MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — After a dominating season where three drivers — Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. — combined to win 57 percent of the races so far, it only seems fair they tangle one more time to see who really has the best car this season.
Harvick, Busch and the reigning champion Truex, dubbed NASCAR’s Big Three, are joined by Joey Logano, and the final four playoff drivers will race for the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway in the Ford EcoBoost 400 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC).
“You always want to beat the best, and I enjoy racing against those guys,” Harvick, the 2014 series champion, told USA TODAY Sports. “And if you’re going to win this championship, you’re going to have to beat three of the best guys that have been on the track all year.”
Busch and Logano each automatically advanced to the Championship 4 round of the playoffs with wins in the Round of 8. Busch took last weekend’s checkered flag at ISM Raceway in Phoenix, and Logano won at Martinsville Speedway late last month.
Both Harvick and Truex qualified through points. While Truex hasn’t won a race since July, Harvick won two weeks ago at Texas Motor Speedway, but his win was encumbered after NASCAR handed out a major penalty.
The Big Three don’t just enter the weekend with 20 combined wins in the first 35 races of the season — Truex has four, while Harvick and Busch each have eight apiece — they also represent three of the past four series champions. And each claimed his title by winning the Homestead race, rather than having the highest finish among the contenders.
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