AVONDALE, Ariz. — The NASCAR Cup Series closed its 2023 season at Phoenix Raceway with a championship for Ryan Blaney and a victory for Ross Chastain.
As Chastain scored his second victory of the season and fourth of his career, Blaney took second to best Kyle Larson (third), William Byron (fourth) and Christopher Bell (36th) as the highest-finishing Championship 4 driver. after 312 laps on the 1-mile oval.
In the final start of his Cup career before moving to the Fox Sports booth next year, Kevin Harvick led 23 laps and finished seventh.
Follow along below for the updates during and after Sunday’s championship finale at Phoenix Raceway.
Here’s what Kevin Harvick said to NBC Sports’ Kim Coon about his 836th and final start in NASCAR’s premier series at Phoenix Raceway, where he finished seventh:
“It’s been an emotional roller coaster, for sure. I think as you look at this last week, this really means a lot to me just because I love driving the race car, I love being around the people more. I love our sport. It’s given our family so much through the years to be thankful for and proud of.
“I can’t wait to be able to walk in that tunnel with my head up and look around, just look at all the really cool things that are NASCAR racing in every venue that we go to with great fans and people all over the place.
“I think for me, you walk into that tunnel laser focused on how do you make your car go faster and communicate with your team the best you can. Sometimes you don’t see everything around you.
“I opened this chapter unexpectedly in 2001, and closed it in 2023 how we wanted to. That was to be competitive. The thing that means the most is having the respect of the drivers and competitors and the crew chiefs, my team, organization, all the past people that I worked for or worked with.
“There’s been so many great stories and things that have happened over this year but especially this week.”
(As you move to the TV booth, what do you hope people remember you by as a racer?)
“I think for me, we gave it all we had, right? Every lap, every week in some way, shape or form we touched every aspect of this race car. I care about how everything looks, whether it’s the color of the car, the stickers. I sit in the sponsorship meetings, marketing meetings, the team meetings, and there’s just not any piece of it that I don’t feel like we are a part of in some way, shape or form.
“We built a team here at Stewart-Haas Racing. We built so many things from the bottom up. I think the hard work is something that people recognize. As you guys have seen through the week, I’m a pretty emotional person. I have just done a really good job of hiding that.”
With a second in the season finale, Ryan Blaney became a first-time NASCAR Cup Series champion.
The Team Penske driver finished 1.230 seconds behind winner Ross Chastain as the first of the Championship 4 drivers after 312 laps at Phoenix Raceway.
It’s the second consecutive championship in NASCAR’s premier series for Team Penske, which won the 2022 title with Joey Logano.
Title contender Kyle Larson finished third, followed by teammate William Byron, who broke a three-year streak of the Phoenix pole-sitter winning the race and championship.
Chastain led the final 31 laps to become the first driver ineligible for the championship to win the season finale in the 10th season since the elimination playoff structure was introduced in 2014.
Ryan Blaney emerged in front of Kyle Larson in a furious battle for the Cup championship with 20 laps remaining at Phoenix Raceway.
Using a major run off Turn 4, Blaney nearly ran into Larson, who made an impressive save despite getting crossed up on the frontstretch and held on for second.
But Blaney pulled ahead of Larson out of Turn 3. They remain separated by just a car length while Ross Chastain leads by more than 2 seconds, and William Byron, the other title contender, lurks in fourth about a second behind Larson.
Ross Chastain snatched the lead from old rival Denny Hamlin on a restart and led the Championship 4 contenders with 30 laps remaining.
Kyle Larson made a bold move to the bottom to lead briefly before settling into second ahead of Ryan Blaney and William Byron.
Blaney has been running very low onto the frontstretch apron with his No. 12 Ford to challenge Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet, nearly nosing ahead on multiple laps after the green. Larson since has pulled out by a few car lengths.
Denny Hamlin emerged from the pits with the lead on a two-tire call, but Kyle Larson was the first out on four tires in third — putting him in the provisional Championship 4 lead.
The big losers were Ryan Blaney, who dropped four spots to sixth, and Ross Chastain, who fell from the lead to fourth. Title contender William Byron held onto fifth.
The restart will come with about 30 laps remaining.
