ON TO PHOENIX

On To Phoenix

The 2015 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup is moving from Texas to Arizona, with the final race of the Eliminator Round coming up Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway. The eight-driver field will be trimmed to four following the Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500. Chase participants have won this race in nine of the eleven years it’s been run as part of NASCAR’s “post-season” format. The only non-title contenders to win the fall race at P-I-R during that stretch are Kyle Busch in 2005 and Kasey Kahne in 2011.

Five of the eight drivers remaining in the Eliminator Round of the Chase have won a Cup Series race at Phoenix International Raceway: Kurt and Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon and Kevin Harvick – who’s won the last four races run on the one-mile desert oval and five of the last six dating back to the end of the 2012 campaign – including the early-season stop there in mid-March of this year. Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano and Martin Truex Junior are still looking for their first Cup Series win at P-I-R. Keselowski finished sixth there earlier this season, with Truex seventh and Logano eighth.

So far this fall, all eight post-season races have been won by drivers on the original Chase Grid. The best finish by a non-Chase competitor is Jamie McMurray’s runner-up effort nine days ago at Martinsville Speedway … There are forty-three drivers on the preliminary entry list for Sunday’s

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