The 2022 NASCAR Cup Season has been the wildest I have ever seen, but they made it to Phoenix and now it is time to crown a champion. Before I get into the preview for the championship race, I want to say THANK YOU!!! My goal every year is to provide you the best picks and teach you a little bit about how to be a better Fantasy NASCAR player. I appreciate you giving me the chance to be your “Fantasy NASCAR Crew Chief.” The 2022 season is almost complete and I already cannot wait for the 2023 season. Now onto Phoenix….
The Championship Four are ready to race for the trophy at Phoenix. Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, Christopher Bell and Ross Chastain will compete for the Bill France NASCAR Cup. This is not the list of drivers most people had in the championship race before the season started, but it makes sense these drivers all advanced to Phoenix. Chase Elliott led the series with five wins and has the best average finishing position through 35 races. Joey Logano and Christopher Bell tied for the second-most wins (three) and they had the third (Joey Logano) and fourth (Christopher Bell) best average finishing position this year. Ross Chastain had the fourth-most wins (two) and the second-best average finishing position this year. So the top four drivers will be racing for the championship. It has been a crazy season, but the top drivers were able to survive the madness.
This is Championship Weekend and that means NASCAR needs a Championship schedule. All four series will have a 55 minute practice session and then they will be able to make adjustments before qualifying the nest day. This is how the schedule used to be and it is refreshing to see this schedule back for the races at Phoenix.
PHOENIX PREVIEW
The Cup Series competed at Phoenix in March. We can look at the data from the first race in the desert, but a lot has changed since then. The Cup Series teams have learned a lot about the Gen-7 car since March. Most of the teams used the race at Richmond in August as a practice race for Phoenix. Richmond is the most similar track to Phoenix so I will give the stats from that race extra weight in the rankings this week. I also used the data from the first race at Phoenix, the races at New Hampshire and the data from the races in the Round of 8 (I use this to show which drivers have momentum going into the race at Phoenix). I also gave the Championship Four drivers a bit of a bump in the rankings since they will get full support from their teams and plenty of room to race on the track.
Here are the Driver Rankings for the NASCAR Championship 500 …
| Driver |
| 1. Chase Elliott |
| 2. Joey Logano |
| 3. Ryan Blaney |
| 4. Kevin Harvick |
| 5. Ross Chastain |
| 6. Kyle Larson |
| 7. Christopher Bell |
| 8. Denny Hamlin |
| 9. William Byron |
| 10. Martin Truex Jr. |
| 11. Chase Briscoe |
| 12. Brad Keselowski |
| 13. Bubba Wallace |
| 14. Daniel Suarez |
| 15. Aric Almirola |
| 16. Alex Bowman |
| 17. Tyler Reddick |
| 18. Austin Dillon |
| 19. AJ Allmendinger |
| 20. Chris Buescher |
| 21. Cole Custer |
| 22. Austin Cindric |
| 23. Erik Jones |
| 24. Kyle Busch |
| 25. Justin Haley |
| 26. Harrison Burton |
| 27. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. |
| 28. Todd Gilliland |
| 29. Ty Gibbs |
| 30. Michael McDowell |
| 31. Ty Dillon |
| 32. Corey LaJoie |
| 33. Landon Cassill |
| 34. Cody Ware |
| 35. Garrett Smithley |
| 36. B.J. McLoed |
* These rankings will be updated Saturday after qualifying
Good Luck Sunday!
If you need any further advice with your team, look for me on Twitter @MrFantasyNASCAR
If you like Fantasy NASCAR, LIKE my Fantasy NASCAR Tips Page on Facebook