AVONDALE, AZ — Joey Logano had great early race speed but it came at the wrong time. Logano, led the first 119 laps but a vibration on his No. 22 Ford took away him track position and ultimately his shot at his second championship in the last three years. Brad Keselowski had good speed but his pit crew kept taking him out of contention. Keselowski, lost 12 spots on pit road on Sunday including two on his final stop. He went from second to fourth to start the final stint to the finish and with the second fastest car of the race at the time, he had to make up over 4 seconds in less than 50 laps.
Denny Hamlin never had the handling and the short track package for Joe Gibbs Racing cost him a championship.
Chase Elliott started last after failing inspection two times. Instead of the pole, he came from last. He showed though while he’s the best and why the champion of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season is no fluke.
Logano and Hamlin short pit the final stop so Elliott and Keselowski came down pit road one lap later. Logano, jumped from third to first, Elliott from first to second, Hamlin from fourth to third and Keselowski from second to fourth.
Logano, had the top spot again for the first time since Lap 119, but he was in lap traffic. Elliott, had the fastest car and chased him down. Keselowski, had the second fastest car, but was too far behind to do anything with it.
Elliott, caught and passed Logano with 44 laps-to-go and set his sails on his first series championship. The only thing left in doubt was, would another late race caution come out just as it had the previous two days on the Arizona oval?
It never did.
Keselowski, passed Hamlin, then Logano with 10 laps left but didn’t have enough time. Elliott, bested Keselowski by 2.740-seconds to give Hendrick Motorsports their 13th series championship.
Party like it’s 1988. Or is it 1992? Maybe 2014? Whatever the year, history was made on Sunday afternoon in the Arizona desert. Elliott, led the final 43 laps en route to the victory in Sunday’s Season Finale 500 at the Phoenix Raceway.
It was Elliott’s first career NASCAR Cup Series championship as he becomes the third youngest champion (24 years old) in NASCAR’s premiere series history.
Elliott, won the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship on this very race track on this very date (Nov. 8) in 2014. He does this in Jimmie Johnson’s 686th and final start as he will retire now from his No. 48 Chevrolet.
In 1992, another seven-time champion Richard Petty made his final NASCAR start while a new star make his first career Cup race – Jeff Gordon.
On Sunday, a seven time champion walks away while Elliott wins his first title.
Also, in 1988, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the LA Lakers won the World Series and NBA Finals respectively. Bill Elliott won the Cup championship that year. Same thing happened in 2020, just it was Elliott’s son Chase being crowned the champion.
Elliott, passed literally passed every car on Sunday as his No. 9 Chevrolet failed pre race inspection twice. He had to give up the pole to start last. He quickly came from the back to 29th in just four laps. He was 20th on Lap 9. He was 15th on Lap 16, 11th on Lap 25 and 10th two laps later. On Lap 40, he moved into the top five and on Lap 120, he passed Logano for the lead for the first time of the race.
He’d lead 152 of the final 192 laps in earning his fifth win of the season and 11th of his career. Elliott, had to win last Sunday to even get to the Championship 4 as he entered the Round of 8 cutoff race 25 points behind. His jack man made a wise heads up move to get back to the pit wall and not have an over the wall too soon penalty on his second to last stop and Elliott over came a slower than normal final stop to win last Sunday in Martinsville.
He won the Round of 12 cutoff race, the Round of 8 cutoff race and the Championship race. That’s the definition of clutch.
Brad Keselowski passed Logano for second with 10 laps-to-go and would finish second in his No. 2 Ford. Logano, was third in his No. 22 Ford while Denny Hamlin was fourth in his No. 11 Toyota.
Johnson, rounded out the top five in fifth.
Keselowski’s Pit Road Struggles Cost Him Potential Championship Day
Brad Keselowski finished 2.740-seconds off of his second career Cup Series championship. He feels like the lack of track position in the end cost him a shot at the title. That lack of track position was a byproduct of slow pit stops all day for his No. 2 Ford crew.
They lost six spots on his first pit stop which was a sign of things to come the rest of the day. He lost 12 spots on pit road overall including two spots on his final stop when he had a slow stop on the rear of his car which dropped him 4.7 seconds back following that. He entered the final pit sequence second and came out fourth.
