Ryan Blaney held off a hard-charging Christopher Bell to win his first race of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season and second straight at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday (March 8).
The No. 12 team was able to overcome several miscues on pit road that saw Blaney have to pit twice under caution for a loose wheel, and then stop in his teammate Joey Logano’s pit box under a separate yellow-flag pit stop to tighten his left-rear tire, forcing him to start at the rear for pitting outside the box.
In the end, it was his pit crew who came in clutch, as a two-tire call was enough to hold off Bell’s four tires late in the race to score the victory.
After Blaney won a caution-free stage one, the first caution for incident came out on lap 94 when Shane van Gisbergen looped his No. 97 off of turn 4 after a tire went down. The spin came about a lap after a tire issue forced Kyle Busch into the wall, but NASCAR kept the race green until van Gisbergen spun.
The second caution for incident came just a few laps later when Daniel Suárez got loose under Ryan Preece and spun. Preece got away with little harm, but did slide up into Chase Elliott and turn him to avoid the sliding Suárez.
On lap 132, Chase Briscoe had a tire failure heading into turn 3 and took a long slide into the outside wall. The crash ended Briscoe’s day, giving the No. 19 team its third finish outside the top 35 in four races.
On lap 158, Noah Gragson brought the caution out after hitting the wall. Originally thought to be a tire issue, Gragson’s crash kicked off an odd series of events that saw William Byron, Connor Zilisch and Michael McDowell all have tire issues under caution, leading many to believe that Gragson actually blew a brake rotor that shed all over the track. Cole Custer also had a radiator issue that ended his day under the same caution, though it was never made clear if it was due to Gragson’s brake rotor littered all over the track.
The next caution fell at the end of stage two, which saw Bell get the victory. Following that, the next caution flew on lap 211, when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. ran into Zilisch in the dogleg, causing the latter to spin down into Preece, sending the No. 60 sideways in the dogleg.
On the ensuing restart, several drivers who didn’t pit restarted in front of those who took tires under the caution. That resulted in differing speeds that caused Joey Logano to run into the back of Ross Chastain, turning the No. 1 up the track into the field, where he was met by the No. 48, driven this week by Anthony Alfredo in place of Alex Bowman. Alfredo’s car left the ground as he got sandwiched between Chastain and Austin Cindric, causing major damage to all three cars. Bubba Wallace also got a piece of the wreck.
On lap 246, for the second time in the race, van Gisbergen spun off of turn 4 one lap after Busch had a tire issue. One lap after the ensuing restart, Logano got turned by AJ Allmendinger heading into turn 1. Logano then slid up into the field and collected Josh Berry, Suárez and Elliott.
Bell shot out to the lead on the lap 264 restart and set sail with the lead, but Blaney was starting to reel him in. Blaney likely needed a caution to catch Bell, and he got it on lap 288 when Austin Dillon’s right rear tire let go, sending the No. 3 in to the wall.
Under the yellow-flag pit stop, several drivers leapfrogged Bell by taking two tires, leaving Ty Gibbs and Blaney with the front row for the restart. Gibbs was able to clear Blaney off of turn 2, but down the backstretch, contact between Stenhouse and John Hunter Nemechek in the middle of a five-wide situation resulted in Nemechek getting turned into Zane Smith, who spun back down the track into the path of Ty Dillon.
Gibbs again set sail with the lead, but Blaney was quickly able to reel him back in and make the pass for the lead with 10 laps to go. Meanwhile, Bell made his way to fourth. Over the final 10 laps, Bell passed Kyle Larson for third and Gibbs for second, but simply ran out of laps to catch the No. 12, allowing Blaney to take the victory.
It’s the first time a driver not named Tyler Reddick has won a points-paying race in 2026, and completed an NTT IndyCar Series/NASCAR Cup Series sweep for Team Penske after Josef Newgarden won the IndyCar race Saturday (March 7). It’s also Blaney’s second straight Phoenix win after taking home the 2025 season finale in November.
Bell had to settle for second, with Larson coming home third. Gibbs held on to finish fourth, while Denny Hamlin finished fifth. Wallace, Byron, Reddick, McDowell and Erik Jones rounded out the top 10.
Up next for the Cup Series is a trip to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the Pennzoil 400 Presented by Jiffy Lube. Coverage will begin at around 4 p.m. on Sunday, March 15, with FOX Sports 1 providing television coverage.
Featured photo from Team Penske on X.
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