Blaney Brings Confidence To NASCAR Cup Title Race

With a walk-off victory of sorts at Martinsville Speedway last weekend, Ryan Blaney certainly shows up for the NASCAR Cup Series Championship race full of momentum and confidence.

It marks the 29-year-old third-generation racer’s first appearance in the Championship 4, but he certainly likes his chances at the Phoenix Raceway mile, where he boasts 10 top-10 finishes in 15 starts, including runner-up efforts in the last two races at the track in the Next Gen car – a statistic that makes him the “favorite” as far as NBC Sports commentator and former driver Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is concerned.

Blaney’s teammate, Joey Logano, won this race last year en route to the championship trophy.

Blaney is not only good at Phoenix, but he’s been good in general, turning in an especially strong Playoff run with a pair of wins (Talladega and Martinsville) and a runner-up at Homestead in the Round of 8.

And in a rather unique competitive situation, Blaney will be racing for the title against his younger sister’s longtime boyfriend, William Byron. Blaney smiled and acknowledged it’s an interesting situation, conceding if Byron beats him for the championship, he would obviously be sad initially at not having won himself, but ultimately, he’d be happy for Byron.

“William and I have always raced really well together,” Blaney said. “He and I are buddies. He’s a good guy. I’ve had the pleasure to get to know him better, more in depth. He comes from a great family, he’s a great kid and an awesome race car driver. He and I have a lot of respect for one another.

“At the end of the day, it is kind of funny he and I both going for a championship, I told (Blaney’s sister) Erin, ‘You’ve got the best percentage of anybody of someone you care about winning this thing.’

“It is a funny dynamic, but at the end of the day, he and I both understand we’re still competitors — but we’ll race each other with respect.”

Blaney also says even in the midst of preparing competitively for this championship race, he’s made a point to appreciate this important career opportunity. It’s his first time advancing to the Championship race in eight fulltime seasons in the marquee NASCAR Cup Series.

“I enjoy going to the race shop and seeing everybody at the race shop,” Blaney said, adding, “Seeing all them supporting that we can go for a championship is massive too – even (people) from other series – that part is the best for me.

“I’ve been able to enjoy it. A lot of people have told me, ‘This weekend is what it is, but remember to enjoy it, because it’s an opportunity that not a lot of people get.’ You get to race for a championship. You get to be one of the four drivers going for it. So that part, I’ve tried to keep in my mind, ‘Enjoy being here and kind of take it all in.’

“You never know what will happen and you may never be here again. You just have to appreciate it while you still can.”

Despite His Success In Cup Racing, William Byron Has Something To Prove

There’s a residue of disquiet in William Byron that a NASCAR Cup Series championship would do a lot to alleviate.

The driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet took an unconventional path to NASCAR’s foremost division. Unlike fellow Championship 4 contenders Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell, Byron didn’t grow up racing high-horsepower cars on dirt.

Unlike Ryan Blaney, whom he’ll also fight for the series title on Sunday, Byron didn’t excel in Super Late Models or ARCA cars.

While his three opponents were honing their skills in real machines, Byron was racing in the virtual world, getting better and better at iRacing. In his teens, Byron finally brought his talents to terra firma, but he still thinks there are those who look askance at his path to the big time.

“I feel like the odds are stacked against me — the iRacing kid that comes in and doesn’t know how to drive real cars and hasn’t ever raced till he was 15,” Byron said on Thursday during Championship 4 Media Day. “I feel like the odds were against me to have this kind of success when I came in the sport, and I got a lot of criticism because of how I came in.”

But the criticism should subside if Byron prevails in the NASCAR Cup Series Championship race.

“I think it will be kind of a ‘prove it’ moment to all those critics,” Byron said.

“I felt like I had a naturally ability to drive, and when I got into real cars, it showed. At the same time, when I worked through the ranks, people in the late model ranks were telling me, ‘Man, he’s not earned it, or he’s not done it the way we’ve done it,’ worked in the shop of all those things. I just kept putting my head down and working and trying to get to this level.”

When Byron landed his full-time ride with Hendrick in 2018 as a 20-year-old, he was at the bottom of the Cup Series pecking order.

“It’s kind of funny,” he said, “because when I came into the Cup Series, it was the old versus new, and the old guys ruled, with (Kevin) Harvick and Jimmie (Johnson), and those guys were dominating races — and (Martin) Truex. So the younger guys kind of joked that NASCAR promoted us so much — people were laughing at it.