He’d make up two seconds in the end, but with being so far out, he couldn’t close the gap even further due to the checkered flag falling.
Keselowski, did move by Denny Hamlin, then his teammate Joey Logano with 10 to go, but he ran out of time. The Team Penske driver scored his third top five finish at Phoenix since 2015 and his fourth straight top six finish to close out the season.
“Needed to have a late race yellow,” Keselowski said of the race. “Pretty good there at the end, didn’t have the track position to show it.”
The Truck and Xfinity Series races had late race cautions which completely changed the outcome of both races. Keselowski was hoping for one on Sunday but it never happened. We only had four cautions all day, two for stage breaks and another for the Lap 30 competition caution. We went the entire final stage green.
Logano Just Didn’t Have The Speed At The Right Time
Joey Logano thought he was the favorite to win the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series championship heading into the Championship 4. He felt like his win at Phoenix in the spring as well as winning the opening race of the Round of 8 was a big enough advantage to give him his second career title.
Instead, he finished third among the four drivers vying for the championship at the Phoenix Raceway on Sunday.
Logano, started off great. He led the first 119 laps with the exception of pit stops, but a vibration really ended his shot of a win/championship. That’s when he lost the clean air up front and he never rebounded.
The Team Penske driver did finish second in Stage 2, but was the third best car from then on. His crew got him the lead after the final pit stop, but Elliott chased him down for the lead with 44 to go.
“Didn’t have the speed at the right time,” Logano said.
He was passed by Brad Keselowski for second with 10 laps-to-go and had to settle for third in the Season Finale 500. It was his fourth top three finish over the final five races of 2020 and 13th top 10 in his last 15 starts overall.
“We executed and did our job,” Logano continued. “Lot to be proud of. We are stronger because of what we went though.”
Logano, started off the year great. Despite a crew chief swap on all three Penske cars this offseason, Logano came out of the gates hot. He had three wins in his first six races run, including the Clash and Duels in Daytona. Then, the bottom dropped out.
That’s when Logano started struggling. The pandemic set in and changes happened to NASCAR. We’d qualify for one of the final 32 races. We’d not practice at any of them either. For a team with no history together anymore, it hurt.
Logano said to me this summer that it wasn’t like he and crew chief Paul Wolfe hadn’t seen these tracks before, it’s just that they haven’t seen them together. With practice, they were fine. Without it, they were guessing. They were guessing wrong at that.
In the first 13 races run during the pandemic, Logano had one top five and five top 10’s. Then, that third place finish at Texas happened in late July and altered everything. Nine top fives and 13 top 10’s happened over the final 15 races.
That bodes well for 2021.
Hamlin Just Didn’t Have It
Denny Hamlin struggled over the course of the final 12 races of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season. He admitted that they just didn’t have it on Sunday at the Phoenix Raceway.
Hamlin, did earn his fourth top five finish in his last five starts on the Arizona oval, but he was last among the Championship 4 drivers with a fourth place result in his No. 11 Toyota in the Season Finale 500.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver just struggled with the handling of his race car all day. He was tight for a majority of it as he finished second in Stage 1 and fourth in Stage 2.
“We were a little off handling, but overall car speed, we just didn’t have enough,” Hamlin said on Sunday. “Our next best teammate was 10th, so as an organization we have got to get a little better, especially on the short tracks.
“It seems like we were a little bit off all year, and that was all it had, that’s for sure. I was pushing for everything I had. We just didn’t quite have enough today, and we ended up fourth.
“It was so, so small. At times we were pretty good and maybe I had the fastest car, but it was just a few laps here and there. We just needed a little bit more,” he said.
“Obviously, this package in particular we weren’t great this year and this was one of our better runs with it, but it just wasn’t enough really.”
Hamlin, only won once in the playoffs after scoring six in the regular season. That came at Talladega in the Round of 12. He also only had just four top five finishes in the final 12 weeks. He had seven top six finishes, six in the top three including two wins and three runner-ups, in the eight races prior.
While Hamlin notes that Championship 4 appearances should hold a lot of merit when looking at a NASCAR drivers’ career during this era of racing, does the doubt creep in if he’ll ever win a title?
