Hello, Newman! Drought ends at Phoenix

He hadn't won in more than three full seasons -- 127 races total. Ryan Newman wasn't about to do anything conventional when a golden opportunity to break the drought fell into his lap.

Crew chief Luke Lambert made the call -- no tires instead of two. When Newman stayed on the track, it proved to be the move that ended the frustration and put his Richard Childress Racing No. 31 Chevrolet in Victory Lane at the Camping World 500 at Phoenix International Raceway. The win was Newman's first since the Brickyard 400 in 2013, and it was made possible when Joey Logano -- of all people -- blew a tire with six laps to go.

After all the talk of the post-race "fight" at Las Vegas between Logano and Kyle Busch during the week, Logano's mishap was the catalyst that led to Busch coming to pit road while Newman stayed out.

In the end, Newman had enough left in his tires to hold off Kyle Larson and put an end to the long winless drought on a day under blazing sunshine with temperatures in the mid-90s.

The irony of it all was dripping as much as Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s ice pack was inside his car on the 1-mile oval.

Four weeks in, and we've had four pretty amazing finishes. Who needs the NCAA Tournament when a) most brackets were already ruined after Villanova's stunning loss to Wisconsin on Saturday and b) the win by Newman may have topped what's found on the Casey Affleck dramatics scale.

If'you saw Affleck's Oscar-winning performance in "Manchester By The Sea," you know exactly what I'm talking about.

But with that said, Newman's win only adds to what's been a pretty amazing beginning to this NASCAR season. Even with Martin Truex Jr.'s stage sweep to the win at Las Vegas, the racing has been far from ordinary.

-Kurt Busch won Daytona on the last lap. First driver ever in the race's 59 years.
-Brad Keselowski won at Atlanta when Kevin Harvick's pit-road speeding penalty cost him.
-Truex won at Vegas when he regained the lead with two laps to go after Keselowski ran into a problem with the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford.
-And then there was Newman, who took a chance that paid off in one of the more unlikely race wins in recent memory.

And that, in a nutshell, is why it will always be worth watching -- from beginning to end.

Follow Tom Zulewski on Twitter @TommyZee81 or email tominator19@yahoo.com.

And then there were 4...the Championship 4

With all apologies to the superhero bunch, the way NASCAR got its Fantastic Four after this weekend's racing at Phoenix International Raceway was certainly surprising.

In no particular order, here are a few thoughts on the whole darn thing...

-You just had to sit and shake your head over Matt Kenseth's misfortune. Here he was, a lap and a few 100 yards away from earning his spot to race for the title. Then Michael McDowell's tire decided to give out.

Once they restarted, Kenseth got caught in the wrong place at the wrong time when he tried to go to the low side as Alex Bowman -- Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s substitute driver in the No. 88 -- tried to grab the spot.

The end result: Kenseth spun and hopes for a shot at a second championship went out with his tattered No. 20 Toyota Camry.

When all was said and done after 12 extra laps, Joey Logano survived the second overtime round and took the checkered flag by just over a half-second in front of Kyle Busch. With his finish, Busch claimed the last spot in the foursome that will run for the title.

The final margin was six points better than teammate Denny Hamlin, who finished seventh and led four laps.

So after all the hype and worry for the non-fans, Joe Gibbs Racing managed to get two cars in the Championship 4. Busch gets to defend his title and Carl Edwards -- thanks to his win at Texas last week -- gets to make a bid to purge the nightmare of the 2011 title hunt from his soul.

There won't be any ties this time around. Finish in front of your challengers, hold the big trophy.

-Let's face facts here: We're all pretty much thankful that Cup driver participation will be limited in the XFINITY Series next season. After what happened for the inaugural Chase, it's easy to understand why.

For the fourth time in the six Chase races, a Cup regular won. For the 10th time in his 17 starts (half the schedule), Kyle Busch ended up in Victory Lane at the Ticket Galaxy 200.

It was Busch's third win in the last four races he's entered, and it was dominating as usual. He led 190 of the 200 laps at Phoenix and finished the year with 2,052 laps led out of a possible 2,995.

That's 69 percent of the total, folks. Is it any wonder why his presence was so reviled by the skeptics? Personally, it's hard to stomach a race when someone is so off-the-charts dominant.

Not quite like the days when the race winner won by laps, but it's pretty close.

Rant aside, the Championship Four for Homestead will be Elliott Sadler, Daniel Suarez, Erik Jones and Justin Allgaier. The group finished with nine of the 11 victories earned by series regulars. The other two were by part-timers in Justin Marks (Mid-Ohio) and Sam Hornish Jr. (Iowa 1).

