Phoenix – Syndication Server

Tasca goes No. 1 at NHRA Arizona Nationals at Firebird

Funny Car’s Ron Capps claimed the first Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge win of the year on Saturday in front of a sellout crowd at Firebird Motorsports Park, defeating Matt Hagan in the final round of the bonus race as part of the 40th annual NHRA …

Shawn Langdon (Top Fuel) and Jeg Coughlin Jr. (Pro Stock) also won the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge specialty race, while Doug Kalitta (Top Fuel), Bob Tasca III (Funny Car) and Matt Hartford (Pro Stock) earned No. 1 qualifiers at the second of 20 races during the 2025 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season.

In front of a capacity crowd, Capps went 3.989s at 318.24mph in his NAPA Auto Care Toyota GR Supra, driving past Hagan in the bonus race in a matchup of multi-time world champions. It was a welcome victory for Capps, who went all of 2024 without winning a national event. He was the runner-up in Gainesville and built on that on Saturday, defeating Alexis DeJoria earlier in the day before getting past Hagan for a much-needed result.

“I’m very excited myself, but I’m more excited for ‘Guido’ [crew chief Dean Antonelli] and the team,” Capps said. “Last year was a rebuilding of sorts. We knew we had to change the setup to get ahead of the competition after back-to-back world championships, and we felt like we needed to get to where Jimmy Prock and Austin were last year and this year.

“It’s fun to win the Mission Challenge because it’s really brought out a lot of fun on Saturdays. For the fans, it’s great. It really creates a different Saturday, and when you get to the semis at a race you’re always happy because you know you’re in the Mission Challenge the next race, and whatever happens is icing on the cake. So a great, great win for us today.”

Tasca finished as the No. 1 qualifier for the 19th time in his career, as Friday’s run of 3.863s at 333.82mph in his Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang easily held up. He’ll open eliminations against Jon Capps, looking for his first victory of the season.

“It’s going to be a stacked group out there, but this car can go up and down a hot or cool track,” Tasca said. “We were aggressive [today], trying to find the limit of where we thought the track was to kind of set us up for tomorrow. I think the guys will take that data and compensate for it tomorrow and we think that 3.92s (from Q1) was really in the sweet spot for the heat.”

Austin Prock qualified second after going 3.883s on Friday, while R. Capps took third with a 3.912s at 323.50mph.

Top Fuel’s Shawn Langdon stayed red-hot at Firebird Motorsports Park, defeating Tony Stewart in the final round of the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge thanks to a run of 3.805s at 315.19mph in his Kalitta Air Careers dragster. It’s another strong performance in Phoenix for Langdon, who is the defending event winner and has been to the past two final rounds at the track. That could bode well for Sunday, as Langdon, who was the runner-up in Gainesville, appears to be rolling.

“There are some tracks that just seem to work well with what you have and there’s some tracks that just doesn’t seem to work well, and Phoenix, obviously, fortunately, is one of those that seem to work well,” Langdon said.

“The team has done a great job with the car, and we’re making great runs and kind of continuing that success. I didn’t do a good job in the final. I clicked it a little bit early so, truth be told, it probably was going 3.79s, which shows how much stronger the car really is, and it definitely gives us a lot of confidence going into Sunday.”

His teammate, Doug Kalitta, earned his 60th career No. 1 qualifier in his SealMaster/Toyota dragster on the strength of Friday’s standout run of 3.688s at 330.09mph. That came under the lights, but Kalitta made a pair of strong runs on Saturday in the heat, giving him confidence for eliminations. He’ll take on Phoenix-area native Travis Shumake to open race day.

“The track is holding up good in the heat,” Kalitta said. “On that last run, we shot a couple of spark plugs out, so it shut off early, and we ran that 3.82s. I’m not really sure what it would have run, but probably a little better than that, so that’ll put us right in the mix where everybody else is.”

Brittany Force took the second spot with a run of 3.705s at 331.69mph and Langdon is third after going 3.706s at 331.85mph.

