Roger Penske already won two sports car championships this season and heads to Phoenix Raceway with two chances to win a third consecutive NASCAR Cup Series title with both Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney in the winner-take-all season finale.
The two Penske drivers will try to make it three consecutive Cup titles for "The Captain," who won the 2022 title with Logano and last year's championship with Blaney.
They are up against Tyler Reddick of 23XI Racing, one of two teams embroiled in an antitrust lawsuit with NASCAR. The first hearing in the case was Monday and a federal judge promised a ruling on a preliminary injunction by Friday, the same day NASCAR hits the track at Phoenix for its first practice of the weekend.
And then there's William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports, who made the field over Christopher Bell when NASCAR ruled Bell had committed a safety violation in riding the wall Sunday at Martinsville Speedway. That move has been banned since Ross Chastain did it in 2022.
All said, it is a pair of Fords from Team Penske against the Toyota from 23XI and a Chevrolet from Hendrick Motorsports, NASCAR's winningest team in history. The highest finishing driver among the four title contenders will be crowned champion.
