NASCAR sputters toward checkered flag

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — NASCAR’s season of doom and gloom sputters toward the checkered flag with a stout championship field but the inability to distance itself from everything that’s gone wrong in this trying year.

Next up is the Cup title race Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway that pits reigning series champion Martin Truex against Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Joey Logano in a winner-take-all finale. It’s the strongest final four since NASCAR adopted this format in 2014 — the four drivers combined to win 22 of 35 races this season — but the on-track action has been overshadowed time and again by off-track problems.

Truex’s team is closing after the race because his primary sponsor is leaving the sport.