’s agility in completing a full 36-race 2020 NASCAR Cup Series schedule despite the complications of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We are the most stable sport on television since 2018,” Phelps asserted. “No other sport—none—can match what NASCAR has done from a stability standpoint with our ratings. If you consider our share numbers since 2019 in our Cup Series, it’s up 18 percent, which is hard to do at this point. It’s just hard.

“Then you look at our ratings for Xfinity and our Camping World Truck Series, they’re up double-digits. The share in both of those series is up 25 percent to 30 percent. We are having a moment as a sport. It’s important that we keep it going, which is exactly what we’re going to do.”

Growth in attendance, fueled by imaginative scheduling, has paralleled the increase in television share. Phelps said every NASCAR-owned track, with the exception of Darlington, showed an increase in per-event attendance over 2019—and Darlington added a race in 2021.

Notable, too, were road course additions to the schedule at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas, and Road America in Elkhart Lake Wisconsin. 

“I think the schedule variation is critical for the success of this sport,” Phelps said. “I think you saw really strong results from schedule variation, whether you’re talking about COTA, you’re talking about Road America, you’re talking about even format changes like Bristol Dirt, which might as well have been a new venue.

“Ben Kennedy (senior vice president of strategy and innovation) and the team put together the most aggressive schedule we’ve had in 50 years. I think it worked. Attendance was fantastic at all the new venues. The racing was good at all the new venues.

“As we look to the schedule in 2022, going to the L.A. Coliseum to kick off our debut with our Next Gen car as a proof point, frankly, to we’re going to be bold in what we’re doing, whether it’s the schedule or the car—all of it—we’re going to take calculated risks.”

RELATED: Start times set for the 2022 schedule | Season-opening Clash to head to Los Angeles

Though NASCAR is still addressing steering and heating issues with the Next Gen car in advance of its debut in the Feb. 6 Clash at the Coliseum, the car is on course for its inaugural race. Currently, there are no problems with the supply chain for the components.

“What I would say is that this car has been tested, run, (with) more collaboration than any other new car in the history of this sport,” Phelps said. “Not even close. The Gen-6 car that came out, we ran a test in January before we raced it at Bristol for the first time.

“I am confident, and we check all the time on supply chain issues. As of now, there are no issues. We’ll continue to monitor that because it’s important. If you’ve got 30 major components to the car, (and) you only have 29 of them, you have a problem. Until the car is on the race track, we’ll continue to give it all the attention that it deserves, which is a lot.

“With respect to issues with the car that we’re working through, right now it’s really down to two things that we see, which is steering, which you guys have talked about, and getting that right. The other is the heat in the car. We’ve got some solves for that that the drivers I believe are feeling more satisfied with.”

Phelps also indicated that NASCAR is having conversations with new manufacturers about entering the sport. One prevalent rumor has Dodge returning to competition.

“There are some discussions that are going on with other OEMs, new OEMs, that would come into the sport,” Phelps acknowledged. “Our three existing OEMs are happy about that. Our race teams are happy about that. We’re happy about that. It’s been widely rumored that Dodge is one of those or closest. I won’t confirm or deny that.

“It is important. We’ve made no bones about the fact that we want to have a new OEM in our sport. I think we got delayed with the pandemic. With that said, we are an attractive place, I believe, for OEMs to come into the sport. Now is an important opportunity for them to do that because of the Next Gen car.

“I also believe the fact that the sport is growing and has a relevance that it hasn’t had in decades is causing some real interest from other OEMs.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Brad Keselowski topped the speed charts in the lone NASCAR Cup Series practice at Phoenix Raceway in his final weekend driving for Team Penske in the No. 2 Ford. Keselowski posted a fast lap of 135.384 mph in the session, a week after being eliminated from playoff contention in the Round of 8 finale at Martinsville Speedway.

Kyle Larson led the way among the Championship 4 drivers as he came in second in the session in his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet with a fast lap of 135.293 mph. As for the rest of the Championship 4: Chase Elliott was fifth (135.019 mph) in his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, Denny Hamlin was eighth (134.118 mph) in his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and Martin Truex Jr. was 18th-fastest (133.427 mph).