With Allgaier in the mix for the title, we could very well finish with a champion that didn't win a race for the year. The odds are long, but it will leave a bad mark on the series if it happens.

-The Camping World Truck Series has drivers from four different race teams who will run for the title Friday night at Homestead. Johnny Sauter (GMS Racing), Matt Crafton (ThorSport), Christopher Bell (Kyle Busch Motorsports) and Timothy Peters (Red Horse Racing) are the ones who made it through the inaugural Chase for NASCAR's No. 3 series.

On the surface, Sauter could easily be pegged as the favorite following back-to-back wins at Martinsville and Texas. He added a runner-up effort at Phoenix, so serious momentum is on his side.

Matt Crafton -- Sauter's former teammate at ThorSport -- already has two truck titles on his resume and would move into second place on the all-time series list behind Ron Hornaday's four if he beats his challengers at Homestead.

Crafton was runner-up to Sauter at Texas and finished third at Phoenix. As he looks for title No. 3, it's not about racing for points now.

Christopher Bell kept KBM in the title hunt and made up for the loss of teammate and pre-Chase favorite William Byron. Byron's Chase hopes went up in smoke when he lost an engine and finished 27th at Phoenix.

And like the XFINITY Series, we could crown a champ who didn't win a race. Peters finished with four top-5s in the six Chase races, so that will serve him and Red Horse Racing well.

Will the champion be required to take the checkered flag to win the title? It's a mystery that will be fun to explore this weekend, particularly on the XFINITY and Truck side. Unknowns are good, but holding great big trophies will be much better.

Follow Tom Zulewski on Twitter @TommyZee81 or email tominator19@yahoo.com.

THIS WEEK'S RACES
Homestead-Miami Speedway (1.5-mile D-shaped oval), Homestead, Florida.
-SPRINT CUP: Ford EcoBoost 400, Sunday, 2:30 p.m. ET/11:30 a.m. PT, NBC. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local MRN Radio affiliate.
Race distance: 400.5 miles, 267 laps.
2015 champion: Kyle Busch.
-XFINITY SERIES: Ford EcoBoost 300, Saturday, 3:30 p.m. ET/12:30 p.m. PT, NBC Sports Network. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local MRN Radio affiliate.
Race distance: 300 miles, 200 laps.
2015 champion: Kyle Larson
-CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES: Ford EcoBoost 200, Friday, 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT, Fox Sports 1. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local MRN Radio affiliate.
Race distance: 201 miles, 134 laps.
2015 champion: Matt Crafton.

Edwards has shot at erasing bad memory

We all knew the drill. Fans of Carl Edwards knew it all too well.

In one of the best NASCAR Sprint Cup title fights ever witnessed, Edwards and Tony Stewart couldn't have been any closer as the season finale happened at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 20, 2011.

When they left Phoenix, Edwards had a three-point lead over Stewart. It was hanging by a thread, and Carl needed one more performance to hold the Sprint Cup championship trophy.
As things turned out, we got...a tie.

Wait. Ties happen, but you have to break them. So when all was said and done, Stewart's five Chase wins netted him his third championship. Edwards? He only had one.

And now, five years later to the very day, Edwards gets another shot, and it will be much different this time around.

With his win at the multi-hour rain-delayed AAA Texas 500 that finished 41 laps short of the full distance, Edwards has his chance to erase the sadness, the disappointment of his battle with Tony Stewart ending in a tie.

Unlike 2011, Edwards will have three drivers to worry about. Jimmie Johnson is already in, and two more will be joining them in the race for the 2016 Sprint Cup title.

Five years ago, there were mind games. Stewart said he wasn't worthy of being in the Chase when it began, but he went out and won the first two, then closed with three wins in the last four.

The duel between Smoke and Edwards was off the charts in competitive goodness. Here's how they finished in the final three weeks:
-Texas: Stewart won, Edwards second.
-Phoenix: Edwards second, Stewart third (Tony won extra bonus point for leading the most laps).
-Homestead: Stewart won, Edwards second. Stewart gets tiebreaker to crown him as champion.
Stewart will watch from his driver's seat as he races for the final time in the No. 14 for his own Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet. And it won't be complicated.

Just win, baby. That, or keep the other challengers behind you.

We have documented here that both Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch won at Homestead to claim the Sprint Cup as their own in this system of the Chase. Winning mattered in 2011, and it matters even more now.

But who will join Johnson and Edwards as the other members of the third Championship Four at Homestead? You'd think Harvick would find a way to get in with how much he's owned Phoenix of late -- six wins in the last eight trips with 994 laps led in the last five.

