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By Reid Spencer<\/em><\/p>\n NASCAR Wire Service <\/em><\/p>\n NASCAR Cup drivers gear up for highly anticipated Championship 4 race at Phoenix<\/b><\/p>\n PHOENIX, AZ \u2013 Will lightning strike three times for Christopher Bell?<\/p>\n Can Ross Chastain parlay his amazing Martinsville rim ride into a championship for upstart Trackhouse Racing? <\/p>\n Will the NASCAR Cup Series feature more than one active multiple champion for the first time since Jimmie Johnson retired after the 2020 season?<\/p>\n Those questions will be answered on Sunday when the four eligible drivers\u2014Bell, Chastain, 2018 champion Joey Logano and 2020 champion Chase Elliott\u2014race for the title in the NASCAR Cup Series Championship event at Phoenix Raceway (3 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n The season finale arrives with the sport still buzzing from the improbable events in last Sunday\u2019s Round of 8 elimination race at Martinsville. As he had done in the Round of 12, Christopher Bell converted a must-win opportunity to advance in the Playoffs, this time to the Championship 4.<\/p>\n On the final lap of the Martinsville event, Chastain, against all odds, floored his No. 1 Chevrolet and rode the wall through Turns 3 and 4 to steal a Playoff spot from Denny Hamlin, who lost a chance to compete in the Championship 4 a fourth straight time.<\/p>\n Chastain said he would have preferred to come to Phoenix with less fanfare, even though the move he pulled off at Martinsville is certain to be an indelible moment in NASCAR lore. <\/p>\n \u201cI wish I would’ve had five more points throughout the Playoffs, and I could’ve just cruised in 10th and been out of sight, out of mind, and no one was the wiser that we made it, except us,\u201d Chastain said. \u201cThose weren’t the cards we were dealt though. <\/p>\n \u201cThis means the world. This is a life achievement, a career achievement\u2014this is what we work for and dream about. Just getting the opportunity is all I could ever ask for. Then to do it, make the decision I did down the backstretch is wild enough. The fact that it worked is truly unbelievable. I still watch the video, and it doesn’t look real.\u201d<\/p>\n If Chastain defied the odds in the microcosm of one lap at Martinsville, Bell did so on a grander scale with his victories in the Round of 12 and Round of 8 elimination races. Like Chastain, the driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota will be competing in the Championship 4 for the first time.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you get to this and you think about who’s sitting there, who he’s going to have to race against, those three other competitors from great organizations, I think it’s going to be extremely hard,\u201d said team owner Joe Gibbs in a Tuesday video conference with reporters.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the way our Playoffs are designed, it does bring a lot of excitement to it, every three races, dropping out four cars. Now we’re down to just four.\u201d<\/p>\n Of the Championship 4 drivers, Logano boasts the most appearances in the title race\u2014five, tied for series-best. His two victories at Phoenix Raceway also are tops among the championship-eligible drivers.<\/p>\n Elliott, on the other hand, won his championship at Phoenix and has that experience in his memory banks, whereas Logano claimed his title when the season finale was held at Homestead-Miami Speedway.<\/p>\n Kyle Busch is the only active driver with more than one Cup title, having won in 2015 and 2019.<\/p>\n Team owner Rick Hendrick actually has two cars competing for championships\u2014Elliott for the drivers\u2019 title and Kyle Larson for the owners\u2019 crown in the No. 5 Chevrolet.<\/p>\n \u201cI think Sunday could be\u2026 just like always, a pit stop, somebody hits the air pressures right, cautions fall at the right time,\u201d Hendrick said. \u201cYou just have to run it and see how it ends up.<\/p>\n \u201cBut there are four really, really good drivers in that race. You know, it’s just going to be hard to pick a winner in there. Of course, I hope our guys are the ones that win it. But it’s going to be a good show. It’s going to be a hard-fought show.\u201d<\/p>\n JR Motorsports brings its armada to NASCAR Xfinity championship battle<\/b><\/p>\n It\u2019s only fitting that three of the four drivers in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship 4 should be racing under the JR Motorsports banner.<\/p>\n After all, the organization co-owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kelley Earnhardt Miller has dominated the season entering Saturday\u2019s NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship event (6 p.m. ET on USA, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). <\/p>\n All told, Noah Gragson, Justin Allgaier and Josh Berry have combined to win 14 races this year\u2014Gragson with a series-best eight victories and Allgaier and Berry with three each. They will race for the series title against Ty Gibbs, who wrecked Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Brandon Jones on the final lap of last Saturday\u2019s race at Martinsville and knocked Jones out of a Playoff spot.