With the twists and turns of Circuit of the Americas in the rearview, the stars of the NASCAR Cup Series travel further into the western frontier to the diamond in the desert: Phoenix Raceway.
It may be a return to normalcy for some as the field looks ready to get back to business as usual after three grueling weeks of unpredictable racing action.
Their prayers will continue to go unanswered as NASCAR and Goodyear harvested a softer option tire for today’s race that’s sure to shake up the strategy of each race team on the grid. Figuring out the right time to employ the option tire will be pivotal to a strong run this afternoon.
312 laps and 312 miles around this 1-mile oval might seem simple enough, but one wrong turn could lead to your car in a tattered heap slinking down the track like a tumbleweed.
In the place where champions are made, one driver, one team will reign supreme in round 4 of the NASCAR Cup Series. Which driver will become the next king of the Estrella Mountains?
Last Week at COTA…
Right outside of Texas’ capital, an auto race broke out last week at Circuit of the Americas where the 37 stars of the NASCAR Cup Series faced off in a 95-lap grudge match to see which driver would come out on top.
For much of the day, it looked like RCR’s Kyle Busch would motor off into the sunset with a multi-second lead and a tire advantage over his closest competition, but a late caution grinded that fairy tale to a screeching halt.
Over the final dozen laps, three drivers joined Busch in the fight for the victory: Christopher Bell, William Byron, and pole sitter Tyler Reddick.
Bell showed rapid pace on race day, rising from his 19th starting spot to the top-5 by the beginning of the final stage. As the laps clicked by, Bell got closer and closer to Busch’s rear bumper but made sure not to get into the back of his former teammate, electing to run a clean and fair race.
With six laps to go, Busch’s car simply couldn’t handle the pressure as he relinquished the lead to Bell and fell to fourth by the end of the lap, leaving Byron and Reddick to catch the No. 20 DeWalt Toyota.
Byron opted to run a clean race as well, pushing the issue without being too aggressive while Reddick was never able to advance by either of the top-2.
In the end, Christopher Bell drove the wheels off of his Camry en route to his second consecutive victory and his first at Circuit of the Americas.
For a more detailed breakdown of last week’s race, our esteemed editor Madelyn wrote a fantastic recap for last week’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix that I hope you enjoy.
This Week in NASCAR
An extended wait on an appeal from Chase Briscoe and Joe Gibbs Racing ended on Wednesday when the National Motorsports Appeals Panel reviewed the evidence and determined that crew chief James Small did not commit a rules infraction related to the decklid/rear spoiler area of their Daytona 500 pole-winning car.
Upon winning the appeal, Briscoe and the No. 19 team had their 100-point penalty erased while Small was reinstated without suspension and not ordered to pay his outstanding $100,000 fine.
For more on this story, writer Lydia Mee wrote a great piece for Motorsport.com about the team’s and Briscoe’s reactions to the appeals victory.
Speaking of the penalty report, NASCAR levied a 50-point penalty and a $50,000 fine to Team Penske driver Austin Cindric for a reckless moment on lap 5 of last Sunday’s race where he intentionally turned Kaulig Racing’s Ty Dillon by Dillon’s right-rear quarter panel.
The penalty sparked controversy amongst drivers and fans as to what the punishment for committing a right-rear hook is supposed to be with Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch both publicly calling for a suspension of Cindric, similar to what we saw when Bubba Wallace and Chase Elliott performed similar maneuvers.
I spoke about my reaction to the penalties on the GRID Network pre-race show, so here’s a link to that video if you’d like to hear more about how I viewed the incident.
The courtroom drama unfolding around NASCAR continued this week as NASCAR and CEO Jim France filed a countersuit against 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports, accusing them of antitrust practices.
With a perceived absence of discussion, I dipped the pen for an article this week to talk about what I thought would happen to the sport if NASCAR were to lose the initial antitrust lawsuit filed by 23XI, which you can read right here at Pit Box Press.
IndyCar veteran Katherine Legge announced this week that she would enter this weekend’s Cup Series race for Live Fast Motorsports in the #78 DROPLiGHT Chevy Camaro, making her Cup debut after making assorted Xfinity Series starts for JD Motorsports in 2018 where she notched a best finish of 14th at Road America.
Legge becomes just the third female driver to suit up for Cup Series competition since the turn of the century, joining the likes of Shawna Robinson and Danica Patrick; she will start the race 37th.
Here is a link to the starting grid for today’s race.
In the NASCAR Mexico Series, five-time and defending series champion Rubén García Jr. fended off a fierce challenge from Xavi Razo to claim the season-opening San Luis Capital 200 at Super Óvalo Potosino.
I highly recommend watching the finish of this race.
As for the Xfinity Series, they traveled to Phoenix with the Cup Series for the GOVX 200 where reigning series champion Justin Allgaier dominated the final stage before a late caution bunched the field back up for NASCAR Overtime.
Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman made a thrilling four-wide pass in turn 2 to sneak away with the lead on the restart, but Joe Gibbs Racing driver Aric Almirola refused to lose.
On the final lap, Almirola drove into turn 3 similar to Austin Dillon at Richmond last season and ran Bowman over to steal the win away in one of the more disgraceful shows of sportsmanship I’ve seen in some time.
The Race
The Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix Raceway will be broadcast on Fox Sports 1 starting at 3:30pm Eastern time with Mike Joy, Kevin Harvick, and Clint Bowyer in the booth.
The 312-lap race will be split into three stages ending on the following laps: 60-185-312.
As for a normal race around Phoenix Raceway, it looks something like this: 8 cautions for 47 caution laps, 14 lead changes, 1,933 green-flag passes (or 7.3 passes per green-flag lap), a runtime of 3 hours and 1 minute, and the final caution falling around lap 276, 37 laps to go.
Out of the last 10 Phoenix spring races, four of them have gone into NASCAR Overtime, most recently in the 2023 iteration of this race.
Writer’s Pick
Last week’s writer’s pick was Shane van Gisbergen. The Trackhouse driver fought through restart issues for much of the day, rallying back in the closing laps to finish sixth.
This week, I’ll be trusting one of Roger Penske’s best to seize the checkered the flag: Ryan Blaney.
Yes, I did pick him to win Atlanta, and while that didn’t work out the way I’d hoped, Blaney still managed to come back from a late spin to score a fourth-place finish in Overtime.
Since the 2020 finale at Phoenix Raceway, Blaney has finished no worse than 10th at the 1-mile oval, a stretch that includes his runner-up finish in the 2023 finale that resulted in his first Cup championship.
Rolling off the grid in the same spot as his car number, I expect YRB to put an exclamation point on his 10th consecutive top-10 at the diamond in the desert by winning today’s Shriners Children’s 500.
(Top Photo Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
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