It is the enterprise finish of the NASCAR Cup Collection season. Joey Logano has secured his place within the Nov. 6 championship ultimate race in Phoenix, and 7 different drivers need to e-book their tickets to affix him.

And whereas the title battle is as huge open because it’s ever been, there’s nonetheless loads else to speak about, from Kyle Larson’s Homestead-Miami dominance to Bubba Wallace’s suspension to who’s primed for an enormous weekend at Martinsville on Sunday. So, with a lot at stake in stock-car racing, ESPN turned to Ryan McGee and Marty Smith for his or her takes on the ultimate few weeks of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Collection season.

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McGee: You and I’ve not talked about this but, however Bubba Wallace was suspended for a race. It is the primary time a Cup Collection driver was parked for an in-race incident since Matt Kenseth was in 2015. Marty, the place do you internet out on all of that? As a result of I really feel just like the repercussions are nonetheless rolling.

Smith: I believe they completely are. And since we have not mentioned Wallace’s actions, simply fully unacceptable in each means. There are specific guidelines that don’t get damaged. And the No. 1 unwritten-driver-code rule is you do not proper rear someone and hook them into the fence at 185 miles an hour.

McGee: In visitors. Out of a flip. All of it was so flawed.

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Smith: Each little bit of it was simply unacceptable. And to cite Logano, who was very outspoken afterward, it might have killed Larson. Happily, he wasn’t even injured. After which, after Wallace hooked Larson into the fence, Wallace was extraordinarily pissed off, obtained out of the automobile and began shoving Larson, who managed to keep up his composure the whole time and never take part within the battle. I do not know the way he did that, fairly frankly.

I perceive Wallace’s frustration, stemming from the truth that he felt like he obtained fenced, however he took that frustration out in a totally overboard and flawed means. If one other competitor had run as much as me after doing what Wallace did and began shoving me, I actually would not have had the composure to stroll away from it like Larson did.

McGee: After which flip round and put a beatdown on everyone the very subsequent weekend at Homestead, and look an terrible lot like Kyle Larson the 2021 NASCAR Cup Collection champion.

Smith: That is very apropos of Larson at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the place, if you are going to win, you need to run the highest of the observe, you need to make the highest work. He is the most effective perhaps ever at making the highest work. Larson sort of introduced that into the game in numerous methods. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was superb at working the highest in the course of the later years of his profession — actually made that momentum off the nook, it was one thing to behold — however Larson took it to an entire different stage together with his world-class historic automobile management from being so adept on grime.

McGee: I believed it was tremendous essential for NASCAR to have a weekend prefer it had at Homestead-Miami, as a result of when it was over, everybody was speaking concerning the race. Everybody was speaking about Larson. Everybody was speaking about headed to Martinsville, one race to go earlier than the championship ultimate 4. As we discuss on Tuesday, there isn’t any concern of sitting and ready on a penalty report or repercussions being handed down by NASCAR, and it looks like each Tuesday for the previous two months, we have been coping with one thing aside from racing. So I believed it was a fairly good day for the game.

Smith: Little question. And it is such an attention-grabbing time for NASCAR, as a result of all the way in which again to February once we began this season, you and I simply felt a novel power. And yearly, nearly invariably, you get into the summer time and it is type of the doldrums of the season and it is beginning to really feel like a very lengthy slog. However I nonetheless really feel a very new momentum even if we’re 35 weeks in and I could not start to let you know who’s going to win the championship. And that’s rattling uncommon, man.

That is one other consider NASCAR’s favor is that it truly is shaping as much as be sort of the Sport 7 concept that they wished all these years in the past. They applied this “4 drivers, one race, winner-take-all” format that invariably appears to have rewarded the most effective group, however we’ll see what occurs in 2022 once we get to Phoenix right here in a few weeks.

McGee: I’ve by no means gone into the final two races of the yr having zero clue what is going on to occur. Within the first a part of our careers, Jeff Gordon would’ve already gained the championship a month in the past, proper? After which we now have this, what I nonetheless name new format, with the ultimate race being price all the things, however even then, you had a fairly good concept entering into of who was the favourite and who wasn’t. And now we’re in a world the place Ross Chastain leads the league in top-five finishes, and I believe that is superior, however it additionally makes me notice I’ve zero clue what is going on to occur. And I dig that.

Smith: I nonetheless have my cash on Chase Elliott. I simply really feel like that No. 9 automobile, they simply have a really distinctive chemistry with him and his crew chief Alan Gustafson, they usually perceive what it is prefer to get it achieved. I believe lots of people proper now are sort of considering, “Okay, would possibly this be Denny Hamlin’s yr? May this be the time that he closes it out?” And you recognize, subsequent weekend’s going to be essential for him, as a result of he’s so good at these brief tracks.

McGee: Martinsville is the most effective as a result of it is loopy and it is unpredictable, however you are precisely proper. We will a spot the place Hamlin has been racing since he might barely stroll, going again to these Allison Legacy automobiles. That is the primary time I noticed Hamlin race. And oh, by the way in which, you recognize who else is actually good at Martinsville? Bubba Wallace.