RELATED: Full practice results | Schedule for Phoenix Championship weekend

Of note, Truex was the lowest-ranked of the four Championship 4 drivers and of the Joe Gibbs Racing stable. Elliott ran the most laps in practice among this foursome with 50 laps, then Larson at 46, Hamlin at 43 and Truex at 32.

Matt DiBenedetto came in third in his final weekend in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford (135.11 mph) while Christopher Bell placed fourth in his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota (135.084 mph).

A caution came out in the opening minutes for fluid coming out from underneath the No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Ford of BJ McLeod.

Friday’s 50-minute practice session was the lone practice time this weekend for the Cup Series field and the first practice time since the mid-August race weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course.

Qualifying will take place on Saturday night at 7 p.m. ET on CNBC/NBC Sports App to set the lineup for Sunday’s championship race (3 p.m. ET on NBC/NBC Sports App/Peacock, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on by Marcus DiNitto

Of course Kyle Larson is the betting favorite heading into Phoenix Raceway for Sunday’s Cup Series championship. But odds shorter than 2-to-1 is rare territory in NASCAR outright markets, and a price at which it’s difficult to find value.

The favorite has opened at less than +200 at the market-making SuperBook USA exactly three times this Cup season — Chase Elliott twice on road courses and Larson in July at Atlanta Motor Speedway, where he failed to deliver for bettors, finishing 18th in the midst of a ridiculous run of success similar to the one he’s on now.

RELATED: Bet Center | Odds from BetMGM

“You have to make Larson a strong favorite. I don’t think there’s any way around it, and that’s kind of been the case for the latter half of the season,” sharp bettor Blake Phillips told NASCAR.com this week. “Does that mean he’s a lock to win? Absolutely not. …

“I just don’t think you can make him 2-to-1. I don’t think he’s that strong, especially at Phoenix.”

Here are the odds from four sportsbooks — the SuperBook, plus three NASCAR sponsors — to win Sunday’s race, followed by odds to win the 2021 title.

ODDS TO WIN SUNDAY’S RACE

Driver SuperBook BetMGM Barstool WynnBET
Kyle Larson +160 +175 +190 +175
Chase Elliott +350 +350 +350 +350
Denny Hamlin +400 +400 +450 +425
Martin Truex Jr. +500 +450 +500 +500
William Byron +2500 +1800 +1800 +1800
Kyle Busch +2500 +1600 +1800 +1800
Brad Keselowski +3000 +2000 +2200 +2000
Joey Logano +3000 +2000 +2200 +2200
Ryan Blaney +3000 +2000 +2500 +2200
Kevin Harvick +4000 +2500 +2500 +2500
Alex Bowman +3000 +2500 +3000 +3000
Christopher Bell +4000 +4000 +4000 +4000
Kurt Busch +10000 +5000 +6000 +6600

ODDS TO WIN 2021 TITLE

Driver SuperBook BetMGM Barstool WynnBET
Kyle Larson +150 +140 +165 +165
Chase Elliott +300 +275 +255 +250
Denny Hamlin +350 +350 +300 +300
Martin Truex Jr. +400 +450 +365 +425

While two of Larson’s nine wins this season have come on ovals that employ the 750-horsepower, low-downforce package, he hasn’t finished in the top five in any of the four races at Phoenix and its two most comparable tracks — the short, flat layouts of Richmond and Loudon. He’s led just nine total laps during those four races.

Speed is speed, however, and the No. 5 has been the quickest car from the best garage week in and week out this season.

“Hendrick has (had) the fastest cars at almost all the races all year long, so I find it hard to believe they’re not going to be the fastest cars again,” said Ed Salmons, vice president of risk management at the SuperBook.

Elliott, though, has been less than spectacular on 750-hp tracks in the second half of the season. While Larson’s Hendrick teammate has a solid Phoenix history, claiming last year’s title here, some handicappers are not expecting a repeat.

“The driver I have the lowest hopes for is Chase Elliott, which sounds strange,” Phillips said. “Elliot has some great finishes at Phoenix, but going into this weekend, he’s the driver that I have the least expectation for. “

Onto Gibbs …

We hope you heeded advice we relayed to you back in July to consider a Truex futures wager at odds ranging from 9/1 to 10/1. We feel good about having that ticket in our pocket with the No. 19 in the championship mix at fewer than half of those prices.