“But we’re here now. It’s cool. It’s all the guys I grew up racing against. I think all these guys are going to win multiple races a year for the next few years.”

Kyle Larson Has An Important Opportunity On Sunday At Phoenix

Kyle Larson holds an important opportunity in his run for the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series championship. Should the 2021 champ win the title Sunday, he’d join two-time champions Kyle Busch and Joey Logano as the only active drivers with multiple titles.

“I think you can make a case for all of us,” Larson said of his title competitors. “And I think whoever wins Sunday is a very deserving champion.”

At only 31-years old, the Californian is the veteran of this year’s championship-eligible quartet. With four wins – five if you include the All-Star Race – Larson has topped the 1,000-miles led mark for the third time in his career. His 1,127 total laps led is most in the series. He has 14 top-five and 17 top-10 finishes, and along with Denny Hamlin leads the series with eight stage wins on the season.

Phoenix has been a particularly good place for him. His championship win in 2021 came from pole position, and he led the most laps (107 of 321) in the race. He has 11 top-10 finishes in 18 starts at the one-mile track and led 201 laps this Spring, only to finish fourth in a race won by teammate William Byron.

Even with his success at Phoenix – and success in general – the 23-time NASCAR Cup Series winner refuses to consider himself the odds-on favorite this weekend – even as the most experienced and winningest NASCAR Cup Series driver among the four.

“I don’t view us as having a leg up on the others because we have a championship at all,” Larson said. “That was a couple years ago, totally different race car, pit stops are different, restarts are different, the race is different. It’s all different. All of us have a fairly equal shot.

“I came into the Championship 4 a couple years ago with no experience in the round of four and really had been in the Round of 8 only one other time before then. It does not make a difference. If your team executes right, any of us could win.”

At Long Last, Christopher Bell And Kyle Larson Go Head-To-Head In Cup Cars

Those who have been following the respective careers of Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson have been waiting for this moment since both drivers graduated to the NASCAR Cup Series.

For years, Bell and Larson fought for Midget racing supremacy at the Chili Bowl Nationals in Tulsa, Okla., with Bell winning three straight titles from 2017-2019 and Larson claiming the next two.

They have dueled in 410 Sprint Cars. They have raced against each other and as teammates in international competition on the dirt tracks of New Zealand.

For the first on NASCAR’s biggest stage, they will go head-to head on pavement with a title on the line in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship race at Phoenix Raceway.

Yes, there are two other drivers who can claim the series trophy — William Byron and Ryan Blaney — but Larson and Bell are the only two who have been there before — just not at the same time.

Larson won the Cup championship in his first attempt in 2021, his debut year with Hendrick Motorsports. Bell qualified for last year’s title race with a dramatic victory at Martinsville and finished third in the final standings, but Larson didn’t make the final four.

This year, they’re in it together.

“I hope we’re able to do this for many years into the future,” Bell said. “I hope that we’re able to do this many more times, and it’s certainly not the first.”

Don’t expect the rivalry to turn bitter, though. The four drivers in the Championship 4 are unusually compatible for Playoff contenders.

“We definitely have a good, respectful group that I guess doesn’t have any history of having wrecks or anything like that,” Bells said. “So that’s good. But I honestly think it’s a great final four. It’s definitely Next Gen and probably a final four you wouldn’t have seen five years ago.”

NXS: Justin Allgaier Beat Long Odds To Race For A NASCAR Xfinity Series Title

As Justin Allgaier sat in his No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet during a 28-minute red-flag period late in last Saturday’s race at Martinsville Speedway, he calculated his odds for winning the event and qualifying for the NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship 4.

He might as well have been playing roulette, trying to hit a single number.

“Sitting under the red flag at Martinsville truly was probably the best thing that ever happened,” said Allgaier, who was fifth in the running order at the time. “I looked at the odds of making the final four. I gave myself a five-percent chance, and that’s probably being a little bit generous.”

But Allgaier hit the number when Richard Childress Racing teammates Austin Hill and Sheldon Creed took each other out of the running with a bumping-and-rubbing overtime battle for the lead. Allgaier found an opening to the inside off the final corner and beat Creed to the finish line.

“I don’t know if there’s any destiny in it, but in order to win a championship, you’ve got to be in the final four,” Allgaier said. “And if the five percent doesn’t happen last week at Martinsville, I don’t even have a shot at it, right?

“I think that’s truly something for me that does go a long way. Whether we win or we don’t win, this year has been phenomenal. We’ve had fast race cars. Shoot, I’ve made more mistakes in 2023 than I’ve made probably in entire career combined — pit road speeding penalties and just dumb stuff.

