{"id":32109,"date":"2020-11-06T13:27:59","date_gmt":"2020-11-06T19:27:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=32109"},"modified":"2020-11-06T13:29:34","modified_gmt":"2020-11-06T19:29:34","slug":"nascar-weekend-preview-phoenix-raceway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/06\/nascar-weekend-preview-phoenix-raceway\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Weekend Preview: Phoenix Raceway"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Phoenix sets the stage to crown the 2020 Cup champion<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

The much-anticipated NASCAR Cup Series Season Finale 500 takes place Sunday (3 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Phoenix Raceway with a relatively new-look but highly-motivated Championship 4 group of drivers.<\/p>\n

Only Joe Gibbs Racing\u2019s Denny Hamlin was championship-eligible a year ago and this Sunday he will contend for his first title along with Team Penske teammates Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano \u2013 both former series champions \u2013 and Hendrick Motorsport’s Chase Elliott, who is trophy eligible for the first time in his five-year NASCAR Cup Series career.<\/p>\n

With seven wins this season \u2013 including his third Daytona 500 victory \u2013 Hamlin\u2019s No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota team certainly has to be considered a force to be reckoned with. He has two previous wins at Phoenix, the most recent, last year. More than half his starts at Phoenix (30) have resulted in top-10 finishes (17). And Hamlin arrives in Arizona having earned the most Playoff points on the season.<\/p>\n

The 39-year old Virginia native \u2013 who will co-own a team with NBA legend Michael Jordan next year in addition to his driving duties at Joe Gibbs Racing \u2013 has a career-best finish of runner-up in the championship, finishing second to Jimmie Johnson in 2010. He\u2019s advanced to NASCAR\u2019s Championship 4 round three times in his career \u2013 2014, 2019 and 2020.<\/p>\n

Logano, a three-race winner this season celebrated one of those wins in Phoenix Raceway’s Victory Lane back in March before the pandemic forced a break in competition.<\/p>\n

The driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford is a two-time Phoenix winner and certainly has been strong in this year\u2019s Playoff run – with an average finish of 8.1 through the nine Playoff races to date \u2013 best among the Playoff drivers. A second NASCAR Cup Series championship trophy would make him one of only 11 drivers to earn two titles in a three-year span. He\u2019s been in NASCAR\u2019s Championship 4, four out of the last six-years the elimination-style Playoff format has existed.<\/p>\n

Logano, 30, of Connecticut, insists he is the favorite entering the race \u201cand I have a lot of things to back that up,” he said smiling during the pre-race media call this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve had three weeks to think about it, be ready for it,” Logano added \u201cWith those things I feel more confident than ever. I always go back to think about my first Championship 4 round back in 2014. I remember crapping my pants about how nervous I was. If I’m being honest, I was very nervous. I had everything on the line for the first time. I didn’t know if I’d ever get back into the Championship 4 again. You didn’t want to blow the opportunity, right? You just wanted to make sure you made the most of it. Now going through it before, knowing how to prepare for what’s coming ahead of you, that battle ahead of you, knowing you succeeded before in the Championship 4 round, it really gives you some confidence to go out there and do your job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keselowski, Logano\u2019s teammate and driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford, is making his first Championship 4 appearance since 2017. The 2012 NASCAR Cup Series champion will be looking for his first career Cup Series win at Phoenix, however, he has two Xfinity Series victories there (in 2014 and 2018).<\/p>\n

This season has been one of comparatively quiet success. He\u2019s earned four race wins, 23 top-10 finishes and 12 top-five showings and led nearly a thousand laps (936). His title-eligible position at Phoenix to close out the season is particularly impressive considering the tough way he opened the season, crashing out of the Daytona 500.<\/p>\n

In 22 NASCAR Cup Series starts at Phoenix, he has six top-five and 10 top-10 finishes. His best work is runner-up in the 2018 Playoff race. He led 82 laps \u2013 a personal best at Phoenix \u2013 in his 11th-place finish earlier this season.<\/p>\n

The newcomer to this championship scenario is 24-year old Chase Elliott, but the second-generation star brings a lot of momentum fresh off a clutch must-win victory at Martinsville Speedway last weekend.  His 10 stage wins in the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet this season is second only to Hamlin\u2019s 11 among the Cup competitors and his four victories is a personal best. His 1,083 laps led in 2020 is most among the Championship 4.<\/p>\n

Elliott is looking for his first win at Phoenix, however. He has five top-10 and a pair of top-five showings in nine starts, including a career-best of runner-up in 2017. He\u2019s led 249 laps at the desert one-miler and his driver rating (105.3) is second best among active drivers \u2013 best among the Championship 4.<\/p>\n