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Pro Stock’s Jeg Coughlin Jr. showcased his classic form on the starting line in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, using a pair of holeshots to win the bonus round, including the final round against Dallas Glenn. Coughlin, a five-time world champ, went 6.583s at 208.88mph in his Scag Power Equipment/Outlaw Light Beer Chevrolet Camaro for Elite Motorsports, utilizing a 0.026s reaction time to hold off Glenn and get the victory. He beat longtime rival and reigning world champ Greg Anderson earlier in the day, dialing up a strong performance in the Challenge.

“I think that was a big shot in the arm for our entire team,” Coughlin said. “Pro Stock is so close. I mean, a holeshot is almost a loose term because you can win or lose races by thousandths of a second.

“We’ve made a lot of changes to our cars across the board coming into this race and obviously our we feel like our performance is there, but we’re just not able to light the [score]boards up, so we’re working hard and fortunately, we made some strides today.”

Racing in front of plenty of family and friends, as well as a sold-out crowd, local native Matt Hartford easily held onto the No. 1 spot in his Total Seal Chevrolet Camaro with Friday’s strong run of 6.509s at 208.20mph. Hartford picked up his fifth career No. 1 qualifier, setting the tone for what he hopes is a meaningful Sunday and a win at his home track. He opens eliminations against Brandon Foster.

“When we unloaded off the trailer here in Phoenix, we thought we had a pretty good setup,” Hartford said. “Even though the scoreboard didn’t show any good numbers for us today, that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t beneficial.

“There’s nothing more that we want to do than win this race at our home track. We’ve got a runner-up here [in 2019] and our goal is to take the hardware. When I lost in the finals to Jeg a few years back, it was crushing, because it was that would have been awesome to win, but we’ve won from No. 1 before, and our goal is to do it again.”

Anderson took second with a 6.512s at 208.91mph and Cory Reed qualified third after a run of 6.516s at 208.91mph.

Eliminations for the 40th annual NHRA Arizona Nationals begin at 11 a.m. MT on Sunday at Firebird Motorsports Park.

Phoenix went ‘according to plan’ with option tire – Goodyear

Goodyear was pleased with what it saw from the option tire Sunday afternoon as it was used for the first time at Phoenix Raceway. “Everything went according to plan at Phoenix, and the option tire worked very well,” Goodyear NASCAR project manager …

Goodyear was pleased with what it saw from the option tire Sunday afternoon as it was used for the first time at Phoenix Raceway.

“Everything went according to plan at Phoenix, and the option tire worked very well,” Goodyear NASCAR project manager Mark Keto said. “It gave teams a chance to vary their strategies as to when to use them and maximize their effectiveness to gain track position over teams that were out on the prime tires. Teams were also able to manage their options once they got track position and make them live longer into a run. Overall, we were very happy with the balance and strategy of the prime/option tire setup and how it added to the racing all day.”

The tire, which was designated by red sidewall lettering, was a softer compound from the traditional prime tire. It was the same soft compound that Cup Series teams ran at North Wilkesboro in the All-Star Race last season and the second race at Richmond Raceway.

Goodyear brought the option tire to Phoenix to help with the racing product. The goal was a positive showing so that it would become the primary tire for the November championship race. Goodyear will also be holding a three-car tire test on Monday with Austin Dillon (Chevrolet), Josh Berry (Ford), and Tyler Reddick (Toyota) at Phoenix to continue working through different compounds.

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“That red tire was a lot of fun,” fifth-place finisher Chris Buescher said.

Zane Smith, who finished ninth, concurred with his Ford teammate. Plus, “it made it probably the most fun Phoenix race I feel like I have been to.”

Cup Series teams were given one set of option tires for the 45-minute practice session Saturday. There were two sets available for them during the race.

In the first stage, Ryan Preece was the driver to watch as one of the first to take the option tires. Preece pitted and his RFK Racing team put on a set of option tires under a lap 10 caution. He quickly drove through the field (the race restarted on lap 15) and was inside the top 10 on lap 27. He finished the stage third.

Joey Logano used the option tire to regain lost track position from a yellow line violation. Logano’s team used a different pit strategy to put the option tire on during the second stage and drove to the race lead. He ultimately finished the stage in second place.

