Photo Credit: Mike Holloway/OnPitRoad.com
The 2017 Final-Four in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series has just about taken shape. Kyle Busch locked himself in last week at Martinsville, then Kevin Harvick won at Texas. Martin Truex, Jr. raced his way in on points at Texas, one race early. This leaves five drivers to battle for one final position next week at Phoenix.
Seven-time series Champion Jimmie Johnson finds himself in the biggest hole heading into Phoenix, 51 points behind Brad Keselowski, who currently holds the final spot. Johnson needs to win to advance to the final-four, but can breathe somewhat of a sigh of relief considering he has 28 starts at Phoenix, with four wins, 15 top-five’s and 20 top-ten’s.
Johnson remains optimistic about his chances at Phoenix, “it’s been a good track for us. But this last half of the year has been really weird,” he told reporters after the Texas race, “in places where we expect to run well and traditionally do, we haven’t. But I know we’re building a better race car and taking a few new ideas to Phoenix and we’ll go there and fight as hard as we can. And that’s one thing this team will never do is give up.”
Chase Elliott isn’t in much better shape. He heads to the Arizona desert 49 points behind Keselowski. Elliott is in a must-win situation as well, though his outlook could be a little bleaker than Johnsons. With only three starts at Phoenix, Elliott has managed no wins, no top-five’s, but he did finish in the top-ten in both races last season. He managed to lead 106 laps in March of this season, but still only managed a 12th place finish.
Ryan Blaney heads to Phoenix with a mathematical shot at racing his way in on points, but realistically he is likely going to need a win to accomplish a final-four berth. Currently 22 points below the cut-off line, and statistically finds himself evenly matched with Elliott at Phoenix with three starts, zero top-five’s and two top-ten’s. The only difference from Elliott being that Blaney has never led laps there.
Blaney knows he needs to attacked Phoenix if he is to keep his championships hopes alive, “obviously, we need to be really aggressive. We need to go try and win the race,” he said following the Texas race.
Denny Hamlin heads to Phoenix 18 points behind Keselowski, and riding some momentum after leading 65 laps at Texas resulting in a third-place finish. In 24 starts Hamlin has one win in 2012, 10 top-five’s, and 14 top-ten’s with 445 laps led.
When asked what he needed to do at Phoenix, Hamlin responded, “same thing we today (at Texas): just give ourselves a chance to win.” Hamlin also added, “we’ll see how it all pans out.”
Brad Keselowski finds himself 18 points above the cut-off line, but can’t rest on that alone. He heads to Phoenix with a record that appears a little less than stellar. In 16 starts he has no wins, five top-five’s and eight top-ten’s. He has led a total of 119 laps on the one-mile track.
Though he is above the cut-line, Keselowski isn’t feeling too comfortable, “I need more than that (18 points over fifth place). I’d be more confident if we were locked in,” he stated after the Texas race, he continued, “these races you don’t know what’s gonna happen.”
