It all comes down to this for the Xfinity Series.
Ty Gibbs and JR Motorsports drivers Noah Gragson , Justin Allgaier and Josh Berry will race for the championship Saturday at Phoenix Raceway (6 p.m.
ET on USA Network).
Whichever driver finishes highest in the race will win the championship.
Whoever it is will be a champion in this series for the first time.
Of course, the rest of the field also will be racing for a win or to finish the season on a high note, so much is at stake.
START: The command to start engines will be given at 6:08 p.m. … Green flag is scheduled to wave at 6:17 p.m.
PRERACE: Xfinity garage opens at 10:30 a.m. … Qualifying is at 2:30 p.m. … Driver intros are at 5:35 p.m. … Ben Howell, associate pastor of Relentless Church, will give the invocation at 6 p.m. … James “Rambo” Smith will perform the anthem at 6:01 p.m.
DISTANCE: The race is 200 laps (200 miles) on the 1-mile track.
STAGES: Stage 1 ends at Lap 45.
Stage 2 ends at Lap 90.
STARTING LINEUP: Qualifying is at 2:30 p.m.
TV/RADIO: USA Network will broadcast the race at 6 p.m. . … Countdown to Green airs at 5:30 p.m. on USA.
Motor Racing Network coverage begins at 5:30 p.m. and also will stream at mrn.com .
SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will carry the MRN broadcast.
STREAMING: NBCsports.com FORECAST: Weather Underground , Sunny with a high of 70 degrees and no chance of rain at the start of the race.
LAST TIME: Noah Gragson led 114 of 200 laps to win in March.
Brandon Jones was second.
Josh Berry placed third.
AVONDALE, Ariz. , Kyle Busch Motorsports will move from Toyota to Chevrolet next season and have Chase Purdy and Jack Wood among its drivers.
Purdy will drive the No. 4 full-time next season for the organization.
Wood will be the anchor driver for the No. 51, sharing that ride with Busch and other Cup and Xfinity drivers, Busch said in Friday’s announcement at Phoenix Raceway.
Wood will drive a minimum 10 races in that truck next year. “Having the opportunity to drive for someone like Kyle … is a huge opportunity,” Purdy said. “With that comes pressure.
I think the famous term is pressure is a privilege.
I’m excited about it.
I think he’s going to be a great resource for me to have.” Purdy, who turns 23 next week, has made 51 career Truck starts, scoring five top-10 finishes.
This is his second full season in the series.
Wood, who is 22 years old, has made 34 career Truck starts and has one top-10 finish.
This is his first full season in the series.
Said Wood: “I don’t think I could be more excited.
Growing up, my late model was 18 because of Kyle.
This is more than a dream come true for me.” The move is being made with Busch moving from Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota to Richard Childress Racing and Chevrolet next season in Cup .
Busch said his organization will be led by Danny Stockman.
Busch said he plans to run five races, as allowed by NASCAR rules, but has yet to determine those events.
The announcement of the team’s crew chiefs will be made later.
Also Friday, Rev Racing announced it will form a technical alliance with Kyle Busch Motorsports and have an entry in the Truck Series next year.
Nick Sanchez will drive the No. 2 Truck with sponsorship from Gainbridge. “We are excited about that chance to work more closely with Rev Racing,” Busch said. 98 wins. 7 Owner Championships. 2 Driver Championships. 1 more shot at it.
Thank you, @ToyotaRacing . 🤝 #TeamToyota pic.twitter.com/fX5hrHOUOv , Kyle Busch Motorsports (@KBMteam) November 4, 2022 AVONDALE, Ariz. , NASCAR President Steve Phelps touted the sport’s growth in his state of the sport Friday at Phoenix Raceway before addressing questions about the racing at short tracks and road courses, officiating, team ownership model, the 2024 schedule and more.
Phelps noted the record-tying 19 different winners, including the first three playoff races won by non-playoff drivers, the reaction to Ross Chastain’s video game move at Martinsville , how Sunday’s Cup race at Phoenix will be the season’s ninth sellout, up from five last year, and that ticket sales were up this year from last year by more than 20%.
