NASCAR Championship Weekend at Miami

This is it. Once the checkered flag waves on Sunday for the Cup series Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, we will crown a new champion for the 2017 season. And the Xfinity and Trucks will also crown their champions as well. The objective is simple: be the first to cross the line first of the championship contenders and you will hoist the championship trophy at nightfall.

Cup Series Championship 4 (all at 5000 points), Sun at 3 pm et on NBC

Kevin Harvick
Martin Truex Jr.
Kyle Busch
Brad Keselowski


Xfinity Series Championship 4 (all at 4000 points), Sat. at 3 pm et on NBCSN

William Byron
Justin Allgaier
Elliot Sadler
Daniel Hemric


Camping World Truck Series Championship 4 (all at 4000 points), Fri. at 8 pm et on FS1

Christopher Bell
Johnny Sauter
Matt Crafton
Austin Cindric


Take your picks!!!

Trucks is Christopher Bell (Though Johnny Sauter is on fire right now)

Xfinity is William Byron

Nuff said about that

As for NASCAR, I think Kyle Busch will win his first legit championship of his career (I still don't count 2015). As much as I want Truex to take it all, I think Kyle is gonna have the better race. Truex will still be a true champion in my heart, and even if he doesn't win, Furniture Row Racing should be very proud. They are a completely different team than they were a few years ago,and they are the definition of a bottom level team that worked their way to the top

As for my man Ryan Blaney, I'm proud as hell in him. He made it to the Round of 8 driving for a one car team with less money than all of his competitors. As amazing as it would be for him to be a competing at Homestead, he truly astonished me with his driving this year. Do I think he can win it all next year? Hell yes I think he is a legit contender. It'll be exciting to watch him race next year

(inb4 holy shit mtrimmer365 is posting somewhere that isn't the football threads)

My picks are Sauter, Allgaier? and Truex

But this week is something more special for me. It's Dale's last ride. I remember watching the 05 cup race at Chicago, which was my first ever race, and I barely remember anything, I only remember the shot of Dale Jr, being in victory lane, and of course as a kid, you rooted for the winner right? Haha, but when I came to watch the series full-time in 2006, he was always my guy. I remember coming home after a weekend with my dad, and turning on the race to see Dale get the win at Michigan in 2008, being with the GOMA gang for the 2014 Daytona 500, was a really special moment, cause I never got to see the 04 win.

Through the good times and the bad times, I was always a part of JR Nation. I just came to the realization this morning, this is it.... It's just weird, he'll still be in the sport, it's just soooo weird... Thanks for everything Dale!

Also, congrats Kenseth on an amazing career! 2003 Cup Champ, 39 Wins, 29 in Xfinity, 2 Daytona 500's. Kenseth was an amazing driver and will go to the HOF. It was nice to see him win last week.

Both he and Dale are going out at the same time, after coming in at the same time, both are good friends and both won their last race at Phoenix, what a story eh?

I'm hoping Martin pulls this one off as he's been a top 2 driver all year long and deserves the championship. As for my main focus this weekend, I'm with Lucstar. Will be sad watching Dale Jr. race his final round this weekend. While my favorites eventually shuffled, Dale Jr was my first favorite NASCAR driver when I was young because my father always cheered for Dale Sr. Hopefully he can end it in respectable fashion as it's been a pretty rough year for him.

Ah crap. That's right. This is Dale Jr and Matt Kenseth's final starts of their careers.

It was good to see Kenseth win at Phoenix last week. He's an amazing driver with him using his talents doing the talking. I might had a problem with him at Martinsville couple years ago, but it is what it is. One of my favorites for sure. Wish him the best in his endeavors.

As for Dale Jr., I started watching NASCAR in 2000 and grew to be a fan of Dale Jr. as well as many drivers. That 2001 Daytona July race win will always be #1 in remembering him. That brought the sport to heal after the faithful Daytona 500 earlier that year. Wish Jr. the best in the future

Custer dominated the race, Byron won the title, Preece ran like a boss again, and Sadler screwed up and then acted like a douche about it. Yep, this Xfinity series finale went perfectly in my view, when can we ban Cuppies from all the races?

Elliott Sadler losing the Xfinity Series championship again. Novel concept.

Congrats to William Byron on the title. I think this dude can be an all-time great if he keeps his head straight, which I know he will.

And a great drive by Cole Custer.

Looks like I'm 2/2 for championship picks. Congratulations to Bell and Byron. I don't care what anyone says either, Byron won't disappoint on the Cup level.

Anyways, Go Truex, even if I think Kyle Busch is going to win it. But I want to bring up something real quick. This is Matt Kenseth and Dale Earnhardt Jr's last race, and though it isn't Danica's last NASCAR race, its her last as a full time racer in NASCAR. However, I've seen people compare Danica's retirement to Earnhardt, Kenseth, and even Jeff Gordon's retirement a few years back, and it bothers me. I don't know if it is just people who don't really follow motorsports, but Danica should not be spoken in the same sentence as those three. I know she is an inspiration of female racers, and is the only female to lead laps at the Daytona 500 and Indianapolis 500, but her retirement, while sad, is nowhere near the magnitude of Earnhardt or Kenseth, or Gordon for that matter

YAY TRUEX, GREAT FINISH

I'm happy the best driver won all 3 series championships, and best driver won 3/4 cup titles. I worry about crapshoot not being fair at all to drivers making dynasties or making 7 titles impossible. A decent amount harder for dynasties or 5+ I'm fine with but I don't want it to be impossible or almost impossible. It is unfair to the drivers. I still think dynasties are almost impossible after last year with Byron having engine b!ow and he had no control over it, Cole Whitt in XFinity, and Carl Edwards wreck in Cup that could of taken innocent title contenders out. This year at Homestead got a !of of the bad taste in my mouth I had from last year with Homestead.

3/4 times best Cup driver won

1/2 times best XFinity driver won and other time you could make argument champion (Suarez) was best or second best. Yes, Sadler wins regular points battle by a lot but remember it was basically guaranteed both would make Chase before season started and those 3 points didn't matter much for wins in first round with some of the really bad guys getting in. So both teams were R&Ding nonstop all regular season. Suarez had almost 3 times more laps led and 5 more top 5s. They had same amount of wins and Sadler only had 2 more top 10s. I think you can make the argument for either being best that year.

1/2 times best Truck driver won

Looking at old points system and especially average finish you could say Sauter had better year. I'm still going with Byron. You couldn't R&D like Xfinity so old points system is more legitimate. Byron won too much not to be #1.

So glad that Truex won the title. He's been through a lot to get to this point. Absolutely dominated the season. Great race, IMO.

Onto 2018.