The world seemed to have come crashing down on Team Penske. To set the scene, at Las Vegas, the team’s only hope Ryan Blaney had finished sixth in the race. With that finish, the team, as well as the driver, were hopeful of their championship run. However, their hopes were short-lived after NASCAR disqualified Ryan Blaney after his car failed the post-race inspection. The authorities stated that the car failed to meet the specified length of the left front shock, as stated by the NASCAR rule book.

As a result, the driver was relegated to a position that seemed to be unsurmountable. With a deficit of 56 points, Ryan Blaney’s championship run seemed to have been crippled. However, what followed next was nothing less than climactic unfolding. The authorities rescinded their decision and restored Blaney’s original position, bringing him back to the championship mix.

With the hopes being restored, the Team Penske driver was geared up to put his best foot forward, for the second race of Championship 4 and put his best forward for contention run in Phoenix. However, it was not just Ryan Blaney, who had fixated his eyes on the Cup Series championship, but also Joe Gibbs Racing’s young and underrated racing prodigy Christopher Bell.

As the dust settled down on the track of Homestead-Miami, the final picture for the championship contention seemed to deliver a sense of clarity. With Hendrick Motorsports being the indomitable ones, it’s time to delve deeper into the championship run of both the Ford and Toyota drivers and who shall have the final laugh at Phoenix.

Will Ryan Blaney be the next championship-winning Ford driver?

Tears came to Ryan Blaney’s eyes and his voice broke, as he seized a victory in one of the Crown Jewel races; the Coca-Cola 600. The young driver was able to achieve his redemption after he ended his winless drought and secured a playoff berth. Nonetheless, since the win Coca-Cola 600 win, Blaney had failed to live up to the expectations unlike his 2x champion teammate Joey Logano who notched top-5 and top-10 consistently through the regular season.

However, the pressure of elimination in the playoffs did not bog down the Team Penske driver. While his teammate and the defending champion Joey Logano was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, Blaney on the contrary was able to fend off his position and enter the next round of playoffs. Moreover, he seized a picturesque victory at Talladega, after outlasting the outgoing driver Kevin Harvick. 

However, the disqualification tried to throw a spanner at Blaney’s works before being revoked by the authorities. This resulted in Blaney stepping his pedal on the accelerator and making sure that he carried forward the past year’s momentum of the team and fetched a consecutive championship trophy for Team Penske. The hard work did pay off as he clinched a P2 finish at Homestead-Miami. 

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With 10 points and a cushion on the scoreboard, Ryan Blaney seems to be on the verge of fulfilling his long-cherished dream of winning the championship. After a year of being termed as Kasey Kahne by Kyle Petty, Blaney in a media interaction had expressed, “I want to win the championship.”

“We have to win races. We made some big mistakes. Early in the year, we had some trouble on pit road that kept us from winning. Later in the year, I made some mistakes that kept us from winning and out of the championship hunt. We have to limit those and apply them for the better.”

Christopher Bell set to usurp his teammates from their hallowed position

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In order to materialize his dreams, Blaney has overcome numerous hurdles and holds his momentum. Moreover, the biggest threat that Blaney has to overcome is the threat from the ever-winning team duo of Hendrick Motorsports and especially Joe Gibbs Racing’s prodigy Christopher Bell. 

In the 4-driver team of Joe Gibbs Racing, it has always been the veteran drivers like Denny Hamlin who have always been the talk of the town. On the contrary, Bell’s achievements have always been eclipsed by the commotion. However, it seems that things are finally on the verge of falling into their designated place.

After a year of qualifying for the Round of 8 and being called a fluke, Bell seems to be shutting down all his critics once and for all. After his only win at Bristol Dirt Racing, he seemed to have fallen back into the pack, and mired in innumerable pit-stop problems or mechanical issues. 

As a result, the team owner, Joe Gibbs, swapped the pit crew members of Ty Gibbs with Christopher Bell, but the on-track tragedies were far from being over. Whether it was a prolonged pit stop issue or being wrecked in races, Bell seemed to have lost his mojo. Nevertheless, the 28-year-old made sure that he jumped back to his initial momentum in the playoffs. 

While Martin Truex Jr seized the regular-season championship and Denny Hamlin was on his path to securing his first championship, Bell reinforced his championship run. When Truex Jr and Hamlin, both got knocked out of the race at Homestead, axing their championship run, Bell secured his second victory of the season and progressed a step further to Phoenix. 

Joe Gibbs Racing driver’s integrity finally pays off at Homestead

After being stuck in the mid-pack for most of the race, Bell was able to navigate his way on the track after engaging in an intense battle with William Byron and Ryan Blaney. This battle finally paid off for Bell, as he clinched the chequered, and joined Kyle Larson for the final race at Phoenix, a week after losing out by a few inches, to the HMS driver.

Although the JGR driver had the opportunity of roughening up Larson, Bell chose to concede his defeat while maintaining his integrity as a racer. Nevertheless, in his post-race-winning interview, Bell expressed, “I’ve always been one that says that the car is everything.”

“The driver’s job is to maximize the car. If the car is fast, you do good. If the car is slow, you do bad. I think today was the epitome of that. We were really struggling. I was the slowest car on the track at one point in the race. A couple good adjustments later, we became one of the fastest ones.”

Will the young prodigies of NASCAR be able to ward off JGR’s veterans?

While the NASCAR fandom hopes to see their favorite driver clinch the final trophy at Phoenix, the road to the final race will be a daunting task for all the contending drivers, especially the two veteran ones of JGR. Since he clinched the regular-season championship, although he failed to deliver great playoff performances, Martin Truex Jr was still able to cruise to the next round on the points cushion. 

Denny Hamlin, on the other hand, had failed to qualify for the Championship 4 since 2021 and was finally on the brink of breaking his championship curse. However, as luck could have it, after clinching multiple victories, Hamlin suffered the biggest setback at Homestead, which forced to relegate him below the cutline. 

With the surge of the young racing prodigies, including HMS Kyle Larson, the hopes of winning at Phoenix seem to dwindle for both veteran drivers. While Bell seems to be the redeeming factor for Joe Gibbs Racing, it’s Ryan Blaney for Ford who can carry forward the 2022 Cup Series championship momentum.

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With just the penultimate race left to highlight the final picture of the season finale, it will be interesting to see, if these two drivers are able to deliver the respite to their respective teams, or will fall flat in front of the 2021 Cup Series champion Kyle Larson, in the final showdown. Who do you think will win the 2024 Cup title?