Predicting The 2024 NASCAR Championship 4
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As NASCAR enters its annual summer stretch, teams and drivers already have their eyes set on the looming Playoffs. The 10 race, four round format that concludes at Phoenix Raceway is always one of the highlights of the year, and is what the entire sport builds towards. Everyone is gunning for one of the four championship spots that are up for grabs. However, there are certain drivers who have already made themselves favorites to earn a ticket to Phoenix come the end of the season. Here are my predictions for the 2024 Championship 4, in no particular order.
Denny Hamlin
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The 43 year-old from Chesterfield, Virginia is no stranger to the Championship 4, having made it four times already in his career. While Hamlin is known for the lack of titles under his belt, he sure isn’t known for a lack of winning races, as he has already amassed 54 Cup Series victories in his career, and 3 this season alone. He is tied for the series lead in top-5s with eight, and has two poles on top of that. His success thus far currently has Hamlin sitting fourth in the regular season points standings, and he is still very much in the fight to claim the top spot by the start of the Playoffs. The driver of the #11 Toyota is consistently one of the top three or four fastest competitors week in and week out, and is one of the heavy favorites to make it to Phoenix this year.
Kyle Larson
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Another one of this season’s outright fastest drivers has been Kyle Larson. This is nothing new for the racing sensation, as ever since joining Hendrick Motorsports in 2021, he has made a home at the front of the Cup Series field. So far, this year has been no different, as he has racked up 3 victories, 10 top-10s, and a staggering 5 pole positions. Larson also trails in the regular season championship by just three points, despite missing the Coke 600 entirely due to running the Indy 500 just hours before. The Elk Grove, California native is as much in the fight this year as ever before. In addition, he has multiple Championship 4 appearances under his belt, including one that resulted in him winning the race and the title. Larson has firmly established himself as a contender to do so again in 2024.
Chase Elliott
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Perhaps the antithesis of Hamlin and Larson’s outright speed, Chase Elliott has been the model of consistency this year. He currently boasts a series-best average finish of 10.52, and has only finished outside of the top 20 once. On top of that, the former champ has 178 laps led, 7 top-5s, and a win at Texas to boot. While other top teams have gone through rough patches or even just bad races, Elliott the #9 crew seem immune to catastrophic results. He leads the regular season points standings, and could very well stay there over the next few races. Consistency is key if you want to make it deep into the NASCAR Playoffs, and Elliott certainly has that category mastered. If he can pick up a win or two heading into the postseason, he could prove to be extremely dangerous during the 10 race home stretch.
Christopher Bell
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My final prediction for this year’s Championship 4 is that Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell will make it for the third time in a row. Since the Next Gen car was introduced at the start of the 2022 season, Bell is the only driver to have been in title contention at Phoenix the last two times. He came up just short two years ago, and an early DNF derailed his championship hopes in 2023. This time around, Bell is back in the conversation to make it to the final four. Much like Larson and Hamlin, he has three wins thus far. He also has 6 top-5s and 11 top-10s, an impressive count this far into the season. He and crew chief Adam Stevens seemed to struggle in the early portions of the campaign after winning at Circuit of the Americas, but a victory in a rain-shortened Coke 600 kicked off an excellent run of form for the 20 team. They have plenty of playoff points that will serve them well in the final weeks of the season, and they have shown the speed as of late that is needed to make it to Phoenix.
Who do you think will make up this year’s NASCAR Championship 4?
