Schedule, TV info, picks for Championship Race – NBC Los Angeles

For the fifth straight year, the NASCAR championship will be decided in the desert.

The 2024 season will conclude on Sunday at Phoenix Raceway, with Joey Logano, Tyler Reddick, Ryan Blaney and William Byron set to battle it out in the Championship 4.

Logano is looking to become just the 10th driver in NASCAR history to win at least three titles, while Blaney aims to be the first back-to-back champion since 2010. Reddick and Byron, meanwhile, are both seeking their first championship.

So, what’s the schedule for TV and streaming this weekend? Who else is racing in Phoenix? And how will the champion be decided? Here’s everything you need to know for the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race:

When is the NASCAR race this weekend at Phoenix?

Green flag for the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix is set for Sunday, Nov. 5, at 3:31 p.m. ET.

Before the race, there will be practice and qualifying sessions on Friday and Saturday. All 40 drivers will hit the track for 50 minutes of practice Friday before they are split into two groups (found here) for two-round qualifying Saturday. Here’s how it works:

• Each driver will make one lap in the first round, with the five fastest drivers in each group advancing.
• In the final round, each of the remaining drivers gets one lap to set the top 10 starting order. The fastest driver overall will start on the pole, the fastest driver in the other group will start second.
• Positions 3 through 10 are set on final round times – Group A filling the even-numbered positions (4th, 6th, 8th, 10th), Group B filling the odd-numbered positions (3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th).
• Positions 11 through 40 are set based on first round times – Group A filling the even-numbered positions, Group B filling the odd-numbered positions.

What is the NASCAR TV schedule this weekend?

Leigh Diffey (play-by-play), Jeff Burton (analyst) and Steve Letarte (analyst) will be on the call for NBC with Marty Snider, Kim Coon, Dave Burns and Parker Kligerman serving as pit reporters. Here’s the full TV and streaming schedule:

Friday, Nov. 8 (USA and streaming)

Saturday, Nov. 9 (USA and streaming)

Sunday, Nov. 10 (NBC and Peacock)

• Countdown to Green: 2 p.m. ET, NBC, Peacock
• NASCAR Cup Series Championship: 3 p.m. ET, NBC, Peacock

NASCAR Phoenix entry list, drivers

Forty drivers will race at Phoenix – the 34 full-timers, plus six others.

Seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson will make his ninth start of the season for Legacy Motor Club to headline the part-time entries. Elsewhere, Kaz Grala (Rick Ware Racing), J.J. Yeley (NY Racing Team), Derek Kraus (Kaulig Racing) and Chad Finchum (MBM Motorsports) will wrap up their part-time schedules. Jeb Burton, an Xfinity Series regular, will make his first and only start of the season for Team AmeriVet.

Here’s the full entry list for Phoenix:

Who is in the NASCAR Championship 4 and how does it work?

As aforementioned, the playoff field is down to four: Logano, Reddick, Blaney and Byron.

Logano, Reddick and Blaney locked up their Championship 4 spots with wins in the Round of 8 at Las Vegas, Homestead-Miami and Martinsville, respectively. Byron advanced based on points.

While points mattered through the first 35 races of the season, that’s not the case at Phoenix. The format for the Championship 4 is simple: Whichever one of these four drivers crosses the finish line first after 312 laps is the champion. The champion doesn’t have to win the race – he just has to beat the other three finalists.

NASCAR Phoenix predictions, picks, favorites

It’s usually unwise to pick against the final four in the title race, but that all changed last year.

For the first time ever since the winner-take-all format debuted in 2014, a non-title contender won the title race last year. Chastain took home the checkered flag, while Blaney claimed the championship with his second-place finish.

Before Chastain’s win in 2023, the Championship 4 drivers were dominant at Phoenix since the track began hosting this race in 2020. The competitors finished 1-2-3-4 in 2020 and 1-2-3-5 in 2021. Last year, they were 2-3-4-36 when Bell crashed out early in the race.

Three of the four contenders ran well at Phoenix earlier this year, with Logano as the only outlier. He wrecked and finished 34th after qualifying 23rd in an unimpressive outing. Blaney finished fifth, Reddick finished 10th and led 68 laps and Byron finished 18 but earned 12 stage points.

Blaney has been the best at Phoenix among these four, especially recently. He has six straight top-fives and eight straight top-10s in the desert despite never having won at the track.

If you’re looking for a driver outside the Championship 4, keep an eye on Bell. He won at Phoenix in March, leading 50 laps and making an impressive charge through the field in the last stage. Bell will be out to prove he belongs after missing out on making the title race due to his last-lap penalty last week.

NASCAR Phoenix past winners, race history

Eleven of the 40 drivers in the field are past winners at Phoenix, including four with multiple victories.

Johnson leads all active drivers with four Phoenix wins, followed by Logano and Busch with three and Hamlin with two. The one-time winners are Elliott (2020), Truex (2021), Larson (2021), Briscoe (2022), Byron (2023), Chastain (2023) and Bell (2024).

Get to know NASCAR driver Ryan Blaney.