Joey Logano wins at Phoenix Sunday

Odds gurus have the impressive talent at 40/1 to win his first NASCAR Sprint Cup race. He could use a strong performance today, and better yet, a win to secure his spot in next week’s final race.

Our live coverage is set to begin at 2:30 p.m. ET.

Jeff Gluck welcomes Dustin Long of NBC Sports in this week’s edition.

Eliminated from the playoffs on Sunday were Kevin Harvick, an eight-time victor at Phoenix who had raced in the last two finales, as well as his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Kurt Busch.

What was the biggest takeaway from this past weekend at the AAA Texas 500? “We got the second caution and got caught on the bottom and just got shuffled from there. We will go on to Homestead and let her ride again”. “That was the most fun I have had all year. New rules will make him ineligible to race in any Chase races in a lower series next year, so this was his last victory in the fall race at Phoenix. It still came down to points.

In a matter of seconds, his championship chase was over. But really when you look at it now, winning matters most. He has the most consistent vehicle, he has the best average and the most top 10s on the season.

The wreck allowed Logano to cruise by and, with Busch behind him, into the championship round.

“I knew it was going to be an uphill climb”, Hamlin said. Denny Hamlin, 35, along with three past NASCAR champions – Matt Kenseth, 44, Kevin Harvick, 40, and Kurt Busch, 38, – are also still in the running.

“Man, this feels so good!” Kenseth got the worst of it.

“At the end of the race, we bring all the cars down to the entrance of pit road for inspection of the wheels and the lug nuts”, Auton said.

“We’re racing for a championship now”, he added. “That’s so frustrating and aggravating, and I feel awful”. They do a good job of keeping their head straight and a lot of that comes from Todd. “But, hey, we did what we had to do”, Sadler said.

Kenseth’s misfortunes capped a topsy-turvy day for Joe Gibbs Racing.

Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards are already locked in to the finale’ at Homestead-Miami Speedway. That’s the simple matter of fact.

“I don’t really know what happened”, said Kenseth. It’s just hard. Thanks, Granny, I love you. The #4 team has never failed to win when the team faced a must win situation.

Only the statistics back up the predictions of a Harvick win at Phoenix.

“I kind of saw it coming”, Logano said of the wreck.

So what is Kevin Harvick’s situation? Otherwise, they could advance by points. What’s been going wrong with that team? The race’s defending victor has won five of the last six races at the speedy one mile oval. Logano, who started fourth, restarted second behind Bowman when the race returned to green. At Martinsville they were very bad.