Final battle
Cup Series ready for big finale at Phoenix
AVONDALE, Ariz. — NASCAR fans held their $4 beers, autograph markers and phones as they stacked four rows deep.
They were all seeking just a glimpse of Chase Elliott — the Cup Series’ 2020 season champion and a three-time reigning award winner as its most popular driver — inside his garage stall. The crowd erupted in cheers when Elliott’s Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 Chevrolet was pushed into the bay.
It was empty, but no one seemed to care all that much. Everyone was just happy to be at the big show.
A year after the COVID-19 pandemic forced a renovated Phoenix Raceway to host its first NASCAR championship weekend in front of only 8,000 fans a day, the full $178 million facelift is on display. Every single allotted space has been sold for Sunday’s season finale, when the Cup Series title will be decided in front of about 60,000 spectators.
They’ll bring their Koozies and coolers. Some will sit on Rattlesnake Hill — and, yes, some will even wear their “Let’s Go, Brandon” T-shirts despite NASCAR’s disapproval.
Elliott, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson and Martin Truex Jr. will try to make it a race to remember, with one driving away with a championship that will be impossible for him to forget.
Ten months after the season-opening Daytona 500 and 10 weeks into the Cup Series playoffs, the field of championship contenders has been whittled from 16 drivers to those four — and this quartet is arguably one of the best yet since the current format was introduced in 2014 that makes the finale a go-forbroke battle in which the highest finisher in the group will take the crown.
Elliott, from Dawsonville, Georgia, is only 25, but the son of NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott has had a strong fan base for years and has already accomplished more than some drivers will in a career.
Hamlin has 46 victories at NASCAR’s highest level — including two in the first four races of these playoffs — but after finishing fourth in the final standings the past two seasons, the 40-year-old with three Daytona 500 wins is trying to shake the label of best Cup Series driver without a championship.
Larson, 29, has been the top contender for most of the season, and FanDuel Sportsbook listed him as the 2/1 favorite to win his first title. He has nine points wins this year, including three in a row before a 14th-place finish last weekend with his final four spot already locked up, and also won the $1 million NASCAR All-Star Race in June.
Truex, 41, won the 2017 season championship with underdog Furniture Row Racing, is in the final four for the fifth time overall and won at Phoenix this past spring.
Take your pick of the most enticing stories in the desert.
Hendrick Motorsports (Elliott and Larson) will face Joe Gibbs Racing (Hamlin and Truex) in a 2-on-2 battle for the trophy. The winner will drive either a Chevrolet (Hendrick) or a Toyota (JGR); Ford will be a championship spectator after all three Team Penske drivers came up short last weekend as the playoff field was cut in half and Stewart-Haas Racing struggled this year.
Truex, a four-race winner this year, is back at Phoenix in the same Toyota he drove to the win in March. He’s the dark horse. Hamlin is the enigma.
Although he insists he is content with his resumé even if he never wins a championship, Hamlin hinted he might turn in his car keys and follow buddy Michael Jordan’s lead by calling it quits if he does claim the title. Hamlin and Jordan are now partners in first-year team 23XI Racing, and Hamlin has cited scenes from the ESPN documentary “The Last Dance” that showcased Jordan’s drive.
Hamlin and Truex for sure can win the title, but JGR conceded its role as the underdog Monday. The oddsmakers agree: FanDuel lists Hamlin at 9/2 odds and Truex 49/10, with both Hendrick drivers rated higher.
Then there’s the in-house rivalry between Elliott and Larson for title of top dog at Hendrick, NASCAR’s all-time wins leader among teams and the best this season with 16 victories through 35 races.
Larson is cheered wildly at tracks across the country, and sometimes his ovation is louder than the one given to Elliott, the crown prince of the sport. But this weekend at Phoenix, Elliott was still the biggest star ahead of Sunday.
Alan Gustafson, the crew chief who led Elliott to three wins in the final five races last year, knows his driver will give his all to stay on top as Cup Series champion.
“I think great competitors find a way in whatever situation is presented to be successful, and they make it happen,” Gustafson said. “Last year we got hot … this year, it’s been much more of a street fight. We’ve had to scratch and claw and just stay alive. I think Chase has done an amazing job of that and when the chips are down, that’s when the greatness comes out.”
Saturday evening’s qualifying session ensured Elliott, Hamlin and Truex will be chasing Larson, though.
Hendrick drivers will fill the front row of the starting grid after Larson nipped Elliott for the pole position, with Hamlin sixth and Truex 12th. Larson went out 37th in the qualifying order, and his lap of 137.847 mph was enough to knock Elliott off the top spot.
“It definitely doesn’t hurt for sure,” Larson said of the pole. “I don’t know if it’s a championship-winning moment.”
His competition will try to make sure it wasn’t.
“Today we’re behind,” Truex said. “I don’t know that that guarantees tomorrow we’ll be behind.”
“It definitely doesn’t hurt for sure. I don’t know if it’s a championshipwinning moment.” — KYLE LARSON ON WINNING POLE POSITION IN PHOENIX