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Ryan McGee, ESPN Senior Writer
If it feels like the Daytona 500 was a while ago, well, that’s because it was. Eight and a half months, to be exact. Now the winner of that race, William Byron, is one of the final stock car steerers standing, joined by surefire NASCAR Hall of Famer Joey Logano, wunderkind Jumpman pilot Tyler Reddick and, thanks to some last-minute race-winning heroics at Martinsville last weekend, defending Cup Series champ Ryan Blaney.
This Championship 4 have endured a particularly peculiar season that has produced 18 winners over 35 races, the anointing of first-time winner in Harrison Burton, a farewell tour for legend Martin Truex, Jr., an Indy/Charlotte Double Duty attempt by Kyle Larson and yet another controversial win by Austin Dillon, not to mention some fights, an antitrust suit filed against NASCAR (by Reddick’s team, 23XI Racing) and a big ol’ spaghetti pile of postseason controversy as Blaney celebrated at Martinsville Speedway, the deciding factor in Byron making the cut.
Who are this year’s fearless foursome fighting for the Cup in Sunday’s highest-finisher-wins-it-all 312-lap throwdown? How did they get here? How have they fared at Phoenix Raceway in the past? Where are their heads as they, well, head into the desert? And if the guy driving for Michael Jordan wins the title, will he be expected to hug the trophy and cry all over it like MJ did in ’91 and ’96?
Read ahead as we give you the stats, the path and also a short Q&A with each member of NASCAR’s Championship 4.
Ryan Blaney | No. 12 | Ford Mustang | Team Penske
2024: 3 wins, 3 wins, 1 pole, 11 top-5s, 17 top-10s, 5 DNFs
2024 playoffs: 1 win, 0 poles, 4 top-5s, 6 top-10s, 2 DNFs
Playoff history: 8th appearance, 5 wins, 1 this year
Best championship finish: Defending NASCAR Cup Series champion
Phoenix career stats: 17 starts, 0 wins, 8 top-5s, 12 top-10s, 2 DNFs, 10.9 average finish
McGee: So, how exactly would you describe last Sunday at Martinsville? Not all the controversy happening behind you, but the relief of that amazing late drive, the win and transferring into the title fight?
Blaney: It felt like redemption. I gave the race away the week before at Homestead [passed by Reddick in the final turn of the race], like it was 100% on me. So, Martinsville was, personally, just like a self-confidence type of thing. That reaction arc, from being just crushed at one race and then winning the next, that was just electric.
McGee: When we talked this very day one year ago, on the eve of your first Championship 4, it was all about your mindset and mentality. Now you have that championship ring on your hand. You’ve literally been there, done that. Does it feel different this time around?
Blaney: A little bit. Just knowing how the weekend flows. The schedule is very different, the energy is leading up to the race, for sure. But once it starts…
McGee: OK, this is the part where all athletes and coaches say, “It’s just another race” or “just another game,” but it’s not. So, once it starts, be honest, it’s not, right?
Blaney: You definitely pay attention where the other three guys are. I mean, you know who you’re racing, and you know what’s at stake, so you’re constantly paying attention to that, but also, you’re trying your best to just pay attention to what you’re doing. So, I think it’s a little bit of both. You understand the highs that are on it, and the pressure that’s on and it’s like, how do you rise up to that pressure? How do you not let it get to you? But you want that pressure. You’re pretty fortunate if you get to feel that pressure, because it means you’re trying to do something really important.
McGee: Speaking of pressure, you’ve been in it the entire postseason. I look at the past 10 races and it reads: crash, crash, running, crash, running, running, crash. You have four finishes of 30th or worse in the NASCAR playoffs. Where was the defending champ’s head four weeks ago? Because it didn’t look like the champ would have a chance to defend.
Blaney: Some people are like, “Oh, the 12 team shouldn’t be here, they haven’t been performing at all.” It’s like, have you even looked at why we have four finishes of 30th or worse? It’s because I’ve just gotten caught up in other people’s mess. We were super fast in all those races. Like, we didn’t run one lap at Watkins Glen [the second postseason race] and we had already been wrecked. We know we should be here. Fighting back has been the way we’ve done it all season. Sunday won’t be any different.
McGee: I know you love the history of the sport because of your DNA; you come from generations of racers. There are only 17 drivers with two championships and only eight drivers who have managed at least one repeat and it’s happened only ten times. What would it mean to you to be in those clubs?
Blaney: I never would have dreamt about winning one and, let alone, you know, having a chance to win two and go back to back. I’m hungrier to win the second than I was the first, because you know that feeling. You understand that excitement and the joy that it brings you and your people, and you want that feeling again, so we’re even foaming at the mouth more to win the second one.
