NASCAR Phoenix 2016: Preview, lineup, starting grid for Can-Am 500

If everything goes to plan, Joe Gibbs Racing could have three of its four drivers leave Phoenix International Raceway on Sunday night with their title aspirations still intact.

Considering no team has ever qualified more than a single driver in a given year for the four-driver championship finale, it would constitute quite an accomplishment. Yet, even this plan isn’t without complication.

Although Carl Edwards is locked in, teammates Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth are separated by a mere two points, creating a very likely scenario where the JGR trio must fight it out amongst themselves.

“We’re all going to battle each other hard and race each other as hard as we can because we ultimately know that we have to beat each other to get in,” Hamlin said Friday. “You do it as fair and as clean as you can.”

Playing nice is idyllic, but not necessarily realistic.

So just how far would Busch, Hamlin or Kenseth go with a title-round berth on the line, and would any of them take liberties with a teammate by moving them out of the way if necessary?

“Absolutely,” Busch said, not even hesitating.

Hamlin gave the question a smidge more thought, before explaining he wouldn’t think twice about shoving a non-JGR driver aside if needed. An act he estimated other non-title eligibles would find acceptable due to what a single position on the track -- and the accompanying point -- could represent.

“If it’s not a teammate, I’m hoping their spotter is going to give them a heads up that [I’m] coming,” Hamlin said. “I would have no issues at doing something like that. ... I’m not sure anybody would really fault you for that.”

OK, but what about a teammate?

“No, I would not,” Hamlin said.

Then came the caveat: “That’s my answer today,” he said.

As the stakes have heightened in the Chase for the Sprint Cup playoff, the potential for JGR to encounter inner-organization turmoil has increased with it.

When Busch, Edwards, Hamlin and Kenseth all transferred to the eight-driver semifinal round it marked the first time one team made up half the bracket. And when Hendrick Motorsports’ Jimmie Johnson won the opening race in the round it assured that at least one of the JGR quartet would fall short of advancing.

The same race in which Johnson took the checkered flag also saw Hamlin emphatically block Kenseth and Busch in the closing laps, preventing either from chasing down Johnson, who therefore clinched his spot in the championship final. Afterward Busch sarcastically lauded JGR’s teamwork, which spurred a midweek drivers-only meeting with team owner Joe Gibbs.

From that meeting came a consensus that Hamlin acted in his own best interests; justifiable behavior under the circumstances.

To think there will there be such acceptance if a similar incident were to occur in Sunday’s Can-Am 500 (2:30 p.m., NBC), doesn’t seem as feasible. It’s also unavoidable. An already tight two-point margin compressing Busch, Hamlin and Kenseth is even tighter when you realize Joey Logano is also in the mix, tied with Busch for the third transfer slot, as is Kevin Harvick, who’s won five of the past six races at Phoenix.

Were Logano to produce a strong finish and Harvick, who enters facing a virtual must-win scenario, deliver on his status as the favorite to visit the winner’s circle, it would only squeeze Busch, Hamlin and Kenseth further.

“There’s an opportunity for two or three of us to be disappointed or one of us,” Hamlin said. “There’s always going to be hurt feelings, but I don’t think it has anything to do with each other.

“I think that for me, if we don’t make it then we just weren’t good enough. So, if we don’t make it, it’s not my teammates’ fault, it’s our own.”

Can-Am 500 starting lineup