AVONDALE, Ariz. — Ryan Newman was noncommittal about his racing plans for next year or whether Sunday’s season finale would mark his 725th and final NASCAR Cup Series start, saying “I hope not. I don’t know, but I hope not,” to kick off a free-wheeling media session after Saturday’s qualifying run.
Newman is rounding out his third and final full season with Roush Fenway Racing during NASCAR’s Championship Weekend at Phoenix Raceway. The team’s composition will change next year, with Brad Keselowski coming to the team as a part-owner and the driver of the flagship No. 6 Ford. Chris Buescher remains as the organization’s second driver, piloting the No. 17 Mustang.
That’s left Newman in limbo as he closes his 20th full season at the Cup Series level. Roush Fenway president Steve Newmark indicated earlier this year that Newman was under consideration for a part-time ride should funding allow.
“If it’s a winning opportunity, it doesn’t matter if it’s a part-time, full-time or one-race deal,” said Newman, who is set to start 19th in Sunday’s race. “That’s what I want to do. I want to get back in Victory Lane.”
Christian Petersen | Getty Images
If it is a final Cup Series appearance, Newman balked at calling it an official farewell. But it would mark the ending of a successful career for the 43-year-old driver, one that included 18 Cup Series wins, a Daytona 500 triumph in 2008 and 51 pole positions — a nod to his mastery of qualifying, especially early in his career.
And it would come at Phoenix, where Newman made his first Cup Series start in a one-off effort for Team Penske in 2000 and where he recorded his most recent Cup victory back in 2017 in his final year with Richard Childress Racing.
“It’s emotional, but it’s ironic at the same time because I know my first start was here 21 years ago,” Newman said. “So to come back 21 years later and have my last contracted driving start means something. Don’t know that it means much, but I’m not announcing any kind of retirement or anything like that. I really don’t have anything on paper for next year right now.”
Contract uncertainty notwithstanding, the 2021 campaign has been a rocky road for Newman on the track. He sits 28th in Cup Series points with just two top-five finishes this year, and he’s been involved in cautions in each of the last four races.
Newman was quick to dispute any assertion that his driving skills had diminished, whether that be attributed to his age or the serious injuries that he suffered in a crash in last year’s Daytona 500.
“I still feel like 100% physically,” Newman said. “… When you get my age, you don’t know if you need glasses. My vision’s great, my reaction time’s great, my physical part of it, everything is great. Everybody can talk what they want about what happened at Daytona, but in the end, we go play a game of racquetball, I can still kick your ass. All that’s there, but perception of that, I don’t know is because of what’s happened, because of my age.”
If Sunday is indeed a Phoenix bookend to his Cup Series debut, Newman says he’s intent on trying to enjoy the moment without letting any pressure — real or perceived — affect it.
“I’ve joked several times being a (Purdue) Boilermaker that pressure just blows (expletive) up,” Newman said. “That’s what it does, and it’s never usually good. Some people can perform under pressure, and it’s a tongue-in-cheek kind of pressure. In the end, you should just be out here enjoying this. We’re not talking about all the other situations that are messed up in the world, we’re talking about getting to do what we love. So I’m happy and I still enjoy doing what I’m doing, but in the end, I can’t be happy running 25th or qualifying 30th or racing for a lucky dog and finally getting it. That just doesn’t do it for me.”
Phoenix Raceway will crown a champion Sunday, with Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin all vying for the Bill France Cup. Tune in to our DoorDash pre-race show live at 12 p.m. ET on NASCAR’s Facebook and YouTube channels to get yourself ready for the race.
Alex Weaver will host the live show from Phoenix Raceway and will be joined by Mamba Smith and Kim Coon. The trio will give race fans an inside look at the race track and surrounding area as they talk to track president Julie Giese, enjoy the fan zone activities and visit a DoorDash staple called The Duce.
We’ll also hear from each of the Championship 4 four drivers and take a scenic view of Monument Hill.
Get ready for what should be an action-packed Sunday finale, kick-started by our coverage at Noon ET.
NASCAR Cup Series Championship at Phoenix Raceway
(⏰ 3 p.m. ET | 📺 NBC, TSN5 | 📻 MRN, SiriusXM)
Everything you need to know for Sunday’s season finale, the 36th points-paying NASCAR Cup Series event of the 2021 season.