“No one has won more than we have over the last two years. Daytona 500 two years in a row, the final four two years in a row. I’m pretty proud of what this team is doing and what we are building toward,” he said.
“We will come back and do it again next year. I’m looking forward to it. We will win as many races as we possibly can to get ourselves back to Phoenix again with another shot.”
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver had six wins in 2019, tied for second most in a single season for his career. He backed that up with seven more in 2020. He also scored a career high 19 top fives and 23 top 10’s a year ago. His average finish was 9.7, best of his career for a single season too. This year, he had 18 top fives and 20 top 10’s too.
That’s 13 wins, 37 top fives and 43 top 10’s over the last two years and he’s not had a championship to show for it.
Team Penske Trio Should Be Stout In 2021
Lets rewind back to January. Well before this pandemic set in. When Team Penske announced major organizational changes within the NASCAR Cup Series teams including all three crew chiefs and their pit crews changes drivers, I think we all silently questioned what they were doing. Why break up what they had?
Brad Keselowski and Paul Wolfe were great together. They won a championship in 2012 and one of the best driver-crew chief tandems in NASCAR. So was Joey Logano and Todd Gordon. They won the 2018 title together and seems to just click well. Then, with Ryan Blaney and Jeremy Bullins, you had another good tandem with chemistry.
All three finished in the top eight of the final standings in 2019.
But, Penske showed us again, how dare us question him.
Logano and Keselowski finished second and third in the final standings and Blaney was one of the hottest drivers to close 2020. It gives them high hopes for 2021.
The crew chief swap started off great then went for a lull during the pandemic. Logano and Paul Wolfe won half of the first four regular season races run. Then, when the racing resumed during the pandemic, they had just one top five and five top 10’s in the first 13 races. Then, that third place finish at Texas happened in late July and altered everything. Nine top fives and 13 top 10’s happened over the final 15 races including four top three’s over the final five weeks.
Blaney, had the fastest car to start 2020 off too. He came home runner-up in the Daytona 500 and should have been second in each of the next two races too. A late race caution put strategy against him in Vegas then a tire problem in the final laps in Fontana kept his finishes not to where they should have been to start the year off with.
He kept that speed during the beginning of the return of the pandemic. Blaney, had six top four finishes in a nine race span. But, after his Talladega win, that’s when everything changed. He had just one top five and four top 10’s over the next 16 races. That put us through the first round of the playoffs.
Then, he finishes 2020 back where he started. Blaney, closes 2020 with six top seven finishes over the final seven weeks.
For Keselowski, he was the most consistent all season but closed 2020 with four top six finishes in-a-row.
With a full season of notes at their disposal now, watch out next season.
Championship 4 Drivers Dominate, Do Changes Need To Be Made?
The top five of the final finishing order of the Season Finale 500 couldn’t have been scripted much better. The Championship 4 drivers coming in 1-2-3-4 with Jimmie Johnson on his way out the door in NASCAR with a fifth place run in his 686th and final NASCAR Cup Series start.
Seemed great right?
Well, I think changes may be needed to spice up the season finale to be honest. Not to rain on NASCAR or Chase Elliott’s parade. He’s a fitting champion and NASCAR did a hell of a job to get us through a season in crisis. Yes, the race had just four cautions and I applaud that. I’m okay with it. I’m glad we didn’t see any fluke cautions for lapped cars at the end of the race to alter the course of the finish. The fastest car won outright. All of that is great.
But, to get the Championship 4 drivers 1-2-3-4 again, well I’m not okay with that. I don’t think it’s a fluke anymore. It still seems like it’s their race up front in their own zip code and everyone else follows multiple seconds back.
We all wondered if a change of venue would change up they way that these season finale races would run. At the Homestead-Miami Speedway, all six years were essentially a battle between the Championship 4 drivers and everyone else. It was confusing for the less common fan.
For a majority of the final races at Homestead, the championship drivers ran 1-2-3-4. It was a great storyline but made us wonder what’s the point of having the other cars on the track.
But, with coming to Phoenix, maybe this was a place to where this changed. Can this be a race with full participation again?
