Four drivers, one race and a NASCAR Cup Series championship (2024)

By the time the sun sets over Phoenix on Sunday, we will have a new NASCAR Cup Series champion, the last man standing after nine months, a 26-race regular season, a nine-race playoff and, finally, a 312-lap throwdown on the rugged 1-mile flat semi-roval that is the Phoenix Raceway.

Here they are. The 2021 NASCAR "Four Horsemen of the Car-pocalypse."

For those of you unfamiliar with NASCAR's title format, in stark contrast to the points system that gets us to this final event, what these four drivers need to do to win it all is shockingly simple.

Since 2014, four drivers have come to the season finale as the final four title contenders, hitting the reset button and starting at zero. When the checkered flag is flown on Sunday night, the highest finisher among those four wins stock car racing's most coveted prize, the NASCAR Cup Series championship. No confusing bonus points or stage wins any of that. Just beat the other three cars.

History says for anyone wanting to be the champ, that result will have to be a win. Since the current Championship Four model started, the champion has also won the final race all seven times.

So, who are this year's Championship Four, how did they get here and how have they run at Phoenix in years' past? We're so glad you asked, because we've already done the homework for you.

Kyle Larson

No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy
Championship Four appearances: 1
Best championship finish: 6th, 2019
2021 key stats: 9 wins, 19 top 5's, 25 top 10's, 2,474 laps led, 2 DNF
Career at Phoenix: 14 starts, 0 wins, 5 top 5's, 8 top 10's, 72 laps led, 1 DNF

Larson is on the cusp of finally delivering on the wunderkind promise that came with him when he arrived in the Cup Series full time in 2013, and it's been an even more difficult climb than he could have imagined, having been exiled from the garage for an inexplicable dropping of the n-word on a live stream video game telecast during 2020's pandemic lockdown.

He has made the most of the second chance given to him by NASCAR super team Hendrick Motorsports, posting one of the best individual seasons seen in the Cup garage in more than a decade. He's won four of the nine playoff races, including three of the last four. If he wins at Phoenix on Sunday, he will become the first driver to earn double-digit victories in a season since Jimmie Johnson's career peak performance 10-win season in 2007. For more on Larson's comeback from exile, read this piece posted at the start of this year's postseason.

Chase Elliott

No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy
Championship Four appearances: 2
Best championship finish: 1st, 2020
2021 key stats: 2 wins, 14 top 5's, 20 top 10's, 858 laps led, 3 DNF
Career at Phoenix: 11 starts, 1 win, 4 top 5's, 7 top 10's, 1 pole, 402 laps led, 1 DNF

While Hendrick Motorsports teammate Larson is still seeking to deliver on the "next great one" potential tagged him as a teenager, one year ago Elliott fulfilled the NASCAR prophecies that had been spoken about him since birth. The defending Cup Series champ was all over the place during the 2021 season, countering his nine top-two finishes with seven finishes of 21st or worse. Both of his victories came on road courses, but he did finish fifth at Phoenix back in March and won this race one year ago to clinch the Cup.

"I just go back to what my father told me last year when we were getting ready for the Phoenix finale and honestly, I was a nervous wreck," the soon-to-be-25-year-old says, speaking of his father, NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott, who was involved in some of the most memorable title bouts of the 1980's and '90s. "All I need to remember is that the goal is beat three other guys. That's it. That's not easy, but that's also pretty dang simple when you boil it down."

Martin Truex Jr.

No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Championship Four appearances: 5
Best championship finish: 1st, 2017
2021 key stats: 4 wins, 12 top 5's, 19 top 10's, 793 laps led, 2 DNF
Career at Phoenix: 31 starts, 1 win, 5 top 5's, 13 top 10's, 2 poles, 187 laps led, 4 DNF

All this dude does is show up for the title fight at season's end. His fifth appearance in the Championship Four is tied for most among all drivers, with 2021 absentees Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick. Truex has made the NASCAR playoffs seven straight years and finished in the top two in the final standings three years straight from 2017-2019.

His comeback story is one of the best in NASCAR history, his career seemingly broken and ended after being collateral damage in one of the greatest cheating scandals stock car racing has ever seen, a race-fixing effort by his team in 2013. Then the team he won the title with in 2017, Furniture Row Racing, shut down operations. But since his resulting jump to juggernaut Joe Gibbs Racing, he has won 12 races over three seasons and cemented his NASCAR Hall of Fame résumé. A win on Sunday night would guarantee him first-ballot status. That's a long way from eight years ago, when he thought his career was up on blocks for good.