1. Everything starts with Kyle Larson this weekend. The No. 5 driver’s career year has had championship written all over it nearly from the jump, and a title for the season’s best driver seems like the most fitting conclusion. Anything can happen in the Championship 4, however, and the 1B counterpart to his 1A, Denny Hamlin, might not be in the same ballpark wins-wise to Larson (nine to Hamlin’s two), but the No. 11 driver has only one fewer top 10 while owning a better average finish (8.6 to 9.3). That’s not to mention the other two competitors just happen to be the reigning champ Chase Elliott and the 2017 title winner and four-time 2021 victor, Martin Truex Jr. It’s certainly Larson’s to lose, but that is a very distinct possibility given the level of excellence across the board in the Championship 4. | Why Larson will win| Debating Larson’s chances
2. Though unable to match his teammate’s torrid pace in 2021, Elliott has been every bit as strong as in his championship season. He’s on pace to better his average finish (11.5) from a year ago (11.7), already having one more lead lap finish with one race to go, as well. Yet, with so much of the spotlight on Larson and Hamlin, it feels like he’s being slept on a bit. That’s probably in one ear and out the other for Elliott, who has shown a remarkable ability in his young career to block out the noise, put his helmet on and just grip it and rip it, regardless of what people think. The only thing that matters now for Elliott, who used some form of the word “focus” 15 times in his Championship 4 Media Day presser, is execution for he and his No. 9 team. As the defending winner of both the championship and this race, that level of precision — along with the extra sleep he’s now getting since the Atlanta Braves wrapped their World Series run — should worry the other three. | Why Elliott will win | Debating Elliott’s chances
3. Experience and seasoning count, though. Prior to this season, Elliott and Larson had combined for only one Championship 4 appearance. This marks Truex’s fifth Championship 4 berth, and he was extremely close to making it last year as well (led 129 laps at Martinsville before finishing 22nd). The No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing team still has some of the bones of the old No. 78 Furniture Row Racing team, and the championship roots run deep within that squad. That doesn’t necessarily equate to being the fastest car on Sunday, but that level of experience is absolutely something teams would very much prefer they have than do not. Truex Jr. is the definition of steady veteran and it’s no accident he continues to be on that stage being introduced as a Championship 4 driver ahead of the season finale year after year. | Why Truex will win | Debating Truex’s chances
4. But it all might come down to Denny. Seemingly involved in every significant story line in some way this season — like the fact that he started a new Cup team as an owner and won a playoff race with said team … while also going on to compete in Championship 4 with another team and then some other thing that happened at Martinsville — it would be apropos that this season be the one Hamlin gets that major asterisk taken off his Hall of Fame resume and wins his first title. His dominance over the last half-decade have more than sealed the deal on that front, and yet that bare spot on his trophy shelf is a continual focal point. On top of carrying the load on the entertainment side of things for much of the year, this season offers as good of a chance for him to complete his final task as any, if not better. His previously mentioned average finish is on pace for a career high, and he’ll likely break his previous top 10 best (24) and tie his high in top fives (19). Hamlin thrives in his self-proclaimed “chaos,” which he’ll see plenty of on Sunday. And it’s because he’s the calm in the storm. | Why Hamlin will win | Debating Hamlin’s chances
5. But what if one of them doesn’t win the race? Well, one of them will still walk away with the big trophy, it just means there will be another driver celebrating off to the side with a smaller one. We’ve yet to see this happen in the Cup Series, but it’s always on the table. Brad Keselowski will be plenty motivated to score one last victory for his long time team owner Roger Penske before taking on his new multi-dimensional role at Roush Fenway Racing. He narrowly missed making it to the Championship 4, and led practice Friday — topping all four title-eligible drivers — so he could be one to watch. Kevin Harvick‘s history at Phoenix needs no introduction, and the “Cactus King” will be doing everything in his power to avoid his first winless season since 2009. Expect the other two Penske drivers (Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano) to be strong as well, along with the other two drivers from each Championship 4 organization (last week’s winner Alex Bowman and William Byron for Hendrick and Kyle Busch and Christopher Bell for Gibbs.) It’s been a wild season, and Sunday is setting up as an instant classic that’ll be must-see TV from start to finish. | Keselowski tops practice
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Race-day info
Where: Phoenix Raceway, located in Avondale, Arizona Green flag: 3:34 p.m. ET Grand Marshals: Commercial Manager Arizona, Anheuser-Busch, Matt Lawler; Vice President of Sports & Entertainment Marketing, Coca-Cola, John Mount; Vice President Partnerships & Activations, Xfinity, Matt Lederer; Claims Assistant Vice President, GEICO Tucson Office, Sidy Dieng Flyover: F-16 Fighting Falcons, 69th Fighter Squadron, 944th Fighter Wing, Luke Air Force Base TV/Radio: NBC/NBC Sports App/Peacock, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Forecast: Mostly sunny, with a high near 88. Calm wind becoming southwest around 5 mph in the morning, according to NOAA.gov Race Distance: 312 laps, 312 miles Stages: 75 | 190 | 312 Pit-road speed: 45 mph Caution car speed: 50 mph Race purse: $10,053,801 Phoenix 101: Get the fulllowdown
Starting lineup: See the full lineup Pit-stall assignments: See who is pitting where |Expert breaks down pit selections
