Tomorrow is the final race of the NASCAR season. The Ford EcoBoost 400 will be run at Homestead-Miami Speedway with NASCAR crowning a new champion at the end of the race.
16 drivers started off with a chance to win the title, but now it’s down to four. Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr. and Kevin Harvick are the four drivers left with a chance to win the Monster Energy Series championship.
Truex Jr. is the defending series champion, so he’ll be looking to become the first repeat champion since Jimmie Johnson did it in 2009-2010. Those were the final two championships of 5 in a row that Johnson won. Adding to the intrigue of another championship for Truex Jr., is the fact that his team, Furniture Row Racing, will be shutting down after tomorrow’s race. Truex Jr. has one win this season. He won the 5th race of the season at California. Can Truex Jr. get his second win of the season which would lead to his second championship tomorrow? Back to back titles could be a fitting way for Truex Jr. to send Furniture Row Racing owner Barney Visser off.
Kyle Busch was the 2015 Cup champion when the series was headed up by Sprint. Busch was also the regular season champion for this season. Busch won 8 races this season including last week’s race at ISM Raceway in Phoenix Arizona. Busch drives the #18 car for Joe Gibbs Racing. Will Busch be the driver picking up his second NASCAR championship at the end of tomorrow’s race?
Kevin Harvick also has one Cup championships as he claimed the title back in 2014. Harvick also won 8 races this season including the 3rd, 4th and 5th race of the season. Harvick won two weeks ago at the Texas Motor Speedway for the second consecutive season. Harvick will be trying to pick up his second championship driving the #4 car for Stewart/Hass Racing.
Joey Logano is the only one of the final four drivers looking for his first championship. Logano drives the #22 car for Team Penske. Logano has two wins this season with one of them coming three weeks ago at the Martinsville Speedway. Logano made three appearances in NASCAR’s top series as an 18 year old in 2008 before joining Joe Gibbs Racing full time in 2009. There was a lot of hype for Logano as he picked up the nickname “Sliced Bread” and if he can pick up the first championship of his career it show that even though it’s taken a while people knew what they where talking about.
Who’s your pick for tomorrow’s race? Do you have Logano getting his first championship? Can Truex Jr. send his team out with a championship? Or will it be Harvick or Busch picking up the second championship of their careers?
Heading into tomorrow’s race Denny Hamlin will be the driver who starts on the pole as he claimed that spot with a speed of 173.863 mph. As for the four championship drivers Busch will start right next to Hamlin as he qualified 2nd. Truex Jr. will be the driver starting right behind Hamlin as he’ll start 3rd tomorrow. Logano will be position right behind Truex Jr. as he’ll start 5th while Harvick is a little farther in 12th.
Jimmy Butler made his second appearance and his first at home for the Philadelphia 76ers and had better results than game one.
Butler scored a team high 28 points on 12 of 15 shooting as the 76ers picked up a 113-107 victory over the Utah Jazz. Butler added 7 assists, 3 rebounds and 3 steals to his stat line in 37 minutes.
Butler’s first game with the 76ers didn’t go as well as they lost 111-106 to the Orlando magic. Butler scored 14 points in 32 minutes of play. He shot 6 of 12 from the field with 4 rebounds and 2 assists.
As Butler finds his role with the 76ers you have to think the addition of a veteran two-way type of player that Butler is, will help this team. Is it enough to get the 76ers though the Eastern Conference and into the NBA Finals? Only time will tell.
Now in Friday night’s Philadelphia win, there was an interesting statistic on the Utah side of the box score.
Donovan Mitchell of the Jazz took 35 shots in the game and while it’s not unusual for an NBA player to take a lot of shots what makes Mitchell’s stat line interesting was the fact that he didn’t have an assist in the game.
Mitchell scored 31 points in the game going 13 of 35 from the field, but just 1 of 11 from behind the 3-point line. While he might not of had an assist in the game Mitchell did have 4 steals and grabbed 2 rebounds.
This was the first time a player had 35 shot attempts with no assists since Carmelo Anthony did it for the New York Knicks on January 24th 2014. Anthony had 62 points n that game. Antoine Walker of the Boston Celtics also had a 35 shot no assist night back on January 7th 1998. Now nobody has taken so many shots with no assist and scored fewer points then Mitchell since Elvin Hayes. Back on February 8th 1969 Hayes scored 28 points going 13 of 40 from the field with no assists. Hayes also grabbed 24 rebounds in that game.
Mitchell’s coach and teammates had no issues at all with him taking 35 shots, but Mitchell himself didn’t seem to thrilled saying “I took 35 shots. That can’t happen. Zero assists, that’s not who I am, that’s not how I play. I know I’m still being aggressive, but I have to be smart.”
The loss dropped the Jazz to a game under .500 at 7-8. It was also Utah’s second loss in a row, but they’ll have a chance to get back to .500 and end that short losing streak tonight as they take on the Boston Celtics at TD Garden Arena tonight.
Just 15 games in it’s tough to tell how the Jazz season will go, but they were a playoff team last season. They won their first round match up against the Oklahoma City Thunder before being knocked out of the playoffs in the second round by the Houston Rockets.
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