Earlier at the Martinsville Speedway, Ryan Blaney triumphed. This resulted in him and Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron qualifying for the Championship 4. Of course, this also meant that four drivers were forced to walk away empty-handed. Those drivers were none other than Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr, Tyler Reddick and Chris Buescher. So the final battle sees two Hendrick Motorsports drivers face off against one Joe Gibbs Racing car and one Team Penske car.

For Blaney, this is a chance to retain the Cup Series trophy to the Team Penske cabinet. Especially after Joey Logano triumphed in 2022, so the team will want to make it two titles in a row, even if the driver is different. In the first round of the Playoffs, defending champion Joey Logano was eliminated. So the onus fell on Blaney to carry the torch for Team Penske and Ford and battle it out for the title.

Is Ryan Blaney following a similar trajectory to 2022’s Joey Logano?

Not many would have pegged the #12 driver to be a Championship 4 contender. So far in the 2023 season, Blaney had been relatively low-key since it began, until the Coca-Cola 600 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. This automatically secured a Playoff berth, but he went back to fading in the background for a while. When the Playoffs kicked off, he won at Talladega during the Round of 12 and entered the Round of 8. Finally, in the penultimate race of the season, he managed to sneak into the Championship 4, taking up the second-to-last berth. Meanwhile, Joey Logano also had a fairly quiet start to the 2022 season.

This was at a time when NASCAR was at its most unpredictable, with multiple winners. This situation probably allowed Logano to fly even lower under the radar. During the Playoff phase, he did enough to reach the Round of 12 and Round of 8. However, the silent smiling assassin snatched victory at Las Vegas to seize a Championship 4 berth and won the season finale to take the 2022 Cup Series title.

Is the Team Penske driver a favorite to win the Cup Series championship?

After his win at the Martinsville Speedway, many eyes will be on him. Especially since he will be expected to try and keep up the momentum at the Phoenix Raceway. To be frank, the Hendrick Motorsports drivers have always been the favorites to win titles. You can blame Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson’s dominance for that, as well as Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott’s own titles. Meanwhile, Joe Gibbs Racing are no slouches either, with the organization racking up a few championship titles.

Team Penske is a solid team, but they haven’t been as dominant as the other two teams. Larson and William Byron have been in excellent form in 2023, and even Christopher Bell reached the Championship 4 last year. Admittedly, this is Byron’s first time in the Championship 4, as well as Ryan Blaney’s. So the likes of Larson and Bell have a leg up on them. Blaney has never won at the Phoenix Raceway, or at any mile-long tracks, so he could be on the back foot, heading into the season finale.

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Why this title is so important for Team Penske and Ryan Blaney?

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This championship is a point of pride for the organization, primarily because of Logano’s early exit. Conventional wisdom suggests that a new champion should be fast enough to defend their crown. So to see the #22 driver falter at the first hurdle has to be fairly embarrassing for the team. Furthermore, it could be a chance for Team Penske to script history in the NASCAR Cup Series. This is because the nature of the competition makes it hard to dominate or for a team to bag back-to-back titles.

The last time such a feat was achieved was in the 2020 and 2021 seasons, thanks to Hendrick Motorsports. Before that, it was HMS once again, only this time it was Jimmie Johnson on his hot streak of five consecutive titles (2006 to 2010).

The late great Dale Earnhardt picked up back-to-back titles twice, for Richard Childress Racing. Meanwhile, the Junior Johnson and Associates team also managed the feat on two separate occasions. Of course, the Pettys also had to get in on the act, with Richard Petty and his father Lee Petty before him. If Blaney actually succeeds, it will be the first time that Team Penske achieved the feat. It would also be the second time a Ford-run team achieved it since Roush Racing in 2003 and 2004.

The #12 driver knows that he will be in for a stern fight on his hands

As mentioned before, Kyle Larson is an undoubted favorite because he is a Cup Series champion. Meanwhile, William Byron has been in good form off late, and Christopher Bell is a dark horse. However Blaney is not one to be underestimated, and he will fight hard to clinch that maiden Cup Series championship. Who knows, maybe he can pull off another Joey Logano 2022 and surprise everyone.

Speaking of Logano, he will know what his job entails, next weekend. Along with teammate Austin Cindric, the #22 driver will try his best to engage in some teamwork and help Blaney to the title. If it means making a nuisance of themselves for the likes of Byron, Larson, and Bell, so be it. Maybe they could even hope for the aid of fellow Ford teams, Stewart-Haas Racing and Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing.

Or the other end of the scale is that it is every man for himself, and Ryan Blaney will have to fight his rivals on his own. One thing is for sure, the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4 battle is really heating up. Out of the four drivers, only Larson has won a title, so Bell, Byron, and Blaney will be extra motivated and slightly desperate.

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