Championship 4 coverage
2021 Championship 4 Media Day was one for the ages — get caught up on the Championship 4 quickly.
• Outta here: Three Championship 4 teams see car chiefs ejected | Read more
• Not over it: Denny Hamlin still worked up about Martinsville | See what he said
• Tunnel vision: No. 11 more focused on championship process than outcome | Watch video • Recency bias: Chase Elliott brings 2020 experience to quest for second straight title | Read more
• More excited than nervous: Championship butterflies have eluded Kyle Larson — so far | Read more
• Guiding principles: Rarely rattled, crew chief Cliff Daniels is the No. 5 team’s steady hand |Read more
• ‘Pretty special’: Kyle Larson gets candid when discussing his remarkable run with Hendrick | Watch the video
• Smooth as they come: Martin Truex Jr. relaxed, confident heading into season finale at Phoenix | Read more
• Doing it right in the desert: Phoenix goes all-out with NASCAR Championship Weekend publicity blitz | Read more • Who said what: Best quotes from Championship 4 Media Day | See what they said
• Larson fastest among four in practice: Keselowski tops Phoenix practice; No. 5 paces Championship 4 | Full results
• Two in a row: Drivers who won consecutive NASCAR Cup Series titles | Read more
• Who’s made it before: All-time Championship 4 appearances by driver | See the list
Fast facts
Hard-hitting, race-relevant statistics, brought to you by the experts at Racing Insights.
• Denny Hamlin is the only driver to make the playoffs more than 10 times who has not won a championship. • Three of the last four Phoenix races were won by Championship 4 drivers — all but Kyle Larson.
• The two organizations in the Championship 4 have won eight of the nine playoff races.
• Hendrick Motorsports drivers have won the last six elimination races dating back to the 2020 Round of 12.
• The last season that two playoff races were won by non-playoff eligible drivers prior to 2021 was in 2015.
Catch the pack
Read up on all the headlines from the week leading up to Sunday’s race.
• End of an era: Brad Keselowski says goodbye, thank you to Penske in touching video | Watch video • Start ’em up: NASCAR announces start times and networks for 2022 season | Read more • New digs: Matt McCall to serve as Brad Keselowski’s crew chief at Roush in 2022 | Read more • Substitute on the box: Tyler Reddick’s crew chief missing Phoenix due to COVID protocols | Read more
• @nascarcasm poetry: An ode to the eliminated | See the gallery • Will they, won’t they: @nascarcasm on each Championship 4 driver’s chances | Read more • ‘Hacking’ Pennies: Alex Bowman talks to Corey LaJoie about Martinsville | Watch the clip
Race-day staples
Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles.
• Power Rankings: Does it all come down to Denny Hamlin? | Latest rankings
• Preview Show: Which driver will take the trophy? | Watch the show
• Paint Scheme Preview: Championship weekend looks | See them all • Longform: Like a winner, Chip Ganassi’s two-decade run in NASCAR leaves lasting legacy | Read more • So long: End-of-season goodbyes: 2021 edition | See more
• Fantasy Fastlane: Ride Willy B’s momentum at Phoenix | Top plays, sleepers
Get in on the action
Think you know NASCAR? Put your mettle to the test with gaming, fantasy.
• What are the odds?: Betting odds for Phoenix | See them here
• Making a title bet: PJ Walsh breaks down his early selection | See the analysis
• NASCAR betting: Is market overextended on Kyle Larson for the title? | Read more
• Sports betting 101: Picking race winners at Phoenix | Watch more
• Jackpot Races: One final shot at $25,000 in 2021 | Watch for more
• Fantasy advice: How to balance Championship 4, stage points | Watch for more • Talking playoffs: How Fantasy Live game works for the postseason | Read more
• On the grid: How the Cup Series Playoffs Grid Challenge works | Read more • No risk, big reward: Take a shot at winning cash prizes with the free-to-play Jackpot Races app | Hit the jackpot
• Play it LIVE: Full guide to 2021 NASCAR Fantasy Live game | Get the FAQ
Memories from Phoenix
NASCAR heads to the final race of the season at Phoenix Raceway, so let’s take a look back at some track history.