Plus, the four members of the Championship 4 weren’t necessarily at their best at Phoenix. Yes, they had won the last two races run there with Denny Hamlin winning this race last year and Joey Logano winning in the spring, but Hamlin had just three top five finishes in his last eight Phoenix starts overall. Elliott, had two top five finishes at Phoenix ever. Logano had just two top five finishes on the 1-mile track since 2016 with Brad Keselowski only having two since 2015.
But, despite Elliott starting last on Sunday, they still were 1-2-3-4 in both stages and the only ones to put up any fight for the lead all day.
It only took 48 laps for them to take the hold of the top four spots and they’d pretty much remain that way for the rest of the way. They yet again finished 1-2-3-4 in both stages and also in the final finishing order. In the end, the fifth place car was 12.430-seconds off of the lead and four seconds behind the fourth place finisher which was the last Championship 4 member.
Factor in the lack of cautions, four overall on the day, three of which being for stage breaks and the competition caution and you get a pretty straight forward race.
“I feel like the ones I’ve been a part of, I feel like I’ve really tried to let those guys fight it out, especially if those cars are good, which it seems like they have been in the fast, up front battling,” Elliott said on how he expects the drivers not in the championship to race him on Sunday. “I’ve tried to do that for sure.
“I will say that I do feel like as the years have gone on, seems like the first year of this Final 4 thing, at least the first year I was a part of it, they didn’t want anything to do with those guys. Then it seems like as the years have gone on, people are just kind of running their race a little more.
“I do think the respect is still there, but I do think there is a little bit more of a sense of those guys, the people that are not a part of the Final 4, running their event still.
“You hope you get some respect. You hope those guys will give you that. Whether they will or won’t, I don’t know. Never done it. But we’ll find out. I do think the dynamic has changed a little bit as time has gone on. Hopefully we’re fast enough where it doesn’t matter.”
Denny Hamlin agreed. He says he gives drivers breaks all season in hopes to build up a “friendship bank.” He hoped that he could cash in some favors on Sunday from them. He honestly didn’t need them.
“I believe there’s checks and balances.” Hamlin said. “I believe that there’s — that’s what me and my friends call it, friendship bank. You have deposits and withdrawals. We talked about this last year. Yeah, I mean, I’ve cut a lot of competitors breaks, especially at the end of stages, letting guys stay on the lead lap and things like that, and yeah, sure, you hope it comes back around, but there are no practices of that. Drivers have really, really short memories, depending on whether it’s good or bad for them.
“But I believe I’m in a very good position with my competitors that I’ve cut breaks to. But not everyone will see it that way. I mean, and that’s okay. I’m going to go out there and try to earn it any way that I can, the easy way, the hard way, but certainly I believe that when it comes down to the final race, and I’ve seen it in the past, that if you’re typically a guy that carries favors with people, I’ve noticed in the final race they cut you breaks.
“I try to put as many deposits as I can throughout the year when it really doesn’t cost me much, but it would be a benefit for them to hopefully get that in return. But if I don’t, I definitely don’t hold any grudges whatsoever.”
The Team Penske guys though, well they don’t have a lot of friends on the track. They’re less optimistic on how guys will race them.
“I don’t know if cashing in is the right word,” Keselowski said. “I don’t know if I have many of those in the bank. Hopefully you don’t need them. You know, if you just go out there and execute, if the team brings a great car, driver does a great job, pit crew executes, we won’t need any favors. I can’t say I’ve been really thinking about that too much.”
Logano, he’s not going to be focused on how others may or may not race him. He’s just going to focus on themselves.
“I got to just run my race. You have to continue doing what you’ve done to get to this point, what’s been successful for myself as a race car driver, the way we race. We need to continue doing that. That’s what we’ll continue doing.”
Sunday showed that when we come back to Phoenix next year for Championship Week, it doesn’t matter who’s in the Championship 4, one of them will win it. I don’t think this is a fluke anymore. Nothing is going to change.
Blaney Best Of The Rest, He And Byron Close 2020 With Much Needed Momentum
Ryan Blaney and William Byron both ended the 2020 season with some big momentum. After each getting bounced from the playoffs in the first round, they’ve been nothing but solid since.