Joey Logano | No. 22 | Ford Mustang | Team Penske
2024: 3 wins, 3 poles, 6 top-5s, 12 top-10s, 6 DNFs
2024 playoffs: 2 wins, 0 poles, 2 top-5s, 4 top-10s, 1 DNF
Playoff history: 11th appearance, 12 wins
Best championship finish: 2018 and 2022 Cup Series champion
Phoenix career stats: 31 starts, 3 wins (most recent: November 2022), 8 top-5s, 16 top-10s, 5 DNFs, 13.5 average finish
McGee: It’s funny looking over the guys in this foursome, and I remember when you first got here and seemed like you were the young guy for like a decade, and now you’re the cagey veteran with these young guys.
Logano: But I’m not old, either. That’s a good place to be.
McGee: Yes, 34 years old. To quote former Arizona resident Doc Holliday, you’re in your prime. With the younger guys, a lot of my talk has been about mindset, but this is your sixth Championship 4. You’re a two-time champ. What’s that worth on Sunday?
Logano: A lot. You definitely feel more confident going into the weekend because you know what’s coming your way. You know that you know what the week leading up is. A couple of weeks leading up, a couple of days leading up. Stress, everything on your plate, most importantly the amount of time that you will not have.
McGee: You have been in this with teammates and without. You have Blaney with you this year. How much different is it when you go into this with help, but also racing against them?
Logano: It does change the way the race plays out a little bit, right? You have a friend out there, and we have been just as open during meetings for this race as any other race, but maybe once it starts it’s not quite as good of a friend as normal. I was in this position before with Brad [Keselowski] racing here in Phoenix. But the bottom line is that if you’re [team owner] Roger Penske, that means you have a 50% chance, so one of us had better deliver! (laughs)
McGee: There is one Championship 4 newcomer in the field, Reddick. What do you remember about your first time being in the finale with a title shot?
Logano: I don’t know how he is feeling, but I know for me, I was s—ting my pants. Whether it’s your first time or your sixth or whatever, you don’t know if you’ll ever get there again. You don’t know. You know you don’t want to waste the opportunity that is there, and that anxiety that will get you. The pressure is real, man. It’s either going to make you better or it’s going to make you crack. And I know people focus on the drivers but it’s like that for the whole team. It’s not just the drivers who are going to win or lose this thing. If the whole team is going to be there, there’s going to be a lot of pressure on everyone, even if they tell you, “It’s no big deal.” It is. It’s the biggest deal in our sport.
McGee: So, 20-something Joey won his first Cup title six years ago. Now, you’re 30-something Joey, father of three. What’s the celebration now? Y’all head to Chuck E. Cheese?
Logano: I can’t say I’ve ever been a partier. So, 2018 wasn’t too wild. (laughs) My oldest, Hudson, was there, but he was a baby. Then, in 2022, seeing him run up to grab the checkered flag, and then climb into the car with me to ride to Victory Lane, it was definitely a tear-jerking moment. Now it would be even more so that way, because, you know, he’s 6 and my other son, Jameson, is 4. My daughter’s 2, so we can all celebrate together. I don’t know if the youngest would remember it, but my oldest will remember, and if nothing else, we’ll have a lot of pictures and really cool videos and look back. It’s all about the family video someday, right? It’s kind of all you got is memories, and this would be a really special memory to have all together.
Tyler Reddick | No. 23 | Toyota Camry | 23XI Racing
2024: 3 wins, 3 poles, 12 top-5s, 20 top-10s, 4 DNFs, 26-race “regular season” champion
2024 playoffs: 1 win, 1 pole, 1 top-5, 2 top-10s, 2 DNFs
Playoff history: 5th appearance, 1 win, this year
Best championship finish: 6th, 2023
Phoenix career stats: 9 starts, 0 wins, 2 top-5s, 3 top-10s, 1 DNF, 17.9 average finish
McGee: You drive for a team co-owned by Michael Jordan. You drive a Jumpman-sponsored car that routinely features paint schemes modeled after Air Jordans. So, how many pairs of Jordans do you own?
Reddick: I feel like I had a good count like a month ago … but I feel like I’ve had like 15 to 20 pairs show up since then … so, shoot, I’m thinking it’s around 120.
McGee: Did you say 15 or 20 this month? What a job perk!
Reddick: (laughs) Yeah. That’s not bad.
McGee: I have seen a lot of celebrities from other sports come and go from the garage, but Jordan seems all in. He was celebrating with you at Homestead after your last-lap pass. The last time he won a championship of any kind was 1998, playing for the Chicago Bulls. What will it mean if you get to hand him a championship trophy on Sunday?
Reddick: I just think about when I really fell in love with racing as a very young kid, watching NASCAR on Sundays, or hanging out at the track with my dad when he raced. I just always wanted to hopefully one day be a Cup Series driver. Then the ultimate dream come true would be to become a Cup champion. But then, you add to that what you just mentioned. Michael is the champion. He has been so bought-in with 23XI since Day 1 to help the dream of his become realized, too. I don’t know what the emotions are going to be like.
McGee: We all remember him in 1991 and ’96 holding that NBA trophy and crying all over it.
Reddick: We might get a repeat, yeah. But me.
