2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase Stock Watch: Buying, Selling Drivers in Final Round
When Brian France first announced the dramatic changes that would be taking place in the Chase for the Sprint Cup format this year, NASCAR's chairman and CEO repeatedly mentioned that the goal was to produce more "Game 7-type moments" for his sport, per FoxSports.com.
Well, mission accomplished.
If the fight fireworks following both of the earlier Chase races in Charlotte and Texas or Brad Keselowski's dramatic win at Talladega to stay alive in the Chase at the time weren't enough, now there is Kevin Harvick's thrilling victory last Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway. Needing to win to ensure that he would have the opportunity to race for the championship next Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Harvick did just that.
"I guess that's what it feels like to hit a walkoff in extra innings," Harvick told FoxSports.com.
And with that, Harvick's stock soared heading into the winner-take-all season finale, where he will race with Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin and Ryan Newman to determine this year's Sprint Cup champion. See where they stand and also whose stock for the 2014 season can be discarded now that the dust in the desert has settled and they've been eliminated from the Chase.
Carl Edwards
1 of 8
To be honest, it was somewhat surprising and quite commendable that Edwards lasted this long in the Chase. He was eliminated Sunday after finishing 15th at Phoenix.
In his final season driving the No. 99 Ford for Roush Fenway Racing, Edwards won two races and made it to the final-eight round of the Chase. That was a testament to his driving ability and the dogged determination and dedication of veteran crew chief Jimmy Fennig, who also will be stepping off of the No. 99 pit box at season's end.
Edwards will drive a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing next season. He's had a good run in the No. 99, which he has driven for RFR for more than a decade and taken to Victory Lane 23 times in Sprint Cup points races. But all good things must come to an end, and this is it for this union.
Verdict: Sell
Ryan Newman
2 of 8
Knowing he needed to gain one more position on the final lap at Phoenix to nip Jeff Gordon for the fourth and final transfer spot into the Championship Four race at Homestead, Newman did what he had to do and laid the bumper of his No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet to the No. 42 car driven by Kyle Larson.
More accurately, Newman sort of used Larson's car as a bumper when he found the rookie driver on the outside of him as they came out of Turn 3 at Phoenix International Raceway. Newman just kept his foot mashed on the gas and drove Larson right into the outside wall
"I wasn't proud of what I had to do, but I did it the best way that I possibly could," Newman told FoxSports.com.
There was some debate in social media afterward about whether Newman did the right thing. But the bottom line is that he did what he needed to do to earn a shot at stealing his first championship, despite having not won a single race all season. No one should blame him for that.
Verdict: Buy
Matt Kenseth
3 of 8
Kenseth stayed in the championship hunt until there were only eight drivers left for a simple reason. He was consistent.
With 13 top-five and 21 top-10 finishes in the first 35 races, he was able not only to make the Chase but then also last all the way to Phoenix before being eliminated.
Like Newman, he has not won a single race all season. But unlike Newman, Kenseth put himself in a hole in the Chase Eliminator Round when he sandwiched a disastrous 25th-place finish at Texas between a sixth-place finish at Martinsville and Sunday's third-place run at Phoenix.
That left him in a position where, realistically, the only way he was going to advance to Homestead was if he won at Phoenix. When he didn't, his unlikely Chase run came to an end.
Verdict: Sell
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Denny Hamlin
4 of 8
Hamlin told Bleacher Report before the Chase Eliminator Round even commenced that he liked his chances of doing well enough at Martinsville, Texas and Phoenix to advance to the Championship Four show at Homestead.
Turns out he was prophetic. Despite battling an ill-handling car much of the day plus a pit-road problem that twice took him a lap down at Phoenix, Hamlin coaxed a fifth-place finish out of his No. 11 FedEx Toyota and earned Joe Gibbs Racing a seat at the Championship Four table in a season when its cars across the board have usually lacked the speed of other top contenders.
Now it all comes down to one race where Hamlin has won twice before and where he tested just two weeks ago.
"We had a really good test at Homestead, and we won there last year," Hamlin's crew chief, Darian Grubb, told FoxSports.com. "(I) feel like we have a lot of confidence going into there, so we're going to go in and fight, fight, fight."