The fourth caution flag at Phoenix came with 37 laps remaining for a spin by Kyle Busch on the fronstretch, setting up another round of pit stops for the Championship 4 contenders.
Ryan Blaney is running second with Kyle Larson in fourth and William Byron in fifth.
Larson won the 2021 championship with a lightning-fast pit stop in a similar situation.
Ryan Blaney is in a hornet’s nest with two non-playoff drivers with 52 laps remaining at Phoenix.
After swapping the lead multiple times with Ross Chastain, Blaney fell to third behind Martin Truex Jr.
Chastain is known as one of the hardest racers in the Cup Series, and the Trackhouse Racing driver clearly frustrated Blaney, who bumped Chastain exiting Turn 1 at one point.
After the contact blunted the momentum of the top two, Truex zoomed up into the fight.
With 45 laps remaining, the top five are Chastain, Truex, Blaney and the other two Champtionship 4 drivers, Kyle Larson and William Byron.
In possibly the last round of pit stops for the championship contenders, Ryan Blaney held his position while Kyle Larson got ahead of teammate William Byron.
Blaney made his stop (with leader Ross Chastain) a lap after the Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets of Byron and Larson.
With 65 laps remaining, the pit stop sequence should cycle out with Chastain leading ahead of Blaney, then Martin Truex Jr., Larson and Byron in the top five.
Ryan Blaney has moved into the top Championship 4 slot with 100 laps remaining at Phoenix Raceway.
Blaney passed William Byron for second place and is 1.5 seconds behind leader Ross Chastain.
Byron slid back tor fourth behind Martin Truex Jr. a few laps later, and NASCAR on NBC pit reporter Parker Kligerman said the No. 24 team tried to lift Byron’s spirits by reminding the driver thee would be at least one more pit stop to make adjustments.
In nine previous editions of the elimination playoff structure, the Cup champion always has won the finale.
Taking advantage of a fast pit stop under yellow, Ross Chastain pulled out to a lead over Championship 4 contender William Byron as the 2023 Cup championship finale entered its final stage.
The three remaining title-eligible drivers were in the top five for the restart as Kyle Larson picked up three spots on his pit stop, and Ryan Blaney gained one to fifth.
Chris Buescher was the major loser during the pit sequence, falling from first to eighth.
A week after being eliminated from the NASCAR playoffs, Chris Buescher has been impressive at Phoenix Raceway.
The Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing driver led the final 15 laps of Stage 2 after easily passing Ross Chastain, who was second ahead of Kevin Harvick.
William Byron is the top Championship 4 driver in fourth, two spots ahead of Ryan Blaney (sixth). Kyle Larson is seventh.
Keselowski, Buescher’s teammate who started from the rear after missing qualifying to witness the birth of his son, finished ninth after starting from the rear.
Christopher Bell said he had little warning before the brake rotor in his No. 20 Toyota failed, ending his NASCAR Cup championship bid.
“That was the first time I’ve exploded a rotor in my career,” Bell, who was having brake issues since the first stage, told NBC Sports’ Dave Burns. “I was surprised. The second run it just kept getting worse and worse. Obviously a disappointing way to end. But super, super proud of this 20 team to be in the final four is something we’re really proud of.
Bell will be credited with finishing last (36th) after completing 108 laps as the Joe Gibbs Racing star will come up short of a championship after making the final round for the second consecutive season.
“It stings to not have a shot at the end of it,” Bell said. “Obviously we’re all four really close, and all four showed strengths at different times. I think it’s going to be a great championship race and whoever (wins) will be well deserving.”
With a good jump, Ross Chastain snatched the lead out of Turn 1 from Kevin Harvick on the race’s second restart.
Chris Buescher, who took advantage of a swift pit stop, has moved up to third, followed by William Byron as the first Championship 4 driver in fourth.
Kyle Larson is sixth ahead of Ryan Blaney in seventh.
Championship 4 contender Christopher Bell’s title bid apparently is over after he slammed the wall in Turn 3.
Bell had been battling brake problems before the No. 20 Toyota shot up the track.
NASCAR on NBC analyst Steve Letarte said Bell’s right front brake rotor exploded and flattened the tire, resulting in heavy right-side damage.
