Finally four

And now it's time to check in with NASCAR, if only to answer the eternal question people ask about NASCAR when the calendar closes in on mid-November.

That question, of course, is this: "You mean they're still racing?"

Well, yes they are, as a matter of fact. It's been crickets around their place since, oh, about the time the NFL and college football revved up (and then the NBA for good measure), but yes, they're still racing. Rumor has it some people are still showing up to the races and watching on TV, but that sounds like an urban legend, like the one about Elvis working the grill in a Burger King in Kalamazoo, or Bigfoot hanging out in the woods behind old man Fenstermacher's place.

Anyway ... there's one race left in the season now, after Kyle Busch won in Phoenix yesterday. The championship race is next Sunday in Homestead, Fla., and the final four is set: Busch, Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr. and Joey Logano.

If that sounds familiar, it should, because Busch, Harvick and Truex were in the championship round last year. Truex won the title for Furniture Row Racing, a rare victory for the little guy in the top-heavy hierarchy of major league motorsports. The three of them have dominated the circuit this year, too; Harvick and Busch have each won eight times, and Truex has won four.

This would seem to indicate a showdown between Busch and Harvick, which is not nearly as appealing a storyline as Truex in 2017. Harvick, after all, defied poetic justice by slipping into the final spot yesterday, one week after cheating his ass off to win in Texas.

Turns out his winning car had an illegal spoiler, and to its credit, NASCAR swiftly dispensed the appropriate justice. He was stripped of his automatic berth and a healthy chunk of points, and his crew chief and car chief were suspended for the rest of the season.

So it's more than a little annoying that Harvick weaseled into the championship anyway. And it's even more annoying that he's probably the odds-on favorite, given that, in addition to his eight wins this year, he's posted a staggering 18 stage wins -- eight more than any other driver.

Which suggests it's been his year all along. And likely will be his week next week.

The Blob, however, still adheres to that mossy old standard: Cheaters never prosper. So it's picking Busch, because if everything comes down to one race, I'm almost always going to pick Busch.

The sportswriter in me, however, would love to see Truex win again. The storyline, after all, would be priceless: Underdog wins again for a team that announced earlier this season it was closing its doors at the end of 2018. Nothing ever writes itself, but that one would come awfully close.

Of course, the sportswriter in me also recognizes that the hopes and dreams of sportswriters frequently are laughed at by the storyline gods. So Busch it is.

Or not. Probably not.