• Ah, the memories: Memorable moments at Phoenix | See the list
• Duel in the desert: Jeff Gordon ties Dale Earnhardt’s 76 career wins in 2007 | Watch the full race
• Victory Lane: All-time wins at Phoenix | See the list
• One year ago: Chase Elliott cashes in on first title at Phoenix | Full race recap
Say what?
Notable quotes from the Championship 4 heading into Sunday’s race.
Meg Oliphant | Getty Images
• “I hope this is the new normal. I would love to win nine races a year for the rest of my life. I don’t know. It’s all about opportunity. I feel like I’ve been blessed with a great opportunity, with a great team, with Cliff Daniels leading it. Yeah, I mean, I think timing, too, is important. Yeah, I mean, it’s been really good. I’m glad that we’ve been able to take advantage of it.” – Kyle Larson, driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
• “Just focusing on the right things. I’ve said it a few times already, but if it’s not something that’s going to make us go faster, it really doesn’t deserve our attention right now. That was really our mindset last year, and I feel like we proved a lot to ourselves and just what we can accomplish when we pull the rope in the same direction and focus on things that matter. I feel like that’s where our head is at, too.” – Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
• “How do I get up every morning and take my kids to school at 7:30? How do I go to 23XI and work for a couple days in the middle of the week during a Playoff run? I live in chaos. My life is chaos. I thrive under chaos. Honestly, you can ask Kyle. The more shit is stirred up around me, the shore I come at it. I don’t mind things like that. … To me it’s fuel. Like, I have so much fuel in my tank right now from just motivation. There’s a lot of motivation there.” – Denny Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
• “I guess try to focus on what really matters, and luckily haven’t been in any confrontations here lately. It’s always good to not have enemies when it comes to a race like this. Not that they’ll come into play. I don’t see anybody doing anything out of control this weekend. I think everybody understands that it’s the championship race, it’s the final four, and I don’t think anyone will do anything silly. But I guess you just — less enemies makes it a little bit easier if you get back in traffic or something that guys will show you a little bit more respect I would say.” — Martin Truex Jr., driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
See where the Championship 4 and the rest of the NASCAR Cup Series field will pit in Sunday’s championship race at Phoenix Raceway (3 p.m. ET on NBC/NBC Sports App/Peacock, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Championship 4 driver Kyle Larson will lead the field to the green flag for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series finale at Phoenix Raceway (3 p.m. ET on NBC/NBC Sports App/Peacock, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The entire Cup Series field took part in a single-car, two-lap qualifying session on Saturday evening at the 1-mile Arizona oval. Larson laid down a lap of 26.116 seconds at 137.847 miles per hour in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Fellow Championship 4 driver and teammate Chase Elliott will start on the outside front row with a lap of 26.289 seconds at 136.939 mph in the No. 9 Chevrolet.
“It was nice to go out second-to-last and have a benchmark to shoot for, ” Larson told NBC Sports after his pole-winning qualifying run. “… Really good to get a pole and help out pit stall selection, so that’s nice. It’ll be good to go from pit stop No. 1. Really happy with our Hendrickcars.com Chevy. It was really weird having practice yesterday. I think all of our confidence was probably less after it. So good to come here and get a pole and, you know, get the weekend started off on the right foot. Still a long day tomorrow and the track will go through a big change. It already looks different that what I’m familiar with. We’ll see how it goes.”
The other two Championship 4 drivers, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr., will start a tad farther back for Sunday’s season finale. Hamlin will start sixth after a lap of 26.361 seconds at 136.565 mph in the No. 11 Toyota, while Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. will start from 12th after a lap of 26.494 seconds at 135.88 mph in the No. 19 Toyota.
The Championship 4 teams will pick pit stalls first for Sunday, followed by the order the rest of the field qualified afterward. Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron will start third, followed by Ryan Blaney and Kurt Busch.
Stewart-Haas Racing driver Cole Custer will start seventh, followed by Christopher Bell, Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano to round out the top 10.
The teams of Larson, Hamlin and Truex Jr. all had their car chiefs ejected after failing technical inspection twice prior to qualifying. All three Championship 4 drivers will still be able to start from the positions where they qualified. Elliott’s No. 9 passed on its first time though.
