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MIAMI BEACH, Fla. -- Matt Crafton had the luxury of winning one NASCAR Truck Series championship just by starting the race and grabbed a second title by finishing in the back of the pack.Under the revamped Truck playoff system this season, Crafton just may have to win the race to win it all.Crafton, the 2013 and 2014 series champion, should be the favorite to win Friday at Homestead-Miami Speedway in the first year of the Truck Chase format. The 40-year-old Crafton faces Johnny Sauter, Christopher Bell and Timothy Peters in the championship field. The first to finish out of the four contenders is the 2016 champion.Crafton, third in the standings last year, could have an edge because he won here last season, his first win on the 1.5-mile track. He has two wins this season and finished second and third in each of the last two Chase races.Crafton, in the No. 88 Toyota for ThorSport Racing, can join Jack Sprague for second on the career Truck series championship list with three. Ron Hornaday holds the series record with four titles.Crafton did not finish five races this season and likely wouldnt have competed for a championship under the old system.I wasnt a fan of (the Chase) at the start of 2016 when they said it, but now Im a big fan of it because Im getting to race for a championship, he said.Crafton and the other three championship drivers all caught a break when William Byron, who won six times and was the heavy championship favorite, blew an engine with 10 laps left at Phoenix and was eliminated.ThorSport Racing, owned by Duke and Rhonda Thorson, could use a championship as an emotional boost just months after a fire damaged much of the teams race shop in Sandusky, Ohio.The shop is not running at 100 percent. Its still not all there, Crafton said. I knew it was going to hurt us a little bit, but I didnt realize it was going to hurt it as bad as it did. It definitely put a damper on the way we ran because at that point we were just on a downward spiral.Yet, here are Crafton and ThorSport, resilient to the end.Crafton has remained content racing trucks as most of the rest of the field uses the series as the start of a methodical climb toward a Sprint Cup ride. He has one career Cup start, four in the second-tier Xfinity Series and 13 wins in 383 career Truck starts.Im very happy to finish my career out here, he said. I mean, yes, I would like to race the races in the Xfinity Series or run Cup races if I was on the right equipment. But if youre not going to be in the right equipment, youre not going to be able to contend to win. I really dont care to do it.He has the right equipment this year -- and the best accessory could be a championship trophy hoisted over his head.SAUTER FOR THE WINJoey Logano has paid attention to the Truck title race while pursuing his own NASCAR championship. His pick for series champ?Im a Johnny Sauter fan because hes awesome, Logano said.The 38-year-old Sauter had a career year driving the No. 21 Chevrolet for GMS Racing with three wins, 11 top-five finishes and a dominant run in the Chase. Sauter won back-to-back races in the No. 21 Chevrolet at Martinsville and Texas, and was runner-up last week at Phoenix. Sauter has three top fives, six top 10s and a 4.7 average finish over seven Chase races. He was second in the standings in 2011 and finished fourth in each of the past three years.Logano may think Sauter is the driver to beat. Sauter wont go that far.I dont ever consider myself the favorite, Sauter said. I feel really comfortable with where we are as an organization and as a team going into this race. But to say Im a favorite, that would not be doing ourselves a service.BELL TOLLS FOR TITLEBell, who has one win this season, drives the No. 4 Toyota for Kyle Busch Motorsports. Kyle Busch, the 2015 Cup champion, picked Bell to win the championship and but he may nail his prediction. The 21-year-old Bell shook off a slow start thanks to a pep talk from his championship owner.Bell recalled Busch telling him: Look, youve got great equipment. Youre a talented racecar driver. Everything will come together. You just got to stop trying to make it come together.Bell rebounded and reeled off top-10 finishes in seven of the last eight races.Do I consider myself the underdog? No, Bell said. Does everybody else? Probably. I think weve got everything it takes to be successful at Homestead. Our year has definitely not been the year that weve wanted. Weve only won one race. But were going to make it two after Friday.PETERED OUTPeters is the only championship driver without a win this season. Hes been steady with eight top-five finishes in the No. 17 Toyota for Red Horse Racing. 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SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- With Carson Palmer sidelined by a concussion, the one-win Arizona Cardinals turned to Larry Fitzgerald, David Johnson and an opportunistic defense for a much-needed victory.Drew Stanton threw two touchdown passes to Fitzgerald in the quarterbacks first start in two years, Johnson ran for two scores and the Cardinals capitalized on San Francisco mistakes to beat the 49ers 33-21 on Thursday night.We were a hungry team, a team that knows that we dug a hole for ourselves and we had to win this game, coach Bruce Arians said.The Cardinals (2-3) got 17 points off three turnovers by the 49ers (1-4) -- two interceptions by Blaine Gabbert and a fumbled kickoff return by Chris Davis -- and also had one drive extended by a running-into-the-kicker penalty.Those three scoring drives totaled just 41 yards, but proved to be enough to beat the sloppy 49ers as the Cardinals survived a week with without Palmer out with a concussion.I dont think anybody played well on offense. Nobody, Niners coach Chip Kelly said. I dont think we protected well enough, I dont think we threw it well enough and we had too many drops and two interceptions.Stanton didnt produce much, going 11 for 27 for 124 yards. But Arizona didnt turn the ball over and got 157 yards rushing from Johnson to get the win. Johnson added 28 yards receiving, and Fitzgerald caught six passes for 81 yards as that duo combined to gain 266 of the teams 288 yards from scrimmage.The defense did the rest with the two interceptions and seven sacks.Weve been saying all week it just starts with one. Just get one win and try to stack them, defensive lineman Calais Campbell said. Weve been a team in the past that can rip off a bunch of them. ... Now we have to figure out what we can do to keep that ball rolling.QUICK TURNAROUND: The game changed in a span of less than 4 minutes starting late in the second quarter. Campbells interception of a deflected pass set up Arizonas first score on a 21-yard pass from Stanton to Fitzgerald with 1:40 left in the half. Davis fumble of the second-hallf kickoff then set up Johnsons 4-yard run that put Arizona up for good.ddddddddddddWe got the momentum going, Stanton said. Unfortunately, I think, its one of those things as an offense youre waiting to make a play, and got that spark from the defense. Then to come out in the second half and get the ball right there was huge.WE WANT KAP: There were several thousand empty seats at the game but the fans who did show up were frustrated by what they saw. At one point in the third quarter, a chant of We want Kap! We want Kap! started up as fans wanted to give former starter Colin Kaepernick a shot at quarterback. Gabbert responded by leading an 82-yard TD drive fueled in part by his 24-yard run .The chants started again after Gabbert threw his second interception .Gabbert finished 18 for 31 for 162 yards and Kelly would not address whether it was time to make a quarterback change.Were 1-4. Were going to look at everything, he said. We have to make sure were giving our team the best chance to go out and win.FAVORITE TARGET: Jeremy Kerley, acquired two weeks before the start of the season in a trade with Detroit, has quickly established himself as Gabberts most trusted receiver. After nine straight punts to open the game, Gabbert completed four passes for 63 yards on one drive in the second quarter, capped by a 9-yard TD pass to Kerley .PUNT PARTY: The first quarter featured six drives, six punts, zero points and only five completed passes as both offenses struggled mightily. Gabbert and Stanton missed open receivers, had other throws dropped and neither offense could generate much of anything.SACK PARTY: Markus Golden and Campbell each had two of Arizonas seven sacks as the Cardinals put constant pressure on Gabbert. Pass protection had been one of the few positives on offense for the 49ers, who had allowed just three sacks the first four games.---Online:AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP-NFL ' ' '