NASCAR has its Championship 4 for the 2019 Monster Energy Cup Series season. Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch will compete for the title Nov. 17 at Homestead-Miami Speedway in the playoff and season finale.
Hamlin and Busch qualified for the final by finishing 1-2 at ISM Raceway outside Phoenix on Sunday. Hamlin needed to win to get in, and he charged to the victory with a strong late run. Busch's second-place finish pushed him well past Joey Logano for the final position in the Championship 4.
Denny Hamlin WINS his way to the #Championship4 !
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) November 10, 2019
This winning moment at Phoenix is presented by @ToyotaRacing ! pic.twitter.com/zKJwYvIFVz
The Championship 4 race is guaranteed to be dramatic, and all four drivers should be racing up front for most of the afternoon and evening. Harvick, Truex, Busch and Hamlin rank second through fifth, respectively, in driver rating at Homestead-Miami. Each has won at the track, too: Hamlin twice, and Busch, Harvick and Truex once each.
Sporting News has all the information you need heading into NASCAR's 2019 Championship 4 race, the EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
NASCAR championship standings 2019
| Rank | Driver | Wins | Points |
| No. 1 | Denny Hamlin | 6 | 5,000 |
No. 2 | Kevin Harvick | 4 | 5,000 |
No. 3 | Martin Truex Jr. | 7 | 5,000 |
| No. 4 | Kyle Busch | 4 | 5,000 |
| No. 5 | Joey Logano | 2 | 2,344 |
| No. 6 | Kyle Larson | 1 | 2,321 |
| No. 7 | Ryan Blaney | 1 | 2,303 |
| No. 8 | Brad Keselowski | 3 | 2,299 |
| No. 9 | William Byron | 0 | 2,270 |
| No. 10 | Clint Bowyer | 0 | 2,254 |
| No. 11 | Chase Elliott | 3 | 2,253 |
| No. 12 | Alex Bowman | 1 | 2,229 |
| No. 13 | Kurt Busch | 1 | 2,221 |
| No. 14 | Aric Almirola | 0 | 2,219 |
| No. 15 | Ryan Newman | 0 | 2,189 |
| No. 16 | Erik Jones | 1 | 2,157 |
| No. 17 | Daniel Suarez | 0 | 823 |
| No. 18 | Jimmie Johnson | 0 | 807 |
| No. 19 | Paul Menard | 0 | 757 |
| No. 20 | Chris Buescher | 0 | 708 |
| No. 21 | Matt DiBenedetto | 0 | 682 |
| No. 22 | Austin Dillon | 0 | 670 |
| No. 23 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 0 | 661 |
| No. 24 | Ty Dillon | 0 | 600 |
| No. 25 | Daniel Hemric | 0 | 505 |
| No. 26 | Ryan Preece | 0 | 495 |
| No. 27 | Michael McDowell | 0 | 474 |
| No. 28 | Bubba Wallace | 0 | 434 |
| No. 29 | Corey LaJoie | 0 | 395 |
| No. 30 | David Ragan | 0 | 378 |
| No. 31 | Matt Tifft | 0 | 352 |
| No. 32 | Reed Sorenson | 0 | 117 |
| No. 33 | Quin Houff | 0 | 77 |
| No. 34 | Jamie McMurray | 0 | 19 |
| No. 35 | Austin Theriault | 0 | 17 |
| No. 36 | Andy Seuss | 0 | 9 |
| No. 37 | Blake Jones | 0 | 6 |
| No. 38 | Stanton Barrett | 0 | 2 |
NASCAR Final 4 drivers
Martin Truex Jr.
Truex secured his spot in the final by blowing away the field at Martinsville in the first race of the Round of 8. The 2017 Cup champion led 464 of the 500 laps at the Virginia short track. He won at Homestead to seal his title two years ago.
Kevin Harvick
Harvick, who won the Cup title in 2014 with his victory at Homestead, was next to get in this year with a victory at Texas on Nov. 3. For those looking ahead to next week, he has the best aveage finish (5.6) at the track within the Championship 4 group over the past 14 races there.
Denny Hamlin
Hamlin became the third automatic qualifier when he dominated the final stage and won the third Round of 8 race. Now he can set his sights on winning his first Cup championship after years of near-misses.
Kyle Busch
Busch, the 2015 champion thanks to his win at Homestead, followed in Hamlin's tire tracks to the checkered flag at Phoenix and put himself in position to race for a second title.
How the NASCAR playoffs work
Sixteen NASCAR drivers qualified for the playoffs. Four were eliminated in the Sept. 29 race at Charlotte. Four more were eliminated in the Oct. 20 race at Kansas, and four more fell out at Phoenix, leaving the final four drivers to compete straight up for for the NASCAR Cup title Nov. 17 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The first of the four playoff drivers to cross the finish line is crowned the champion.
How drivers earn points:
- Win Stage 1 or Stage 2 in a race: 1 playoff point (point awarded per stage win)
- Win a race: 5 playoff points
- Win the regular-season championship: 15 playoff points
Second place in the final regular-season standings earns 10 playoff points, third place receives eight points, and the points awarded decline to one point for 10th (4th = 7 points, 5th = 6 points, etc.).
Championship-contending drivers can accumulate additional playoff points throughout the playoffs via stage and race wins and may use all the playoff points they earn, from both the regular season and the playoffs, to advance all the way up to the Championship 4.
Playoff points are added to a championship-contending driver’s reset points total at the start of every round of the playoffs until they are eliminated from championship contention.
At Homestead-Miami, playoff points are off the table, and the Championship 4 drivers enter the “winner-take-all” race tied in the standings.
Cup playoff information courtesy of NASCAR .