“But when I look at the cars we’ve brought to the race track, this is arguably the most speed week-in, week-out, and a lot of it just comes down to preparation for me.”

A case in point was last Saturday at Martinsville, where Allgaier did not have a winning car — until he did.

“I knew we weren’t in position to win the race,” Allgaier said. “We didn’t have the car to win the race. But my team stayed relevant. They stayed behind me, they kept pushing me, and we had a five-percent chance, and we came out with a win.

“And the Red Sea parted — listen, at the end of the day, everything had to be exactly as it was, and it worked out in our favor, and I can’t be more thankful for that… we’re kind of playing with house money. When I sat under that red flag and I knew we didn’t have a shot at it, it kind of changed my perception of the season, and it’s all for the better. I feel like I come here with a new invigoration to be successful and to win races, and it’s good.”

Further buoying Allgaier’s confidence is the preparation of the track. Gone this year is the resin treatment that has made Phoenix top-lane dominant in recent seasons.

“We’re getting back to the old Phoenix, and I’m excited,” Allgaier said. “Hot, slick, all the things that I want it to be, so we’ve got it all.”

The 37-year-old Allgaier has two victories in 26 starts at Phoenix. Collectively, his Championship 4 competitors — John Hunter Nemechek, Cole Custer, and Sam Mayer — are winless at the track.

“When we leave here,” Allgaier said, “I’d just like everyone else’s win column to stay zero still and ours to have one more.”

Cole Custer Brings Cool Confidence To Xfinity Championship Race

Even at just 25-years old, Cole Custer is used to the NASCAR championship weekend vibes and expectations.

A two-time NASCAR Xfinity Series championship runner-up – in 2018 and 2019 – Custer brings a strong title resume into Saturday afternoon’s finale. And he earned this opportunity the hard way – on fire, rolling backwards across the finish line last week in a wild Round of 8 finale at Martinsville that was good enough to secure a title bid.

“I think if we can make it through that (Martinsville finish) as a team, we can do anything,” Custer allowed with a smile.

And as much as he likes his chances on Saturday, the two-race winner this season concedes he expects stout competition amongst himself and the other championship contenders, John Hunter Nemechek, Sam Mayer, and Justin Allgaier.

Custer has finished sixth or better in four of the six races leading into Saturday’s championship contest. Twice – at Bristol and Homestead-Miami – he’s led at least 100 laps and did not win. His 20 top-10 finishes mark the third time he’s earned at least 20 top 10s in a season. And only one other driver (Nemechek) has bettered Custer’s season-to-date 490 total laps led.

“It’s been an extremely proud year for me, just because I think we built things,” Custer said of his team. “We started the year off and weren’t exactly where we wanted to be, but we were a young team with a lot of young guys and were able to really build it through the year and communicate well and through that turned ourselves into a championship team.

“I think it just comes with experience, knowing what to expect (in the title race), knowing not to get too riled up through the weekend. You’re going to be up at times, and you’re going to be down at times, but knowing that you’ve just got to put it together for that last run. I’m confident we’re going to have a fast car and should be able to compete for a win there.”

“At the end of the day, it’s a pretty equal playing field,” Custer added. “We’ve all been fast through the year, and all been fast in the Playoffs it just a matter of how that last run plays out.

“It seems like it’s always the top four racing each other there at the end, and I’m planning on winning it.”

NCTS: Georgia’s Heim Hoping To Turn Regular-Season Dominance Into Craftsman Truck Series Title

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series regular season champion Corey Heim insisted Thursday morning there is no absolute clear-cut championship favorite among the four drivers racing for the big trophy Friday night. But of course, he certainly likes his chances.

Despite one fewer start than the rest of the full-time field – Heim missed the Gateway race because of illness – the driver of the No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota leads the series in top fives (12), top 10s (19) and stage wins (seven). He brings a streak of 15 consecutive top-10 finishes to Phoenix. And his 564 laps led is double that of any other full-time competitor.

The 21-year-old Marietta, Georgia native – who is competing in his first full-time season – has only a single previous Phoenix start; leading five laps and finishing seventh last year driving for Kyle Busch. But he’s been preparing for this race since locking himself in early in the final round of the Playoffs.

“I’ve heard it go both ways, so I don’t know, but I think we’ve earned that (favorite) label,” Heim said. “I guess it doesn’t really matter at the end of the day until you win it. I feel like we have just been so rock solid and consistent since the springtime. We’ve done a good job of executing every week and we show up with fast Toyota Tundra TRD Pros.