All good streaks must end sometime, but Harvick isn't one for following scripts. That's why he'll be dangerous.

And if we grouped the final four for Homestead right now, the battle is tighter than a car that won't turn anywhere at any track without serious steering wheel abuse.
With Johnson already locked in to Homestead, Joey Logano and Kyle Busch would be the last two who would race for the crown. Lurking around the next curve and eating at their rear bumpers, Matt Kenseth is one point behind and Denny Hamlin is two points back.

And all that talk about Joe Gibbs Racing making Homestead their own championship battle ground would be as shocking as what happened to Hillary Clinton last night.
Past performance is no guarantee for future results.

-On the XFINITY side, the Saturday night race at Phoenix will be one worth watching because it's anyone's guess who's worthy of the Championship Four.
Daniel Suarez, Elliot Sadler, Erik Jones and Blake Koch are in at the moment, but Justin Allgaier is within a point of Koch and Ryan Reed is only five points behind.

A win by a series regular will change everything, but we haven't had one since Suarez at Dover three weeks ago. Thank goodness for the rule changes that will limit Cup drivers' presence in these races starting next season.

-For the Camping World Truck Series, Johnny Sauter has come into this round of the inaugural Chase and stolen all of William Byron's thunder. Byron is still out in front, but the separation from him to Timothy Peters -- who is on the outside looking in -- is exactly five points.

Between Byron, Christopher Bell, Matt Crafton and Peters, it's conceivable any one of them could see their title dreams denied after Phoenix on Friday night.

Let's go racing, folks. The boogity is happening all on its own.

Follow Tom Zulewski on Twitter @TommyZee81 or @Tomzsports. Email him at tominator19@yahoo.com.

THIS WEEK'S RACES
Phoenix International Raceway (1-mile oval), Avondale, Arizona.
-SPRINT CUP: Can-Am 500, Sunday, 2:30 p.m. ET, 11:30 a.m. PT, NBC. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local MRN Radio affiliate.
Race distance: 500 kilometers (312 miles), 312 laps.
2015 champion: Kyle Busch
-XFINITY SERIES: Ticket Galaxy 200, Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT, NBC Sports Network. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local MRN Radio affiliate.
Race distance: 200 miles, 200 laps.
2015 champion: Kyle Busch
-CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES: Lucas Oil 150, Friday, 8:30 p.m ET/5:30 p.m. PT, Fox Sports 1. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local MRN Radio affiliate.
Race distance: 150 miles, 150 laps.
2015 champion: Timothy Peters

Harvick rules at PIR by mere inches

Kevin Harvick didn’t have the greatest of qualifying efforts at Phoenix International Raceway in the Good Sam 500 on March 13. Even with five wins in his previous six visits to the 1-mile oval, the task of coming to the front from the middle of the field was formidable.

For Harvick, the challenge turned out to be a piece of cake, even with having to survive a heart-wrenching finish.
Harvick led 139 of the 312 laps and outmaneuvered Carl Edwards at the finish line to win for the sixth time in the last eight races at Phoenix and become the fourth different race winner in the 2016 season.
And even though Harvick – who qualified 18th – and Edwards were two of only four drivers who led laps all day, the second photo-finish in the first four races of the season had everyone talking afterwards. It came courtesy of a two-lap shootout after Kasey Kahne wrecked at lap 308, four short of the finish.
Harvick got a jump off the restart, but Edwards got his No. 19 Toyota down to the low side of the track on the white-flag lap. Edwards gave Harvick a shove up the hill, but when the No. 4 car bumped back, it was enough to get the victory – by just one-hundredth of a second.
“Fun finish,” said Harvick, who won for the eighth time in his career at PIR. “I think as drivers and as a sport, that's really the benefit -- one of the benefits of the low downforce package and the tire situation.”
The driver of the Jimmy John’s Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing didn’t lead for the first time until lap 169, but he held on to it for all but six of the remaining circuits. When the last of the race’s five caution flags came out, it gave Edwards the chance he was looking for after finishing 18th at Las Vegas last week.
“Just a lot of fun,” Edwards said of the finish. “I really wish it would have worked out a little bit differently, but it's a good race. I ran into (Harvick) about as hard as I thought I could without wrecking him, and it ended up being a drag race.”
With the low-downforce package providing more than enough brain drains for crew chiefs and drivers alike, Harvick knows the process of figuring it all out hasn’t even begun to take shape with the season only four weeks old.
“It's a totally different mentality in practice right now,” Harvick said. “It's not about how fast you go, it's really about how long can you go fast and trying to get the falloff in the car to stay where it needs to be.”
On a warm, sunny afternoon in the desert, Harvick and the No. 4 crew got everything figured out just in time and just enough.
Among the 10 closest race finishes in NASCAR history, Harvick has now been involved in two of them. He beat Jeff Gordon by .006 to win at Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 11, 2001.
Follow Tom Zulewski on Twitter @Tomzsports.

