2018 NASCAR Finales Preview

There is a lot of action this weekend and there are a lot of finales and championships to be awarded. With so much action, we are breaking the previews into two parts and this one will specifically look at the three NASCAR finales scheduled for this weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex, Jr. and Joey Logano are the four drivers that will be competing for the NASCAR Cup championship on Sunday at Homestead. Three of the four drivers have won a championship within the last four years and Logano was the 2016 championship runner-up.

Busch is coming off his eighth victory of the season after winning at Phoenix. This matches Busch's most victories in a season, which occurred in 2008. Busch and Harvick are tied for most victories this season. Harvick leads all drivers with 22 top five finishes while Busch is second on 21. Truex, Jr. has won four times this season but his most recent victory was at Kentucky in July. He is third in top five finishes on 19. Logano has only won twice but he has 25 top ten finishes, five more than Truex but behind Harvick's 28 and Busch's 27. If either Busch or Harvick win the championship, it would be the most top ten finishes for a champion since Dale Jarrett's 29 in 1999. Logano had six consecutive top ten finishes before last week's retirement at Phoenix.

Harvick enters as the best of the final four at Homestead. In 17 starts, Harvick has the best average finish at 6.8 and he has nine top five finishes and 15 top ten finishes, the most all-time in those categories and Harvick has ten consecutive top ten finishes and four consecutive top five finishes at the track. Truex, Jr. has the second-best average finish of the final four at 11.5 and he has eight top ten finishes in 13 Homestead starts. His victory last year was his first top ten finish at the track since 2013.

Busch has made 13 Homestead starts and he has six top ten finishes, including three consecutive. He has also led a lap in three consecutive Homestead races. Logano has four top ten finishes in nine Homestead starts and he has three consecutive top ten finishes in the finale. He has only led at the track twice.

Busch, Harvick and Truex, Jr. are each attempting to win their second Cup championships. Any of those three would become the 15th driver to win multiple Cup championships. Either Busch or Truex, Jr. could become the first driver to win multiple championships with Toyota. Either Harvick or Logano could become the first Ford driver to win a championship since Kurt Busch in 2004. Harvick could become the first driver since Tony Stewart to win a championship with multiple manufactures. Harvick's 2014 title came with Chevrolet. Stewart won the 2002 championship with Pontiac and he won his 2005 and 2011 titles with Chevrolet.

Truex, Jr. could become the 11th driver to win consecutive Cup championships joining Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Lee Petty, David Pearson, Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip, Buck Baker and Joe Weatherly.

Championship-ineligible drivers to keep an eye on include Denny Hamlin, a two-time Homestead winner. Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth each have one victory at Homestead. Johnson and Kenseth have 11 and ten top ten finishes at Homestead respectively. Kyle Larson has three consecutive top five finishes at Homestead and he has the second-best average finish amongst active drivers at 7.6. Chase Elliott finished fifth in last year's race while Brad Keselowski has four top ten finishes in the last five Homestead races.

The NASCAR Cup finale will take place at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday November 18th.

NASCAR Xfinity Series
NASCAR's second division will feature two Chevrolet drivers, one Ford driver and one Toyota driver battling for the title.

Christopher Bell's victory at Phoenix kept his title hopes alive. It was Bell's seventh victory of the season while the other three championship-eligible drivers combine for two victories. While Bell has the most victories and most top five finishes at 18, Cole Custer has the most top ten finishes at 25. Custer won two races ago at Texas. Tyler Reddick finished second to Custer at Texas and his only victory was at the season opener in Daytona. Daniel Hemric is still looking for his first career victory in NASCAR's second division and this weekend will be Hemric's 66th career start.

Custer dominated last year's Homestead race from second on the grid. He led 182 laps while Reddick started on pole position and led the remaining 18 laps before finishing fourth. Bell qualified third but his race ended early due to an engine failure. Hermic started next to Bell on row two but his race was hampered by electrical issue and a battery change forced him to finish 13 laps down.

Hemric has six consecutive top ten finishes. Reddick has three consecutive top ten finishes and two of those are top five finishes. Four of Reddick's six top five finishes this season have occurred in the last nine races. Bell has five top five finishes in his last seven starts and three of those were victories. Custer has 12 consecutive top ten starts entering Homestead.

Reddick is attempting to win JR Motorsports its second consecutive championship and the team's third title in five seasons. JR Motorsports' previous two championships came with rookies Chase Elliott and William Byron and Reddick is also a rookie. Bell could join Kyle Busch and Daniel Suárez as Joe Gibbs Racing drivers to win this championship. Richard Childress Racing could win a series-record fifth drivers' championship with Hemric. The team's prior championships were in 2001 and 2006 with Kevin Harvick, 2008 with Clint Bowyer and 2013 with Austin Dillon. The team is currently tied with Roush Fenway Racing on four. Custer or Reddick could join Harvick as the only California-born drivers to win this championship.

Championship-ineligible drivers to keep an eye on include Justin Allgaier, who was eliminated after Phoenix despite having five victories this season. Allgaier has a poor track record at Homestead with his only top ten finish in eight starts being sixth in 2016. This weekend marks Elliott Sadler's final race as a full-time driver. Sadler has an average finish of 8.6 entering the finale. Sadler has not won since Kentucky in September 2016. He has five top ten finishes in his last seven Homestead starts.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series finale will take place at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday November 17th.

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
Johnny Sauter could become the fifth driver with multiple Truck championship while Brett Moffitt, Justin Haley and Noah Gragson each shoot for their first Truck title.

Sauter has the most victories this season with six while Moffitt's Phoenix victory was his fifth of the season. Sauter's most recent victory was at Martinsville last month while Haley won at Texas two weeks ago. Gragson's only victory this season was at Kansas in May. Sauter and Haley are tied with 17 top ten finishes this season while Sauter has 14 top five finishes. Moffitt only has 12 top ten finishes but all 12 were top five finishes. Gragson has 16 top ten finishes and leads the series with six pole positions.

Sauter is the only one of the four drivers to have won at Homestead. He won the 2011 race and he has eight top ten finishes in the last nine Homestead races. This will be Moffitt's first Truck start at Homestead. Moffitt has two Cup starts at Homestead. In 2014, Moffitt finished 36th and in 2015, Moffitt closed out his Rookie of the Year season with a 31st place finish. Haley made his Homestead debut last year and he finished ninth. Gragson has finishes of 15th and 18th in his two Homestead starts.

If Sauter wins the race, it would his seventh victory of the year and it would be the second-most victories for a Truck champion behind only Mike Skinner's eight in the inaugural season in 1995. Regardless of where he finishes, if Moffitt wins the championship it would be the fewest top ten finishes for a Truck series champion. Haley could become the first Indiana-born driver to win the Truck championship. Gragson could become the first Truck champion to not start every race in a season. Gragson missed the Pocono race due to illness.

Matt Crafton won at Homestead in 2015. Todd Gilliland is looking to get his first career victory before his rookie season is over. Harrison Burton is making his second career start on a 1.5-mile oval. Burton has seven top ten finishes in his last eight starts. Chris Windom will make his second start of the Truck season.

The final race of the Truck season will take place under the lights at 8:00 p.m. ET on Friday November 10th.

Over or Under?
1. Over or Under: 4.5 average finish at the end of the stages for champion?
2. Over or Under: 301 miles completed at the time of the checkered flag?
3. Over or Under: 144.5 combined age of the top five finishers?

Predictions
1. There is one caution that involves one of the championship-eligible drivers.
2. Cole Custer does not win the championship and leads fewer than 75 laps.
3. The champion wins the Truck race.