One Race, One Champion: NASCAR Championship Preview
November 13, 2014 | By John Schwarb
An all-new format in NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup has played out for nine weeks with drama, do-or-die moments and even a little fighting.
The payoff will come Sunday with an all-new champion.
Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano and Ryan Newman are the last four standing from the original 16 that opened the Chase at Chicagoland in mid-September. Few could have predicted that foursome – and not a single fan did out of the tens of thousands who submitted Chase grids on a NASCAR.com online contest.
Those four will hit Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, ESPN) with the first to the checkered flag winning it all. None have won a Sprint Cup title before.
Each arrive at the finale with a feather in their cap. Hamlin finished in the top 10 in all three races in the Eliminator round, the only driver to do so. Harvick made the finale the only way possible – by winning at Phoenix. Logano brings two wins in the Chase and no finish worse than 12th. And Newman? He moved Kyle Larson on the final lap at Phoenix to get the spot he needed to make the finale, showing the desperation mentality that drivers say permeates the new format.
Throw in the rest of the field, which includes drivers that have already won Chase races (Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Brad Keselowski) and those who have been driven to off-track brawling (Matt Kenseth, Gordon and Keselowski again), and the finale should have plenty more unpredictability.
Here’s a look at the four finalists, in alphabetical order:
DENNY HAMLIN
Car: No. 11 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing
How he got here: Advanced on points from Challenger, Contender and Eliminator rounds.
2014 season: One win (Talladega spring race), 7 top 5s, 17 top 10s. Missed March race at Auto Club Speedway due to sinus infection.
Homestead history: Two wins (2009, 2013), four top 5s, five top 10s in 9 starts. Average finish: 11.2.
Outlook: Showed serious grit at Phoenix, coming from a lap down twice to grab a fifth-place finish, his highest in the Chase. Won Homestead last year. But his 313 led laps for the season is a career low, and Toyotas have won just two races this year and none since Hamlin’s win at Talladega in May.
What he said: “We didn't have a Chase win, so every elimination race there was a goal we had to accomplish to keep moving on, and we were able to accomplish that. I know what I can do at this racetrack, we saw that last year and after the test we had, I’m very encouraged that we can go out here and have the speed that’s capable of winning this race.”
KEVIN HARVICK
Car: No. 4 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing
How he got here: Advanced on points from Challenger round, won Charlotte to advance from Contender round, won Phoenix to advance from Eliminator round.
2014 season: Four wins (Phoenix spring, Darlington; Charlotte, Phoenix in Chase), 13 top 5s, 19 top 10s, eight poles
Homestead history: Five top 5s, 11 top 10s in 13 starts. Average finish: 8.1.
Outlook: Speed, speed, speed. His 2,083 led laps on the season is more than the last seven years combined and he has led the most laps in four of the nine Chase races. And his eight poles? They’re more than his previous 13 seasons combined. A pit crew swap with owner Tony Stewart’s No. 14 car before Chase has eliminated pit road errors from the regular season.
What he said: “I don’t plan on racing any of them. I just want to beat them all and try and stay in front of them so we don’t have to put ourselves in position all day. You ask if we were going to plan it out, that would be how I would plan it out. The rest of it, we’ll just have to see how it comes from the rest of the race on. Do what you have to do, I guess.”
JOEY LOGANO
Car: No. 22 Ford, Penske Racing
How he got here: Won New Hampshire race to advance from Challenger round, won Kansas to advance from Contender round, advanced on points from Eliminator round.
2014 season: Five wins (Texas spring, Richmond spring, Bristol summer; New Hampshire, Kansas in Chase), 16 top 5s, 22 top 10s.
Homestead history: One top 10 in five starts. Average finish: 20.8.
Outlook: While teammate Brad Keselowski piled up enemies over the last month, Logano flawlessly put himself in position to possibly be the third-youngest Sprint Cup champion. The first half of his Chase was fourth-first-fourth-first-fourth, then four top-12 finishes got him to the finale. Has the best average finish on 1.5-mile tracks of the four championship contenders.
What he said: “I don’t see (title-fight inexperience) as a disadvantage at all, because I think we’re all kind of in the same boat right now. I don’t believe anyone up here has been in the position of being tied going into the last round and really racing for the championship. I feel like over the last nine weeks our 22 team has done a great job and we’ve scored the most points up to this (spot) in the Chase. I don’t see that as a disadvantage.”
RYAN NEWMAN
Car: No. 31 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing
How he got here: Advanced on points from Challenger, Contender and Eliminator rounds.
2014 season: Zero wins, 4 top 5s, 15 top 10s
Homestead history: One top 5, four top 10s in 12 starts. Average finish: 17.0.
Outlook: The South Bend, Indiana, native wears the bulls-eye for fans not enamored with the new format, as he got into the Chase without a regular-season win and survived all three rounds without winning. He hasn’t spent much time at the front all year, with 41 laps led and 17 led in the Chase. But he has a keen sense of what needs to be done – just ask Kyle Larson.
What he said: “We’ve gone into every race with the intention of winning it and leading the most laps and winning the pole and everything else that goes along with it. We just haven’t been as successful as some of these other guys. But our consistency has been there, so we just have to be there at the end.”