Despite some moments in which he seemingly lost his cool on the radio, Ryan Blaney was able to drive up to a second-place finish Sunday afternoon in Phoenix. That was enough to win the NASCAR Cup Series championship, the first time since 2013 that the champion did not also win the season finale. His final margin of victory was one point over Kyle Larson, who finished third. William Byron dominated the early portions of the race, but ended up fourth on the day and finished third in points. Christopher Bell suffered a brake rotor explosion early on and dropped out. He finishes fourth in points.

Outside of the Championship 4, Denny Hamlin led some laps and finished eighth. That allowed him to claim fifth in points. He ended up 39 points ahead of Tyler Reddick, who was decent early before fading to 22nd. Chris Buescher won stage two, then lost the lead with a bad pit stop. He recovered to finish fifth and move up to seventh. Brad Keselowski became a father Saturday. On Sunday, he drove into the top 10 from the rear of the field before falling to 15th. That means that he finishes the season eighth in points, behind his teammate.

Ross Chastain's victory broke a tie that he had with Bubba Wallace entering the day in ninth. Wallace had a decent run to 10th and finishes 10th in points. Martin Truex Jr. finished sixth and ends up 11th in points. Joey Logano had wall contact early on and finished 18th. That dropped him to 12th in points.

Kevin Harvick led laps in his final Cup start and ended up seventh. His record-extending 21st straight top 10 finish at Phoenix means that he finishes his final season 13th in points. Kyle Busch struggled with a loose car and finished 25th, dropping to 14th in points. Michael McDowell stays in 15th despite a ninth-place finish, while Ricky Stenhouse Jr. ended up 16th.

Of those drivers that did not make the playoffs this year, Chase Elliott ended up 17th in points, 49 points ahead of Ty Gibbs. Daniel Suarez was 19th, while Alex Bowman jumped over AJ Allmendinger into 20th.

In the alternate playoff scenarios, Byron would have won using the 2011 format by 45 points over Blaney, then Larson, Bell and Hamlin. Byron would have easily won the 2004 format by 145 points over Bell, then Larson, Hamlin and Buescher (Blaney would not have even qualified for it). Byron would have won in the 2007 format by 133 points over Blaney, Bell, Larson and Hamlin.

Cole Custer led a race-high 96 laps Saturday and held on late to take his fourth win of the year and win the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship. His final margin was six points over Justin Allgaier, who finished third. Sam Mayer ended up third after a fifth-place finish. John Hunter Nemechek was right in the hunt until he got shoved out of the groove on the final restart. He then tried to clear himself from Rajah Caruth on the final lap and put himself into the wall exiting turn 2. Additional wall contact resulted in Nemechek finishing 28th and taking fourth in points.

Austin Hill finished seventh and easily claimed fifth in the final point standings. He ended up 25 points ahead of Sammy Smith, who finished ninth. Sheldon Creed finished second for the second straight week and moved up two places to finish seventh in points. Daniel Hemric tried a two-tire strategy that didn't work out, dropping him to eighth.

Chandler Smith moved up one place to finish ninth in points after finishing eighth. Parker Kligerman dropped two places to 10th after a 16th-place finish. Josh Berry ended up 11th, while Jeb Burton is 12th.

Of those who did not make the playoffs, Riley Herbst clinched the 13th spot in Martinsville. He ended up with the same 111-point advantage over Brandon Jones that he had entering the race despite finishing fourth. Brett Moffitt finishes 15th in points, while Parker Retzlaff was 16th.

In the alternative playoff standings, Nemechek, despite the last-lap crash, would have won by nine points over Allgaier and Custer with Creed and Hill fourth and fifith. In the 2004 format, Nemechek would have won by 14 points over Allgaier and Custer. Hill would have been fourth, then Kligerman. Finally, the 2007 format would have had the same top-four drivers, but Herbst would have been fifth.

Championship 4 Point Standings: 1) Cole Custer 4040, 2) Justin Allgaier -6, 3) Sam Mayer -8, 4) John Hunter Nemechek -31.

Eliminated Playoff Driver Standings: 5) Austin Hill 2273, 6) Sammy Smith -25, 7) Sheldon Creed -48, 8) Daniel Hemric -49, 9) Chandler Smith -54, 10) Parker Kligerman -64, 11) Josh Berry -101, 12) Jeb Burton -147.

