Joey Logano will battle for his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Photo by Jeff Zelevansky/NASCAR via Getty Images
HOMESTEAD, FL – No driver has been better in this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup than Joey Logano. The 24-year-old has coasted his way to the Championship 4 behind a Chase-best 5.3 average finish and two victories.
To earn his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship, Logano likely needs to produce one more dominant effort in Sunday’s Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The No. 22 Team Penske driver does not need to win the event to take home the title, but instead must finish ahead of Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin and Ryan Newman – a task he has completed 10 times this season.
Logano has the worst previous statistics at Homestead among the Championship 4 with one top 10 and an average finish of 20.8 in five starts there. The silver lining… he finished eighth at Homestead last season in his first campaign with Team Penske and has performed at an elite level on 1.5-mile tracks this year. In Logano’s nine starts at 1.5 mile courses in 2014, he boasts two victories and leads all drivers with a 5.8 average finish and six top-five performances.
If Logano wins the championship, at 24 years, 5 months and 23 days, he would become the youngest driver to capture the series crown since Jeff Gordon in 1995 – and third premier series champion under the age of 25, joining Gordon and Bill Rexford, who was 23 years old when he won the title in 1950. A native of Middletown, CT, he would be the first driver from the Constitution State to win a NASCAR premier series title.
In addition, a Logano championship would mark the second title for Team Penske, that claimed its first with the efforts of Brad Keselowski in 2012. Currently leading the NASCAR Nationwide Series owner standings by 29 points, Roger Penske’s racing outfit has a legitimate chance of becoming the first team to win a NSCS, NNS and IndyCar championship in the same season.
NASCAR Nationwide Series: Elliott Has Clinched, Now Time To Accept His Trophy
Chase Elliott is the 2014 NASCAR Nationwide Series champion.
The JR Motorsports standout and son of NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott, has become the youngest all-time NASCAR national series champion at the age of 18 years, 11 months, 18 days. The Elliotts are now the fifth father/son combo in NASCAR national series history to win series championships joining the Jarretts, Pettys, Pearsons and Earnhardts. Young Elliott is also the fourth NASCAR national series champion from the state of Georgia (Dawsonville), joining NASCAR Hall of Famers Tim Flock, Rex White and his father Bill Elliott. And to boot, Chase Elliott clinched the title in just 32 of the 33 scheduled NASCAR Nationwide Series races. He is currently 52 points ahead of Regan Smith in second place.
“This team knows how to get it done,” said Elliott. “I can’t thank Dale Jr., Rick Hendrick (co-owner) and Greg Ives (crew chief) enough. I’m so thankful to be able to enjoy this with them, because they’ve worked so hard. They had a rookie come in and they gave me a chance. It was pretty obvious this was a championship-caliber team early in the season. We just had to keep digging and stay focused.”
After conquering so many goals so early in his career the question begs – is Elliott the next big thing?
Only time will tell, but the future is bright for Elliott, especially since he has the opportunity to repeat his success in the NASCAR Nationwide Series next season with JR Motorsports in the No. 9 Chevrolet team. Elliott’s car owner Dale Earnhardt, Jr. won back-to-back series driver titles in 1998-’99, it will be interesting to see if Elliott can do the same.
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“Hopefully, next season we are able to go and have the same result as this season, a championship with some more wins,” said Elliott. “I think that the biggest thing next season is get more wins, and we still have one more week to get another win this season.”
Elliott has posted two poles, three wins (Texas-1, Darlington and Chicago), 16 top fives and 26 top 10s this season. He is the first Sunoco Rookie to win a title and also the first rookie to win three or more races since Carl Edwards won five in 2005.
NASCAR Camping World Trucks: The Final Showdown: Championship Title On The Line
The season-finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway has arrived and with it the 2014 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion will be crowned.
Following his runner-up finish at Phoenix last Friday, Matt Crafton increased his standings lead over Ryan Blaney to 25 points.
Regardless of the performance of other drivers, Crafton can become the first back-to-back champion in the series’ 20-year high octane history with a finish of 21st or higher in Friday’s Ford EcoBoost 200 – a finish he has scored in all but two races this season.
To get to his current position, Crafton accumulated two wins (Martinsville, Texas) and a series-leading 13 top-five finishes. The No. 88 ThorSport driver swapped the standings lead with Timothy Peters, teammate Johnny Sauter and Blaney throughout the season before regaining the top spot on Sep. 14 after his second place finish at Chicagoland.
Crafton, 38, has failed to finish in the top 10 in just five races this season. He leads the NCWTS with a 6.9 average finish and his 106.4 driver rating ranks second.
For Blaney to take the championship, he essentially must win and hope Crafton has a rough day. The No. 29 Ford F-150 driver has strung together a streak of six top-10 finishes to give himself a chance on Sunday. If Blaney can overtake Crafton, he would become the youngest NCWTS champion ever (20 years, 10 months, 14 days).
If Crafton clinches the title, he would rank tied with Todd Bodine for third in the Truck Series record book with two championships. The Tulare, CA native would trail only four-time champion Ron Hornaday, Jr. and three-time title-winner Jack Sprague for the most crowns in series history.
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