In the final stage, Austin Cindric, Erik Jones, and Ty Dillon were among those who made significant gains on the option. All three used it to drive inside the top 10.

The race ended with most of the field on their last set of option tires. It seemed to be a key play to save them for as late in the race as possible.

“I wish I would have been on the option tires the whole time and everyone else would have been on the primaries,” Justin Haley said. “They just make you feel like superman. I like the tire. I honestly feel like we should go to it everywhere. They make the cars drive a lot better. I don’t know if that’s what you want, but it will be interesting to see how it plays out.”

Bell roars to third consecutive Cup Series win at Phoenix

Christopher Bell won again Sunday in the NASCAR Cup Series. He and the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team made it three straight Cup Series victories by beating out teammate Denny Hamlin in a side-by-side battle to the finish. Hamlin was leading at the …

Christopher Bell won again Sunday in the NASCAR Cup Series.

He and the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team made it three straight Cup Series victories by beating out teammate Denny Hamlin in a side-by-side battle to the finish. Hamlin was leading at the white flag, but the two drivers found themselves side-by-side off Turn 2, then drag raced toward the checkered flag. Bell powered around the bottom as Hamlin got too far wide in Turn 4.

Bell led Hamlin and Kyle Larson, who nearly joined the fight in the final corner, to the finish of the Shriners Children’s 500. It is the second consecutive win for Bell in the spring event at Phoenix and third straight after triumphs at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Circuit of The Americas.

Bell is the only repeat winner thus far in 2025. He is the first driver in the Next Gen era to win three consecutive races and the first in the series since Kyle Larson did so in 2021.

“Oh my gosh, man,” Bell told Fox Sports on the frontstretch. “Whenever you’re sitting there dreaming it up, that’s about as ugly as it gets. You put the red tires on, and you’re like, ‘Alright, what I don’t want to happen is go like 20 or 30 laps and get a yellow,’ and that happened. Then we went 10 more laps and had another yellow, and it was just all about who could get clear on the restart.

“Neither of us could, and we were racing really, really hard there coming to the line. JGR ran 1-2, how about that?”

It was a dominant day for Bell, who led a race-high 106 of 312 laps. He also won the second stage.

Hamlin finished second after finally getting track position late in the day. He finished eighth in the first stage and sixth in the second stage.

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“A great job by the Sport Clips team,” Hamlin said. “It got better and better as it went. The pit crew did a phenomenal job that kept us in the game when we had a bad stop in the middle. They made up for it at the end. It was the first time we were able to get some clean air all day, and obviously our car was really fast.

“I really wanted it to stay green there because I thought the long run was really where we were going to be able to excel, especially on these tires. But we got a good restart. [Larson] gave me a great push on the frontstretch on the restart and down the backstretch, so I had a position on (Bell), but I knew he was going to ship in there and if he had to use me, he could. We ran out of racetrack there, but a great finish and a great job by the whole Joe Gibbs team to give us some fast cars.”

It came down to a two-lap run to the finish. The final caution of the afternoon happened with eight laps to go when Ty Gibbs had a mechanical issue and hit the wall in Turn 3.

Bell and Hamlin restarted on the front row. Josh Berry and Larson restarted on the second row.

Bell, Hamlin and Larson were the top three finishers, with Berry finishing fourth and Chris Buescher finishing fifth. A fourth-place finish for Berry is the best finish for Wood Brothers Racing in its history at Phoenix Raceway.

William Byron, who won the first stage, finished sixth, Alex Bowman finished seventh, Kyle Busch finished eighth and Zane Smith finished ninth. Chase Elliott completed the top 10.

Joey Logano finished 13th. Logano was strong early in the day but was penalized for going below the yellow line on a lap 15 restart. The No. 22 team used the option tire, the softer compound, to regain track position in the second stage but later found themselves at a deficit when using the second set of option tires to start the third stage and most of the field saved their final set until late in the stage.