Best of the Rest (13-22): 13) Riley Herbst 904, 14) Brandon Jones -111, 15) Brett Moffitt -224, 16) Parker Retzlaff -242, 17) Kaz Grala -287, 18) Ryan Sieg -298, 19) Jeremy Clements -371, 20) Anthony Alfredo -450, 21) Josh Williams -458, 22) Kyle Sieg -476.

Non-Playoff Point Standings (1-16): 1) John Hunter Nemechek 1296, 2) Justin Allgaier -39, 3) Austin Hill -52, 4) Cole Custer -106, 5) Sam Mayer -311, 6) Sheldon Creed -325, 7) Josh Berry -330, 8) Daniel Hemric -361, 9) Chandler Smith -375, 10) Parker Kligerman -391, 11) Riley Herbst -392, 12) Sammy Smith -408, 13) Brandon Jones -503, 14) Jeb Burton -559, 15) Brett Moffitt -616, 16) Parker Retzlaff -634.
 

Playoff Points: 1) John Hunter Nemechek 56, 2) Justin Allgaier -15, 3) Austin Hill -17, 4) Cole Custer -30, 5) Sam Mayer -31, t-6) Josh Berry -47, t-6) Chandler Smith -47, 8) Sheldon Creed -48, t-9) Sammy Smith -49, t-9) Riley Herbst -49, t-9) Ryan Truex -49, 12) Jeb Burton -50, 13) Daniel Hemric -53, 14) Parker Kligerman -54.

Stage Points: 1) Justin Allgaier 365, 2) John Hunter Nemechek -4, 3) Cole Custer -32, 4) Austin Hill -63, 5) Sheldon Creed -144, 6) Chandler Smith -155, 7) Sam Mayer -183, 8) Josh Berry -184, 9) Riley Herbst -196, 10) Sammy Smith -197, 11) Daniel Hemric -207, 12) Brandon Jones -230, 13) Parker Kligerman -256, 14) Brett Moffitt -318, 15) Ryan Truex -324, 16) Ryan Sieg -331.

Note No. 1: If they were eligible for points, Ty Gibbs would be 14th, AJ Allmendinger 15th and Kyle Larson 16th in stage points.

Note No. 2: Standings include stage points for the Championship 4 drivers in Phoenix.
 

Old Point Standings (1-16): t-1) John Hunter Nemechek 1089, t-1) Austin Hill 1089, 3) Justin Allgaier -49, 4) Cole Custer -76, 5) Sam Mayer -149, 6) Josh Berry -161, 7) Parker Kligerman -166, 8) Daniel Hemric -176, 9) Sheldon Creed -188, 10) Riley Herbst -219, 11) Sammy Smith -228, 12) Chandler Smith -235, 13) Jeb Burton -247, 14) Brandon Jones -295, 15) Parker Retzlaff -322, 16) Brett Moffitt -323.

WC Points (1-16): 1) John Hunter Nemechek 4826, 2) Austin Hill -37, 3) Justin Allgaier -172, 4) Cole Custer -286, 5) Sam Mayer -533, 6) Josh Berry -570, 7) Parker Kligerman -615, 8) Daniel Hemric -653, 9) Sheldon Creed -687, 10) Riley Herbst -765, 11) Sammy Smith -817, 12) Chandler Smith -835, 13) Jeb Burton -957, 14) Brandon Jones -1066, 15) Parker Retzlaff -1162, 16) Brett Moffitt -1172.

Race Winners: Austin Hill (Daytona-1, Las Vegas-1, Atlanta-1, Pocono), John Hunter Nemechek (Fontana, Martinsville-1. Atlanta-2, Loudon, Michigan, Kansas, Texas), Sammy Smith (Phoenix-1), AJ Allmendinger (Austin, Nashville), Chandler Smith (Richmond), Jeb Burton (Talladega), Ryan Truex (Dover), Kyle Larson (Darlington-1), Justin Allgaier (Charlotte, Daytona-2, Bristol, Martinsville-2), Cole Custer (Portland, Chicago, Phoenix-2), Aric Almirola (Sonoma), Sam Mayer (Road America, Watkins Glen, Charlotte-2), Ty Gibbs (Indianapolis), Denny Hamlin (Darlington-2), Riley Herbst (Las Vegas-2)

Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Photo is courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography.

