Championship 4 Tag

Editor’s note: This is the third of a four-part series focusing on why each of the Championship Four will end Sunday’s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway with the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series title in hand. By Brian Eberly, Contributing Writer With five victories, 13 top-five and 21 top-10 finishes, eight poles and almost 2,000 laps led in 2017, most wouldn’t describe Kyle Busch’s season as “trying.” But that’s exactly how the 32-year-old driver described it when asked for one word to represent the season during Championship 4 media availability inRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service FORT WORTH, Tex. – Martin Truex Jr. isn’t invincible after all. Kevin Harvick put a serious dent in Truex’s sense of invulnerability on Sunday afternoon, passing Truex with nine laps left in the AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway and pulling away to win by 1.580 seconds. In beating this year’s unrivaled master of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series’ 1.5-mile intermediate speedways, Harvick earned a spot in the Nov. 19 Championship 4 race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, which Harvick won the first titleRead More

By Brian Eberly, Contributing Writer Kyle Busch came up short in defending his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship on Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, finishing sixth in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Busch finished third in the championship standings, five points behind race-winner and seven-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson and two points behind second-place Joey Logano. “It’s very challenging,” Busch said of how tough it is to repeat as champion. “The biggest thing is you just don’t know where anybody is until the end. I mean, (Jimmie)Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Homestead, Fla. – Call him Seven-Time. Jimmie Johnson joined NASCAR’s most exclusive club on Sunday, winning the Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway to claim his seventh NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship, putting the driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet on par with icons Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt. “You’re a good man, you’re a great champion, and now you’re a seven-time champion,” crew chief Chad Knaus radioed to Johnson, who grabbed the lead from Kyle Larson through Turns 1 and 2Read More

By Brian Eberly, Contributing Writer Sunday’s championship race at Homestead-Miami Speedway marks the first time Jimmie Johnson has made it to the Championship 4 in this the third season of the current version of the Chase format. The past two seasons have seen Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch win the final race of the season to earn the championship. Despite 79 career victories, the 1.5-mile track in Florida is one of just four on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule where Johnson has yet to win. However, it’s important toRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor When looking at the four drivers in the Championship 4 at Homestead, each of the drivers has just as good of a shot at claiming the title, but upon further inspection, Carl Edwards could have the upper hand in the season finale. That is if the statistics are to be believed. Not only is Edwards in the midst of his best season since joining Joe Gibbs Racing, he is also having his best season since falling just short of the title as a result ofRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service The crowning achievement of Joe Gibbs Racing’s 2016 season may also be its biggest problem. But it’s a problem the organization is happy to have. When defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Kyle Busch earned a return trip to the Championship 4 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway with a second-place finish at Phoenix, JGR became the first organization in the three-year history of the Chase’s elimination format to put more than one driver in the final race with a chance to win the title.Read More