Here is what Phelps and Steve O’Donnell, chief operating officer, had to say on a variety of subjects: Phelps: Do we believe there’s interest north and south of the border specifically?
Yeah, there’s interest.
You talk about the Chicago street course .
Ben Kennedy and Steve O’Donnell, their phones are ringing from cities across the country that are like, We would love to host a NASCAR race at our city.
We do have calls coming, as I said, north and south of the border.
Whether that happens in 2024 or not, I don’t know.
What I do know is we’re going to have continued schedule variation in 2024.
O’Donnell: For sure looking at some aero changes for both short tracks and road courses.
We have a lot of dialogue going on with the drivers in terms of potentially looking at some power things.
I think that’s a little more complicated.
There are some things we’ve looked at even through Garage 56 (the modified Cup car NASCAR will run at next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans) that we found from an aero standpoint that could be put in place as early as next year for both short tracks and road courses.
The good news is continuing to dial in on the intermediates which we believe we’re in a really good spot, but then really focus on the short tracks and road courses.
Phelps: We fully believe that having profitable teams does lead to more competitive racing.
If you look at it, there are two areas to do it: increasing revenue, which we have every intention of doing with our race teams, and controlling expenses, right?
The teams have asked us to control expenses.
Where those come from, I don’t know.
That will be up to the race teams to determine the best way to figure out how they would control those expenses.
I’m not suggesting that we have a specific discussion around what that would be or the mechanisms that we put in place.
The teams, the idea of having caps, floors, ceilings, luxury taxes.
We’ll continue to have dialogue with our race teams.
The charters go through the end of 2024.
We will have meaningful dialogue with our teams next year, I’m sure .
We’ll figure out what is going to be a fair opportunity for all stakeholders.
Moving forward in 2025, what that looks like, I don’t know.
It will absolutely have to be around both revenue increases as well as some type of expense restriction in some way.
Phelps: I think the charter system has been very good for NASCAR.
I think if you look at it, there are many positive things.
What do you get when you buy a charter?
You get three things.
You get guaranteed entry into the race, which helps the teams from a sponsorship standpoint.
You get two pieces of revenue: fixed revenue and then revenue you compete for on the racetrack.
The third piece is governance.
Steve (O’Donnell) and the top competition guys, they’ve got meetings all the time with the race teams to move the sport forward from a competitive standpoint.
So I would say the charter system, although not perfect, has worked really well.
You look at the enterprise value, which I’m not going to get into what charters are going for, what they were at, but the number right now is a significant multiple of what it was three years ago.
We have people out there that want to get charters who are both in the sport and are outside of the sport that can’t get them right now because the teams are holding them.
That’s their right.
Whether we want that to happen or not, there’s nothing we can do about that.
To answer your question fully, do I think we’ll extend the charters?
I do.
Do I think it’s a good thing for the sport?
I do.
Phelps: With respect to where we go from a television standpoint, our relationship with FOX and NBC has never been better, ever.
It is at a level that we haven’t seen from a television perspective since the early 2000s when kind of this whole new model came to be.
That’s done through a lot of hard work.
It’s done because the sport, its ratings have stabilized and grown.
You look at our share over the last just two years, share this year for NASCAR Cup races, plus 11%, share last year for NASCAR Cup races, plus 14.
Our share has increased in two years by 25%, while our friends at FOX and NBC have sold out their inventory.
The sport is having a moment on television, but it’s also having a moment on our own digital and social channels, our own channels.
On NASCAR digital, we haven’t seen numbers this high since 2005.
There’s something that’s coming here.
I’m not sure where the future’s going to be with respect to our media partners.
I do know that it will go through NBC and FOX.
Whether there are additional folks that want to come bid and we get to that particular point, I have no idea.
I do know there is a significant amount of interest in NASCAR from those that are not our incumbents.
That’s a good thing for our industry, right?
Frankly, our media deal, it feeds a lot of mouths in this industry.
It’s important to do that.
