The average age of the Championship 4 is 28 years, 11 months and 25 days — which is the youngest in playoff history. A new era in NASCAR has already dawned.
The sun was barely up on championship morning a year ago when word began to spread that something was terribly wrong at Joe Gibbs Racing. The Cup Series title-deciding finale at Phoenix Raceway was hours away from starting and a flurry of activity around the Gibbs cars seemed to indicate the team was looking for a replacement driver for Ty Gibbs, who had won the Xfinity Series title the night before. Christopher Bell was set to represent JGR in the championship four, but rumors were flying that the entire organization might pull out of the race.
There was a fiery moment during the NASCAR race at Talladega Superspeedway when a gas can erupted into flames on pit road. Ty Gibbs pulled out of his pit stall Sunday with the gas can still dangling from his Toyota and the fuel can dislodged in the middle of pit road. Other drivers had to swerve around the burning gas can as emergency workers waited until pit road was clear to approach the fire.