Sunday’s Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 at Phoenix global Raceway will likely be delayed due to rain in the area.
Advertisement
By the end of the day we will know which three drivers will join Jeff Gordon in next week’s Sprint Cup Series Championship race. A two-time victor this season, Busch may have cooled off but can not be counted out on tracks like Phoenix or Homestead – where Busch clinched his championship in the first year of the Chase in 2004. The lap shoved Busch (142.880) to an outside front row starting spot.
Martin Truex Jr. just continues to hang in there and is now in the fourth and final spot to continue to the Championship round. It’s Erik Jones, who is replacing Kenseth while he serves the second and final race of a two-race suspension for wrecking Joey Logano at Martinsville.
Busch dominated again at Phoenix worldwide Raceway in the DAV 200, leading 190 of 200 laps Saturday for his record eighth NASCAR Xfinity victory at the track.
So, absolutely predictably on Friday, many were asked the oddly pro forma question of what they could/would do to help their teammates advance to the championship race. “I feel like that (edge) can be gone at any point”, said Harvick. Harvick needed a win to advance out of the first round of this year’s Chase and led 216 laps before running out of fuel two laps from the finish. “We’ll see how the weekend plays out, but I’m definitely looking forward to getting to Phoenix because it is one of my favorite tracks on the schedule”.
“This is a good roll for us, for sure”, said Johnson.
24 Chevrolet team is already locked in so that means there are three spots left for the winner-take-all Ford EcoBoost 400 next week at Homestead Miami Speedway. Logano needs a win on Sunday at Phoenix to advance. Busch led the second round of qualifying with a track record speed of 142.982 miles per hour, but he was bumped from the pole in the third and final round of qualifying.
NBC will televise the race from Phoenix on Sunday beginning with a pre-race NASCAR America Sunday show at 1:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, then moving to NBC at 2 p.m. with Countdown to Green with Krista Voda, Kyle Petty and Dale Jarrett.
Advertisement
Twelve years later and in his final season, Gordon has become this season’s chief beneficiary of NASCAR’s playoff system _ one that has evolved since 2004 and now stresses winning races above all else. “In the big picture, we are racing for the championship next week”.
