This 2017 season of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series has gotten off to a really entertaining start, alright. Three different winners have been crowned in the first three races of the year, and we’ve even witnessed a bloody post-race brawl in Atlanta just a couple of weeks ago.
It’s highly possible that a fourth unique winner will emerge from Phoenix International Raceway this week, but a very familiar and notorious face on the course could easily take it all once more on Sunday.
Let’s take a closer look below at the drivers that warrants the most attention before your place your stakes on another of NASCAR’s star-studded races.
Coming off an unfortunate accident last week in Las Vegas, a trip back to Phoenix is just what Kevin Harvick’s doctor ordered.
Harvick, the reigning Camping World 500 champion and still the current front-runner at a price of +550 to win the inaugural Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series title, simply loves to race on this week’s track. He has a whopping eight wins at PIR, with six of his latest victories coming from his last nine starts on the course along with an unbelievable nine top-4 finishes in his last 10. Ol’ No. 4’s driver rating of 110.7 in Phoenix is also second amongst all active drivers, only behind all-time great Jimmie Johnson (111.2).
Brad Keselowski
It’s kind of hard to believe that Brad Keselowski hasn’t won a race in Phoenix yet. However, with seven top 10s over his last 10 starts on the course, it’s not as if the former Cup Series champion has been completely burnt out by the Arizona sun.
Not only will Keselowski be driven to win his first-ever race in Phoenix, he also has to keep performing at the highest level if he wants to remain the overall leader in the drivers’ standings, especially with a good number of young upstarts already breathing down his neck. Which now leads us to…
Sleepers
Kyle Larson
With back-to-back runner-up finishes entering this week’s race, Kyle Larson is just a single point behind Keselowski for the top spot in the season standings. This looks to be the year that the 24-year-old breaks out, and he’s in great form to follow-up his superb third-place finish from last November’s start at PIR with his second-career Cup Series win this week.
That podium finish from late last season isn’t a one-off performance, either. Larson has finished 12th or better in 11 of his last 16 races in Phoenix, and his average starting position of 7.2 is tops amongst all drivers with two or more starts on the track as well.
Chase Elliott
Another driver looking for his first win in Phoenix is Chase Elliott. Actually, the second-year pro is still in search of his first Cup Series win, and that could very well come to fruition this Sunday.
Elliott has only two professional races at PIR to his credit thus far, but he did end up in the top 10 on both occasions. His 8.5 average finish on the course is also tops amongst all full-time drivers; regardless of his limited body of work as our sample size. Back-to-back top-5 finishes entering the this week’s race is also a good omen that Elliott might finally notch his maiden victory in just his first year within the country’s general legal drinking age.
Long Shot
David Ragan
Sponsored by the same company as this week’s race, David Ragan better put on one heck of a performance for the good folks at Camping World.
However, the Good Sam Enterprises subsidiary shouldn’t keep its hopes up at all. Ragan hasn’t tallied a single top-15 finish since the start of the previous year to the present, and his last Cup Series win dates back to the 2013 season. Furthermore, the Georgia native’s best result in Phoenix over the last five seasons is a mediocre 18th-place finish from November 2015.
Writer’s Prediction
Guzzle down that champagne, young’un! Elliott finally pops his Cup Series cherry this Sunday.