In terms of Blaney, he closed the final seven races of the postseason with six top seven finishes including five straight.
The Team Penske driver finished fifth in both stages on Sunday from the Phoenix Raceway and brought his No. 12 Ford home sixth as well.
Blaney, had the fastest car to start 2020 off too. He came home runner-up in the Daytona 500 and should have been second in each of the next two races too. A late race caution put strategy against him in Vegas then a tire problem in the final laps in Fontana kept his finishes not to where they should have been to start the year off with.
He kept that speed during the beginning of the return of the pandemic. Blaney, had six top four finishes in a nine race span. But, after his Talladega win, that’s when everything changed. He had just one top five and four top 10’s over the next 16 races. That put us through the first round of the playoffs.
Then, he finishes 2020 back where he started.
For Byron, he turned his season around in August at Dover. Byron, had no top five finishes in his first 24 starts of 2020. He had four finishes of seventh to 10th. Then, over the final 12 races, Byron has four top fives and seven top 10’s including a 10th place result in Sunday’s race at Phoenix.
Johnson Closes Storied Cup Career With Impressive Top 5 Result
One storied career ends while another looks to be just getting started. Sound familiar? See, a lot of race car drivers make their final starts of their careers before setting sail on a retirement. But, few are as impactful when drivers like Jimmie Johnson walk away. Unfortunately, Dale Earnhardt never got to walk away on his own terms. He passed away in a crash in the 2001 Daytona 500. Richard Petty’s final start came in Atlanta in 1992. But, that final race was unfortunately long overdue. Petty’s final seasons were nothing like his storied career was made. Petty, went eight years without a win to close out his career. He had two top 10’s combined over his final four seasons including none in his farewell tour.
That also happened to be Jeff Gordon’s first start of his storied career. One legend out, another one coming in.
Johnson, is the only other driver with them to have won seven championships. His final start on Sunday goes down in history with the likes of Petty, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Tony Stewart. You don’t witness these moments very often.
He leaves and Chase Elliott gets his first NASCAR championship. Elliott, is only 24 years old and with 11 wins to his credit already to go with a title as the third youngest driver ever, is this 1992 all over again?
After some less than desired years, Johnson leaves us all with a good lasting memory. He brought his No. 48 Chevrolet home with a top five at the Phoenix Raceway in his 686th and final start. After missing out of the playoffs for the second consecutive year, this time by just six points, he finally showed the speed needed for the seven-time champion.
Johnson, was 11th in Stage 1 and sixth in Stage 2. He even took over the lead for a while during a pit sequence between Laps 139-142 and was a top 10 threat the rest of the way. He passed Ryan Blaney in the closing laps for his fifth top five of the season, the most since 2016.
Johnson, ends 2020 with 10 top 10 finishes, the least amount of any season though too. He had 12 last year and 11 in each of the two years before. He had 16 in his last championship winning year of 2016, but that at the time was his lowest amount of top 10’s in a single season. The previous 14 years he had no fewer than 20.
We didn’t know it then, but 2016 was the start of Johnson’s decline. It was a five win season, but he only had three over his final four years, all coming in 2017.
That’s why Johnson was ready to do something else. The cars have changed against his driving style and why tarnish his reputation by overstaying his welcome.
It was great to see Johnson running up front again on Sunday and that’s a fitting ending to a storied NASCAR career. His hearts full and so is ours.
Stewart-Haas Racing Cars Virtually Non Existent On Sunday
I honestly expected more out of the Stewart-Haas Racing cars on Sunday. I figured Kevin Harvick would show everyone that he should have won this year’s championship if he could have made his way into the Championship 4 by going out and dominating the season finale on Sunday. A 10th win of the season and 10th overall at Phoenix Raceway too, right?
Instead, it was far from it.
Harvick, struggled to get a grasp of his No. 4 Ford all day as he was only 13th and 11th respectively in the two stages. He finished a quiet seventh.
His teammates were the same.
Aric Almirola was 17th and 15th in the two stages, Clint Bowyer was eighth and 12th respectively and Cole Custer 14th and 13th respectively. They came home 13th (Almirola), 14th (Bowyer) and 28th (Custer) respectively.
Results
Race Review Online 