NASCAR: Harvick dominates as winless Newman eliminates Gordon

Kevin Harvick dominated the Phoenix NASCAR Sprint Cup race and will go up against Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin and Ryan Newman for the 2014 title in next week's Homestead finale.

Second place for Jeff Gordon was not enough to keep him in Chase contention, with Matt Kenseth and Brad Keselowski also eliminated despite taking third and fourth in Arizona. Carl Edwards was the other man knocked out, finishing off the pace in 15th. The

result guarantees a first-time champion this season, with all remaining past title-winners in the Chase now out.

Harvick led 264 of the race's 312 laps in his Stewart-Haas Chevrolet and had little trouble extending a lead despite being interrupted by 12 yellow flags and one red flag to clear up debris from a collision between Kyle Busch and Clint Bowyer. The win was Harvick's fourth from the last five Cup races at Phoenix.

The three drivers who will join Harvick in the title showdown all had tough days. Polesitter Denny Hamlin fell to 37th with a cut tire early on, was briefly a lap down, but eventually made it back to fifth. Joey Logano also spent a while off the lead lap following a penalty for leaving a pitstop with the fuel can still attached, before recovering to sixth.

He will be the only Penske driver in the shootout as fourth was insufficient for Brad Keselowski.

Gordon's title hopes ended at the penultimate corner, when Ryan Newman - who had been off the pace all day - moved up to 11th during a collision with Kyle Larson. That gave Newman sufficient points to finish ahead of Gordon in the standings at the final cut-off.

As the identity of the 2014 title showdown participants was settled, outgoing champion Jimmie Johnson had a terrible race. He was involved in a pitlane tangle with Justin Allgaier then had long-running electrical problems before eventually crashing.

TITLE CONTENDERS FOR HOMESTEAD:

Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Ryan Newman