Ryan Blaney finished 28th after blowing an engine. Katherine Legge finished 30th in her Cup Series debut after an early spin on her own and then spinning again after contact with Josh Berry. The second incident also collected Daniel Suarez and ended her day.

A seven-car crash midway through the second stage ended the days of Shane van Gisbergen, Cole Custer, Brad Keselowski, Justin Haley, Chase Briscoe, Carson Hocevar, and Riley Herbst. It was one of 10 caution flags on Sunday afternoon.

There were 17 lead changes among six drivers.

Byron throws down a ragged Cup Series pole lap at Phoenix

William Byron was the final driver to make a qualifying effort Saturday at Phoenix Raceway, and it turned out the best was saved for last. Byron won the pole for the NASCAR Cup Series race with a lap of 133.680mph (26.930s). The Hendrick Motorsports …

William Byron was the final driver to make a qualifying effort Saturday at Phoenix Raceway, and it turned out the best was saved for last.

Byron won the pole for the NASCAR Cup Series race with a lap of 133.680mph (26.930s). The Hendrick Motorsports driver broke a pole drought that dates back to Circuit of The Americas in the spring of 2024. It’s Byron’s 14th career pole but his first at Phoenix Raceway.

“I did not hit my marks,” Byron told Prime. “I was sideways. I just carried a ton of entry speed. I missed the middle of the corner, and just coming off the dogleg, I was so loose. But I was going to commit to the (corner) exits and see how much I could get out of [them] even though I missed the center. Just a fast car. Thanks to my whole team; they’ve been bringing great cars, and we’ve been doing a really good job executing. I definitely want to go out there and have a great day tomorrow. I feel like our car was really good in race trim.

“Still shaking. That did not feel like a good lap, but I just committed to it, and the grip was there.”

Joey Logano was bumped from the pole position when Byron made his run. Logano clocked in at 133.195mph (27.028s) and will share the front row with Byron.

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Carson Hocevar qualified third with a lap of 27.043s, Josh Berry fourth at 27.088s, Erik Jones fifth at 27.091s, Chase Elliott sixth at 27.099s, Michael McDowell seventh at 27.099s, Justin Haley eighth at 27.111s and Tyler Reddick ninth at 27.113s. Denny Hamlin completed the top 10 with a 27.150s lap.

Saturday was a banner day for Spire Motorsports. The organization saw all three drivers (Hocevar, McDowell, and Haley) qualify in the top 10 after Hocevar and McDowell were the fastest in practice.

Christopher Bell will begin his quest for a third consecutive Cup Series victory from the 11th starting position. Ryan Blaney qualified 12th, Chris Buescher 13th, Austin Cindric 14th and Kyle Busch ended up 15th.

Kyle Larson qualified 17th, Bubba Wallace 19th and Brad Keselowski qualified 20th. Ross Chastain managed 24th, Todd Gilliland 27th, Shane van Gisbergen 29th and Chase Briscoe 30th.

Near the rear of the field — Daniel Suarez in 31st, Alex Bowman (who got loose on his lap) in 32nd, Ty Gibbs in 34th and Katherine Legge last in 37th. Legge is making her Cup Series debut.

NEXT: Shriners Children’s 500 at 3:30 p.m. ET Sunday.

Spire teammates set the pace in Cup Series practice at Phoenix

Spire Motorsports teammates Carson Hocevar and Michael McDowell set the pace for NASCAR Cup Series practice at Phoenix Raceway right at the start of the session, and no one could beat it. The two ran their fastest laps on their respective first laps …

Spire Motorsports teammates Carson Hocevar and Michael McDowell set the pace for NASCAR Cup Series practice at Phoenix Raceway right at the start of the session, and no one could beat it.

The two ran their fastest laps on their respective first laps on track. Hocevar topped the leaderboard at 132.533mph (27.163s) with McDowell ending up second fastest at 132.523mph (27.165s).

23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick was third fastest at 132.499mph, Austin Cindric was fourth at 132.489mph and Chris Buescher completed the top five at 132.329mph.

