Which of NASCAR’s Championship 4 will win the 2022 title?

After nine months, 35 points-paying races, two exhibition events, 19 different race winners, paddock parity like we’ve never seen before and nearly as much controversy as there have been thrilling moments, NASCAR‘s 16 playoff participants have spent their fall being whittled down to a dozen, eight and now, finally, the coveted Championship 4.

That quartet will battle mano a mano and machine to machine for at least 312 laps on the odd-shaped speedway that thinks it’s a short track, the one-mile Phoenix Raceway. The format is simple. The highest finisher among those four will be crowned the champion of the 74th season of NASCAR’s premier series.

So, who are those four? How did they get here? How do they run at Phoenix? And how do they approach the pressure of racing for a title? Read ahead as we give you the stats, the path and also a short Q&A with each one.

2022: 3 wins, 4 poles, 12 top 5s, 19 top 10s, 6 DNFs
2022 Playoffs: 2 wins, 1 pole, 5 top 5/top 10s, 2 DNFs
Playoff history: 2nd appearance, 2 wins, both this year
Best championship finish: 12th, 2021
Phoenix career stats: 5 starts, 0 wins, 0 top 5s, 2 top 10s (both 9th-place finishes), 0 DNFs, 17.0 average finish

ESPN: On Sunday you won your way into this Championship 4 after you started this playoff round wrecked in the Bubba Wallace/Kyle Larson mess at Las Vegas and finished 34th. And to get into that round you had to win on the Charlotte Roval because you’d also started that round with a 34th. Dude, that’s a tough way to make a living.

Bell: It is. And that’s why I was the most emotional I have ever been behind the wheel of a race car, right after winning at Martinsville last weekend. My first thoughts were of my mom and dad, because when I left Vegas, I was just so down in the dumps. Mom and Dad said over and over, “You can still do it, you can still do it.” I didn’t really believe them, especially going to Martinsville where I’d had no success, and then there we were, in Victory Lane.

ESPN: You have to have those anchors in life.

Bell: Like [crew chief] Adam Stevens. He has seen it all. He won a couple of Cup titles with Kyle Busch, as everyone knows. He never changes. If we win or lose or crash or if I spin out 18 times, he’s the same every week. His routine’s the same. He just stays very, very calm, cool, collected and attacks…