<\/p>\n Based on his record, Gragson enters the Championship 4 race as a heavy favorite. He has finished inside the top-10 in each of the six Playoff races so far, with wins at Texas and Homestead-Miami. He picked up his first victory of the season at Phoenix in March.<\/p>\n \u201cWinning the championship has been our goal all year long, and we won at Phoenix in the spring,\u201d Gragson said. \u201cThis weekend, it\u2019s for all the marbles, and this team is at its best when something big is on the line. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been a great season for all of us on the No. 9 and for JR Motorsports, so the way to close it out is to win and bring a championship home with us.\u201d<\/p>\n Ben Rhodes seeks second straight NASCAR Camping World Truck Series title<\/b><\/p>\n ThorSport Racing driver Ben Rhodes hasn\u2019t been front-and-center lately, but runner-up finishes in each of the first two rounds of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Playoffs (at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park and Talladega Superspeedway, respectively) were enough to propel him into Friday night\u2019s Lucas Oil 150 title event at Phoenix Raceway (10 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n Accordingly, Rhodes will try to defend the championship he won with a third-place finish in last year\u2019s title race at Phoenix. If he\u2019s successful, Rhodes will be the second driver to win back-to-back championships in the division. Teammate Matt Crafton (2013-2014) is the only driver to have accomplished the feat so far.<\/p>\n Rhodes claimed his only victory of the season on the Bristol Dirt Track in April. Teammate Ty Majeski, on the other hand, arrives at Phoenix with considerably more momentum, having won two of the last three races, at Bristol (pavement) and Homestead-Miami. <\/p>\n In the title race, the ThorSport Racing drivers will face off against two Smiths\u2014Zane and Chandler (no relation).<\/p>\n Zane Smith will be trying to break out of the runner-up rut on Friday. He has finished second in the final Camping World Truck Series standings for two straight seasons, he enters the Phoenix race second in points, and he has collected five second-place finishes without a win in his last 11 Truck Series starts.<\/p>\n Both Smiths have posted three victories this season. Though he didn\u2019t qualify for the Championship 4 last season, Chandler won the season finale at Phoenix from the pole.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like last year, the last three quarters of last year, we showed what we were going to have in store for this year,\u201d Chandler said. \u201cWe were really good at the end of last year\u2014started getting wins and running up front every single week and were the truck to beat almost every other week\u2014where the year before we were hit-or-miss. <\/p>\n \u201cWe ended up getting our stuff together, we were more consistent, winning races and I told the guys next year we are out for blood\u2014we\u2019re going to go get them next year. And look, we\u2019re sitting here talking about running for a championship, and it has just been an amazing experience.\u201d<\/p>\n NASCAR Cup Series<\/b><\/p>\n Next Race: NASCAR Cup Series Championship<\/b><\/p>\n The Place: Phoenix Raceway<\/b><\/p>\n The Date: Sunday, November 6<\/b><\/p>\n The Time: 3 p.m. ET<\/b><\/p>\n The Purse: $10,542,284<\/b><\/p>\n TV: NBC, 1:30 p.m. ET<\/b><\/p>\n Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio<\/b><\/p>\n Distance: 312 miles (312 laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 60),<\/b><\/p>\n Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 185), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 312)<\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n NASCAR Xfinity Series<\/b><\/p>\n Next Race: NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship<\/b><\/p>\n The Place: Phoenix Raceway<\/b><\/p>\n The Date: Saturday, November 5<\/b><\/p>\n The Time: 6 p.m. ET<\/b><\/p>\n The Purse: $1,645,625<\/b><\/p>\n TV: USA, 5:30 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 Camping World Truck Series<\/b><\/p>\n Next Race: Lucas Oil 150<\/b><\/p>\n The Place: Phoenix Raceway<\/b><\/p>\n The Date: Friday, November 4<\/b><\/p>\n The Time: 10 p.m. ET<\/b><\/p>\n The Purse: $817,025<\/b><\/p>\n TV: FS1, 9 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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service NASCAR Cup drivers gear up for highly anticipated Championship 4 race at Phoenix PHOENIX, AZ \u2013 Will lightning strike three times for Christopher Bell? Can Ross Chastain parlay his amazing Martinsville rim ride into a championship for upstart Trackhouse Racing? Will the NASCAR Cup Series feature more than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":40986,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_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}},"categories":[11],"tags":[16,395],"class_list":["post-40984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-nascar","tag-phoenix-raceway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/CHAMP_2020_Primary_RGB.png?fit=3772%2C2152&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-aF2","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40984"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40988,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40984\/revisions\/40988"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}