The 2024 NASCAR Cup Sequence season has passed by in a flash, and all of it ends this weekend. On Sunday, the vehicles will take to the monitor for the thirty sixth and last time this 12 months within the Cup Sequence Championship at Phoenix Raceway.
4 drivers are racing for a title, whereas everyone else goals to repeat Ross Chastain’s efficiency a season in the past by enjoying spoiler. With that in thoughts, listed here are three to observe — a favourite, a contender and a darkish horse — in addition to one to keep away from for the grand finale.
Favourite: Ryan Blaney (+350, per DraftKings as of Friday afternoon)
Girls and gents, he has executed it once more. After repeating his fall 2023 efficiency at Martinsville by successful along with his again towards the wall, Blaney enters Phoenix as each the race and the championship favourite. There is a good cause for that: he is completed within the high 5 in every of his last six Phoenix starts.
The one factor Blaney lacks within the Arizona desert is a win, as even when he took the championship a season in the past he didn’t end first within the race (as talked about above, Chastain did). This time, that will not be the case. Blaney, who’s listed with one of the best odds within the area at +350, will take the win whereas extra importantly changing into the primary driver to win back-to-back Cup Sequence titles since Jimmie Johnson’s five-in-a-row streak between 2006 and 2010.
Contender: Christopher Bell (+450)
Like Blaney, Bell is a little bit of a chalk decide right here as he is listed because the second favourite with odds of +450. Nevertheless, whereas he is probably not within the title combat, he’ll be way more motivated than every other eradicated driver (with the potential exception of Martin Truex Jr. in his last full-time begin). Bell thought he’d superior to the championship spherical when the checkered flag flew at Martinsville, however was penalized for making an attempt to ride the wall on the ultimate lap. Evidently, he is utilizing that as bulletin board materials.
Bell additionally occurs to be the newest winner at Phoenix, the place he was victorious this previous spring. After Chastain proved a 12 months in the past that it is not unattainable for a non-championship 4 driver to win the season finale, Bell must be a power to be reckoned with.
Darkish horse: Martin Truex Jr. (+2000)
Certain, let’s go for it. As talked about above, Sunday would be the last begin for Truex as a full-time driver within the Cup Sequence, and he’ll be driving a sick-looking throwback paint scheme in addition. He is had a season stuffed with shut calls and misfortunes, however maybe there’s nonetheless an opportunity for him to expertise a storybook ending.
Contemplating his current historical past at Phoenix, Truex may do it. He led 55 laps and completed seventh within the spring this 12 months, and has a win there in 2021. Phoenix has additionally seen legends stroll off into the sundown earlier than, as Matt Kenseth did so in 2017 (although Phoenix was the penultimate spherical that 12 months) in what was anticipated to be his last full-time season. A Truex win would assist the season finish on a feel-good be aware, and regardless of his odds of +2000, it is value a wager.
Keep away from: William Byron (+650)
Out of the 4 championship contenders, Byron is the one who appears to have the toughest path to a title. Blaney is penciled in as the favourite, and his Staff Penske teammate Joey Logano has had two further weeks to arrange after punching his ticket all the way in which again at Las Vegas, the primary race of the Spherical of Eight. Tyler Reddick and his No. 45 crew additionally bought a head begin on their preparation after successful at Homestead, and he was very robust at Phoenix again within the spring.
That leaves Byron, who struggles on the flat tracks as it’s. He has a Phoenix win from the spring of 2023, however the two races there a season in the past are his solely two top-fives on the monitor in his profession. Together with his odds tied for third-highest at +650 (the identical as Logano and Reddick), you would be significantly better off wanting elsewhere.