A championship for Elliott would make him and his father Bill Elliott (1988 champion) the third father-son championship pair to win series titles joining Lee and Richard Petty and Ned and Dale Jarrett.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, I\u2019m just taking it a day at a time and just enjoying the moment,” Elliott said. \u201cI\u2019ve been saying that a lot lately, and I think it\u2019s really important to do that. I\u2019ve heard my dad say that over the years that he wished he enjoyed certain moments more and didn\u2019t just run through them. So I\u2019m just trying to enjoy it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a big opportunity \u2013 it\u2019s not an easy thing to make the final four, it\u2019s not something you should ever take for granted, may not ever be here again, so I recognize that and I recognize that we have a very solid team.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the No. 9 team in general, I think we are very capable of going and contending this weekend and I believe that and I think we just have to make the most of a great opportunity and enjoy it and try to thrive in the moment and hope for the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rest assured, Elliott and the rest of the Championship 4 will have their work cut out for them this weekend. Regular-season champion Kevin Harvick, who was stunningly eliminated from the title round last week with an uncharacteristic 17th-place finish at Martinsville, will be highly-motivated as he tries to become the first driver to win 10 races in a season since retiring seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson won 10 in 2007.<\/p>\n

Martin Truex Jr., the 2017 series champion who will be missing his first Championship 4 round since 2016, is another who will be racing with a lot of pride on the line.<\/p>\n

And of course reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch \u2013 who joins Harvick and Truex as the third member of the 2019 title-eligible quartet that failed to advance to the final round this season \u2013 will be a huge factor.<\/p>\n

Busch has won two of the last four races at Phoenix and Harvick is the all-time winningest driver there with nine victories.<\/p>\n

And of course, there is  seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson\u2019s final start in the series as a fulltime competitor. He won four times in a five-race span at Phoenix between 2007-2009, including three straight (2007-08). The 83-race winner steps away from the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet after 19 fulltime seasons and would love to finish on the ultimate winning high note.<\/p>\n

Xfinity heads to the desert to decide the championship<\/b><\/p>\n

The NASCAR Xfinity Series closes out the 2020 season Saturday with the Desert Diamond Casino West Valley 200 (5 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Phoenix Raceway with four of the year\u2019s most accomplished drivers hoping to become first-time series champions.<\/p>\n

Chase Briscoe, Austin Cindric, Justin Allgaier and Justin Haley have combined to earn 20 victories in the 33-races to date. All four drivers are multi-time race winners and all four drivers are eager to host their first ever Xfinity Series championship trophy.<\/p>\n

Among the title-eligible foursome, Allgaier is the only driver with a previous Phoenix win, earning victories in both Spring, 2017 and then last year\u2019s Playoff race.<\/p>\n

Briscoe, the 25-year old Indiana native, however, has proven himself the class of the field this year with a career-best single season mark of nine victories. He is the only championship-eligible driver with multiple wins in the Playoff \u2013 taking a trophy in both previous rounds – at Las Vegas and then at Kansas. He led laps at five of the six Playoff races and his 453 laps out front in that time is tops among the Championship 4 contenders.<\/p>\n

Briscoe, who drives the No. 98 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, has only one top-10 finish in three previous Xfinity Series starts at Phoenix, however, with a best showing of sixth in March. He finished fourth in his only NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series start at the Phoenix mile in 2017.<\/p>\n

This week\u2019s finale not only represents Briscoe\u2019s first chance to hoist a NASCAR Xfinity Series championship trophy, but it\u2019s his last fulltime start in the series he will make after being given the opportunity to move into the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 14 Ford in the NASCAR Cup Series next year. Saturday\u2019s race marks an important bridge in the young driver\u2019s career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think, for me, you always want to go out on top anytime you leave any team or any series, you want to leave on top,” Briscoe said. \u201cYou want to feel like you didn\u2019t leave anything on the table and I\u2019ve been super fortunate. In ARCA I was able to win the last race of the season and win the championship. In the Truck Series I was able to win the last race that season and that\u2019s always been as I\u2019ve progressed to the next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully, the third time continues to be that way, but you definitely want to do that. You want to reward those guys. I\u2019ve been with the 98 team for two and a half years now and without those guys there\u2019s no way I would be moving on to the 14, so I want to say thank you to those guys and I want to give them a championship. That\u2019s what they all deserve. They\u2019ve worked so hard, not only this year but the last two and a half years and you want to go out and you definitely have a little bit of added pressure, I think, just in general of wanting to make those guys proud and want to go out on top as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n

