CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Roger Penske already won two sports car championships this season and heads to Phoenix Raceway with two chances to win a third consecutive NASCAR Cup Series title with both Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney in the winner-take-all season finale.
The two Penske drivers will try to make it three consecutive Cup titles for “The Captain,” who won the 2022 title with Logano and last year's championship with Blaney.
They are up against Tyler Reddick of 23XI Racing, one of two teams embroiled in an antitrust lawsuit with NASCAR. The first hearing in the case was Monday and a federal judge promised a ruling on a preliminary injunction by Friday, the same day NASCAR hits the track at Phoenix for its first practice of the weekend.
And then there's William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports, who made the field over Christopher Bell when NASCAR ruled Bell had committed a safety violation in riding the wall Sunday at Martinsville Speedway. That move has been banned since Ross Chastain did it in 2022.
All said, it is a pair of Fords from Team Penske against the Toyota from 23XI and a Chevrolet from Hendrick Motorsports, NASCAR's winningest team in history. The highest finishing driver among the four title contenders will be crowned champion.
What to know about the four title contenders
Blaney, No. 12 Ford, Team Penske:
The 30 year old is a third-generation driver from Ohio and the son of retired NASCAR driver Dave Blaney. He's making his second appearance in the final four and won in his debut last year.
He bounced back this year from a devastating defeat two weeks ago at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where Reddick passed him in the final turn to steal a spot in the championship. Blaney recovered last Sunday to win at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia — same place he earned his championship berth in 2023 — and he's very good at Phoenix.
No driver has led more laps in the Next Gen car at Phoenix than Blaney, who has two wins this year at tracks 1-mile or shorter. Phoenix is a 1-mile low-banked tri-oval.
Working against Blaney is that no driver has won back-to-back championships in the playoff elimination era, which started in 2014. The last driver to defend his title was Jimmie Johnson, who won five consecutive championships from 2006 to 2010.
Logano, No. 22 Ford, Team Penske:
Logano is the only two-time champion in the field — and along with Kyle Busch the only active multiple champion in NASCAR — and is making his sixth appearance in the final four. The 34-year-old from Connecticut won in 2018 and 2022, which has earned him the nickname “Even Year Logano."
Logano won a five-overtime race at Nashville just to get into the playoffs, and he finished 15th in the regular-season standings. He won the playoff opener at Atlanta but was eliminated in the second round until NASCAR disqualified Alex Bowman for failing post-race inspection.
That put Logano back into the playoffs and he promptly won the third-round opening race at Las Vegas, which has put his Team Penske crew on cruise control preparing for Phoenix.
But, of the four contenders, Logano had the weakest season and wouldn't even be in the finale if not for Bowman's disqualification.
William Byron, No. 24 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports:
The Daytona 500 winner has three victories this season and will return to the final four for the second consecutive year. The 26-year-old from Charlotte only made the championship race because Bell's move at Martinsville was disallowed.
His circumstances have changed in that a year ago he was in a relationship with Blaney's youngest sister and the two drivers referred to each other as “brother-in-laws.” Byron is no longer dating Erin Blaney, and the tension between Byron and Ryan Blaney has flared on-track at times this season.
Byron won at Phoenix in March 2023 and is the only Hendrick driver in the championship. But he hasn’t won a Cup race since April and has a 27-race winless streak headed into Sunday.
Tyler Reddick, No. 45 Toyota, 23XI Racing:
Reddick is the only driver making his first appearance in the championship four and doing it with a team that is only three years old. His team is owned by both NBA great Michael Jordan and three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin, who was eliminated last week from title contention.
The 28-year-old from California was the regular-season champion and has led more laps this year than any other driver in the finale. He was also married earlier this season, making this one of the biggest years of Reddick's life.
But to cap it off, he'll need a Cup title. Both Reddick and crew chief Billy Scott are in the finale for the first time and Phoenix is not one of his best tracks: Reddick's wins this season have been on tracks 1.5-miles in length or longer.
Reddick did win a pair of Xfinity Series titles in this elimination format.
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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
Jenna Fryer, The Associated Press
