Truex leads quartet of title contenders

MIAMI BEACH, FLA. — NASCAR’s four championship contenders were seated elbow to elbow previewing their upcoming title race when they were asked to give one word to describe the season.

“Amazing,” said Martin Truex Jr.

Brad Keselowski and Kevin Harvick said the season was “long,” while Kyle Busch went with “trying.” But Truex? Well, he’s got nothing to complain about after a truly dominating season.

Truex goes into Sunday’s finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway as the clear favorite to win the title. He has a series best seven wins and six were at 1.5-mile tracks. Homestead is a 1.5-mile track.

He leads the series in nearly every meaningful statistic, and if the points earned all season weren’t reset for Sunday’s finale, he’d have already won his first Cup title.

“If it wasn’t set back at zero, we’d probably all be congratulating Martin right now,” said Keselowski. “But it is.”

So it’s winner-take-all race, and everything Truex has built this season is on the line. He faces three former series champions, each of them looking for their second title.

For Harvick, it would be the first in Stewart-Haas Racing’s new partnership with Ford. If Harvick wins, it will be SHR’s third championship since 2011, second since the elimination format was introduced in 2014 and first for a team in a first-year relationship with a manufacturer since Cale Yarborough in 1978.

Keselowski is seeking a crown to go with his 2012 title, which was not won under this format. He had to beat Jimmie Johnson that day on points, and pulled it off. He will try to give team owner Roger Penske two major championships this year. Penske won the IndyCar title with Josef Newgarden earlier this year.

If either Harvick or Keselowski wins, it would be the first title for Ford since 2004.

They are up against a pair of Toyotas, the dominant manufacturer this season.

Busch is seeking a repeat of his 2015 title, which some have marked with an asterisk. Busch missed the first third of the season with injuries suffered in a season-opening race at Daytona, but still raced himself into title contention on a shortened schedule.

And he’s chasing Truex, who has taken his Furniture Row Racing team to a level beyond the alliance it has with Joe Gibbs Racing. Busch has been good this season, but he’s not had anything close to the year that Truex has put together.

With Truex such the clear favorite, it made for quiet media day for the championship competitors. — except when Busch and Keselowski were asked why they have never squashed their rivalry.

Keselowski tried to downplay a feud. Busch didn’t mince words.

“Sometimes you just don’t like a guy, fact of the matter,” Busch said. “But as once a wise man told me, I think it was Chase Elliott, I race those like they race me.”