It is the future of what healthier teams look like.
It’s the future of continued investment in capital at our racetracks, continued investment in expenses around creating better fan experiences that we talked about before.
O’DONNELL: All in all I would say for the amount of races that we have, the number of calls we have to make or not make, pretty good success record.
Having said that, you can always do better.
One of the biggest challenges in our sport is there’s no timeouts, we don’t send it back to New York or somewhere else.
We have to make an instant call and we’ve got to live with that.
That’s really reliant for us on the technology in race control, we rely on our television partners who do a great job, but it’s not their job to officiate the race.
If we are missing a camera angle, that’s on us to fix and make sure we are those things in place.
If you take Texas, for instance, one of the angles we should have had in race control, we didn’t .
Next week we did.
We have every single in-car where we were able to see it.
We’ll go back and make sure where do we make mistakes, what technology do we need to really make those decisions in a more timely fashion because we want to make those at the racetrack versus during the week.
The second part was around our drivers.
We’ve been very vocal on we don’t want to see anyone using the car as a weapon on the track, right?
That’s number one.
The drivers have been vocal in saying, Let us handle our business ourselves.
With that comes a balance, though.
I think you saw that balance last week.
I would say that’s right at the line, if not crossing the line, in terms of the Xfinity Series.
If you look at how we have officiated those calls this year, we have not issued any penalties.
So our job in the off-season will be to talk to the drivers, get their feedback on where should that line be.
Still up to us to make the decision.
But I think you’ll see some more consistency in terms of what we may do and react to what happened last week with a penalty of some kind for 2023.
Jimmie Johnson will return to NASCAR and compete in select NASCAR Cup Series races in 2023, starting with the Daytona 500, after entering an ownership agreement with Petty GMS owner Maury Gallagher and chairman Richard Petty.
The pairing of two of NASCAR’s three seven-time Cup Series champions was announced Friday morning at Phoenix Raceway.
A team release said Johnson’s racing schedule, sponsors and car number would be revealed in the future and made no mention of whether he would be racing in other series.
During a news conference Friday, Johnson said he initially planned to run eight to 10 races in the NTT IndyCar Series next year, as well as sports car races, in 2023.
Johnson said he still has a “great relationship” with Chip Ganassi Racing, whom he raced with in IndyCar the past two seasons.
But Petty GMS is a Chevrolet team, and Ganassi runs Hondas, casting doubt on whether the manufacturer conflict would preclude Johnson from returning to the team at the Brickyard.
Johnson said he remains interested in running IndyCar and sports car races (adding his June schedule is clear to allow for the 24 Hours of Le Mans). pic.twitter.com/pv2BJ0Fggb , Jimmie Johnson (@JimmieJohnson) November 4, 2022 Johnson said his new NASCAR deal “escalated quickly” after he entered into discussions with Gallagher over the past month.
Johnson said the meetings came through his longtime agent Alan Miller, who also represents Petty GMS driver Erik Jones . “This is a life-changing opportunity for me, and one I had to take,” Johnson, 47, said. “So I’m very excited about this.” No financial terms were disclosed, and Johnson said he had no partners in the deal.
The size of Johnson’s ownership stake also wasn’t disclosed, but Petty said he hoped that Johnson eventually would be the majority owner. “Me and Maury talk all the time about what can we do to improve our situation, make our business bigger, win some more races,” Petty said. “He called me one day and said, ‘I’ve been talking to Jimmie Johnson,’ and I said you’ve got to be kidding.
Jimmie Johnson wants to be involved with us, and we’ll be involved with him?
This has got to be one of the biggest things that has happened to the Petty crowd and GMS. “With Jimmie adding on with his popularity and the people he knows and we don’t know, it had to be a heck of a deal.
From my standpoint, it’s a big, big step.
Not just for one year.
I’m looking further down the road.
If Jimmie comes in, does his deal.
I’m 85 years old, so I’m not going to be here for another 15 or 20 years, and then Jimmie can kind of take over.
