Martin Truex Jr. wins at Homestead, takes Cup Series championship

Four drivers are left and one race remains in the playoffs to crown the 2017 Monster Energy Cup Series champion. Whomever finishes best among Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, and Martin Truex Jr. at Homestead-Miami Speedway will win the title on Sunday.

Truex enters the championship final as the favorite with six of his seven wins this season coming on mile-and-a-half tracks, the same size as Homestead. But Harvick won the last race on a 1.5.-mile track two weeks ago at Texas Motor Speedway, passing Truex in the closing laps, and believes his team holds the advantage in the Ford 400. Truex has also never won at the South Florida oval, while Harvick and Busch each own wins at Homestead.

Busch, Harvick, and Keselowski each are former series champions, while Truex is seeking his first title in NASCAR’s top division. Were Busch, Harvick, or Keselowski to win Sunday, they would join seven-time winner Jimmie Johnson as the only active drivers with multiple championships.

NBC will broadcast the Ford 400 on Sunday. The network’s coverage begins at 2 p.m. ET, with the green flag scheduled for 2:46 p.m.

Session 1: Friday, 12:30 p.m. - 1:55 p.m. ET

Session 2: Saturday, 10 a.m. - 10:55 a.m.

Session 3: Saturday, 1 p.m. - 1:50 p.m.

TV/streaming: NBCSN (Session 1 and 3), CNBC (Session 2); (session 1 stream) (session 2 stream) (session 3 stream)

Time: Friday, 6:15 p.m.

TV/streaming: NBCSN (live stream)

Time/green flag: 2 p.m/2:46 p.m.

Distance/laps: 400.5 miles/267 laps

TV/streaming: NBC (live stream)

Cup Series championship final preview

Yet it is the one finalist who’s never won a title, Martin Truex Jr., that Keselowski, Harvick, and Busch each believes is the clear favorite. The Furniture Row Racing driver has been the standard barrier throughout the season, leading every major statistical category and his speed on intermediate sized speedways, like Homestead, is especially overpowering with six of his seven victories having come on mile-and-a-half-tracks.

The role of favorite is not something Truex shies away from, instead he embraces the prospect of being the driver everyone else is chasing. This is his second time qualifying for the Final Four and when he did so in 2015 he was the decided underdog, which ultimately bared out on the track. He finished fourth that year, with Busch narrowly defeating Harvick for the championship.

“If I’m the favorite, perfect, I like that,” Truex said. “I think it’s a better position to be in. I was the underdog before and I finished fourth. So bring it on.

“I feel like we’re in a whole lot better spot as a team than we were the first time we had a shot at it. We’re going to go out there and just do the best job we can do. I’ve got a lot of confidence in our team right now and what we’re doing.”

Longtime friends Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth prepare for retirement together

Since then, Earnhardt and Kenseth have been seemingly indelibly linked. After competing against one another in the Xfinity Series, they advanced to the Cup Series where they have gone on to start more than 600 races together.

And fittingly, the close friends who frequently go on cycling rides will conclude their eventual Hall of Fame careers together. Each making what is likely their final Cup Series start in Sunday’s season-ender at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“We supported each other and enjoyed seeing each other have success,” Earnhardt said. “Matt, I love his sense of humor, I love the person he is and the person he has become, the father he is.

“He has always had an influence on me as far as how I race or the person I want to be or become. … It’s going to make Homestead even more emotional because we came in together.”

But how Earnhardt and Kenseth reached this juncture in their careers and how they’re leaving came about due to widely different circumstances — which in Kenseth’s case he had little control over.

Martin Truex Jr. not lacking motivation to win championship in emotion-filled season

But the juxtaposition between balancing success on the track with life events off it is something FRR unfortunately is well-versed in this season. Truex’s longtime girlfriend, Sherry Pollex, is battling a recurrence of ovarian cancer, crew chief Cole Pearn’s close friend died unexpectedly from a bacterial infection in August, and last month crew member James Watson, 55, died after a go-kart team outing on the race weekend at Kansas Speedway.

“It’s definitely been tough at times and rough, but we’ve always been there for each other and made it through,” Truex said. “I think that shows a sign of strength, and hopefully we can rely on that this weekend if things get tough at some point in time.”

Kyle Busch seeking to silence his critics by winning second championship

And if Busch can secure another title on Sunday it would make him just the 16th driver to win a second championship in NASCAR’s premier division. Perhaps then his critics would quiet down.