Three of the four NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4 cars failed inspection prior to the start of qualifying on Saturday night and as a result, each of those teams will lose a crew member.
The No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet of Kyle Larson, the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Denny Hamlin and the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Martin Truex Jr. will each lose a crew member ahead of Sunday’s title race (3 p.m. ET on NBC/NBC Sports App/Peacock, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) after failing inspection twice.
Car chiefs Jesse Saunders (No. 5 team), Brandon Griffeth (No. 11 team) and Blake Harris (No. 19 team) are the respective crew members that have been ejected.
A third inspection failure would have resulted in no qualifying attempt being made and a pass-thru penalty being served at the green flag before the season finale. All three cars passed on their third attempt.
Chase Elliott’s No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet passed on its first attempt. Elliott is the defending race winner and Cup champion.
Elliott and Truex each have one championship in the Cup Series, while Larson and Hamlin are hunting for their first Cup title.
Editor’s Note: This story was published the Saturday before the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race. Kyle Larson won his 10th race of the season and the 2021 title on Sunday.
AVONDALE, Ariz. — When did Cliff Daniels know that his partnership with Kyle Larson had the makings of a record-setting championship run? There’s an easy answer, the Hendrick Motorsports crew chief says, but Daniels doesn’t seem big on giving those.
An overly simplistic view would point to the first of their nine NASCAR Cup Series victories together, a triumph at Las Vegas Motor Speedway back in March that marked just their fourth race as a driver-crew chief pairing. As with most things, though, Daniels dug deeper for a more introspective view.
Daniels traced the origins of their budding chemistry to a dusty December night at Millbridge Speedway in Rowan County, N.C., where Larson continued his mastery of the dirt-track bullrings in a midget-car feature just before making his return to the Cup Series in Hendrick’s No. 5 Chevrolet. For Daniels, who grew up racing primarily on the asphalt tracks of his home state of Virginia, he was admittedly playing out of position and soaking in a far different atmosphere than he was accustomed to. The learning experience from that day predated what he learned from that breakthrough Vegas victory.
“The way he and I communicated about what he had going on that day, and just the way he drove the car that day — he ultimately ended up winning, of course — kind of let me know that he and I could communicate no matter what environment we were in,” Daniels said, “because — again, that was very unfamiliar for me — that we can connect, communicate again a lot of the basics for building what we needed to get started this season. So then once the season got started and obviously all the Hendrick cars were running good and we were one of them. We just got to build on that.”
The details continue to matter just two-plus years into Daniels’ tenure as a Cup Series crew chief, a brief stint that’s already had plenty of turns and twists. He enters Sunday’s finale at Phoenix Raceway (3 p.m. ET, NBC/NBC Sports App/Peacock, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) with a chance to cap off one of stock-car racing’s greater seasons by guiding Larson to his first championship.
How he got there and how they continued to grow together, there’s depth to that answer as well. The details matter there, too.
Growing into the role
The situation that Daniels first stepped into was both prized and unenviable. Sure, his debut as a Cup Series crew chief came working with one of the sport’s most decorated champions in Jimmie Johnson. On the flip side, that assignment came with the charge to rejuvenate a sagging No. 48 team midstream, taking the job in late July 2019 with the hopes of sparking a late push to the playoffs.
Brian Lawdermilk | Getty Images
Daniels had the pedigree, coming from a background as a racer at well-known Virginia tracks — South Boston, Langley, Southside — and growing into a capable race engineer. But working with a seven-time champion was a bright spotlight from the get-go. When they didn’t win and just missed out on two playoff berths in their season and a half together, Daniels said elements of self-doubt crept in.
“I think that was probably natural for anyone going through that, where you have arguably one of the best to ever do it, kind of toward the end of his career and you’re pushing yourself and the team and him so hard to try to make the results happen, make the success happen on track so that when you don’t get it, naturally it’s easy to look in the mirror and doubt yourself,” Daniels says, “which I, like I would imagine anybody else in this situation did or would do, but there were so many valuable lessons that I learned from Jimmie through the whole process, like there’s never been a moment that any of us could ever pick out of Jimmie Johnson’s career where he didn’t — on and off the track — carry himself like a true champion.
“Even when we had bad days at the race track, that’s how he carried himself. That’s how we raced every week was a high level of character, a high level of integrity.”
That character helped figure into the decisions made before the 2020 season about driver and crew chief pairings. Longtime crew chief Chad Knaus’ ascent to the new role of vice president of competition created a shuffle, and so did Johnson’s retirement, which opened the door for Larson in his multi-layered road back to NASCAR’s top level.
