Leading 236 laps, including the final 41, Chase Elliott punched his ticket to race for the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series title next weekend at Phoenix by virtue of his win in the Xfinity 500 on Sunday at Martinsville Speedway.
Ryan Blaney finished second ahead of Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski and Kurt Busch. By virtue of finishing 11th, Denny Hamlin will join Keselowski, Elliott and Logano in the Championship 4.
Failing to advance were Kurt Busch, Alex Bowman, Martin Truex Jr. and Kevin Harvick. Harvick came up just short, needing a point to get into the Championship 4 and colliding with Kyle Busch coming to the checkered flag. Harvick, who won nine races in 2020, fought back after falling two laps down in the second stage. Truex, who needed a win to advance, gave up the lead to Elliott, later pitting for a loose wheel.
2020 XFINITY 500 RACE RESULTS
The 2020 NASCAR Cup Series concludes on Sunday at Phoenix Raceway in the season finale at 3 p.m. ET on NBC.
About the author
Brad joined Frontstretch.com in 2020 and contributes to the site's 5 Points To Ponder column and other roles as needed. A graduate of the University of Georgia's Henry W. Grady School of Journalism and Mass Communication, he has covered sports in some capacity for more than 20 years with coverage including local high school sports, college athletics and minor league hockey. Brad has received multiple awards for his work from the Georgia Press Association.
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So 9 wins don’t get you a chance at a championship!!?? What a joke. Wasn’t the hype a few seasons back that winning was important? Mediocrity is again rewarded!
Looks like the fix was in for NASCARS poster child. No way the botched pit stop should not have been called as illegal. What a joke.
Frank Anthony – How about you read the rule book before you make uninformed comments? Fortunately the #9 crew knew what the rules actually were.
“Should a crew member’s feet prematurely touch the pit road surface prior to servicing the vehicle, said crew member(s) can re-establish their position back to or behind service wall prior to servicing the vehicle to avoid a penalty.”
Glad to see Brad Keselowski will race for the cup championship next weekend, but to see the winningest driver this season Kevin Harvick eliminated is hard to fathom. He had a stellar season and it comes to an end today. That’s just not right.
Remember folks Brad has a once raced hotrod for Phoenix. Kyle will remember that slime move Kevin..see ya.
Nine wins and Kevin can’t be included in championship! That’s ridiculous! The stages are crazy, points system is crazy and a good driver gets sent home! Stupid!
So are you willing to bet your house that Brad wins the next example of Brian’s product at Phoenix??
Sure was nice of the 24 to bring out a caution and give the 9 another chance at the leaders.
Wow! I thought the big conspiracy theory of the week was that Erik Jones and Martin Truex blocked for Hamlin to keep anybody from passing him. I guess a person chooses his own particular conspiracy theory based on his own bias.
Yeah Don is pretty good at seeing every possible conspiracy and every questionable happening when it involves a Hendrick car and a much harder time seeing similar patterns with the rest of the teams.
Hey Don, your hate for all things Hendrick has undermined your credibility when pointing out things like this. If you were more adept at spreading your theories among all the teams when questionable events occur it would make your accusations aimed at Hendrick more valid. As it is you just come off as someone who hates Hendrick and is bitter.
Maybe Byron had to scratch an itch on his arm.
And Reverend Joe’s cars have spun out more than a few times to give Baby Busch a shot at the end of examples of Brian’s product Weren’t there a few comments about the “debris” cautions that gave J-Jo his chances to win seven titles?
What about the Ford that stopped on the track for no reason to bring out the caution that got Harvick back on the lead lap? No power…. yeah right. Funny how you don’t see the possible conspiracy there. Or maybe you were getting a snack when that happened.
So Ford drivers are supposedly helping Ford drivers, Gibbs drivers helping Gibbs drivers, Mr. H drivers helping Mr. H. drivers? If you look its pretty obvious. What I don’t understand is drivers bringing out cautions that help other manufacturers. Maybe the crew of the Ford driver should have put more gas in the car.
Well, some cautions are legit and those are the ones when a Chevy wrecks and it benefits Ford or vice-versa. LOL
My only point is that if you look too hard everything will look like a conspiracy so you can only wave that flag when it’s obvious. I am sure there may be a lot more shenanigans going on that can NOT be proven but that most of them are legitimate. It just annoys me that you only seem apt to point out the HMS ones when, if you are fair, you will see possibilities everywhere, with all teams and with all manufacturers.
It has happened with the most wins not getting in the “Final 4”. Look it up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!