Dramatic prelude builds excitement for NASCAR's Phoenix finale
The NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway - it doesn't need a sponsor's name and the number of laps or miles involved.
This race is bigger than that and officially will wrap up the 2024 season on Sunday in Avondale, Ariz.
But how did we get here?
With so much at stake last weekend at Martinsville and the six drivers either having to win (Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott) or point their way into the field (William Byron, Christopher Bell, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson) as one of the two drivers filling the Championship 4 field, it came as very little surprise that controversy ensued at the end.
Of course, Blaney pulled off the hard part by winning at the half-mile track and advancing for the second straight year with a penultimate-race victory at Martinsville.
Last year, his clutch performance led to his first Cup title, and the No. 12 Ford racer hopes to carry that momentum to the Phoenix-area desert Sunday.
What went on behind him is another story entirely, and it didn't unfold without consequences.
The scenes played out dramatically in the final laps: The Chevrolets of Ross Chastain and Austin Dillon ran two-wide behind Byron's No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy, generally rivals on the track but bowtie brethren in the closing circuits that would decide if at least one Camaro would compete for a title.
It will, but only one.
Amazingly, Byron made it in as the only Hendrick or Chevy ride to get in, but it didn't come without a long wait while NASCAR Race Control pieced together what went on.
In the end, Byron advanced with title hopes, while Christopher Bell's were dashed as he was deemed to have violated a safety regulation - riding the wall like Chastain in 2022, despite the Joe Gibbs Racing racer not passing one car for position - and perhaps getting a boost from fellow Toyota driver Bubba Wallace.
Jeff Gordon, Hendrick's vice president since 2022, said he didn't believe Chastain and Dillon set up a Chevy roadblock to protect Byron's position. He saw it as hard racing.
"But (they were) also racing to advance and racing to make sure you're aware of what others are doing and what they had on the line," said Gordon, a four-time Cup winner.
"That means you don't go wreck somebody or turn somebody. You just give them a little bit more room and leniency. And I feel like that's what I saw from a Chevy side of things."
Chastain, Dillon and Wallace weren't penalized Tuesday, but members of their teams were. That leads us to what could go on Sunday, but historically hasn't happened in a championship setting.
During, say, the final 25 laps of the 312-lapper, what happens when Byron is out front with three Hendrick cars flanking him like a wall with Reddick, Blaney or Team Penske teammates Joey Logano or Blaney bearing down?
Blaney finished second in Arizona a year ago to win his first title and is the favorite from the oddsmakers in Las Vegas to win Sunday, with eliminated racer Bell holding the second-best odds.
And while shenanigans occurring in the final laps to interrupt championship dreams may not have been a thing so far, it surely could be in a fast-paced sport where sudden moves or a slip-up might ruin a fairly obvious outcome.
