The series rolled through the city of Avondale Friday morning before a late afternoon round of practice. Defending champion Ryan Blaney set the pace in practice, dominating the 50-minute session. He led across the board in the 5, 10 and 15 lap averages.

During Saturday’s Busch Light Pole Qualifying, Joey Logano flexed a muscle that would prove too devastating for the competition. He wheeled his Penske Ford Mustang Darkhorse to a second place starting position, flashing the potential speed on the short run. Meanwhile, the spotlight turned to 2017 Cup Series Champion Martin Truex Jr. as he would win the pole with a time of 26.718 seconds.

On Sunday, Phoenix Raceway welcomed a sellout crowd of over 40,000 in the grandstands alone. Truex Jr. led the field to green for 312 laps of racing action in the desert. However, the field was quickly slowed because Ty Gibbs wrecked in turn one. This set up a restart on lap 11 that saw Logano take over the race lead.

From there, Logano cruised to a win in the opening stage. He controlled the pack from lap 11 to 60 before taking the green and white checkered flag. Byron ran inside the top five in that stint while Reddick was not far behind. Blaney charged as high as seventh during that stretch but still was last of the championship contenders.

After the pit stops, Chase Elliott and Christopher Bell moved to the top of the scoring pylon. Just as the field was ready to get restarted, the pace car misjudged the put entry and collided with the protective sand barrels. As a result, race control threw a red flag for cleanup.

Once the barrels were repositioned, Bell was able to muscle past Elliott on the restart. Bell, who had been eliminated last weekend at Martinsville, was thought to be a pre-race favorite. He and his Joe Gibbs Racing entry had dominated the Phoenix spring race. That said, he came with a chip on his shoulder and sought to end the season by spoiling the overall race win.

Late in the second stage, Blaney ran down Bell for the race lead. They battled for a few laps before the defending champion got the better of the Bell machine. They ran nose to tail for a few laps while navigating traffic, but Blaney held on to win Stage Two. 

Behind the leader, Blaney and Logano battled for the top spot in the championship fight. Logano nosed to the inside of Blaney off turn two. The two had a drag race down the backstretch and the two-time champion of Logano maneuvered by his Penske teammate.

However, Blaney had the better long run car, slowly but surely closing in. On lap 233, they went to a head and Blaney caught Logano on the exit of turn two. He drove deep into turn three and overpowered Logano, putting himself in position to win a second straight championship.

But just as the pass happened, Logano’s crew chief Paul Wolfe called Loganon into the pits. This triggered the green flag pit cycle and forced the leaders to follow suit. Blaney barely managed to hold Logano off exiting when they merged back onto the track, but William Byron and his crew chief Rudy Fugle decided to stay out hoping for a caution.

They ran out the gas tank as far as they could, pitting on lap 247. Less than a minute later, the yellow flag flew for rookie Zane Smith pounding the wall in turn one with a mechanical failure. From there, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott led the thundering pack and all championship drivers with the exception of Byron, down pit road.

Once everything cycled out, Byron took over the point with his teammates Larson and Elliott behind him. Then on the restart, Logano used that same short run speed to capitalize. The No. 22 Shell Pennzoil car appeared to shoot out of a cannon, passing five cars in the first two turns to take the lead on lap 259.

Blaney gave it his all in an attempt to run Logano down, but struggled to get by Larson and Byron in the closing laps. Still, Blaney got within a few car lengths within the final 10 laps, but Logano put on a masterful display of defensive driving to hold his teammate back.

Blaney drove in deep with three to go, yet Logano fended him off. The 34-year-old took the white flag with Blaney in pursuit but he put one last lap together to score the win. As he crossed the finish line, Logano joined a legacy company of champions and becomes the winningest driver in the Playoff format 

“We are expected to win,” Joey explained. “I don’t know how to put into words how hard it is. But I think anyone listening that has probably done anything in professional sports understands probably as good as anybody that you put the best of the best at their profession, doing the same thing with one common goal, and the competition is always trying to get better.

“It just gets harder and harder.”

Joey went on to thank his team for staying behind him all year long. “It’s so cool to see everyone celebrating together ,” he went on to say. “It gets more special every time because of the people that you work with for a long period of time. You grind it out everyday, together.”

Now, Joey stands as the most decorated active champion in the sport. The win moves him into a tie with former Penske teammate Brad Keselowski for 25th all time on the NASCAR Cups wins list. He also became the next in line to tie Jeff Gordon for the fourth most premiere NASCAR titles, and he is still hungry for more.

“All of them,” Joey said in reference to how many more championships he hopes to win. “I tell you guys every year when the season starts, the goal is to win the championship. As many years as I’ve got left is as many as I want to get.”

And after 10 months, 36 races and thousands of miles, the 76th NASCAR season comes to an end. As the dust settles over Phoenix Raceway, teams turn their attention toward the next year. An exhibition race in a historic venue, a new television rights deal and the first international Cup race in over 50 years gives fans their fair share to look forward to. But for now, they wait until NASCAR returns on Sunday, February 2nd, for the Clash at the Bowman Gray Coliseum.