Verdict: Buy
Jeff Gordon
5 of 8
It was a tough end to Gordon's high hopes for a fifth Sprint Cup title—but his first since 2001—when even a second-place run at Phoenix wasn't quite good enough for him to advance to Homestead.
Gordon's run was victimized by his well-publicized run-in with Brad Keselowski a week earlier at Texas, which took him from contention for a win to a 29th-place finish in the blink of an eye when Keselowski's car touched Gordon's and cut the left rear tire in the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. That left him needing to either win at Phoenix or finish second, which he did, and have Newman finish 12th or worse.
When Newman ran Larson into the outside wall coming off of Turn 3 on the final lap and moved into 11th as Harvick won the race, it sealed Gordon's fate. Harvick advanced automatically by virtue of his win, and Newman finished one point ahead of Gordon in the Chase Eliminator Round points.
"I hope we taught somebody that you can race clean and still go out there and give it your best, that you don't have to wreck people to make it in the Chase or win the championship," Gordon told FoxSports.com. "I'm afraid (if) it was that ugly the last couple of weeks, it's going to get real ugly next week."
Verdict: Sell
Joey Logano
6 of 8
With two victories and an average finish of 5.3 in the nine Chase races thus far, no one has been more consistent than Logano. His sixth-place run at Phoenix locked him into the Championship Four at Homestead, as he finished just one point behind Hamlin in the Eliminator Round points.
But it's tough to label Logano the favorite in the final race, despite his five wins overall this season and his consistency throughout the Chase. That's because in five career starts at Homestead, he's never finished higher than eighth, and his average finish is a poor 20.8.
Still, you can't totally count him out, either. His chemistry with crew chief Todd Gordon and the rest of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford team has only improved throughout the season—and it was impressive how Logano kept his head after a pit-road mistake dropped him from second to 29th in the middle of the Phoenix race.
Keeping a cool head and battling back from that salvaged Logano's season. Time will tell if it helps him win a championship.
Verdict: Buy
Brad Keselowski
7 of 8
Despite a series-high six wins on the season, including two earlier in the Chase, Keselowski was unable to advance to the Championship Four after fading to seventh down the stretch at Phoenix.
Keselowski was at the center of much controversy during the Chase, first for angering Kenseth and Hamlin with some bizarre post-race antics at Charlotte and then catching the ire of Gordon when they tussled at Texas. And yet he remains defiantly unapologetic, which, in a way, is very refreshing (even as many of his fellow drivers find it annoying and incomprehensible).
Per FoxSports.com, Keselowski told the media at Phoenix:
"The more I dig into becoming what someone else wants me to be, the less I stay who I am, and who I am is someone who can wins races and be a championship threat year over year with a great team that supports me, (along with) a great cast of family and friends. I'm not looking to become what everyone else wants me to become, so I have not spend a lot of time on that rhetoric and I don't wish to spend a lot of time trying to justify anything I do or don't do. I feel pretty good about the actions I've taken.
"
He just won't be taking any more actions this season that might lead to a championship. In a major way, that's too bad. It makes the title race just a little less interesting.
Verdict: Sell
Kevin Harvick
8 of 8
Harvick pulled off the win at Phoenix and heads to Homestead now as the prohibitive favorite because he and crew chief Rodney Childers have the hottest team. And not only have they won two Chase races and four overall on the season, but they also appear to have solved the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing team's one weakness from earlier in the season.
That occurred when Harvick swapped pit crews with the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing team of driver Tony Stewart, who failed to qualify for the Chase, just before the playoffs began.
Childers has given Harvick fast cars all year long. In addition to the four wins, Harvick also has finished second six times. The latest runner-up effort came just two weeks ago at Texas in the Chase.
And his record at Homestead isn't bad. He's never won at the 1.5-mile track, but he has finished second twice in 13 starts, and no driver seems to be better at doing what needs to be done when he knows beforehand what it is (except maybe for Harvick's budding archrival, Keselowski). Harvick's average finish of 8.1 at Homestead is the best of the Championship Four title contenders.
Verdict: Buy
Unless otherwise noted, all information was obtained firsthand.
Joe Menzer has written six books, including two about NASCAR, and now writes about it and other sports for Bleacher Report as well as covering NASCAR as a writer and editor for FoxSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @OneMenz.
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