First there were 16 NASCAR Cup Series playoff drivers, then 12, then eight and now we’re down to the final four.
Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, Ross Chastain and Christopher Bell will compete against each other (and the rest of the field) in Sunday’s championship race at Phoenix Raceway (3 p.m. ET, NBC).
Since 2020, the one-mile desert track has hosted NASCAR’s championship weekend, but to win the title, these drivers don’t actually have to win the race — although that often happens anyway. A non-playoff driver could take the checkered flag, but the champion will be the driver with the highest finish of the Championship 4. So one of them just has to beat the other three for the crown.
Here’s a detailed breakdown of how the Championship 4 drivers got here and how they’ve previously performed at Phoenix, along with their season stats and title odds, per Tipico Sportsbook as of Tuesday.
Joey Logano, No. 22 Team Penske Ford
How he got to the Championship 4: Logano got here first. Going into last Sunday’s Martinsville Speedway race to close the Round of 8, the Team Penske driver was the only one locked into the Championship 4. He won the Round of 8 opener at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for his third checkered flag of the 2022 season after also winning at Darlington Raceway in May and at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway in June. In a season filled with parity, Logano is in a three-way tie (with Kyle Larson and Tyler Reddick) for second-most wins so far this season.
History at Phoenix Raceway: Logano has two wins at Phoenix in his Cup career, first winning in the fall of 2016 when that was the penultimate race of the season and winning the spring race in 2020. He’s posted top-10 finishes in six of the last seven races at the one-mile track, including an eighth-place finish in March after leading just four laps. Overall in his career with 27 Phoenix starts, Logano has 15 top-10 finishes and seven top-5s.
Season stats
Wins: 3
Top-5s: 10
Top-10s: 16
Laps led: 597
Championship odds: +300
Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
How he got to the Championship 4: At this point, sports fans all over the world know HOW Chastain got here, but we’ll still break it down. On the last lap Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, Chastain wasn’t going to have enough points to make the Championship 4, and Denny Hamlin, who was ahead of him, looked like he’d sneak in. But Chastain shifted to fifth gear and absolutely floored it around the open outside lane of the short track, edging Hamlin across the finish line and stealing that last playoff spot. It was wild and will surely go down in racing history as one of the greatest moves ever. Beyond that, Chastain won his first two career Cup races this season, taking the checkered flags at Circuit of the Americas in March and Talladega Superspeedway in April.
History at Phoenix Raceway: Chastain has never won at Phoenix. In eight career starts, he has one top-5 finish and one top-10, and they’re both from the 2022 Phoenix spring race. In March, he finished second to Chase Briscoe, but overall, he still has a 20.5 average finish at the one-mile track.
Season stats
Wins: 2
Top-5s: 14
Top-10s: 20
Laps led: 692
Championship odds: +300
Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
How he got to the Championship 4: It got a little overshadowed by Chastain’s video game antics, but Bell advanced to the title race because he won at Martinsville. He started the race 20th but ended up leading 150 of the 500 total laps and taking the checkered flag to lock himself into the Championship 4. That victory was the fourth in Bell’s Cup career and his third so far this season. In 2022, he also won at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in July and Charlotte Motor Speedway’s road course in October to advance to the Round of 8.
History at Phoenix Raceway: In just five starts at Phoenix, Bell has two top-10 finishes from when he placed ninth in both 2021 races. Outside of those two, his next-best finish was 17th in 2020, which is also his average finish at the track, despite an average start of 9.6.
Season stats
Wins: 3
Top 5s: 12
Top 10s: 19
Laps led: 573
Championship odds: +250
Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
How he got to the Championship 4: Elliott has won five races so far in 2022, but he didn’t win any in the Round of 8, instead advancing to the title race based on points. His last win was early last month in the Round of 12 when he won at Talladega Superspeedway to guarantee his spot in the Round of 8. His other checkered flags this season were at Dover Motor Speedway in May, Nashville Superspeedway in June and Atlanta Motor Speedway and Pocono Raceway in July. And even without a win in the last playoff round, Elliott still leads the Cup Series in that category this season and will finish with the most wins on the year no matter what.
History at Phoenix Raceway: Elliott has one career win at Phoenix, and it was a big one. Starting from the pole, he took the checkered flag in November 2020 to win his first NASCAR Cup championship. In 13 career starts, he has five top-5 finishes and eight top-10s. However, at the spring Phoenix race this year, Elliott finished 11th behind two of his three fellow title contenders — though he did lead for 50 laps.
Season stats
Wins: 5
Top-5s: 12
Top-10s: 20
Laps led: 857
Championship odds: +190