After pit stops under the second caution, William Byron is the top Championship 4 driver in third, followed by Kyle Larson (fifth) and Ryan Blaney, who fell to seventh after entering third because of a slow stop.
Kevin Harvick remains the leader ahead of Ross Chastain.
Kevin Harvick could walk into the NASCAR sunset with a checkered flag in his final start.
After stalking William Byron since the green flag, Harvick powered into first on the backstretch after Byron led the first 92 laps.
Harvick is trying to notch his 61th Cup victory in his 826th start.
His first victory came in his third start on March 11, 2001 at Atlanta Motor Speedway (three weeks after he took the wheel of Dale Earnhardt’s team when the seven-time champion was killed on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500).
It’s been nearly 15 months since Harvick’s most recent win at Richmond Raceway.
While William Byron has led every lap from the pole position at Phoenix Raceway, other Championship 4 contenders are starting to make hay in Stage 2.
After starting 13th, Christopher Bell has moved up to fifth (on the bumper of title contender Kyle Larson, and Ryan Blaney is in sixth after starting 16th (worst of the four title-eligible drivers).
After Byron, Kevin Harvick and Ross Chastain are the non-playoff drivers between the leader and the other three Championship 4 drivers in fourth through sixth.
After facing major pressure from Kevin Harvick near the end of Stage 1, William Byron scooted away by a few car lengths on the race’s first restart.
Harvick settled into second after briefly being challenged by Ross Chastain, who is running third.
There were no significant position shuffles after pit stops during the first caution for Stage 1. Byron maintained the top spot, followed by Harvick and Chastain.
Larson gained a spot to fourth, Ryan Blaney advanced two spots to eighth, and Christopher Bell held firm in 10th.
William Byron led all 60 laps from the pole position to win the first stage at Phoenix Raceway, staving off a charge by Kevin Harvick in the last few laps.
Because stage points have no bearing for the Championship 4, Byron didn’t improve his title chances, but he proved his No. 24 Chevrolet was strong before the yellow flag waved for the first time to end the 60-lap opening segment.
The Stage 1 finishes of the other championship contenders: Kyle Larson was fifth, Christopher Bell ninth and Ryan Blaney 10th.
Harvick has a series-best nine victories at Phoenix, but his most recent was March 11, 2018.
Pole-sitter and championship contender William Byron has led the first 40 laps at Phoenix Raceway, but Kevin Harvick is lurking in his final Cup start.
Byron leads Harvick by just less than a second and has a comfortable 3-second lead over Kyle Larson, who is the next Championship 4 driver in fifth.
After starting 13th, title contender Christopher Bell is up to 10th, and Ryan Blaney is up to 12th from starting 15th.
The race has been green without any incidents on the 1-mile oval. The first stage will conclude on Lap 60.
It’s a clean start at Phoenix Raceway, where William Byron held the lead through the first five laps.
In the final start of his Cup career, Kevin Harvick improved from third to second on the second lap, passing Byron’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson.
The positions of the championship contenders through Lap 5: Byron first, Larson third, Christopher Bell 15th, Ryan Blaney 16th.
Here are the myriad content and posts on NBC Sports that will get you ready to follow today’s storylines at Phoenix Raceway:
What NBC broadcasters will be watching for in Sunday’s title race
Friday 5: NASCAR dreams for Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell began in same place
Championship 4 crew chiefs study methods of Nick Saban, Tony Dungy, Deion Sanders
Championship a time for reflection by Joe Gibbs and team
‘The Closer’ of Gen X, Kevin Harvick caps NASCAR’s greatest generation
Friendship fuels William Byron’s career-best Cup season
Championship 4 drivers tout level of respect in Cup field
William Byron, Ryan Blaney (and his sister) keep it all in the family
Dr. Diandra: Championship Contenders Part 1: Christopher Bell, Ryan Blaney
Dr. Diandra: Championship Contenders Part 2: William Byron, Kyle Larson
NASCAR President Steve Phelps touts playoff format, Cup drivers
Cole Custer wins first Xfinity championship
Tony Stewart hails respectful racing for Xfinity championship