NEXT WEEK'S RACES

Auto Club Speedway (2-mile superspeedway), Fontana, California

-SPRINT CUP: Auto Club 400, Sunday, 3:30 p.m. ET/12:30 p.m. PT, Fox (check listings). Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local MRN affiliate.

Race distance: 400 miles, 200 laps

2015 champion: Brad Keselowski

-XFINITY SERIES: Treatmyclot.com 300, Saturday, 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT, Fox Sports 1. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local MRN affiliate.

Race distance: 300 miles, 150 laps.

2015 champion: Kevin Harvick

-CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES: Off until April 2 at Martinsville Speedway.

Side note: Other than Daytona, when he was basically told not to compete, Kyle Busch has been otherworldly in his dominance at Atlanta, Las Vegas and Phoenix.

He hasn't just won all three, but he's crushed the field and made them eat brake dust for dinner.

How good is the driver with 79 wins in 314 starts in NASCAR's No. 2 series? This good...

Out of 563 laps run in the last three weeks, Busch has led 493. That's 87.6 percent of the total.

Between Las Vegas and Phoenix, the ratio is 374 out of 400, or 93.5 percent.

In past posts here, I've argued how all the winning Busch has done in XFINITY and trucks hasn't meant squat without a Cup championship. Now that the Cup trophy is in the case, Busch is making the track his own personal playground.

While those who don't care for Busch are crying sour grapes, it's a tired, stale act. Instead of complaining about things like limiting how often Cup guys can run in the lower series, it's about time we appreciate what Busch is doing.

In order to be the best, you have to beat the best. Everyone in the XFINITY garage recognizes that. It's about time the fans do the same.

Another item I have to confess here: I had a three-way viewing/listening experience Sunday between the NCAA Tournament selection show on my computer, an additional Facebook tab, and the race from Phoenix on my SiriusXM app.

The early ratings showed NASCAR came within an eyelash of beating the selection show for viewing audience, 3.7 to 3.6. CBS tried to expand to two hours for the first time. It was a dull, lifeless experience.

Not so from the finish at Phoenix. The excitement came when it mattered, and it's continued a trend of great finishes through the first four weeks.

As long as the racing keeps going like it has been, interest in NASCAR will continue to grow in 2016. Maybe not back to the level it was at the turn of the millenium, but at least on an upward trend. 

Johnson keeps up roll, on point at Phoenix

As we get ready for the penultimate race of the 2015 NASCAR season, the black flag award goes to my local newspaper again. Upon opening today's sports section, there was no race lineup to be found anywhere.
And the sad part is there are only two races left to run. A champion is going to be crowned next weekend at Homestead.
For the race fan in all of us, a checkered flag goes to Jimmie Johnson for following up his run of success from last week at Texas with a pole run for the Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 at Phoenix International/Jeff Gordon Raceway.
While Johnson looks for another win, those players looking to join Gordon to run for the title at Homestead all have good starting positions.
-Kurt Busch is in must-win mode. He'll start with Johnson on the outside front row.
-Carl Edwards is only seven points behind Martin Truex Jr., who holds the last transfer spot to Homestead. He'll start fourth Sunday.
-Truex Jr. is basically in control of his own destiny, which is a good feeling to have. He starts fifth at Phoenix.
-After missing out on a win last week at Texas despite leading nearly all the laps, Brad Keselowski is also in serious must-win mode. The Miller Lite Ford Fusion goes off from 18th on Sunday.
-Kevin Harvick is also in control of his fate and has the resume at Phoenix to come in with extreme confidence. He'll be looking for his fifth straight win at PIR and sixth in the last seven trips from the No. 8 starting spot.
-Kyle Busch still hasn't won a Chase race since 2005, but he's the clubhouse leader for Homestead as they head to Sunday. The No. 18 M&Ms Crispy Toyota starts 10th at Phoenix.
-And then there's Joey Logano, who's gone from one extreme to the other. After getting taken out by Matt Kenseth at Martinsville, bad karma bit him in the backside after a blown tire led to a 40th-place finish at Texas. Logano starts 14th at Phoenix and absolutely needs to win to get to Homestead.
Here's a link with how all 43 cars will line up for the Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 on Sunday