Phoenix Recap

Welcome back to Captain Josh's Pit Stop. Today I recap the action from Phoenix. Johnny Sauter won the truck race Friday night for the second week in a row. The championship 4 for the truck series are, Christopher Bell, Johnny Sauter, Matt Crafton, and Austin Cindric. Their finale is at Homestead this weekend. Also the Xfinity Series will have their finale this weekend as well. William Byron won at Phoenix on Saturday afternoon to advance. Joining him in the championship 4 are; Justin Allgiaer, Elliott Sadler, and Daniel Hemric. Sebastian Vettel won the Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday for Ferrari. Now onto the Cup race. Photo courtesy of Google images.

The Can-Am 500 ran on Sunday afternoon with Ryan Blaney edging out Denny Hamlin for the pole. The first and second stages consisted of 75 laps. The final stage made up the final 162 laps. The race was 312 laps. Photo courtesy of Google images.

Kyle Larson took home a fairly calm stage 1. Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin continued their rivalry from Martinsville and raced each other hard early in the stage. Photo courtesy of Google images and NBC Sports.

Stage 2 ended with a bang. Literally, Jimmie Johnson ended his hopes for an 8th title when his tire went "bang" and Johnson hit the wall hard off turn 4. Did ya get the joke? Never mind that, and also Denny Hamlin won stage 2. Photos courtesy of Google images.

The day ended for Trevor Bayne in the final stage at lap 229. Bayne cut a tire off turn 4 after the race had a long green flag run. What causes the cut tires is the back of the field and the top cars that are ill handling have to use more brake. Using more brake causes heat to eventually cut the tire. Photo courtesy of Google images.

Another driver with a hard hit was Chris Buescher. Buescher had a brake failure going into turn 3 and couldn't get his car stopped. He spun into the wall and was out of the race. The incident occurred in the final stage with 61 to go. Photo courtesy of Google images.

The race was getting down to the wire. Cole Whitt had a cut tire off turn 4 and hit the wall also. Apologize for not having a photo. Google images doesn't have the back marker teams for some reason. The incident occurred in the final stage with 52 to go.

After racing each other hard all day, Chase Elliott finally retaliated Denny Hamlin for the contact from Martinsville a couple weeks ago. If you missed that race, check out my Martinsville recap as I covered what happened between the two drivers. Elliott put Hamlin into the turn 4 wall with 42 to go. Hamlin then cut a tire as a result of the wall contact with 38 to go going into turn 3. Hamlin was out of the playoffs. Photo courtesy of Google images.

At the end of the day, Matt Kenseth passed Chase Elliott in the final laps to win the race. Kenseth was emotional in victory lane after his announcement that he won't be back in NASCAR next year. I do want to thank Matt Kenseth for the last 17 years of memories. Photos courtesy of Google images.

Here are your championship 4 going into Homestead this weekend. From the left; Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr, and Brad Keselowski. Who's your pick to win it all? Mine is Martin Truex Jr all the way. Good luck to all of the championship 4 this weekend. And that is it! Next recap will be the final race of the season. Hard to believe that for sure. See ya then. Photo courtesy of Google images.