{"id":231936,"date":"2025-10-22T13:13:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T13:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/231936\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T13:13:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T13:13:13","slug":"nascar-confirms-6-drivers-not-4-to-compete-for-a-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/231936\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR confirms 6 drivers, not 4, to compete for a championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

It usually doesn’t mean anything, but this year, it does, and it’s very important to consider: the NASCAR Xfinity Series driver playoffs and the owner playoffs are two very different sets of playoffs.<\/p>\n

For that reason, the Championship 4 at Phoenix Raceway next weekend is officially set to see six drivers competing for the 2025 title, rather than just four.<\/p>\n

And yes, the series might very well end up crowning two different champions. Let us explain.<\/p>\n

6 drivers competing for NASCAR Xfinity Series championship<\/p>\n

First and foremost, the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing team, despite not having a full-time driver, qualified for the 12-team owner playoffs. Aric Almirola’s victory at Phoenix Raceway in March was the highlight of the team’s regular season.<\/p>\n

Because the No. 19 team got into the owner playoffs, the No. 25 AM Racing team did not, despite the fact that its driver, Harrison Burton, was the 12th and final driver to qualify for the driver playoffs.<\/p>\n

Then there’s the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing team. The No. 21 team qualified for the playoffs, and its driver, Austin Hill, qualified for the playoffs with three regular season wins. However, Hill was docked the 27 playoff points he earned during the regular season because of the fact that he was suspended for a race after hooking Almirola in the right rear at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n

The No. 21 team, however, did not suffer the same penalty. So while Hill was left 21 points below the round of 8 cut line and thus eliminated<\/a> when the round of 12 ended, the No. 21 team advanced on the owner side.<\/p>\n

To start the round of 8, Almirola won at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and Hill won at Talladega Superspeedway. As a result, the No. 19 team and the No. 21 team are now locked into the Championship 4 of the owner playoffs, even though neither one of their drivers is championship eligible.<\/p>\n

On the driver side, JR Motorsports teammates Connor Zilisch, Justin Allgaier, and Carson Kvapil, plus Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love, are all above the Championship 4 cut line. JR Motorsports’ Sammy Smith, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Brandon Jones, and Haas Factory Team teammates Sam Mayer and Sheldon Creed are all below it.<\/p>\n

And with the No. 19 team and No. 21 team being in the round of 12 to begin with, two of those championship-eligible drivers are driving for teams that can no longer actually win the owner championship. Kvapil’s No. 1 team and Smith’s No. 8 team were both eliminated in the round of 12, since the No. 19 team and No. 21 team moved on without their drivers doing so.<\/p>\n

It’s complicated, but yet it does make sense. And when the dust settles at Martinsville Speedway this weekend, next weekend’s Championship 4 at Phoenix is set to see two drivers competing for an owner championship, two competing for a driver championship, and two competing for both.<\/p>\n

Welcome to the Championship 6.<\/p>\n

Saturday’s IAA and Ritchie Bros. 250 is set to be shown live on the CW Network from Martinsville Speedway beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET. Start a free trial of FuboTV<\/a> and don’t miss it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It usually doesn’t mean anything, but this year, it does, and it’s very important to consider: the NASCAR…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-231936","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nascar","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}