NASCAR Championship preview: 4 drivers vie for title in Phoenix

Thirty-five races completed, one to go.

The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season culminates on Sunday with four drivers vying for the season's championship, the Bill France Cup.

This year sees a changing of the guard with three of the title contenders looking to win their first championship and all four under the age of 32. It also presents the final race in the career of future Hall of Famer, Kevin Harvick.

When: Nov. 5 at 3 p.m. ET

Where: Phoenix Raceway, Avondale, Arizona

Christopher Bell

Bell's making his second straight Championship 4 appearance - the only driver to return to the finale with a shot at the title from 2022 - but doing so as the lone representative from the Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota stable this time around.

The 28-year-old booked his ticket to Phoenix with a clutch win two weeks ago at Homestead-Miami Speedway after narrowly losing to Kyle Larson the prior Sunday in Las Vegas.

Bell didn't have the breakthrough season many anticipated in the win column, but he's been steadily in the mix all year. Despite only having two victories on the campaign, Bell ranks second to William Byron in top-10 finishes with 19.

The No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing entry hasn't won a title since 2005 with Tony Stewart. Bell looks to add his name to the history books on Sunday.

Ryan Blaney

After a tough second-place finish at Homestead-Miami two weeks ago, Blaney secured his position in the Championship 4 with an emphatic win at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday.

The victory sent Blaney to his first Championship 4 appearance in his eighth full-time season in the Cup Series. He will be the lone representative from Team Penske and Ford.

Blaney's teammate Joey Logano won the Cup Series title last year, so the pressure will be on the 29-year-old to keep the Bill France Cup with the blue oval. Logano is the only Ford driver to win a championship in the past 19 years.

The Ohio native has been superb at Phoenix in his career. He has four consecutive top-five finishes at the venue, punctuated by two straight second-place finishes last November and this past March.

With his dominant win at Martinsville, consistent speed at Phoenix, and the position at the organization that powered Logano to a title one year ago, Blaney enters the weekend with a significant chance to win the championship.

William Byron

It wasn't as easy as he expected it to be with a tough day at Martinsville, but William Byron is in the Championship 4 for the first time after edging Denny Hamlin on points in the Round of 8.

Byron's the youngest of the title contenders - he doesn't turn 26 until late November. Despite his age, he's already in his sixth season of Cup Series competition with Hendrick Motorsports.

He's the winningest driver of the season with six victories, but it will all be for not if Byron can't secure No. 7 this Sunday.

The Charlotte native would be the fourth-youngest Cup Series champion if he can pull it off, behind only Bill Rexford (1950), Jeff Gordon (1995), and Chase Elliott (2020).

Speaking of Gordon, Byron aims to win the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet's first championship since the transcendent superstar did so in 2001.

Byron won at Phoenix in the spring, but with stalled momentum after a near-disastrous race at Martinsville, the No. 24 crew will need a significant bounce-back to claim the Bill France Cup.

Kyle Larson

The only driver with a championship under his belt, it's easy to look at Larson as the favorite going into the weekend.

Not only is Larson the lone driver with a Cup Series crown, but he was the first to earn a spot in the Championship 4 (giving his team the most time to prepare) and had an excellent car at Phoenix in the spring, leading a race-high 201 of 317 laps.

If not for a miscue entering pit road while trailing Blaney at Homestead-Miami, Larson could very well be entering the championship race having won two of the past three races.

Instead, the No. 5 team comes into Phoenix with the experience advantage but less on-track momentum than his counterparts from Toyota and Ford.

It would be no surprise to see Larson as the dominant man on Sunday, but watch for trouble if there's a long green flag run to the finish. Larson's had issues with others closing on him rapidly at the end of races this season. Bell's near upset at Las Vegas, Denny Hamlin tracking him down for the win at Kansas, and Harvick passing him on the final run at Phoenix are examples just from this year.