MIAMI, Fla. – The Championship 4 drivers ready to do battle for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup met with the media Thursday ahead of Sunday’s season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. all have a shot at winning this year’s title if one can outrun the other three in Sunday’s Ford EcoBoost 400.
Combined the quartet have won 22 of the 35 races run so far this season with Busch, Harvick and Truex Jr. accounting alone for 20 victories.
“It’s the ‘Big 3’ and me, right?,” joked Logano about being perceived as the underdog against the trio that dominated the majority of the season. “ I’m sure everyone here has the same amount of confidence and feeling that they are the favorites for whatever reason it may be. I’m sure it’s all probably different. For us, I feel like, you know, we’ve been able to overcome a lot this season and build a lot of momentum, have an amazing playoff up to this point, scoring a lot of points, leading a lot of laps, especially the last few weeks, not only on short tracks, but Kansas we had a great running with the pole. Miami is a little bit different, but it is another fast racetrack similar to that.
“So I feel like our team’s in a great spot. Our pit stops have been amazing lately. The confidence is in not only myself as a driver, but in our whole race team all the way through all of Team Penske. So we’re ready to get to Sunday and see what happens.”
Truex Jr. will try to become a back-to-back series champion and follow last year’s title with another on Sunday. However, the year ends it will be bittersweet for the Furniture Row Racing driver who will join Joe Gibbs Racing next season in the aftermath of the Denver-based team being forced to close down.
“It’s been hard for me just because I wasn’t able to be in Denver this week,” Truex Jr. said. “A lot of emotions there. I know talking to the guys and seeing the videos and just kind of set in for everybody that this was it. This was the last time they were going to load the hauler up and ship it off East.
“I don’t know. A lot of emotions talking with the guys, but they’re fired up, and they feel like they’ve built one of the best cars they’ve ever sent out of there. So that’s really cool for me to hear, and to see their passion and their excitement for this weekend, it gets me motivated and pushes me to try to get all I can. So we’ll see what we can do with it. It would be a hell of a story to go out on top.”
Harvick won eight times this season tying Busch for the series lead. He comes to the Championship 4 after a pressure-filled race at ISM Raceway in Phoenix when he had to rebound from an early flat tire to finish fifth and advance.
But the Stewart-Haas Racing driver says it’s business as usual for his team as he prepares to shoot for a second career title.
“Well, I don’t think that’s anything really new for our team,” Harvick said. “As you look at the past five years, we’ve obviously dealt with a lot of things, whether they’re ups, downs, in between, good things, bad things. You know, we’ve been fortunate to be together for a while now, and I’ve dealt with high pressure situations and understand what it takes to win a championship and to have done that, and hopefully we can put it all together this week.
“So it’s been a great year, and it’s been a great five years with a group of people that I just enjoy racing with.”
Busch is also eyeing a second Cup crown. He won last week at ISM Raceway and was asked if that brings with it a little added momentum to Miami.
“Yes and no,” he said. “I mean, obviously, any time you can go to victory lane, it certainly means that you’ve been the latest winner, and you can go on into the next week kind of riding a high, but it’s a totally different track, totally different everything. Different circumstances on the line this weekend, obviously. A great final four here, one of the best we’ve seen, I think, kind of the entirety of the year.
“I’m certainly looking forward to it. Our No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry and Adam Stevens and the guys have done a phenomenal job all season long. ….t’s been one of my best years, and I’d certainly love to cap it off with a victory on Sunday and another championship.”
There was a little controversy in the session when Truex Jr. was asked if he would return the favor of moving Logano if need be on Sunday given what went down between the two on the last laps at Martinsville to open the Round of 8.
“Absolutely. I have a free pass,” Truex Jr. said. “He even told me that. So here we go.”
Logano didn’t exactly agree with Truex Jr.’s assessment of being fair game for any retaliation.
“I expect to get raced the way I race people,” he said. “I’m a hard racer and I race hard.”