Jim Sannes, the purveyor of that advice, said he’s considering hedging his Truex futures bet with a play this weekend on Hamlin +450, a price offered at FanDuel.

“Problem is my simulations show only the tiniest amount of value there (18.3% versus 18.2% implied),” Sannes, a quantitative NASCAR betting and fantasy analyst at numbersFire, said this week in a direct message. “So … I’m likely holding off until after practice Friday to see if anything opens up. I’d be more open to betting Hamlin at a very short number if he’s fast there.”

Truex is the longest shot remaining in the Championship 4, but he won in March at Phoenix and in September at Richmond. His other two wins this season have also come on 750-hp tracks — Martinsville and Darlington.

Phillips said he jumped aboard the Truex futures train mid-season as well, with bets riding into Sunday at 9/1 and better, a position he’s obviously liking. Oddsmakers, in fact, have Truex mispriced for Phoenix, the bettor believes.

“If you look at the odds for the Championship 4, Truex is more of a long shot than Elliott. I think that’s one where it’s slightly flipped,” Phillips said.

Stealing Their Thunder?

Since the 2014 implementation of the current format — whereby the top finisher among the Championship 4 in the final race is crowned champ — the last race has been won by a title contender all seven times. Guys not named Larson, Elliott, Hamlin or Truex are not given much of a chance Sunday, as the oddsboard attests.

We discussed that thinking last week, though, and Alex Bowman went on to cash tickets at long odds.

That result may tempt bettors into playing a long shot to win Sunday, but if there’s a driver outside of the Championship 4 you like, consider the different NASCAR markets sportsbooks offer.

“I’m looking hard at Christopher Bell, just likely not for an outright due to the championship contenders.” Sannes said. “He grades out really, really well by my numbers because of what he has done on the short, flat tracks.”

Bell is offered at +1000 at Barstool for a top-three finish, odds that justify a play, per Sannes’ model.

As for an outright bet on a non-contender, it’s probably best to steer clear.

“The thing I learned about the last race is you can almost take every driver not in the four and just make them 100-to-1, because they have no chance,” Salmons said. “Last year in Phoenix, I posted (Kevin Harvick) at 25-to-1, and people were betting him like they were stealing. He just hung around in fifth to seventh all day and stayed away.”

Marcus DiNitto is Senior News Editor at Gaming Today and has been covering sports business for more than 20 years and sports betting for about 10. NASCAR is among the many sports he bets — and typically loses — on. Follow him on Twitter; do not bet his picks.

Posted on by Staff Report

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 18 Toyota for Saturday’s Xfinity Series championship was a late arrival Friday at Phoenix Raceway, riding into the garage on an alternate hauler after the team’s primary transporter broke down in Texas.

RELATED: Phoenix weekend schedule

The team quickly unloaded the primary car that Daniel Hemric will drive in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series season finale (8:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The team began its preparations shortly after its approximately 5:30 p.m. ET arrival. That prep included an initial technical inspection by NASCAR officials and the car hit the track shortly after the 6:05 p.m. ET start of the series’ lone practice.

According to a team representative, the No. 18 crew will use tools and other equipment from JGR’s ARCA Menards Series West operation. That series will hold its season finale at the 1-mile Arizona oval Saturday (3 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Gold TrackPass).

Hemric is vying for his first Xfinity Series championship, battling fellow title contenders AJ Allmendinger, Austin Cindric and Noah Gragson in Saturday’s 200-miler. He has made the Championship 4 field in each of his three full-time Xfinity seasons.

Posted on by Chase Wilhelm

Editor’s note: This is the fourth in a series of four stories examining why each driver could win the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series championship.

Tuesday: Kyle Larson
Wednesday: Chase Elliott
Thursday: Martin Truex Jr.
Friday: Denny Hamlin

•••

Denny Hamlin will win the 2021 championship because …

It’s finally time to complete the mission.

After years of the sport’s highest honor eluding him, Hamlin has the potential to put all the pieces together at Phoenix Raceway for his first career NASCAR Cup Series championship. It’s for good reason, too.