"I don't know. Kind of undetermined. Then I got out there and I was like, I'm doing it, I am racing them. The difference was I'm not going to use my front bumper, front fenders, side. I'm not going to pinch them up into the wall. I didn't mean to fence Larson at Darlington, but I did it. I was not going to do that. I was not going to drive into the corner.

"When he cleared me down into one, I'm not going to try to, like, make it anything other than cross him over and do it clean, have leverage into three, wrap the bottom. It worked. I was like, Holy cow. He passed me, he's faster, but I got right back by him. I don't think he led the lap.

"Yeah, in my mind the whole time, proud of the precision driving we all did. The only contact was him just in a moment of anger throttling up in one to two and drive square up into my back bumper. Other than that, no contact. That's what I'm here to do." - Ross Chastain, race winner

"I think we did an amazing job on that. It was somewhat of an up and down year, but you’re gonna have those moments and through the summer we just worked really hard to get back to where we needed to be and set a deadline for the playoffs and we met that deadline. I’m just super proud of the effort by everybody at Team Penske who put in tons and tons of hours of hard work and nobody really got down. They just put their heads down and decided to really put in a lot of work and it showed up, especially these playoffs and especially the last five weeks. It’s so cool to have all of their hard work pay off, so they should be proud.

"[Roger Penske has] been amazing. It’s been over 10 years when I walked through the doors of that place. It’s hard to believe. It’s gone by so fast. I was telling everybody all week that having the opportunity to go back-to-back Cup champions for Mr. Penske hasn’t been done. He hasn’t done that and it’s not very often you get to do something in motorsports that RP hasn’t done because he’s done everything and accomplished everything, so to be able to be a part of this and bring him another championship and be a driver that’s brought him a championship is very special, so it’s been a fun decade and hopefully another fun decade ahead." - Ryan Blaney, finished second, 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion

"Just really proud of this No. 24 Axalta Chevy team. It’s been a great season. It stinks to come up short, but I’d like to think we’re going to be back in this position and we’re going to have more shots at it. We just have to keep working. Keep working on the short-track program for us – that’s definitely been the tough part of our season. But I felt like we brought a good car this weekend, and really until the track changed, I thought we were in the game. Just all we had there." - William Byron, finished fourth

"I wish we would have been in the Championship 4 because we certainly had a shot at it here today. We drove forward. The first run we needed about 20 laps and after that we needed about five laps and after that we fired off good, so we had a good short and long run speed Fastenal Ford Mustang. I’ve never had that much fun here at Phoenix and I surely appreciate all those guys and girls’ hard work to get us to that point. That was fun. It was a great race. We got behind on one pit stop and then I think we had something happen at the end. It felt like we dropped a cylinder or something to the point we weren’t 100 percent. To still battle and come home fifth was a fantastic race for us. I’m super proud of everybody on this team. What a fantastic year. I would have loved to been in that Championship 4 because I think we would have had a real shot at this thing today. It’s a huge accomplishment for this season and I can’t wait until next year." - Chris Buescher, finished fifth

"It’s kind of a relief, to be honest with you. There was just so much going on before the race and this week, but it was pretty cool to lead some laps there in the last race. I’m just proud of everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing, everybody that works on this car and has worked on this car for a long time. I’ve just got to thank all the fans and NASCAR and my family and everybody for all of the support. It’s been a great ride and I can’t complain.

"This whole year has been incredible with the fans and the garage and everybody for all the support. We wanted to tell a story for 30 years and I think we did a pretty good job with that." - Kevin Harvick, finished seventh
 

"That was my first time I’ve ever exploded a rotor in my career. So, yeah, I was surprised but early on in the race I had a little bit of brake fade and the second run it just kept getting worse and worse. I don’t know. Just obviously a disappointing way to end. I’m super, super proud of this 20 team and all of our partners at DEWALT and Rheem. To be in the Final 4 is something we’re really proud of." - Chrirstopher Bell, finished 36th (Crashed out)