NASCAR: Championship 4 preview

Thirty-five races over nearly nine months of competition leading up to one final race to decide who will be the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Champion. The 2024 season has been filled with thrilling moments alongside questionable controversies.

The Round of 8 saw some key protagonists get eliminated from championship contention. Sunday’s race at Phoenix should be very interesting to watch. Let’s meet the four competing for the Bill France Cup.

Tyler Reddick:

The combination of Tyler Reddick and 23XI Racing in their second year of working together has been lethal. The California driver claimed the regular season championship back in August.

Reddick locked himself into the Playoffs with a win at the spring Talladega race. He would add on another win at Michigan before the postseason arrived.

After a down performance in the Round of 16, he narrowly avoided elimination at the Charlotte Roval to make it to the Round of 8. He punched his ticket to the Championship 4 with a last-lap pass at Homestead against Ryan Blaney.

In his first Championship 4 appearance, Reddick can cash in on the flashes of brilliance that he has displayed as one of NASCAR’s brightest young stars. He is arguably the most deserving of the remaining four drivers to come away with the title.

William Byron:

The driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet is another driver who is looking for his first Cup Championship.

Byron started the season winning his first Daytona 500. He grabbed two more wins at Circuit of the Americas and Martinsville, but he has not gone to victory lane since.

However, Byron has finished 6th or better in the last six races. He seems due to finally shed his reputation of fading out of the championship picture late in the year.

The Charlotte, N.C. driver made the Championship 4 last year as well. He wants to right the wrongs from 2023 and bring one of NASCAR’s most iconic teams and numbers back to the top of the standings.

Ryan Blaney:

Team Penske looks to win three titles in a row, and Ryan Blaney looks to defend his Cup Series crown.

The driver of the No. 12 Ford Mustang advanced to the final round the same way he did in 2023. Blaney took the checkered flag at Martinsville last week to lock himself in with a shot at the championship.

Blaney has had a very inconsistent showing in the Playoffs with 4 top 5s and three finishes below 30th, but he has shown up at the right time. He finished the highest at the Phoenix spring race out of the Championship 4, so he does have a solid chance of running it back.

Joey Logano:

NASCAR has seen its fair share of drivers expose the playoff system. Ryan Newman almost won the title without a win in 2014, Kyle Busch won the championship in 2015 after missing the first 11 races and Kevin Harvick won 9 races in 2020 but was still eliminated in the Round of 8.

None of these would hold a candle to Joey Logano’s 2024 season if he were to win his third Cup Series championship on Sunday.

Logano has only 12 top-10 finishes on the year, and would currently be in 14th place under a season-long points format. His only regular-season win was a five-overtime race at Nashville.

The Middletown, Conn. native won the Playoffs’ opening round at Atlanta, and only survived the Round of 12 after Alex Bowman was disqualified for an underweight car. He won at Las Vegas in a fuel mileage race to advance to Phoenix.

A championship for Logano this season would be a massive indictment on the Playoffs, but he always performs at his best when he is counted out.

The race to decide a champion starts on Sunday, Nov. 10 at 3 p.m. EST at Phoenix Raceway.

Jack Rachinsky is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email jjr6682@psu.edu.