“I feel like ever since around Martinsville when our first win happened, we kind of knew that we were capable of it. It was just a matter of executing from that point.”

Since his maiden national series victory at the Martinsville half-miler in April, Heim has led laps in all but one race (Talladega) and finished outside the top five only three times. It’s the kind of track record that has helped generate confidence and expectation.

Heim said he’s got plenty of family coming in from all over the country to support him this week, and he’s been relying on other Toyota Racing Development (TRD) drivers such as John Hunter Nemechek and Christopher Bell, who have had championship experience, for tips on the sim and what to expect this weekend.

“It was nice to be able to kind of spread out some of my studying and really just sit on it and study on it for six weeks and show up and knowing what I need to do, and that has been really big for me,” Heim said. “I understand the circumstances and with this being my first fulltime season and my first Playoffs, being able to sit on it and under the circumstances and the pressure has really let me just come here and feel a lot better about it.

“It would be a lot different if I just won my way in at (the last race) Homestead or something and had a week and a half to think about it. But I feel like I’d be more unprepared and coming in with a lot of pressure on me.

“But to be able to sit on it and study on it for six weeks and show up, kind of know what I need to do, was really big for me.”

Carson Hocevar Won’t Be Unprepared For Truck Series Championship Race

Carson Hocevar doesn’t consider his flat tire an omen. He’d prefer to think of it as bad luck that’s now behind him.

“A few days ago, I hit a curb with my truck and got a flat,” Hocevar said during a question-and-answer session with reporters during Championship 4 Media Day at Phoenix Raceway.

Hocevar wasn’t referring to the No. 42 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet he’ll drive in Friday night’s NASCAR Craftrsman Truck Series Championship race at the one-mile track in the Sonoran Desert.

The 20-year-old driver was happy the flat tire happened with his personal truck and not on the race track.

“We got it out of the way, hopefully,” Hocevar said.

The incident with the truck was a minor inconvenience during a week in which Hocevar has been running simulations to prepare for Phoenix, not only for his own Truck Series effort but also for the NASCAR Cup Series teams at Hendrick Motorsports. Hendrick drivers Kyle Larson and William Byron qualified for the Championship 4 on the Cup side.

“We’ve done at least a hundred runs of sim just on Phoenix alone from the start of the Playoffs till now,” said Hocevar, who will graduate to the Cup Series in a Spire Motorsports car next year. “I’ve done hours and hours. I’ve done Cup sim these past few weeks for Phoenix, with HMS to run for the final four.

“I’ve done days with (trainer) Josh Wise where we don’t even work on the race car — we just work on myself. And obviously, with Niece, we’ve worked since the beginning of the year even, just working on Phoenix alone…

“I think we’ve gotten it a little bit better just in the last two days.”

Now, if Hocevar can just keep all four tires up, he expects to be a contender for the Truck Series title before he makes the jump to Cup.

Jamie Little Making TV History

Longtime broadcaster Jamie Little will make history this weekend when she calls the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship race for FOX Sports 1 Friday night at Phoenix Raceway. The longtime racing reporter will handle the play-by-call call – capping a 12-race run in the role this season. It’s the first time a woman has called the television play-by-play for any national motor sports series. Little will be joined in the booth by two-time Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip and former NASCAR Cup Series driver Phil Parsons.

NASCAR Weekend Preview

NASCAR Cup Series
Next Race: NASCAR Cup Series Championship
The Place: Phoenix Raceway – Avondale, AZ
The Date: Sunday, November 5
The Time: 3 p.m. ET
The Purse: $11,143,232
TV: NBC, 2 p.m. ET
Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Distance: 312 miles (312 laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 60), Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 185), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 312)

NASCAR Xfinity Series
Next Race: NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship
The Place: Phoenix Raceway – Avondale, AZ
The Date: Saturday, November 4
The Time: 7 p.m. ET
The Purse: $1,707,366
TV: USA, 6:30 p.m. ET
Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Distance: 200 miles (200 laps); Stage 1 (Ends on lap 45), Stage 2 (Ends on lap 90), Final Stage (Ends on lap 200)

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
Next Race: NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship
The Place: Phoenix Raceway – Avondale, AZ
The Date: Friday, November 3
The Time: 10 p.m. ET
The Purse: $794,766
TV: FS1, 9 p.m. ET
Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Distance: 150 miles (150 laps); Stage 1 (Ends on lap 45), Stage 2 (Ends on lap 90), Final Stage (Ends on lap 150)