Harvick reaches final four

Kevin Harvick finally has a shot to win his first Sprint Cup championship, while Jeff Gordon was once again denied in his drive for No. 5.

Harvick routed the field Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale, Arizona, where he had to win to move into NASCAR’s championship finale. He’ll go with Stewart-Haas Racing, the team he joined this season in his quest to win a title after 13 years of futility at Richard Childress Racing.

He’ll race Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano and Ryan Newman next Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway for the championship. The title will be decided by finishing order, and all four will be vying for their first title.

The championship field does not include Gordon or Brad Keselowski, who along with Harvick were the most dominant drivers all season. Keselowski has won a series-best six races, Gordon has won four times and led the points most of the season, and both showed the intensity of this new elimination-style Chase for the Sprint Cup championship with a pit road brawl last week that left both former champions bloodied.

A disappointed Gordon said the on-track aggression and off-track intensity at Homestead will make Texas and the last month of racing look tame.

“If it was that ugly the past few weeks, it’s going to be real ugly next week,” Gordon said.

There were no fights following this race, but it was still intense as the championship field flipped and flopped with every lap. The most shocking change came after Gordon had crossed the finish line in second behind Harvick and thought he was in. Instead, Ryan Newman, who needed one more position to bump Gordon out of the final four, ran Kyle Larson high up the track to get the rookie out of his way to claim an 11th-place finish that put Newman in the Chase.

“I didn’t take him out,” Newman said. “In a day or two, he’ll understand. It’s hard to rationalize that, but I did what I had to do. I don’t like racing that way.”

Gordon wound up missing the final by one point to Newman.

“That’s the system we have,” Gordon said. “I mean, I could have taken out Harvick, too, to make it in. But I didn’t.”

Also eliminated Sunday were Matt Kenseth, who finished third, Keselowski, who needed to win to make it in but finished fourth, and Carl Edwards, who was 15th.

Rosberg edges Hamilton

Nico Rosberg fended off a strong charge by Lewis Hamilton to win the Brazilian Grand Prix in Sao Paulo, closing in on his Mercedes teammate in the Formula One title race.

The German cut his points deficit to 17 but Hamilton will keep the upper hand going into the season-ending race in Abu Dhabi, where the Briton can clinch his second title with another second-place finish.