Ross Chastain may have won the NASCAR Cup Series finale for 2023 at the Phoenix Raceway on Sunday, but the man of the hour was Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney who captured his first career Series Championship.
Blaney, who was in a four-way battle for the title with Hendrick teammates Kyle Larson and William Byron as well as Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell, became the first driver in the 10-year history of the elimination playoff format to win the title without taking checkers in the season finale.
He doesn’t care. He was holding the ultimate trophy at the end of the race on Sunday.
“We just did an amazing job all year to overcome adversity and never give up,” Blaney said. “We had somewhat of an up-and-down year but you’re going to have those moments. This summer, we just worked hard to get back to where we needed to be.”
The team’s hard work paid off. Blaney had one of the fastest cars on Sunday and really proved just how good his team was, especially in the playoffs.
“I’m super proud of the effort by everybody at Team Penske who put tons of hours into this,” he said. “Nobody ever got down. They just put their heads down, got to work and it showed up especially in the playoffs, most importantly the last five weeks. It’s just so cool to see their effort pay off.”
Finishing second in the championship race was Kyle Larson who made it off pit road first among the title contenders on the final pitstop but was unable to hold off the Penske #12.
“Ryan’s car was really fast, honestly for the last few months, and especially here today,” Larson said. “Our pit crew kept us in the game all race long today. We weren’t the greatest on the track but I was just hoping for pit stops.”
The Hendrick 5 team kept the 2021 Series champion in the hunt for his second title all day Sunday.
“I knew the way our team executed and the pit crew could pull off a fast pit stop, that was going to be our only shot to win,” he said. “They did everything in their power to give us a shot at winning. I just wasn’t as good as Blaney or Ross (Chastain). It would have been difficult to win, but my team gave me the best shot to make it happen. They did a great job all season and I’m really proud of them.”
Finishing third in points was pole sitter William Byron who led 95 laps but just didn’t have the car to compete with the top runners late in the going. He wound up fourth in the running order at the finish.
“Once the track rubbered in, we got really tight,” Byron said. “Especially when we lost the lead on track, we just had a big balance shift and got tight. Then, we just couldn’t gain a lot of speed and that was all we had.”
Even with coming up short, Byron was happy with how his 2023 racing campaign went.
“I’m just proud of my team,” he said. “This was just a great season. It stinks to come up short but I’d like to think we’ll be back in this position and we’ll have more shots at a title.”
The fourth of the championship four, Christopher Bell, did not get to see the end of the race as a brake failure on lap 108 sent his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota into the turn three wall and out of the event.
“I just ran out of brakes,” Bell said after the accident. “I knew something was going on as the pedal kept getting longer and longer. I’m proud of the effort from my team to make it to the final 4, but we left a lot on the table through the regular season.”
Though he made it to the championship race, Bell believes there was more his team could have done this season.
“I still don’t believe we performed up to our potential in 2023,” he said. “I’m excited for the future and trying to build on this and become better.”
The race within the race was huge, but you’d never know it looking at how Ross Chastain was racing the championship 4. Chastain, who was knocked out in the round of 12, easily had one of top 3 cars to beat on Sunday, and proved it by leading a race-high 157 laps en route to his fourth career Cup Series win.
“The last caution of the race, we were really tight,” Chastain said. “That saved us. Phil Surgen (Chastain’s Crew Chief) and this team at Trackhouse came up with a way to make this car turn. Then, we were able to drive off into the sunset.”
As stated, this was the first time in the history of this playoff format that someone other than the Series Champ won the final race of the season. Chastain took great pride in that.
“We did something else that’s never been done before,” he said. “For everybody on this team, the vision for Trackhouse was goals like this. They were lofty. It started with our first two sponsors that came on board, who believed in me, and then more came on and next year with Busch Light. I couldn’t think of anything I’d want to do more than to be like Kevin Harvick. Racing with him early on in the race was a bucket list type thing for the kid that use to race as Kevin on the Game Cube. I am beside myself that I could race with him in his final event.”
For Harvick, Sunday’s race put a cap on a Cup Series career that spanned more than two decades and produced 60 victories, including the 2007 Daytona 500.