Denny Hamlin

No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Championship Four appearances: 4
Best championship finish: 2nd, 2010
2021 key stats: 2 wins, 18 top 5's, 24 top 20's, 1,502 laps led, 0 DNF
Career at Phoenix: 32 starts, 2 wins, 15 top 5's, 19 top 10's, 2 poles, 854 laps led, 1 DNF

Speaking of first-ballot Hall of Famers, whenever Hamlin is eligible, he will roller skate into the Hall via his 46 career wins, tied for 17th all-time, including three Daytona 500 victories. But the clock is ticking on whether he can ever work his way off the very short list of drivers in the "greatest to never win the championship" debate. This will be his fifth real shot at the Cup, the first predating the current final four format, when his nerves ate up his chance to hold off Jimmie Johnson in 2010. A botched pit stop cost him in 2014, the first year of the Championship Four, and he finished last in that four in 2019 and even more painfully one year ago after he'd led all drivers with eight wins on the season.

Hamlin enters this year's finale like a bull with a hangover, one week after angrily ruining Martinsville winner Alex Bowman's celebratory burnout, calling Bowman "a hack," blaming his Virginia home state track crowd's booing of him on their allegiance to Chase Elliott, and warning the world -- and presumably his Phoenix Cup Series title rivals -- "Don't poke the bear." So, check that, he's a bear with a hangover.

Four drivers, one race and a NASCAR Cup Series championship (2024)

FAQs

How many times has Denny Hamlin made it to the final 4? ›

Hamlin has made it to the Championship 4 four times but not since 2021. His four appearances trail Joey Logano, Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick by one since 2014 when the playoff format changed. But Hamlin is the winningest driver in Cup history without a series title.

Who are the top four drivers in the NASCAR playoffs? ›

Current Playoff Standings
  • Kyle Larson.
  • Denny Hamlin.
  • William Byron.
  • Ryan Blaney.

Has any NASCAR driver won the championship without winning a race? ›

Austin Dillon is the only driver in the history of NASCAR who has been able to become a NASCAR Champion without winning a race. Dillon won the 2013 Nationwide Series, now called the Xfinity Series, He started his journey in the Xfinity Series as a full-time driver in the 2012 season.

Who won the NASCAR race in Richmond, Virginia? ›

RICHMOND, Va. — It took a controversial full-contact finish but Austin Dillon claimed his first NASCAR Cup Series victory in two seasons in Sunday night's Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway — vaulting from 32nd place in the points standings before the race to an automatic playoff berth with the win.

Has Denny Hamlin ever won a NASCAR Cup Series Championship? ›

After surpassing Martin's 40 wins, Hamlin is now the winningest driver to have never won the NASCAR Cup Series championship, and like the 1990s and 2000s legend, he has had countless chances.

Did Denny Hamlin get married? ›

Star NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin got engaged to his longtime girlfriend Jordan Fish at the beginning of 2024. While the couple has not yet announced their wedding date, Fish recently provided an update on their wedding plans.

Who is the richest NASCAR driver? ›

#1 Dale Earnhardt Jr.

NASCAR's Most popular driver, Dale Eanhardt Jr. is the richest driver in the sport, with a net worth of $300 million. He has reportedly earned $410 million during his racing career, including earnings and endorsements.

Who is the best NASCAR driver right now? ›

KyleLarson

Has a rookie ever won the NASCAR championship? ›

9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Hendrick Motorsports and part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 17 Chevrolet Camaro for the same team. He won the 2014 NASCAR Xfinity Series championship, becoming the first rookie to win a national series championship in NASCAR and the youngest champion in that series.

What happens if there are 17 winners in NASCAR? ›

(In case there are more than 16 race winners in the season, then the top 16 in race wins move on).

Who won the NASCAR race yesterday in 2024? ›

Austin Dillon wrecked both Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin off the final corner to win the Cook Out 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond Raceway.

Is Austin Dillon related to Richard Childress? ›

Dillon and his team owner and grandfather Richard Childress defended the final-lap moves in the winner's press conference.

How many cup races has Austin Dillon won? ›

“I've seen Denny and Joey make moves that have been running people up the track to win,” said Dillon, now a five-time winner in the Cup Series.

How many races has Denny Hamlin won in 2024? ›

2024 NASCAR Cup Series Standings
Standings
DRIVERPOINTSWINS
Denny Hamlin7063
William Byron6543
Christopher Bell6513
40 more rows

How many times has Denny Hamlin won at Bristol? ›

Denny Hamlin won the NASCAR Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday, passing Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. in the final laps for his fourth victory at the famed short track. Hamlin also won at NASCAR's bullring last September.

Has Denny Hamlin ever won at Atlanta? ›

378 seconds for his first career victory at Atlanta in 2012. It was the second time he captured back-to-back Cup Series victories. Hamlin earned his first win -- and Victory Lane lobster -- at New Hampshire in 2012, after leading a race-high 193 laps.

How many times did Denny Hamlin win Pocono? ›

Hamlin swept two races at Pocono in his rookie season in 2006, and added wins in 2009, 2010, 2019 and 2020.

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