NASCAR championship: Hendrick versus Gibbs, Chevrolet versus Toyota

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — NASCAR’S championship has come down to a pair of Hall of Fame team

owners, two Chevrolets against two Toyotas, racing in the Arizona desert for the sport’s top prize.

Rick Hendrick, the winningest team owner in NASCAR history, is sending Kyle Larson and reigning Cup

champion Chase Elliott to Phoenix Raceway on Sunday in

search of a 14th title for mighty Hendrick Motorsports.

Joe Gibbs, a member of both the NASCAR and Pro Football Hall

of Fames, will counter with Denny Hamlin

and Martin Truex Jr. Gibbs has won five previous Cup championships (and three Super Bowls) but none with Hamlin or Truex.

It is a winner-take-all conclusion at sold-out Phoenix, where Elliott’s victory a year

ago clinched the first Cup championship for

NASCAR’S most popular driver. Hendrick will be the favorite behind nine-race winner Larson and its on-track domination this season: Alex Bowman’s win Sunday at Martinsville Speedway was the fourth in a row for Hendrick and 16th through 35 races.

But Bowman’s win triggered tension that

should carry through the week and into Sunday’s finale. Hamlin, a Virginia native and

five-time Martinsville winner, was spun from the lead by Bowman to the surprise pleasure of what should have

been Hamlin’s home crowd.

When he later drove his car to the frontstretch to prevent a Bowman victory celebration — Hamlin flipped both middle fingers at Bowman through his windshield — the crowd drowned out his interview over the public

address system with resounding boos.

Hamlin blamed the backlash on NASCAR’S most popular driver.

“It’s just Chase Elliott fans, man. They don’t

think straightly,” Hamlin said of the crowd.

Elliott, the first driver in at least a decade to go toe-to-toe and

door-to-door with Kevin Harvick and

come out on top, laughed at Hamlin’s verbal jab.

“I’m going to lose so much sleep tonight. I might not sleep at all, that’s how concerned I

am,” Elliott said. “My fans don’t care either, by the way.”

This championship is Hendrick vs. Gibbs in head-to-head competition, but four drivers will be individually racing for NASCAR’S top prize. Hamlin, loser in three previous championship battles, took an aggressive approach as soon as Bowman tried to celebrate a Martinsville victory Hamlin felt had been taken from him.

“Don’t poke the bear,” Hamlin posted on social media after Martinsville. “See y’all in Phoenix.”

Hamlin led the Cup standings for 22 consecutive weeks but lost the regular-season championship to Larson over the final three weeks. Larson has dominated the year —

he accounts for nine of the 17 wins among the final four drivers —

but the elimination format playoffs that NASCAR introduced in 2014 has made the actual championship winner a crapshoot.

It’s one thing to make it into the 16-driver playoff field. But getting to the championship, through three rounds of elimination followed by a 10th race finale, is a chore that

allows for very little error. Then winning the Cup? Just be the best

Sunday at Phoenix.