What to watch for in NASCAR Cup championship race at Phoenix Raceway

AVONDALE, Ariz. — The NASCAR Cup season comes to a close Sunday at Phoenix Raceway.

There will be much to keep track of throughout 312 laps of racing around the 1-mile track (coverage begins at 2 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock).

Here are a few things to watch for in the race:

A Champion will be crowned, but will they win the race?

Last year marked the first time in the last 10 years that the champion did not win the season finale. Ross Chastain won the race and Ryan Blaney won the championship by finishing second.

Could that happen again?

Martin Truex Jr. starts on the pole. He enters the last race of his final full-time season on a 51-race winless streak. If he’s at the front, the chance to get one more win could make Truex difficult to get around in the last laps.

“I hope we can celebrate (Sunday) after the race,” Truex said. “That would make it all really, really cool.”

Others to watch include Chastain, who starts third, and Kyle Larson, the winningest driver this season with six victories. Larson starts fourth.

Also, Christopher Bell, who won at Phoenix in March qualified seventh. He’s bitter about what happened last weekend at Martinsville that kept him out of the Championship 4 race and has extra motivation today.

Among the title contenders, Blaney was fast in practice but qualified 17th. Joey Logano starts second, best among the title contenders. William Byron qualified eighth. Tyler Reddick will start 10th.

A late caution?

Two of the last five races at Phoenix have had a caution less than five laps from the scheduled end. Neither of those were the championship finale, though. They came in the spring race.

The final 31 laps of last year’s title race were run caution-free. The last 32 laps of the 2022 race were run caution-free.

The pattern suggests that whoever wins the championship will need to be strong over a similar stretch.

“I think we have to take it all into consideration, but you also don’t want to get too focused on any one thing because by the time you think what you expect to happen, it’s something else,” said Billy Scott, crew chief for Tyler Reddick.

“Much like we did at Homestead, you’re going to have to see where we are and be realistic about what our expectations are of winning when you get in that final stint or final stage and play strategy accordingly.”

Know your competitors

This doesn’t just relate to the drivers but to the crew chiefs. Paul Wolfe’s pit call helped Joey Logano win the opener in the Round of 8 at Las Vegas and earn his way into this title race.

“I think we try to learn like the other team’s tendencies and maybe some pit calls and some strategies and what not,” Wolfe said. “Other than that there’s not a ton.

“It’s really knowing what kind of cars they’re going to have too, so what kind of teams really are really good on short run or really good at getting ahead on that. Those are probably the little bit of things you are prepping on and knowing what to expect.”

But it’s also the teams and the pit crews. Track position can be critical at this track.

William Byron enters with the best pit crew among the four title contenders. But that’s good only until the race starts. Then each team will have to excel because a mistake at the wrong time could cost a championship.

Watch those restarts

NASCAR officials have made it clear this weekend that they will closely monitor restarts.

Officials penalized four drivers, including a title contender, in Friday’s Truck race for pulling out of line on the restart before reaching the start/finish line.

Officials penalized Justin Allgaier in Saturday’s Xfinity race for the same infraction.

Five such penalties in the two races before the Cup race is a rarity on a weekend.

“This is the toughest place for that,” Blaney said. “It’s the most inviting to kind of go down there, and you always are kind of antsy on getting down to the apron.”