McGee: The other co-owner of your team is Denny Hamlin. How do you explain to all these fans you’ve garnered because of Jordan from the stick-and-ball sports world, this dynamic of racing for a championship-driving a car owned by Hamlin, while also racing against Hamlin, who drives for another team in Joe Gibbs Racing?
Reddick: I know think that’s weird, probably, but in our world it isn’t. Denny is always there to give help if called upon. And yes, it is interesting because who was racing against me and Blaney at Homestead? Denny. At Vegas, same thing [Hamlin criticized Reddick for an early crash]. But he’s always been really good about lending a hand and giving me his opinion on things. So, yeah, it can be a bit tricky balance, when we race each other on the racetrack we both know that everything that we share with each other we will also probably use against each other. We wouldn’t be racers if we didn’t.
McGee: You have two Xfinity titles, won via this same four-team finale format. So, are you nervous? Is this weird? How do you feel going into Sunday because we sportswriters, we’re all shamelessly going to make a big deal out of the fact of this your first time in the Championship 4 and the pressure, the unknown, all of that.
Reddick: Go on and do that if you want, because that’s not where I’m going to be. It is my third time doing this, in different series with different owners and different manufacturers against different drivers, but I have felt really at ease, knowing what this means and where we’re going to be. I find it easy to focus. We have had to battle back all season, so nothing that comes up Sunday will rattle us.
McGee: This sounds like the kid I first saw win a late model race at Rockingham when he was 16.
Reddick: I remember that race. We had a really bad year. We’d blown up every single engine we’d bought. We’d had some bad wrecks. Halfway through the year our budget was gone. I just had the feeling going into Rockingham that this might be one of my last opportunities to be in a stock car. We won and it swung the door back open. That has happened to me again and again. I don’t think the pressure Sunday will be worse than that.
William Byron | No. 24 | Chevrolet Camaro | Hendrick Motorsports
2024: 3 wins, 1 pole, 12 top-5s, 20 top-10s, 4 DNFs
2024 playoffs: 0 wins, 0 poles, 4 top-5s, 7 top-10s, 0 DNFs
Playoff history: 6th appearance, 1 win
Best championship finish: 3rd, 2023
Phoenix career stats: 13 starts, 1 win (March 2023), 2 top-5s, 7 top-10s, 0 DNFs, 11.8 average finish
McGee: I think the last time we chatted was standing in Daytona 500 Victory Lane. You’ve had quite the 2024 since then, all the way up to that postrace controversy at Martinsville.
Byron: We’ve honestly been through a lot this year. I feel like we started off the year really well, and honestly, had some things we were working through and felt like we were close during the summer but just couldn’t get the wins. But once we got into the second round of the playoffs, we just really hit on it. Communication, trust, speed, everything just started to come together, and that’s how we did what we did these last several weeks (six top-6 finishes in the past six races).
McGee: Revisiting Martinsville, you were out of the Championship 4, but Christopher Bell was hit with a penalty and that pushed you in. Were you able to put that all behind you pretty quickly, even with us media folks asking you about it?
Byron: I was honestly really surprised how quickly my mind shifted. I stayed off social media all week. I really blocked out all the noise. Even my crew chief asked me at one point, “Hey, did you see this or that?” and I’m like, “Dude, I haven’t even paid attention.” Typically, I’m pretty easily distracted when it comes to that stuff, but I don’t know, it just felt like when Sunday night happened the way it did, I went from believing we weren’t in and preparing for the worst, but then there was this shot in the arm that we need to go get this championship. So, yeah, out of a mess, I feel optimistic.
McGee: A year ago, we talked about a lot of unknowns ahead of your first Championship 4. So, what do you know now that you didn’t expect to learn in this race in 2023, when you won the pole, finished fourth in the race and third in the championship?
Byron: First, don’t listen to the “it’s just a normal race” stuff because it’s not normal at all. What stuck with me last year, is that it’s a short opportunity, and the race is even shorter than the week, and you just want to capitalize on every moment that you have. It’s one of the shortest races we run (312 laps, 500 kilometers) so it went by really fast. I think the biggest difference last year was that we had some guys that were not in the playoffs that we found ourselves racing really hard with (non-title contender Ross Chastain won the race), so that was a little unique. And then Christopher Bell was out early in the race, so it was really three of us. It’s a little weird feeling, I would say, in that sense because you do have different types of things you’re focused on. We’re back here with a couple different competitors, but there’s a lot of similarities to last year, so it’ll be nice to lean on that stuff.
McGee: Since the Netflix reality show dropped in the preseason, right before you won Daytona, everyone who saw the show became invested in your Lego obsession. So, have people been giving you Legos or telling you about their Legos? Are you kind of Lego’d out?
Byron: (laughs) At this point, I am a bit Lego’d out. It’s the No. 1 thing I get asked. And I’m telling you this just as we’ve had the Netflix guys around this week and a lot more than usual. I honestly did not let them in a lot through the playoff round of 8, because I just wanted to focus. It’ll be interesting to see what the next thing is.