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Five drivers to watch in Miami

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Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Joey Logano and Carl Edwards, AKA the Championship 4, join Carolyn Manno to chat about their paths to the Sprint Cup finale and preparing to race at Homestead-Miami.

Here are five drivers to keep an eye in Sunday’s Sprint Cup season finale on NBC at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

JIMMIE JOHNSON

Should Johnson make history by capturing a record-tying seventh Sprint Cup title, it’ll be one of those “Where were you when …” moments for every NASCAR fan. But we shouldn’t forget that this is the first time he’s faced Miami in a one-race, winner-take-all situation. Johnson has won twice on 1.5-milers this season, but has never won at Miami and has never led more than 28 laps in a single Cup start there.

JOEY LOGANO

The Miami tire combination has been used three times earlier this season, at both Texas races and the Chase opener at Chicagoland. With that in mind, Logano may have an edge over his Championship rivals on Sunday. He finished third, second, and second in those previous three races with the Miami tires. Furthermore, he led 178 laps at Texas two weeks ago with an average running position of 1.8. To see how the other three Championship drivers have done with the Miami tires, check out Dustin Long’s article from Tuesday.

CARL EDWARDS

Title heartbreak in 2011 aside, Miami has been a solid track for Edwards. He’s the only one of the Championship 4 with multiple wins there (2008, 2010) and he has the best average finish there (9.2) among the group. He also may have another thing going for him: He’s the only Championship 4 driver who took part in the October test session at Miami. How much will that help Edwards, and perhaps to a point, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch? We’ll have to see.

KYLE BUSCH

In 2015, Kyle Busch’s last win entering the Chase came at Indianapolis – and during the Chase, he didn’t win until the Championship race at Miami. Guess where his last pre-Chase win was this year? You guessed it: Indy. And Busch has gone winless in this year’s Chase as well. The difference is that this year, he’s had better performance in the playoffs. He’s figured out how to work the Chase and he knows how to perform with everything on the line. Expect a strong effort from him and the 18 team on Sunday.

MARTIN TRUEX JR.

In 2015, Truex was racing for a championship at Miami but handling woes kept him from being a real factor. This year, he can just go for a win, and he stands a good chance of doing it. Let’s go back to the Miami tire combination and the previous three races where it was used: Truex finished sixth and third at Texas, and between those races, he won the Chase opener at Chicagoland. If that form holds on Sunday, Truex may have the race he was hoping to have a year ago.