PHOENIX, AZ. (Nov. 5, 2023) – This past Sunday, we saw the conclusion to the 2023 NASCAR season, as Ross Chastain finished the race in first place, and Ryan Blaney came in second to secure the Championship.
With Ryan Blaney securing the championship, this gave Penske their 44th National championship across all the motor-series they currently compete in. 2023 was the first year they have ever gone back to back, with Joey Logano being last year’s champion.
This season gave us many things to talk about, for example, Kyle Busch racing for Richard Childress Racing, Kevin Harvick’s retirement, the Noah Gragson controversy, Justin Haley leaving Kaulig for Rick Ware Racing, Zane Smith to Trackhouse, Carson Hocevar to Spire, Aric Almirola leaving Stewart-Haas, and much more.
We also saw a couple of wins from drivers we didn’t expect. Such as Ricky Stenhouse Jr’s win in Daytona, Shane Van Gisbergen’s win in the Chicago Street Course, Michael McDowell’s win in Indianapolis, and AJ Allmendinger’s win at the Charlotte roval.
As for the drivers, Martin Truex looked fantastic in the early part of the season, racking up four wins and claiming the regular season championship. Many fans predicted him to dominate in the playoffs, but the complete opposite happened. He managed to barely stay alive in the playoffs, having a horrible run in which he got eliminated in the round of eight.
William Byron was a silent killer during the season, winning five regular season races, and one in the round of 12. Even after leading most of the race in Phoenix, his car had taken a turn for the worst, and ended up being really tight after 60 laps. Byron said in the post-race interview, “I feel like we all raced really hard…I felt like in Stage one and two, I could kind of take Ryan’s lane away a little bit and get him tight. And then once he got in front of us, it was really hard to chase him back down.”
Byron would later go on to finish the race in fourth-place. He would go on to finish the season with 15 top-fives, and 21 top-tens.
Christopher Bell, who had secured a spot into the round of four, was very consistent throughout the season with a single win. He also saw himself in victory lane during the round of 8, taking the win in Homestead-Miami Florida. He would run into some bad luck on lap 108 during the championship race, where he blew a rotor and crashed going into turn 3.
This would take him out of the race, where he would finish 36th and be the only DNF of the race. He finishes the season with 10 top-fives, and 19 top-tens.
Kyle Larson, who was fantastic alongside his teammate throughout the season, managed to pick up three wins in the regular season, and two in the playoffs. In Phoenix, Kyle was very consistent showing a lot of speed throughout the race. After the caution on lap 36, Larson’s team gave him a pit-stop worth bragging about, that put him in third-place which was about the other championship contenders. He was very aggressive off the restart and battled with Ross Chastain for the lead, but on lap 20 he had got a little loose on the Dogleg, and was passed by Blaney.
He finishes off the season with 15 top-fives, and 18 top-tens.
The highlight of the race in Phoenix though, was Kevin Harvick’s last race ever. Many emotional fans showed up to the race, supporting and cheering him on one last time. His final race was an emotional one no doubt, with his daughter, Piper coming on the radio during the pace lap saying “Good luck, Dad”, and son, Keelan saying “Hey dad, I am so proud of you and you’ve had a great career. Finish it off with one more.”
Kevin had a couple words to say about this, stating “That’s not normal, I know they probably loved that.” Kevin had managed to lead two different times, for a combined 23 laps, and finished in seventh-place.
Harvick finished his career at Phoenix with nine-wins, and 21 top 10 finishes there.
The 2024 NASCAR kicks off at the Busch Light Clash at the L.A. Coliseum on February 4th, 2024 in Los Angeles.
