Did You Notice?: What You Should Care About Besides The NASCAR Championship 4

Did You Notice? … The NASCAR Cup Series championship isn’t the only thing that gets decided on Sunday (Nov. 10)? There’s so much focus on that quartet it’s easy to lose site of what else is at stake.

Here’s a guide for what to look for beyond what’s going on in the championship chase.

Keeping Win Streaks Alive: Ross Chastain proved last year it’s not preordained the champion wins in the season finale. It should give Kyle Busch the slightest bit of hope he can fight to keep his NASCAR record streak intact: at least one win in 19 straight seasons since moving up to Cup full time in 2005.

Busch’s Phoenix track record is spotty as of late, as his last win came back in 2019 with Joe Gibbs Racing. He’s run 25th and 22nd the last two times out in his new ride at Richard Childress Racing, becoming a rollercoaster of speed and inconsistency throughout this postseason where he missed the cut.

But don’t underestimate Busch’s mental push to keep the streak alive. Expect the No. 8 team to try something — staying out under a caution flag, stretching fuel mileage — that leaves him with the track position needed to pull a major upset from the driver’s seat.

There’s two other winless drivers this season looking to keep one-year streaks alive: Martin Truex, Jr. (three wins in 2023) and Michael McDowell (one). Two other 2023 winners, AJ Allmendinger and Shane van Gisbergen, aren’t entered at Phoenix this weekend and are guaranteed to end the season without a trophy (although Allmendinger could end up the NASCAR Xfinity Series champion, a pretty nice consolation prize).

Retirements: Truex is the most notable driver about to end his full-time Cup career. The 44-year-old is a certain future Hall of Famer: one championship (2017), 34 Cup wins, 24 poles and five Championship 4 appearances overall in the 10 years of this format.

The New Jersey native will still be around in some form, running part time for 23XI Racing and chasing some of the crown jewels in the sport that have evaded him (Daytona 500, Brickyard 400, Bristol Night Race). But his departure from the sport now leaves Denny Hamlin as the only full-time Cup driver who raced in the original version of the sport’s postseason format: a 10-driver, 10-race playoff from 2004-06. Boy, have things changed since then.

There’s a handful of others running Sunday whose futures remain uncertain. Could this race be the final one forever for Jimmie Johnson, a seven-time Cup champion yet to earn even a top 25 in his two-year, part-time comeback with Legacy Motor Club? Daniel Hemric has been open about uncertainty he’ll continue after Ty Dillon officially replaced him as the full-time driver of Kaulig Racing’s No. 31 (renumbered No. 10 next year).

Corey LaJoie is almost certain to stick around, but Rick Ware Racing has not committed for 2025, so who knows? He’s a successful podcaster who can have a major impact on the sport in different ways while running a part-time schedule.

And then, on the ownership side, there’s Stewart-Haas Racing. It’ll be reborn as a one-car Haas Factory Cup team with Cole Custer driving, but this two-time championship team is going to close down in its current form after the checkered flag at Phoenix. As of now, it’s at 70 wins, just short of 20,000 laps led (19,913), a 2017 Daytona winner with Kurt Busch and those two Cup titles. Tony Stewart won in the old playoff format in 2011, followed up by Kevin Harvick in the first year of the current version (2014).

Don’t be surprised if SHR makes a race of it at Phoenix. Briscoe has won there with the Next Gen chassis (2022) and was a top-10 car during the March race.

Goodbyes: There’s not as many as we typically have, a lighter-than-usual year for Silly Season. But McDowell will leave Front Row Motorsports after seven years for Spire Motorsports. Crew chief Rodney Childers will leave SHR after 11 straight seasons running the No. 4. And Harrison Burton will finish up a difficult three-year tenure with the Wood Brothers before it welcomes Josh Berry for 2025.

Other Awards: Carson Hocevar (Rookie of the Year) and Chevrolet (Top Manufacturer) have their races all wrapped up. But there’s all types of other, smaller money-based incentives people are fighting for.

For example, just 27 points separate Truex, Austin Cindric and Daniel Suarez for 10th in the standings. Christopher Bell has a 24-point advantage on Kyle Larson for fifth. Those may not be championship level-performances, but they’re still important bullet points on the resume. For someone like Cindric, a career-best, top-10 points finish would add momentum to someone whose Cup ride appeared in jeopardy just a few short months ago.

Did You Notice? … Quick hits before taking off …

• So, let me get this straight. We have three drivers who are racing this weekend without their competition executive, crew chief and spotter because NASCAR felt they were guilty of race manipulation. But the drivers themselves were the ones in the cars pulling off said manipulation? And they still get to drive? It’s a penalty that doesn’t make sense. In an all-or-nothing ruling, NASCAR tried to find some middle ground and in the process got itself into more trouble. The fans don’t know anyone better than the driver, and they’re still in the cars this Sunday, so … hard to see them thinking anything more than the consequences were a slap on the wrist.
• If Ryan Blaney were to win back-to-back titles, it would be the first time in the history of this format since it were introduced in 2014. It would also give Roger Penske’s organization three straight and four of the last seven, leaving it a clear step ahead of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevy) and Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota) on how to approach this format. Feels right and also would be the best-case outcome in a year where officiating had to intervene one too many times in this fight. So that’s who I’m going with.

Follow Tom Bowles on X at @NASCARBowles