That had to be a plus-plus.” After retiring from full-time NASCAR competition, Johnson spent the past two season racing in IndyCar, including a full-time season last year that included his Indy 500 debut. “It’s great to be back in NASCAR,” Johnson said in a release. “When the IndyCar season ended I started on this journey of what was next.
Maury and I connected, this opportunity came to light and it’s the perfect fit for me. “Team ownership makes so much sense at this stage of my career and after spending time with Maury and his family, talking with Mike (Beam), Dave (Elenz, crew chief of the No. 43) and Joey (Cohen, Director of Competition and Engineering), I realized this was something I wanted to be involved with from both the business perspective and on the competition side.
If I’m going to commit to something like this, I want to make a difference and have something tangible to show for it when it’s all said and done.
So, this opportunity with Petty GMS is all of that and much more.” Johnson’s most recent NASCAR start was the 2020 season finale at Phoenix.
Over 19 seasons in NASCAR’s premier series with Hendrick Motorsports from 2002-20, the El Cajon, California native scored 83 victories, ranking sixth on the all-time Cup Series list “This is a tremendous day for our sport,” team owner Rick Hendrick said in a statement. “Jimmie is one of the all-time great champions on the racetrack, and I know he’ll apply the same mentality to his role as a team owner. “When he sets his mind to something, the level of commitment and work ethic he brings is unsurpassed.
Seeing Jimmie in a firesuit with his name on the roof of a Chevrolet at the DAYTONA 500 is going to be very special for a lot of people.
Competing against him will certainly be a change, and a big challenge, but we welcome his return to NASCAR and look forward to the next chapter of a truly remarkable career.” He became NASCAR’s third seven-time Cup Series champion in 2016, joining Petty and the late Dale Earnhardt.
Johnson will be teamed with Petty GMS’ full-time drivers: Jones ( who delivered the team’s first win at the Southern 500 ) and incoming rookie Noah Gragson . “I’m fortunate that I had incredible mentors throughout my life, and I’ve always tried to pay that forward,” said Johnson. “My experience and energy will add value to a team with young drivers like Erik and Noah , I feel like I can be a good resource both on and off the track.” Said Gallagher: “I couldn’t be happier to have Jimmie Johnson joining Petty GMS.
We have been consistent since we began our Cup effort last year in wanting to be up front and have a winning program.
No one in the modern era of NASCAR has won more than Jimmie.
Having a driver, the caliber of Jimmie, driving our equipment and being able to provide feedback to our crew chiefs and engineers but most importantly, mentoring Erik and Noah will be invaluable.
Perhaps most important of all, Jimmie will be a great partner. “I know I speak for all the Petty GMS team members, including Richard Petty, in welcoming Jimmie to the team. No one else will be able to say they have two seven-time Cup champions on their team.
We are looking to make a strong statement next year and show that we are here to contend for wins and championships.
I can’t wait to see what we can achieve together.” Gallagher and Petty formed their team last December when Gallagher purchased Richard Petty Motorsports.
Petty GMS was formed in December 2021 when Gallagher, a two-time NASCAR Truck Series Championship team owner, purchased Richard Petty Motorsports. “What an exciting time for Petty GMS,” said Petty, NASCAR’s all-time winningest driver with 200 Cup victories. “This year we’ve accomplished so much together with Maury and now adding Jimmie will only continue to help us grow.
To have Jimmie , another seven-time champion , as a part of the team, and his abilities both on track and off will be special for Petty GMS.
I’m looking forward to having him as a part of our team and seeing what we can build together.” The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship will be decided at Phoenix Raceway Friday, and Cup and Xfinity drivers will be on the track for practice sessions.
Ty Majeski (ThorSport Racing), Zane Smith (Front Row Motorsports), Ben Rhodes (ThorSport Racing) and Chandler Smith ( Kyle Busch Motorsports) will race for the Truck championship at 10 p.m.
ET (FS1) Friday.
The driver among the group who finishes highest will win the title.
Cup and Xfinity drivers will practice in the afternoon.
Friday: Sunny.
High of 65 with a 4% chance of rain.