This weekend marks the finale of the 2024 NASCAR season, with three championships still to be decided as we head into the final round in Phoenix.
Four drivers from each series — Cup, Xfinity, and Trucks — are eligible for the championship this weekend, and the highest finishing of each four will take the title. Let’s get to know our contenders before the weekend kicks off in full force.
NASCAR Cup Series championship contenders
Tyler Reddick: No. 45 23XI Racing
Tyler Reddick punched his ticket to the Playoffs by winning both Talladega and Michigan earlier in the year, but his path to the championship has been anything but straightforward. He had a series of poor finishes at the start of the Playoffs, compounded with a DNF in Las Vegas. His victory in Homestead guaranteed him a slot in the Championship 4, but of all the drivers competing for a title in Phoenix, Reddick is perhaps the most unpredictable.
Joey Logano: No. 22 Team Penske
Of the four drivers competing for a title in Phoenix, Penske’s Joey Logano is the most experienced. He’s contested over 570 races and already has two championships under his belt, both won in the era of the Playoffs finale format. With wins at Atlanta, Nashville, and Las Vegas, Logano has been strong all season long, with a noticeable uptick in performance in this latter half of the season (though many say that that’s due to Ford finally figuring out its machinery).
Ryan Blaney: No. 12 Team Penske
Ryan Blaney’s win at Martinsville earned him a slot in the Championship 4, enabling him to defend his 2023 title. Blaney had a rough start to the year with the Daytona 500, but he followed that up with three top-five finishes in rapid succession, followed by wins at Iowa and Pocono. This has arguably been Blaney’s strongest year in the NASCAR Cup Series, making him a strong title contender.
William Byron: No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports
William Byron snuck into the Championship 4 in Martinsville after his closest challenger Christopher Bell was disqualified for a wall-ride move similar to one used by Ross Chastain in 2022. The Chevy driver’s path to the playoffs was paved early in 2024, when he won the Daytona 500, and his consistency in the Playoffs has kept his title hopes alive all the way into Phoenix.
More on the NASCAR Playoffs:
👉 NASCAR Playoffs explained: Format, rules, tracks, and schedule
👉 2024 NASCAR Playoffs: Who made the Cup Series cut, and what to expect from the postseason
NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs contenders
The Cup Series isn’t the only series deciding its champion this weekend, and in Xfinity, the four drivers going head-to-head are Austin Hill, A. J. Allmendinger, Cole Custer, and Justin Allgaier.
Austin Hill kicked off 2024 with back-to-back wins and has been extremely consistent all year long. He is perhaps the favorite for the Xfinity title, if only thanks to his season-long strengths.
That being said, Cole Custer has been extremely strong in 2024 as well. Though he hasn’t converted his performance into direct wins, he has been able to make the most of every single race weekend — and as the reigning 2023 Xfinity Series champion.
Former Cup Series driver A. J. Allmendinger may seem like an easy choice for the championship thanks to his overall experience, but his only victory this year came in Las Vegas — and his results at Phoenix in the past have been wanting.
That leaves us with Justin Allgaier, a driver with ample experience but perhaps not the resumé of results you’d hope. This year marks his seventh appearance in a Championship 4; in every other occasion, he’s failed to pull off the title-winning drive — though anything could be possible this year.
NASCAR Trucks Series Playoffs contenders
The first championship to decide its victory this weekend will be the NASCAR Trucks Series, where Corey Heim, Christian Eckes, Grant Enfinger, and Ty Majeski have secured their slot.
Ty Majeski is perhaps the most unpredictable of the four potential Truck champions (though it can be much harder to make sweeping judgements about drivers with far less experience!). However, Majeski has mostly just been Fine for the past few years; he hasn’t taken any big leaps forward in terms of performance, but he hasn’t dropped back. He’s an option for a champion, but not the favorite.
Grant Enfinger is perhaps the most interesting driver on this entire list; after a relatively middling season, he leaped into the Playoffs with some serious success, taking two victories and four top-10s as the season wound to a close. His luck at Phoenix hasn’t been spectacular in the past, but this could be the year he makes a change.
Corey Heim has nearly as many wins this year as his other three title rivals combined, making him an extremely strong candidate for the championship. Plus, barely losing out on the title in 2023 will likely make him even hungrier to achieve the feat in 2024.
That leaves us with Christian Eckes, whose overall performance has been impressively consistent this year, and who already has experience winning at Phoenix. However, he’s made some enemies in the process, so his performance this weekend may be determined by a rival with a chip on his shoulder.
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