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When the garage opens and the engines come to life in February, and over the course of a long and often unforgiving grind of a season, the goal that every team in NASCAR is working toward often seems like a long way away. But after weeks upon weeks of racing, and an especially intense period over the past two months, the ultimate goal of every driver and team's season is here -- and in the end, the four finalists with a chance to realize that goal have emerged.

The NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway has arrived, presenting a promise of concluding the 2024 season and determining who will enter the annals of stock car racing history as its champion. This year, the Championship 4 are Ryan Blaney, Tyler Reddick, William Byron and Joey Logano, who will be pitted against each other in a pure match race that will see the highest finisher among the four be crowned the Cup Series champion.

After earning a walk-off victory at Martinsville a week ago, Blaney returns to Phoenix with the chance to become the 11th back-to-back champion in Cup history, and the first since Jimmie Johnson won a record five in a row from 2006 to 2010. His Team Penske teammate, Joey Logano, has the opportunity to become the 10th driver in history to win at least three Cup championships. 

Tyler Reddick, the regular-season champion, can win a first championship not only for himself but also for 23XI Racing, which would give team co-owner Michael Jordan his first championship in a professional sport since he won his final NBA championship in 1998. And then there's William Byron, who can cap off Hendrick Motorsports' 40th Anniversary season with his first Cup title and the 15th for his organization.

All four will hope to be left shining in the Valley of the Sun at the end of 312 laps on Sunday that will amount to the final chapter in the 2024 season before it is committed to history, with one driver coming to symbolize the year and all it stood for.

Where to watch the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race

When: Sunday, Nov. 10
Where: Phoenix Raceway -- Avondale, Ariz.
Time: 3 p.m. ET
TV: NBC
Stream: fubo (try for free)

What to Watch

There is a very subtle, but very significant, change at Phoenix Raceway for Championship Weekend. The line that determines the running order at the exit of pit road has been moved further down, putting it at the yellow timing line and further away from pit stall No. 1. The change makes for a greater runway at pit exit, and also somewhat mutes the advantage that had been offered by the No. 1 pit stall in getting the driver occupying that stall off pit road first.

Since the finale was moved there in 2020, pit road at Phoenix has played a pivotal role in championship races, namely in 2021, when a clutch pit stop by Kyle Larson's crew got their driver out first and ultimately put him in position to win the Cup championship. With this change, some of the burden has been shifted from the crews to the drivers, as a longer runway off pit road will force drivers in the championship hunt to have to remain disciplined and avoid speeding on pit road -- an error that, this weekend, could prove to be a self-inflicted mortal wound.

In addition to the change to pit road, here are some other storylines throughout the field worth monitoring at Phoenix beyond the Championship 4:

  • 2017 NASCAR Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr. will make the final start of his full-time career, running a special throwback paint scheme to the car he ran when he made his Cup debut at Atlanta in 2004. Truex will run at least the Daytona 500 in 2025 and then scale back to a part-time racing schedule while enjoying his private life.
  • Stewart-Haas Racing will compete in the NASCAR Cup Series for the final time, as the organization and its four race teams will be dissolved following the Championship Race. While the team in its current form will cease to exist, team co-owner Gene Haas will continue to be a Cup Series owner, retaining the No. 41 Ford under the Haas Factory Team banner with Cole Custer behind the wheel next season
  • If Kyle Busch does not win on Sunday, he will go winless in a season for the first time in his Cup career and bring an end to a NASCAR record streak of 19 consecutive seasons with at least one victory. Busch, who has won at least one race every year since moving to Cup full-time in 2005, took sole possession of the record for consecutive winning seasons in 2023, surpassing Richard Petty's previous record of 18.
  • Harrison Burton will make his final start behind the wheel of the Wood Brothers Racing No. 21, which will be driven by Josh Berry next season. Burton, who earned the Wood Brothers' 100th win at Daytona in August to make this year's playoffs, will step back to the Xfinity Series in 2025 to drive for AM Racing.
  • Daniel Hemric will make his final start in the Kaulig Racing No. 31 Chevrolet, a ride that will be re-numbered to No. 10 in 2025 and driven by Ty Dillon. Hemric's plans for 2025 are currently undetermined.
  • 2021 Daytona 500 champion Michael McDowell will make his final start in the Front Row Motorsports No. 34, the car he has driven since 2018 and the team which elevated McDowell from a career journeyman to a winning Cup driver and playoff contender. McDowell will move to Spire Motorsports in 2025, where he will drive the No. 71 Chevrolet currently piloted by Zane Smith.
  • At the conclusion of Sunday's race, Carson Hocevar will formally be named the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Rookie of the Year. Hocevar has already mathematically clinched that title, as he holds a 101-point advantage over Josh Berry in the Cup Series standings.

News of the Week

  • In the wake of race manipulation that unfolded at the end of last Sunday's event at Martinsville, NASCAR has suspended nine different people from the No. 1 team of Ross Chastain, the No. 3 team of Austin Dillon and the No. 23 team of Bubba Wallace, and handed out a total of $600,000 in fines as well as points penalties as each tried to orchestrate plans to sandbag in the closing laps to give fellow Chevrolet and Toyota cars, driven by William Byron and Christopher Bell respectively, a better chance of advancing to the Championship 4. Each driver involved will be without their crew chief, spotter and a team official for this weekend's season finale.

    Trackhouse Racing and Richard Childress Racing announced plans to appeal the penalties, but Trackhouse's appeal was heard and denied on Thursday and RCR's appeal was withdrawn. As for 23XI Racing, they elected not to appeal the penalty to their team.
  • The judge assigned to the antitrust lawsuit filed against NASCAR by 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports did not make an immediate ruling during a Monday hearing in Charlotte, N.C. on the teams' request for a preliminary injunction that would allow them to compete under the terms of NASCAR's new charter deal in 2025. While the teams are requesting a clause in the charter agreement that prevents teams from taking legal action against NASCAR to be waived so they can sign the agreement, NASCAR attorney Chris Yates argued that the sanctioning body no longer wishes to have an agreement with the two teams in question after they have disparaged NASCAR publicly.
  • RFK Racing announced that Matt McCall will not return as the crew chief for Brad Keselowski in 2025, bringing an end to a partnership that has seen McCall guide Keselowski to a win at Darlington, 17 top fives, 36 top 10s and two playoff appearances over the past three seasons. According to Fox Sports, Keselowski's new crew chief for 2025 could be Jeremy Bullins -- recently let go by the Wood Brothers -- in a move that would reunite the two after they worked together at Team Penske in 2020 and 2021.

Pick to Win

Ryan Blaney (+350) -- This is starting to feel a lot like last year did. After losing Homestead in the final corner and finishing second, Ryan Blaney came back at Martinsville and delivered in the clutch by making the pass for the lead and win in the closing laps to earn a walk-off victory that has put him in the Championship 4 for the second year in a row. Blaney being in the Championship 4 is bad news for his competition considering the tear he enters it on, and it's worse knowing what his record at Phoenix is.

While he's yet to break through and win there, Blaney has had six straight top-five finishes at Phoenix -- including three straight runner ups between the 2022 and 2023 championship races -- and he also has eight straight top 10s and 10 overall (with two additional top fives) in his last 11 starts. Having seized the opportunity for himself, Blaney has set himself up in a position where if anyone else wants the Cup championship, they're going to have to go through him.