{"id":12293,"date":"2022-11-05T14:00:54","date_gmt":"2022-11-05T18:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=12293"},"modified":"2022-11-27T13:53:43","modified_gmt":"2022-11-27T18:53:43","slug":"nascar-what-the-championship-4-are-saying-ahead-of-phoenix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2022\/11\/05\/nascar-what-the-championship-4-are-saying-ahead-of-phoenix\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: What the Championship 4 are saying ahead of Phoenix"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Sunday, NASCAR will crown their 2022 Cup Series champion at Phoenix Raceway. Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, Ross Chastain, and Christopher Bell will take to the track hoping to change their careers forever.<\/h3>\n

For Logano and Elliott, it’s a chance to become multiple-time champions. For Chastain and Bell, it’s their chance to win their first championship. Heading into Phoenix<\/a>, all four Championship drivers spoke on Friday during NASCAR’s championship media day.<\/p>\n

Christopher Bell<\/h3>\n

Bell has risen to the occasion this season in the NASCAR Cup Series, finding ways to win when his back has been against the wall. If not for what Ross Chastain did in Martinsville, Bell would likely be getting more attention for pulling out quality finishes in unlikely moments. However, Bell isn’t getting that attention, in fact, he might be getting the least amount of attention of the four drivers vying for the title on Sunday. But, Bell doesn’t seem to mind the lack of attention that is being paid to him.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s just kind of the way it\u2019s unfolded over my\u2026 I don\u2019t really know how long. That\u2019s fine by me. Maybe I\u2019ll be the least famous Cup champion one day.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bell has never won at Phoenix, and that might be what he needs to do on Sunday if he wants to win the Championship. In five career starts at Phoenix, Bell has a pair of top-10 finishes. His average starting position at Phoenix is 9.6, but his average finishing position is 17th.<\/p>\n

Joey Logano<\/h3>\n

Logano won his first NASCAR Cup Series championship back in 2018. On Sunday, he will be looking to win his second, something only 16 other drivers have done before. Although Chase Elliott has also won a championship, Logano is the veteran of this group heading into the weekend. At age 32, Logano’s career is by no means coming to an end, but he is also aware of the importance of capitalizing on his Championship opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like we\u2019re in a great spot right now. I feel like our team is in a great spot for a lot of reasons. For one, we\u2019re not happy to be here. We\u2019re not just happy to be in the Championship 4. This isn\u2019t enough for us. I\u2019ve never felt more solid in this position than I do right now. With that said, I\u2019m ready to go racing and get out there, because we feel prepared. We\u2019re ready to go to battle.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Logano has won at Phoenix before in his Cup Series career. In 27 career races, he has two wins and 15 top-10 finishes. Logano last won at Phoenix in 2020. Over his last seven races at Phoenix, he has not finished worse than 11th.<\/p>\n

Ross Chastain<\/h3>\n

Chastain has been the talk of the NASCAR town since his last-lap maneuver at Martinsville. The move to get him into the Championship 4 has made him somewhat of an ultimate underdog this weekend. That being said, Chastain doesn’t appear to have any plans this weekend to replicate his Martinsville move.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy it worked, I don\u2019t know, but I have no ideas, no plans to ever do that again because it was not pleasant.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Chastain has never won at Phoenix, but he notched a second-place finish at the track back in April. If Chastain could replicate his strong run from earlier this season, he could see himself leaving the track on Sunday as a champion.<\/p>\n

Chase Elliott<\/h3>\n

Elliott is viewed by many as the favorite to win what would be his second championship this weekend, despite not putting together the best playoff run thus far.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur Playoffs hasn\u2019t been great but with this format, it really doesn\u2019t matter now. If you\u2019re part of the show, you\u2019re part of the show. And if you have a shot this weekend, you have a shot to change the narrative and write the end of the story however you want.”<\/p>\n

“We\u2019ve seen this, you don\u2019t have to dominate all day to win [the title] . \u2026 What Jimmie did in 2016<\/a> is a great example of not necessarily being the best car all day but when it came time to execute at the end of the day, put together some good restarts, some good pit stops and make it happen, they did.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One of the things that Elliott should be confident about is his recent success at Phoenix Raceway. In 13 Cup Series starts, Elliott has one win and eight top-10 finishes. Elliott’s win came back in 2020. Earlier this season, he ran 11th in Phoenix, his worst finish at the track over his last five starts there.<\/p>\n

Featured Image Credit: Sean Gardner\/Getty Images<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Sunday, NASCAR will crown their 2022 Cup Series champion at Phoenix Raceway. Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, Ross Chastain, and Christopher Bell will take to the track hoping to change their careers forever. For Logano and Elliott, it’s a chance to become multiple-time champions. For Chastain and Bell, it’s their chance to win their first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4122,"featured_media":12297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[61,390,242,1143],"class_list":["post-12293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-nascar","tag-chase-elliott","tag-christopher-bell","tag-joey-logano","tag-ross-chastain"],"modified_by":"Nathan Reynolds","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}