Sprint Cup NASCAR race today

Unusually persistent desert rain plagued the final race of the third round of the Chase on Sunday at Phoenix worldwide Raceway, eventually ending it 93 laps short and suddenly slamming the Chase door on the fingers of Team Penske teammates Logano and Keselowski, Edwards and Busch. They will join Jeff Gordon next weekend in the finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, with the series title decided by finishing order among the four drivers.

Busch is ranked seventh in the eight-driver field, and only Jeff Gordon has locked up a spot in the final four.

Kevin Harvick, victor of four consecutive races at Phoenix and five of the last sixth, was fifth in final practice as the two Stewart-Haas Racing drivers were the best of the title contenders on Saturday. That subsequently incurred Busch a pass-through penalty, which dropped him out of the lead in a race he absolutely needed to win.

Joey Logano walks through the garage area before qualifying for…

Edwards was on pit road being interviewed on NBCSN’s broadcast – under an umbrella – and offering his opinion that the track could be dried and the race restarted when NASCAR made the call to abandon the remaining laps.

For Edwards to advance he must either win at PIR or finish ahead of Truex, Keselowski and Kurt Busch. So second if he leads no laps, third if he leads one and fourth if he leads them all. Expect no different this weekend as the current series champion will do whatever it takes to make the finals at Homestead. Busch has a slot in the Sprint Cup Series championship finale within reach for the first time in his career. Erik Jones was substituted for the suspended driver Matt Kenseth in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota for the second week.

In fact, Busch is already in a strong position in the points standings and has every chance of progressing with just a top ten finish tomorrow. With so much on the line, look for Kyle Busch and the #18 team to be on top of their game on Sunday. He knows he needs to win Phoenix to make it to Homestead.

Given his Phoenix track record recently – four straight wins – it’s a good bet Harvick will accomplish that barring a failure or accident. Kenseth was suspended for two races for the incident. But none of that matters come Sunday afternoon when he competes in the Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500. That is Joey Logano’s only hope.

Busch and other Chase drivers are trying to do the same thing. “We just work as hard as we can and try to do what we need to do to push ourselves through and if Carl can push himself through, more power to him”. “That’s the way this Chase is”, Logano said.