While he hasn’t gone on a winning tear this year like he did with six victories in 2019 and seven in 2020, Hamlin has put together the most consistent season of his 17-year career so far. Accompanying his pair of victories this season, which both came in playoff races at Darlington Raceway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Hamlin is on track to earn his best season average finish. He’s currently at 8.6. That is consistency at its finest and Hamlin will finally be able to capitalize on it.

RELATED: Betting odds for Phoenix title race

The final 312 scheduled laps at Phoenix will be tough considering his competition on Sunday, though. Kyle Larson’s nine-win season proves he’ll be fast on Sunday, defending champion Chase Elliott won this race last year to earn his first title and Martin Truex Jr. won at Phoenix in the spring. Hamlin, though, also has a pair of wins at the 1-mile Arizona track, with the last coming in the fall of 2019. The No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, led by trusty crew chief Chris Gabehart, has all the tools and talent at its disposal to come out on top.

On top of the strong average finish this season and past success at Phoenix that back Hamlin up, there’s just a different energy about him this time around. A fire was lit under Hamlin after last Sunday’s race at Martinsville Speedway following his run-in with Alex Bowman. He carried that heat into Championship 4 Media Day on Thursday in downtown Phoenix, saying he’s taking all the anger and negativity and turning it into positive thoughts. That’s just the right amount of toughness and a sprinkle of crazy that make for a championship mentality.

Let’s leave you with this quote from Hamlin: “I live in chaos. My life is chaos. I thrive under chaos.”

That’s good for him because the Championship 4 season finale in the desert is always … chaotic.

RELATED: Denny Hamlin through the years

Posted on by Terrin Waack

PHOENIX — It took 31 tries for Martin Truex Jr. to win at Phoenix Raceway, and that 31st car Truex dubbed the best he has ever unloaded in the desert.

If his No. 19 Toyota is as good Sunday when the series returns to the 1-mile track in Arizona — this time with the 2021 championship on the line — Truex, who is title eligible, is confident he’ll be tough to beat yet again. Can neither confirm nor deny whether it’ll be the same car, though.

“I don’t think so, but I don’t know,” Truex said Thursday during Media Day at the Phoenix Convention Center. “I didn’t ask. I don’t ask about cars anymore because they’re always the same. They always bring their best ones and that’s the best one, it’s guaranteed.”

PHOENIX: Betting odds | Weekend schedule | Paint schemes

If not, practice (Friday) and qualifying (Saturday) are on tap before Sunday’s main event (3 p.m. ET on NBC/NBC Sports App, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). That’ll give Truex’s Joe Gibbs Racing crew the opportunity to work out any kinks. The catch: Teammate Denny Hamlin and Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson — Truex’s Championship 4 competition — will also have the same luxury, along with the rest of the 39-car field.

Even if Truex does end up with the best car, that doesn’t guarantee anything. His runner-up finishes in the 2018-19 season finales and therefore final standings are proof of that, in his mind.

“I felt like both years hurt equally bad because we had the best car and we were in position, we led most of the race in both of them, and it just didn’t play out the way we needed it to,” Truex said. “So they both stung a lot.”

The championship race was held at Homestead-Miami Speedway at the time. Truex did lead laps in both — 20 in 2018 and 103 in 2019, both out of 267. He lost the front spot with 12 laps remaining in 2018 and with 53 left in 2019.

Those shortcomings were sandwiched between a high and low of Truex’s racing portfolio. In 2017, Truex won his first and only (so far) championship. Then, in 2020, he failed to make the Championship 4. That miss ended three-year slew of title shots.

“I’m sure that was probably the most different-feeling one than ever,” Truex said. “It feels kind of like we’re getting back to normal. It’s good to be here with everybody and talking about it.

“I don’t know. I feel really confident. I’ve felt confident in the other ones, but I don’t know, this one I feel a little bit better and a little bit more relaxed.”

Truex has won four races this year — tied for the second-best mark in the overall series and in his individual career. The first was at Phoenix, leading 64 circuits and winning by 1.696 seconds. He was then victorious at Martinsville Speedway, Darlington Raceway and Richmond Raceway (playoffs).

Despite all that, BetMGM lists Truex at 9-2 odds — the lowest out of the Championship 4.

“Well, I won here in the spring and I won the championship before,” Truex said. “There are two things in my favor.”