AVONDALE, Ariz.

This season has played out as a battle between Team Penske and Hendrick Motorsports. All the while, Kevin Harvick was holding his own with NASCAR’s heavyweights.

With his season on the line, it was Harvick who stepped up to earn the right to race for his first Sprint Cup title. He’ll do it with a Stewart-Haas Racing team that was in sync from the first time Harvick drove his new No. 4 Chevrolet in December and showed almost every week he could hang with the Hendrick and Penske drivers.

Harvick’s dominating victory Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway in a mustwin race earned him one of the four berths in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He’ll race Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano and Ryan Newman next Sunday for the championship, and the highest finishing driver will claim the title.

It will be the first Cup championship for all four of the drivers.

The final pairing does not include any of the Hendrick drivers, and only one of the two Team Penske cars.

Jeff Gordon was the only Hendrick driver who had a shot Sunday because its three other drivers were eliminated in earlier rounds of NASCAR’s inaugural elimination system. Gordon’s bid for a fifth title ended, though, when Newman used an aggressive move on Kyle Larson coming out of the final turn to pick up a position and knock Gordon out of the final four.

Gordon, who had four wins this season and led the points for most of the year, finished second and missed the finale by one point.

And Penske has only Logano racing for the title after Brad Keselowski, a six-time winner this season, was eliminated on Sunday. He finished fourth but needed to win to advance.

Also eliminated Sunday were Matt Kenseth, who finished third, and Carl Edwards, who was 15th.

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