As has been the case all season, Briscoe fully expects the only other Ford driver in the championship field to be a fierce competitor on Saturday. Austin Cindric, driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford, has five wins in 2020 \u2013 also a career-best mark for a single season. His 25 top-10 and 18 top-five finishes are a career-best and he earned the regular season championship.<\/p>\n

Cindric, 22, hasn\u2019t won a race since the summer road course event at Daytona Beach, but he has four top-10 finishes in the six-race Playoffs. And his recent efforts at Phoenix are encouraging. He\u2019s finished top-10 in the last four starts at the desert mile with a best finish of fourth in the 2018 Xfinity Series Playoff race there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you have to approach Phoenix as a must-win situation,” Cindric said earlier this week. \u201cJust because the competitiveness this year has been off the charts. Also, the unpredictability of who was going to be good on what day. I think that has been fun from a competitive side to try to figure out, but also anyone that has watched and enjoyed watching Xfinity races this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t think you can underestimate any of your competitors and you have to bring your best foot forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

At 34 years old, Allgaier brings a certain veteran mentality to Saturday\u2019s championship round. He\u2019s won three races this season \u2013 all on tracks one-mile or shorter – and scored a Playoff best runner-up finish at the Martinsville half-miler just last week. With the two victories, two runner-up showings and 12 top-10 finishes in 20 previous Phoenix races, Allgaier certainly presents a formidable resume.  The driver of the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet has led a Playoff best 385 laps at Phoenix, adding to the front-running total in four of the last five races. He finished 13th in March but led 51 laps, most among the four Playoff drivers.<\/p>\n

Haley, 21, also of Indiana, has had a stellar Playoff debut season winning at Talladega and earning four top-10 finishes in the opening six races \u2013 including two top-10s in the last three events.  His 20 top-10s on the year matches his previous best year (2019) and his 10 top-five finishes doubles his previous best mark in the Xfinity Series. He scored his first career Xfinity win in the No. 11 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet at Talladega in the Spring, then won again on the Daytona high banks before earning the Talladega sweep with a second victory there last month.<\/p>\n

Haley has two top-10 finishes in three Phoenix Xfinity Series starts, with a best showing of fifth this March \u2013 which was also the top finish of any of the Championship 4 drivers in that race. He made three Truck Series starts at Phoenix with a career-best seventh back in 2015 as a 16-year old.<\/p>\n

And while these four drivers have a championship trophy to race for, they can expect legitimate competition from several other drivers. Brandon Jones won this race in March, finishing just ahead of Harrison Burton, who has won the last two 2020 season races coming into this weekend. And Ross Chastain, like Jones and Burton part of the original 2020 Playoff contingent, will be looking to score his first victory of the year in his final Xfinity Series race before he moves up into the NASCAR Cup Series ranks fulltime in 2020.<\/p>\n

Gander Trucks to settle title in cactus country<\/b><\/p>\n

And so it has come to this, four drivers \u2013 Sheldon Creed, Grant Enfinger, Brett Moffitt and Zane Smith – will race for the 2020 NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series championship in Friday\u2019s Lucas Oil 150 (8 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at the one-mile Phoenix Raceway.<\/p>\n

Three first-time championship contenders \u2013 Creed, Enfinger and Smith;  three GMS Racing teammates \u2013 Creed, Moffitt and Smith \u2013 will race for the season trophy capping a competitive season schedule and particularly thrilling Playoff run.<\/p>\n

Regular season champion Austin Hill, a two-race winner, was stunningly eliminated last week after his Toyota suffered a mechanical problem in the Martinsville Speedway race, but four other highly-motivated race winners will decide this season\u2019s trophy hoist.<\/p>\n

Creed, a four-race winner in the No. 2 GMS Racing Chevrolet, will be making his Championship 4 debut. The 23-year old Californian has earned four top-10 finishes in the six Playoff races going to Phoenix, including a victory at Texas and runner-up finishes at Las Vegas and Kansas. He has led laps in four of the six races and led the most laps in three of them (Vegas, Kansas, Texas and Martinsville).<\/p>\n

Enfinger, also a four-race winner in the No. 98 ThorSport Racing Ford, is also in the Championship 4 for the first time in his career. He won the regular season championship last year, but did not advance to the trophy race. This year, the 35-year old Alabama native arrives in Phoenix as the most recent winner \u2013 surviving a rough-and-tumble final few laps at Martinsville last week for his automatic ticket in. His best showing at Phoenix is fourth-place in 2018. He has a pair of top-five finishes in three starts at the track, but has only led laps there one time (10 laps in 2018).<\/p>\n

