A Look at the 4 Contenders for the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race

By: Epoch Times - Sports Posted On: November 08, 2024 View: 2

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Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Tyler Reddick, and William Byron will battle it out at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday to be named 2024 NASCAR Cup Series champion.

The 2024 NASCAR Cup Series, which began with a Daytona 500 victory by William Byron in mid-February, will conclude with the NASCAR Championship Race on Sunday.

Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona, will host the Cup Series finale, with Byron one of four drivers in contention for the crown.

While NASCAR at Phoenix will have a full 36-driver field, just four of them are eligible to win the championship, with Byron joined by Joey Logano, Tyler Reddick, and Ryan Blaney. Each contender has deserving merits to claim the checkered flag at the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race.

Each of the four has exactly three victories on the season, with only Kyle Larson (six) having more, though he was eliminated in the Round of 8.

Logano, Reddick, and Blaney each won a Round of 8 race to clinch their spots in the championship race, while Byron benefitted from Christopher Bell—who originally clinched a spot in the final four—incurring a penalty that docked him points and led to Byron taking his place. Even though he got in through the backdoor, NASCAR has to be delighted that the reigning Daytona 500 winner is in contention as the Hendrick Motorsports driver seeks his first Cup Series championship.

Meanwhile, this is old hat for Blaney, who is the defending NASCAR Cup Series champion, as well as Logano, who is a two-time champ (2018, 2022). A bit of history is at stake for both, as Blaney is seeking to become the 11th driver with back-to-back Cup Series championships, and the first since Jimmie Johnson won five straight (2006–10). As for Logano, he is looking to become the 10th driver all-time with at least three championships to his name.

Reddick doesn’t have a Daytona victory, or a prior Championship Race victory, but he did claim the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series regular season title. He finds himself in contention for the grand prize for the first time, as last year’s sixth-place finish was previously his best. Reddick races for 23XI Racing, the auto racing team owned and operated by Michael Jordan and could give the basketball legend another championship to add to the six he won on the hardwood—including one in Phoenix (1993) when his Bulls knocked off the Suns.

When it comes to track success, there is a clear drop-off from the duo of Logano and Blaney to Byron, and then to Reddick. Logano is a three-time winner at Phoenix Raceway, which is tied with Kyle Busch for the most amongst full-time active drivers. However, his last start there in the March Phoenix race didn’t go too well as he was spun out by John Hunter Nemechek and failed to finish. Accidents have caused Logano to notch a Did Not Finish five times in his career at Phoenix Raceway, which is his third-most of any track.

Blaney has dominated at Phoenix as much as one can dominate without actually winning. Since the start of the 2021 Cup Series, Blaney has the best average finish (4.1), the most top 5s (six), and the most top 10s (seven) across the seven Phoenix starts. However, what he doesn’t have yet is a Phoenix victory, although he has three runner-up finishes over his last four starts at the track.

Byron has the most recent victory at Phoenix Raceway, as he took the checkered flag at the March race in 2023. He’s been inconsistent outside of that victory and unsuccessful in races on comparable tracks. Across his 33 career starts at similar one-mile intermediate tracks as Phoenix Raceway, that March 2023 victory in Arizona is his only win. It’s also his only top-3 finish across these starts, so Hendrick will hope lighting strikes twice for Byron at Phoenix.

Reddick’s best finish in Avondale is a third place, which he achieved twice over nine starts. However, he has shown discernible improvement at the track since moving from Richard Childress Racing (RCR) to 23XI in 2023. Over six starts with RCR, Reddick had just one top 10 and an average finish of 21.0. But in three NASCAR at Phoenix starts since teaming up with Jordan, Reddick has placed in the top 10 twice, with an average finish of 11.7.

The foursome will battle over 312 laps on Sunday, competing on Phoenix Raceway’s four-turn, asphalt surface. None of the four have to actually win the race to win the championship, though, obviously, doing so would guarantee a title win. Instead, whoever simply has the best finish among the four will claim the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Championship.

Unlike many other sports championship events, the winner of championship race isn’t guaranteed to actually claim the title. That’s what happened last year when Ross Chastain, who was not one of the four championship contenders, placed first. Blaney finished as runner-up, and thus had the best finish amongst the four championship drivers, to win Team Penske its fourth NASCAR Cup Series Championship.

The green flag for the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race will drop at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday and will be broadcast on NBC.

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