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Saturday, November 14, 2026Nov 14

NASCAR drivers cozy up in very cordial championship preview

From left to right, Joey Logano, Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch have a light moment during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race news conference Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016, in Miami Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)
From left to right, Joey Logano, Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch have a light moment during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race news conference Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016, in Miami Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) – As expected, NASCAR’s four championship rivals were cordial, candid and comical.

No one tried to swing a chair, or even take a verbal jab.

UFC, this isn’t.

“Sorry we’re letting you down,” six-time champion Jimmie Johnson quipped Thursday.

The winner-take-all championship race Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway should be creating a semblance of tension between four rival drivers. But this quartet went bike riding together in one of their many stops on a seemingly sunshine-and-roses media tour. A week after Conor McGregor nearly threw a chair at Eddie Alvarez in a UFC pre-fight hype session, NASCAR’s ferocious four let trash-talking take a backseat on an easy afternoon full of heaping accolades for each other.