Moffitt, driver of the No. 23 GMS Racing Chevrolet, finally snapped a season of oh-so close calls with a victory at Kansas three races ago. The 25-year old Iowa native finished runner-up four times but he arrives in Phoenix feeling especially confident. The 2018 Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series champion is the only one among the Championship 4 who has ever hoisted a trophy at the track before, taking the 2018 victory en route to his title. He easily has the most experience at Phoenix with a pair of Truck Series starts, one Xfinity Series start and two NASCAR Cup Series starts.<\/p>\n

His 2020 Playoffs have been up-and-down with three top-10 efforts and three finishes of 20th or worse. He crashed out at Martinsville eight laps before the checkered flag running up front.<\/p>\n

One of the most inspired Championship 4 appearances comes from the 21-year old Zane Smith, who crashed out at Talladega in the opening-round finale and literally had to wait until the race finished to see if he had retained enough of a points-cushion to move on. He did. And he\u2019s certainly made the most of his second chance.<\/p>\n

This will be Smith\u2019s Phoenix debut in the Truck Series, although he does have an encouraging fifth-place finish in his only start at the track \u2013 an Xfinity Series race in 2019. The driver of the No. 21 GMS Racing Chevrolet has a pair of top-five finishes in the last races (at Texas and Martinsville) –  three top-10s in the Playoffs. He led laps at Kansas (37) and Martinsville (20).<\/p>\n

Certainly having the GMS Racing teammates Creed, Moffitt and Smith represent three-quarters of the title run may seem intimidating, but the lone driver from another team, Enfinger, isn\u2019t buying into that. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if there\u2019s an advantage or a disadvantage, but we\u2019re gonna go for broke from the time the green flags drop to the time the checkered flag drops and hope that it works out in our favor,” Enfinger said. \u201cWe\u2019re gonna not do anything stupid, definitely not intentionally put anybody in a bad spot, but we\u2019re gonna go for broke. That\u2019s where our mindset is. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s necessarily an advantage or a disadvantage going into it like that, but that\u2019s how we feel like we have to play the hand we\u2019re dealt and that\u2019s how we feel like we need to play it.\u201d<\/p>\n

NASCAR Cup Series<\/b><\/p>\n

Next Race: Season Finale 500<\/b><\/p>\n

The Place: Phoenix Raceway<\/b><\/p>\n

The Date: Sunday, November 8<\/b><\/p>\n

The Time: 3 p.m. ET<\/b><\/p>\n

TV: NBC, 2 p.m. ET<\/b><\/p>\n

Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio<\/b><\/p>\n

Distance: 312 miles (312 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 75),<\/b><\/p>\n

Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 190), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 312)<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

NASCAR Xfinity Series<\/b><\/p>\n

Next Race: Desert Diamond Casino West Valley 200<\/b><\/p>\n

The Place: Phoenix Raceway<\/b><\/p>\n

The Date: Saturday, November 7<\/b><\/p>\n

The Time: 5 p.m. ET<\/b><\/p>\n

TV: NBCSN, 4:30 p.m. ET<\/b><\/p>\n

Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio                  <\/b><\/p>\n

Distance: 200 miles (200 laps); Stage 1 (Ends on lap 45),<\/b><\/p>\n

Stage 2 (Ends on lap 90), Final Stage (Ends on lap 200)<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series<\/b><\/p>\n

Next Race: Lucas Oil 150<\/b><\/p>\n

The Place: Phoenix Raceway<\/b><\/p>\n

The Date: Friday, November 6<\/b><\/p>\n

The Time: 8 p.m. ET<\/b><\/p>\n

TV: FS1, 7 p.m. ET<\/b><\/p>\n

Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio                  <\/b><\/p>\n

Distance: 150 miles (150 laps); Stage 1 (Ends on lap 45),<\/b><\/p>\n

Stage 2 (Ends on lap 90), Final Stage (Ends on lap 150)<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service   Phoenix sets the stage to crown the 2020 Cup champion The much-anticipated NASCAR Cup Series Season Finale 500 takes place Sunday (3 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Phoenix Raceway with a relatively new-look but highly-motivated Championship 4 group of drivers. Only Joe Gibbs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":29153,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[16,395],"class_list":["post-32109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-nascar","tag-phoenix-raceway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-8lT","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/PHX_NCS_LoganoCheckers_030820-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1706","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32109"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32110,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32109\/revisions\/32110"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}