Kyle Busch enters Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series final Chase elimination race at Phoenix looking to defend his 2015 series title by making the cut for the Championship 4. Photo: NASCAR Media
Last year, Kyle Busch felt he was playing with house money when it came to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship.
This year, the driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota needs to hit a full house on the river, in poker terms. He’s one of six drivers who hopes his number comes up when the final two Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship 4 slots are filled in Sunday’s Can-Am 500 at Phoenix International Raceway.
As the defending series champion – a title he won after missing the first 11 races of the 2015 season because of injuries sustained in a wreck at Daytona in February – Busch is well-versed in the vagaries of the Chase’s current elimination format.
The only other driver who has won a championship under the current system is Kevin Harvick, who took the checkered flag in the final two races of 2014.
As someone who has survived the championship pressure cooker, Busch feels he has an edge.
“I think that when you do have a championship, yes, you don’t have the same amount of pressure in tense moments and things like that,” he said. “You don’t necessarily let it get to you as much. You can just kind of moreso float through the process and kind of let what comes to you come to you, so you know that’s what we did last year.
“We essentially played with house money. A lot of people said we didn’t deserve to be there. We didn’t feel that way, but we just did what we needed to do in order to make it through each round and contend for the championship, and we won the thing. We won it fair and square and now this year we’re doing the same sort of thing.”
Busch was a disappointing 19th in Friday’s knockout qualifying session, but he was eighth fastest in race trim in Saturday’s first practice session. In final practice, Busch topped the speed chart at 136.538 mph.
“We’re just trying to make sure that we do all the right things in order to have a good solid day here on Sunday to make sure that we’re eligible going into next week,” said Busch, who is tied with Joey Logano for the final spot in the Championship 4.
Harvick Hopes To Beat The Odds At Phoenix – Again
Kevin Harvick is the only driver who has advanced to the Championship 4 at Homestead-Miami Speedway in each of the first two years of the Chase’s elimination format.
To do so this year, however, Harvick probably will have to win on Sunday. Then again, Phoenix is Harvick’s personal turf – or pavement, to be literal.
The driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet has won five of the last six races at the one-mile track in the Sonoran desert. In the one of those six he didn’t win, last year’s Chase race, Harvick led a race-high 143 laps before finishing second to Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in a rain-shortened event.
This year, Harvick comes to Phoenix 18 points below the Chase cutoff line. Whenever Harvick has needed a victory to advance in the Chase, he has gotten it. But will the odds eventually catch up to him?
“They did last year,” Harvick said. “We dominated the end of that race and wound up losing it to rain and where the caution came out. So they are a lot easier to lose than they are to win. Anything can happen, and we just have to control the things that we can control and try and put ourselves in position to where we usually do and see where it all falls.
“That’s what makes all this here exciting, and really what I like about it is the sense of the unknown, the competition, the effort, and the thought and everything that goes into that is intriguing for me. From a team standpoint, to see where everybody is at and how they approach it is fun to me, and I like to see people performing and working at that level. Because once they do it, you can hold them to it.”
Pole Winner Bowman Not NASCAR’s Only Tie To Tucson
Alex Bowman, the 23-year-old Coors Light Pole winner for Sunday’s Can-Am 500 at Phoenix International Raceway, calls nearby Tucson, Arizona home.
Bowman isn’t the only NASCAR tie to Tucson. In fact, NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France managed Tucson Raceway Park early in his career, a four-employee operation that he compared to running a Minor League Baseball team.
“People were saying, ‘You got stuck in Tucson, Arizona,'” France told attendees at Transitions West 2016, a family business conference at which he spoke prior to NASCAR’s Phoenix race weekend. “I said, ‘I’m going to get to run something,’ which I did. I got great experience.”
France spoke at the conference about the importance of learning the business from the ground up, and how that led to his first signature achievement – when as senior vice president in 1999, he consolidated the sanctioning body’s television rights.
“People said it could never be done, you’re too independent, tracks would never go along with that. And we took revenues at the time from $90 million to now $900 million in that one area.”
Short Strokes
-You can expect some blazing speed coming from the rear of the field in Sunday’s Can-Am 500. Martin Truex, Jr. led Saturday’s first practice session at Phoenix in both single-lap speed (135.476 mph) and 10-lap average (134.529 mph). Truex will start 40th because his backup car (necessitated because of an early crash in Friday’s practice) did not make it through pre-qualifying inspection in time for Truex to post a lap in time trials.
-In the final 10 minutes of Happy Hour, second-place qualifier Kyle Larson spun off turn 2 but managed to keep his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet away from the outside wall.
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-Phoenix International Raceway announced on Saturday morning that DC Solar will be the entitlement sponsor of the March 17, 2017 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at the one-mile track. In conjunction with the event sponsorship of the DC Solar 200, PIR will implement the company’s mobile solar generator portfolio throughout the raceway property.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Phoenix International Raceway – Avondale, AZ
Can-Am 500 – November 13, 2016
Sunday’s Starting Lineup
1. (88) Alex Bowman(i), Chevrolet, 140.521 mph.
2. (42) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 140.263 mph.
3. (24) Chase Elliott #, Chevrolet, 140.236 mph.
4. (22) Joey Logano (C), Ford, 140.138 mph.
5. (11) Denny Hamlin (C), Toyota, 140.072 mph.
6. (4) Kevin Harvick (C), Chevrolet, 139.980 mph.
7. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 139.708 mph.
8. (21) Ryan Blaney #, Ford, 139.638 mph.
9. (1) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 139.486 mph.
10. (20) Matt Kenseth (C), Toyota, 139.427 mph.
11. (19) Carl Edwards (C), Toyota, 139.303 mph.
12. (41) Kurt Busch (C), Chevrolet, 139.179 mph.
13. (5) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 139.249 mph.
14. (2) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 139.238 mph.
15. (31) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 139.222 mph.
16. (10) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 139.217 mph.
17. (48) Jimmie Johnson (C), Chevrolet, 139.190 mph.
18. (47) A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 138.969 mph.
19. (18) Kyle Busch (C), Toyota, 138.878 mph.
20. (27) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 138.723 mph.
21. (17) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Ford, 138.696 mph.
22. (13) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 138.122 mph.
23. (6) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 137.836 mph.
24. (16) Greg Biffle, Ford, 137.431 mph.
25. (14) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 137.825 mph.
26. (95) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 137.641 mph.
27. (43) Aric Almirola, Ford, 137.636 mph.
28. (38) Landon Cassill, Ford, 137.169 mph.
29. (7) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 136.965 mph.
30. (34) Chris Buescher #, Ford, 136.898 mph.
31. (23) David Ragan, Toyota, 136.457 mph.
32. (83) Matt DiBenedetto, Toyota, 136.322 mph.
33. (44) Brian Scott #, Ford, 136.157 mph.
34. (15) Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet, 136.132 mph.
35. (32) Jeffrey Earnhardt #, Ford, 135.298 mph.
36. (46) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, 135.191 mph.
37. (30) Gray Gaulding, Chevrolet, 134.837 mph.
38. (98) Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, 132.949 mph.
39. (55) D.J. Kennington(i), Chevrolet, 132.616 mph.
40. (78) Martin Truex, Jr., Toyota, 0.000 mph.
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