Kurt Busch leads last practice before elimination race

Harvick has had a lot of success at Phoenix, including a win last season to race his way into the final round and to an eventual championship.

Realizing that Gordon would be the center of attention at next week’s season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway whether he was in championship contention or not, PIR president Bryan Sperber and his track pulled out all the stops to make the driver’s final visit to Phoenix a memorable one. Four drivers will race for the title next week, and only Jeff Gordon had earned a berth. If you’re looking for non-Chase driver spoiler this week, Erik Jones is your guy.

At the moment, Harvick needs a top-three finish – along with leading a lap – to assure himself of a transfer spot to Homestead.

Should one of the seven remaining eligible drivers in the Chase win Sunday’s race, they would automatically advantage to the title race.

“One of the things that we want to try to do as a league is minimize the debate”, Frye said. Plus, the final 10 tracks didn’t favor him as much as it did for a few others – Hendrick Motorsports teammate and six-time titlist Jimmie Johnson, for example. Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr are in the drivers’ seat.

“I think it’s fun, but I do think it’s interesting to watch how everyone responds to the pressure”, Edwards said. “We have a good starting spot, which was our first mission”, Edwards said.

“If we were to go into Homestead with a 20-point lead, it would be a pretty easy day – just don’t wreck”.

Kevin Harvick, victor of four consecutive races at Phoenix and five of the last six, qualified eighth. Most of the title contenders believe they are chasing Harvick on Sunday. Kyle Busch is in second place, two points back. He essentially has to win at Phoenix to advance to the final round.

So it didn’t help when both failed to advance out of the second round of Friday qualifying.

Asked where Penske was off in qualifying, Logano was practical: “In the speed department, somewhere”, he said. Need a few proof? Well, we went back and found the start of the spring Phoenix race on YouTube.

“Phoenix worldwide Raceway works closely with the FBI and Homeland Security, as well as other local, state and federal agencies, throughout the planning and implementation of our event security plan”, track president Bryan Sperber said in a statement. “He’s won nearly every race there the last few years”. “If we win this weekend, it’s the biggest win of the year up to this point”.