Harvick went out on top in his final start. While it wasn’t a win, he did capture his 21st consecutive top 10 finish at Phoenix. To put that into perspective, the last time the 2014 Cup Champion didn’t finish in the top ten in the desert, not one of the championship four drivers had made their first start.
For Harvick, since he announced that 2023 would be his last behind the wheel, there has been highs and lows, but “Happy” handled it all with the grace you’d come to expect.
“It’s been an emotional roller coaster for sure,” Harvick said. “As you look at this last week, this really means a lot to me. 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.”
While he entered the Cup Series during a horrible time in our sport, he’s leaving on his terms and he’s grateful for it all.
“I opened this chapter unexpectedly in 2001,” he said. “I closed it in 2023 how we wanted to and that was to be competitive. The thing that means the most is having the respect of the drivers, the teams and everyone I’ve ever worked for or with.”
If there’s one thing Harvick wants his career to be remembered by, it’s just the type of driver he was.
“For me, it’s that we gave it all we had,” he said. “Every lap, every week and that in one way or the other, I had my hand in every aspect of the racecar. From the way it looks to the Sponsor and team meetings to how it ran. There just wasn’t any piece that I didn’t feel like we were apart of. The hard work is something I think people recognize and it’s been a lot of fun to get to know so many people.”
NASCAR Cup Series Race – NASCAR Cup Series Championship
Phoenix Raceway
Avondale, Arizona
Sunday, November 5, 2023
- (8) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 312.
- (15) Ryan Blaney (P), Ford, 312.
- (4) Kyle Larson (P), Chevrolet, 312.
- (1) William Byron (P), Chevrolet, 312.
- (9) Chris Buescher, Ford, 312.
- (2) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 312.
- (3) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 312.
- (6) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 312.
- (19) Michael McDowell, Ford, 312.
- (5) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 312.
- (16) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 312.
- (21) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 312.
- (28) Aric Almirola, Ford, 312.
- (12) Ryan Preece, Ford, 312.
- (31) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 312.
- (20) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 312.
- (23) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 312.
- (17) Joey Logano, Ford, 312.
- (22) Carson Hocevar(i), Chevrolet, 312.
- (7) Erik Jones, Chevrolet, 312.
- (11) Ty Gibbs #, Toyota, 312.
- (10) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 312.
- (24) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 312.
- (26) Chase Briscoe, Ford, 312.
- (18) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 311.
- (25) Harrison Burton, Ford, 311.
- (34) JJ Yeley(i), Ford, 311.
- (33) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 310.
- (35) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 310.
- (14) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 309.
- (29) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 308.
- (32) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 308.
- (36) BJ McLeod(i), Chevrolet, 306.
- (30) Ryan Newman(i), Ford, 305.
- (27) Austin Cindric, Ford, 301.
- (13) Christopher Bell (P), Toyota, Accident, 108.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 108.827 mph.
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 52 Mins, 1 Secs. Margin of Victory: 1.230 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 4 for 27 laps.
Lead Changes: 18 among 8 drivers.
Lap Leaders: W. Byron (P) 1-92;K. Harvick 93-111;W. Byron (P) 112;K. Harvick 113-116;R. Chastain 117-170;C. Buescher 171-188;W. Byron (P) 189;R. Chastain 190-240;M. Truex Jr. 241;D. Hamlin 242-251;C. Briscoe 252-253;R. Chastain 254-257;R. Blaney (P) 258;R. Chastain 259-260;R. Blaney (P) 261;R. Chastain 262-276;W. Byron (P) 277;D. Hamlin 278-281;R. Chastain 282-312.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Ross Chastain 6 times for 157 laps; William Byron (P) 4 times for 95 laps; Kevin Harvick 2 times for 23 laps; Chris Buescher 1 time for 18 laps; Denny Hamlin 2 times for 14 laps; Ryan Blaney (P) 2 times for 2 laps; Chase Briscoe 1 time for 2 laps; Martin Truex Jr. 1 time for 1 lap.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 24,4,1,23,5,17,19,43,20,12
Stage #2 Top Ten: 17,1,4,24,19,12,5,23,6,43
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