Jeff Andrews, promoted late last year to executive vice president and general manager, was one of those in charge of getting the chemistry and performance right. The high-level discussions also involved team owner Rick Hendrick, team president Marshall Carlson, and soon-to-be vice chairman Jeff Gordon.
“There was just kind of an aura and a persona there about Cliff that you kind of know when someone is kind of your people, so to speak,” Andrews said of the personnel talks. “Obviously Cliff had spent a lot of time here, come up through our system. We had a lot of belief in him, a lot of confidence in him. We were willing to stand by him for quite some time and make sure that we were giving him the tools and the resources and the people, getting that all in place. Once we did that and got the right things behind him, insert Kyle Larson, you got some pretty good success there in their first year together.”
Steady atop the pit box
If there’s an exemplifying moment among the nine wins, it’s Larson’s improbable comeback during last month’s Round of 12 elimination race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval. Electrical issues on the No. 5 Chevy midway through the race prompted a battery swap and a change-out of the alternator belt — not exactly minor surgery considering the stakes.
The title hopes plus the stockpile of playoff points that Larson had amassed in winning the regular-season championship were in danger of being frittered away. Instead of barking out orders and letting the urgency shake his decision-making, Daniels instead directed his team with clear, firm instructions with minimal swings toward emotional highs or lows.
With the deficit overcome, Larson charged back through the field and eventually celebrated in Victory Lane. That day kicked off their second three-race win streak of the season.
“He has that same temperament of wanting everything perfect, but he does not get rattled,” Hendrick said in the days leading up to Championship Weekend, noting the similarities of Daniels’ approach to Knaus’. “… You don’t know how a guy’s going to act under fire till you put him in that position. He just is very methodical. He spends a lot of time with Kyle. When I told Kyle that was going to be his crew chief, Kyle didn’t know he hadn’t won any races. As soon as they started working together, Kyle loved what he could see in Cliff.”
Those characteristics have helped shape Larson’s approach in this first season together. Larson said he has come to appreciate Daniels’ communication style, adding that the emotions of other crew chiefs he’s had sometimes influenced him — and not always in the best way.
“I think Cliff would honestly probably click with anybody, just because his leadership skills are so good and everybody respects him,” Larson says. “I think he’s got a level of respect that he has within that keeps everybody motivated, and he treats others the right way. He’s smart, young, dedicated and yeah, he’s just really, really good at what he does. He’s like to me the definition of a Cup Series crew chief. I’ve never played football, but I imagine him as being somewhat similar to a professional football, basketball, whatever coach. I think that’s a good trait.”
Primed for a title shot
The statistical accomplishments that Daniels’ team has tallied this year rank among the all-time best — nine wins, 2,472 laps led, 25 top-10 finishes in 35 races. Larson has done his best to shrug off the label of championship favorite in the week leading up to the finale, but the numbers have a certain pop to make the case without him.
Sean Gardner | Getty Images
Hendrick has appreciated those accolades as well, but has seen Daniels mature professionally with his preparations and his composure atop the pit box. Daniels has been in the Hendrick Motorsports pipeline as a race engineer since the 2015 season, but his growth as a crew chief in such a short time has shown wisdom beyond his 33 years.
“I’ve been amazed at his ability to call a race, keep calm, build a pit crew, do all the things that he’s done this year, and doesn’t get rattled,” Hendrick says. “Some of the decisions he makes, you would think he’s been crew chief for five or six years. He’s a real talent. He’s built a really good team.”
That team has a chance for a crowning achievement in Sunday’s season-ending race as Larson battles teammate and defending champ Chase Elliott along with Joe Gibbs Racing hopefuls Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. for the Cup Series title. Another victory would place Larson not only among the elite roll call of series champions, but also in the stratosphere of drivers to have won 10 or more races in a season since NASCAR’s modern era began. That list is populated only by a select few NASCAR Hall of Famers.
Could Daniels have envisioned that level of success before the season started? There’s no easy answer there, either.
“I would have probably said, ‘No way,’ ” Daniels says. “That’s pretty big numbers, but we’ve been really fortunate with the timing of this year to get Kyle back in our car, to have all four teammates at Hendrick Motorsports work closer together now than we probably ever have, have had great cars, great bodies and chassis and engines and all the things that it takes, and to have the four teams working together. So well, it makes it special, makes it doable, makes it foreseeable to know that you can achieve the success and keep it going.”
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.”