“There’s a lot of arguments being made that we didn’t deserve the first one, we should never have been there for the first one, but the fact of the matter is we executed and did our job with the rules that were given to us, and we achieved,” Busch said. “This would just kind of put ourselves in another elite group of guys and drivers and teams that have been really, really good over the years that have been able to go win championships.”

Kevin Harvick locked in on championship after playoff surge

“We were late bloomers to the party just for the fact that we had a lot of work to do,” Harvick said. “We had a lot of change and we had a lot of things that we had to navigate and maneuver and get to the point of being competitive like we are right now.

“So we feel good about where we are. We won Texas, and have run good really at every mile‑and‑a‑half racetrack that we’ve been to, and we’re back to the point of being able to lead laps, and that’s when you can win races is when you can lead laps.”

Brad Keselowski wants second championship to secure legacy

“It’s almost a certainty that two gets you into the Hall of Fame,” Keselowski said. “Multiple championship drivers always will be. So I see this my chance to make it into the Hall of Fame. That’s something I don’t want to take for granted.

“I literally only have to beat three people to do it. That’s somewhat hard for me to digest or comprehend with all the different scenarios in front of me.”

Non-playoff driver Denny Hamlin won the pole in a qualifying session that saw the four title contenders each qualify inside the top 10. Martin Truex Jr. will start second on Sunday, with Kyle Busch third, Brad Keselowski fifth and Kevin Harvick ninth.

Truex held the provisional pole until the final seconds of qualifying before Hamlin turned a 173.980 mph average lap around the 1.5-mile track. It was Hamlin’s second pole of the season and 26th of his career.

Hamlin was knocked out the playoffs when Chase Elliott deliberately ran him into the wall last week at Phoenix Raceway, puncturing a tire on Hamlin’s car that a few laps later blew and sent him crashing into the wall. Elliott was retaliating after Hamlin intentionally wrecked him two weeks before at Martinsville Speedway, costing Elliott a win that would’ve advanced him to the championship final.

Had Elliott not ran into him at Phoenix, Hamlin would’ve likely transferred to the championship round. Instead, Hamlin, one of the most consistent drivers through the playoffs, was eliminated in the semi-final round for a second straight year.

“Love this racetrack, wish we would have a chance, but it’ll be another day and another year for us,” Hamlin said. “I want to win, that’s all I care about.”

Martin Truex Jr. won the Ford 400, a victory that secured him the 2017 Monster Energy Cup Series championship Sunday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Truex held off Kyle Busch over the final laps in a tense battle where whomever finished ahead of the other would win the championship. Fellow contenders Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski finished fourth and seventh, respectively.

For much of the night Truex, who entered the championship finale as the favorite, looked like he was going to miss out on his first Cup title. Busch had the stronger car over long runs, while Truex’s Toyota was better in short spurts, which gave Busch the edge thanks to a closing stretch of 34 green-flag laps.

But as Busch charged over the final laps, Truex never faltered. He adjusted his driving line, mustering enough speed to stay in front even though Busch was faster.

“Twenty [laps] to go I thought I was done -- (Busch) was all better than me on the long run all day long,” Truex said. “I just found a way. … I can’t believe it. I’ve wanted this since I was a little kid and just never give up. Just never give up on your dreams no matter what happens and what kind of crap you go through.”

Kyle Larson, who led a race-high 145 laps, finished third. Chase Elliott was fifth, with Joey Logano sixth, Matt Kenseth eighth, Denny Hamlin ninth, and Ryan Newman 10th.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished 25th in his final Cup start. NASCAR’s 14-time most popular driver announced in April he would retire from full-time competition at the end of the current season, setting off a prolonged goodbye tour that culminated Sunday.

After stopping on pit road post-race, Earnhardt enjoyed a beer-filled celebration with his Hendrick Motorsports team. It was the exact going away party he envisioned a few weeks back when began thinking about his final start in NASCAR’s top division.

“I told them a couple weeks ago, the only thing I care about really is finishing all the laps and pulling down pit road and getting out of the car and having a beer with my team,” Earnhardt said. “These are my brothers, and we’re very close, and I want to just have a moment with them before I leave and go home.”

Danica Patrick’s final race as a full-time driver ended with a fiery crash that saw her loose control and hit the Turn 2 wall. Her accident occurred right in front of Kasey Kahne, who had no avenue to avoid Patrick’s slowed car and crashed into the No. 10 Ford.

Patrick, who announced Friday she was done as a full-time driver after this weekend and would only run the Daytona 500 and Indianapolis 500 next year, finished 37th. Homestead marked the 10th time she’s failed to finish a race due to an accident this season.

Neither Patrick nor Kahne were injured.