MARTINSVILLE, VA — joined Josh Berry and Noah Gragson into the Championship 4 round next Saturday at the Phoenix Raceway and will compete for a championship in a winner-take-all scenario in the Arizona desert. Let’s look at each of the four contenders.

Josh Berry

His first full-time season has gone extremely well. Berry has 9 top 10 finishes in his last 12 starts on the season. However, he also only has 3 top 5’s over the last 15 races too. He was 36th and 3rd in his two Phoenix starts.

2022 Stats:

• 3 wins
• 11 Top 5’s
• 20 Top 10’s
• 356 laps led
• 1st Championship 4 appearance
• Phoenix Finish: 3rd

Noah Gragson

He’s back for a 2nd straight season. This time, all the momentum is on Gragson’s side. A series leading 8 wins, 5 of which in the last 9 races to go along with a Phoenix win this past spring. The Vegas native also has 13 top 10 finishes in the last 14 races run including a top 3 finish in 7 of the last 9 at that. He also was runner-up in this very race in 2020 too.

2022 Stats:

• 8 wins
• 20 Top 5’s
• 25 Top 10’s
• 985 laps led
• 2nd Championship 4 appearance
• Phoenix Finish: 1st

Ty Gibbs

His only drawback is that he’s just scored his 2nd win in his last 16 starts and now is the subject of intense scrutiny. However, he does have 12 top 8 finishes in the last 15 and has been in the top 7 (3rd, 7th, 2nd, 4th, 2nd, 1st) in the playoffs. Gibbs was runner-up in his first Phoenix start and sixth in the other. He has 1 career lap led here. Can he top the JR Motorsports trio?

2022 Stats:

• 6 wins
• 15 Top 5’s
• 21 Top 10’s
• 865 laps led
• 1st Championship 4 appearance
• Phoenix Finish: 6th

Justin Allgaier

Allgaier came from below the cutline to make his 5th Championship 4 appearance of his career, all coming in the last 7 years. He has 3 top five finishes in the last 7 races, but those came in the last 4 weeks too. At Phoenix, he’s made 24 starts with two wins, 8 top 5 finishes and 16 top 10’s. The only thing is, he’s only had 2 top 5’s in his last 8 at Phoenix too.

2022 Stats:

• 3 wins
• 15 Top 5’s
• 22 Top 10’s
• 737 laps led
• 5th Championship 4 appearance
• Phoenix Finish: 10th

Trends

• The No. 9 car for JRM has won 3 of the last 8 series champions, all by different drivers too (Chase Elliott 2014, William Byron 2017, Tyler Reddidck 2018)
• There’s been 4 straight different organizations to win the title
  • JR Motorsports (2018), Richard Childress Racing (2019), Team Penske (2020), Joe Gibbs Racing (2021). That comes to an end this season.
• This is the 1st year since 2018 that we’ve had teammates fighting for a championship (Gragson, Berry, Allgaier)
  • 2019: JGR, SHR, RCR, JRM
  • 2020: SHR, Penske, Kaulig, JRM
  • 2021: JRM, Penske, JGR, Kaulig
  • 2022: JRM, JRM, JRM, JGR
• 4 of the top 5 seeds in the playoffs made it to the Final Round
  • 2016: No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, No. 7
  • 2017: No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, No. 4
  • 2018: No. 2, No. 4, No. 5, No. 7
  • 2019: No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, No. 6
  • 2020: No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, No. 6
  • 2021: No. 1, No. 2, No. 4, No. 6
  • 2022: No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, No. 5
• The No. 1 seed has made it to the final round in 6 of the 7 years, but in the previous 6 instances, they have just 1 championship. In fact, the top seed remaining entering the final round has just 1 title between them. The best odds are the third out of four seeds entering the final round with three titles. Last year, the last seed among the four won. So, despite the top 2 seeds being the clear favorites, don’t assume they’ll win the championship.
  • 2016: No. 3
  • 2017: No. 1
  • 2018: No. 5
  • 2019: No. 3
  • 2020: No. 2
  • 2021: No. 6