William Byron ran sixth at 132.120mph, Denny Hamlin was seventh at 131.984mph and Erik Jones eight at 131.878mph, Christopher Bell ninth at 131.854mph and John Hunter Nemechek 10th at 131.839mph.

Bell is the defending race winner at Phoenix. He and the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team are also looking for their third consecutive Cup Series win after triumphs at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Circuit of The Americas.

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There were no incidents in practice. Cup Series teams had one 45-minute session because Goodyear brought the option tire for the weekend. There was one set of options to use during practice, and teams will have two sets for Sunday’s race.

Joey Logano, who won at Phoenix in the fall, was 11th fastest in practice. Bubba Wallace was 12th, Ryan Blaney 14th and Alex Bowman 15th. Ross Chastain, whose last Cup Series win was at Phoenix in the fall of 2023, was 18th.

Chase Elliott was 20th fastest, Kyle Busch 21st, and Chase Briscoe was 22nd. Kyle Larson was 26th, Shane van Gisbergen ran 31st, and Josh Berry was 34th.

Katherine Legge was 37th fastest out of 37 cars. Legge is making her Cup Series debut with Live Fast Motorsports.

McDowell paced the best 10 consecutive lap average over Reddick, Cindric, Chastain, and Byron.

NEXT: Cup Series single-car qualifying for the Shriners Children’s 500.

Legge staying low key for Cup Series debut at Phoenix

Katherine Legge is keeping things simple for her NASCAR Cup Series debut Sunday at Phoenix Raceway. Legge wants to accomplish the basics – finishing the race after all 312 laps. Phoenix Raceway, at one mile, will be the biggest oval Legge has …

Katherine Legge is keeping things simple for her NASCAR Cup Series debut Sunday at Phoenix Raceway.

Legge wants to accomplish the basics — finishing the race after all 312 laps. Phoenix Raceway, at one mile, will be the biggest oval Legge has competed on in NASCAR, with her other being Richmond Raceway (0.750-mile) in the Xfinity Series.

From there, she’ll simply just be trying to not be a negative story. If all of that comes together as Legge hopes, she’s looking forward to it leading to additional opportunities down the road.

“I want to do a good job minimizing mistakes,” Legge said. “Everybody makes mistakes, but I really want to minimize them. I want to stay out of trouble, show respect, and prove that I belong. I think if I can do those things, then I’ll get the opportunity to do more.

“[We don’t have] any expectation that we’re going to go out and be competitive. I think if I finish anything but last, it would be a win for us, honestly, because I don’t have the experience that any of these guys have. I don’t have a car that’s capable of going and running at the front, so hopefully we can develop me and the car and everything else at the same time, and we can get there.”

Live Fast Motorsports is not a full-time team. The single-car operation from B.J. and Jessica McLeod competes for the love of the sport, with the admission that they are building toward accomplishing what is realistically competitive for their budget.

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The deal for Legge to make her debut with Live Fast came together in about 10 days. She admitted she would have been more comfortable at Circuit of The Americas, the road course the series competed on a week ago, but it wasn’t possible to put something together in the timeframe they were working within. NASCAR approved Legge to run at Phoenix since it is a shorter oval.

Legge did simulator work with Chevrolet before her debut and was on the Hendrick Motorsports campus to drive the car for pit stop practice. She also credited Richard Childress Racing and Kaulig Racing for aiding in other parts of her preparation.

“I feel super well supported and as prepared as I possibly can be having never driven on an oval like this [in] a Next Gen car,” Legge said. “I’ve done a handful of stock car races in my career, so I feel like I’m either going to sink or swim, but everybody has given me the best possible opportunity to go out there and do a good job.”

Unfortunately, there is one wish Legge will not get this weekend.

“I’m going to admit this, and I probably shouldn’t use these words, but I’m going to anyway,” Legge said with a smile when asked if her debut was meant to coincide with Women’s History Month. “I said, ‘I’m going to fly under the radar for my first Cup race. Nobody is going to notice. We’ll just be in the back. We’ll chill. We’ll get NASCAR permission.’ Then somebody was like, ‘It’s International Women’s Day on Saturday,’ and I said, ‘Oh, [expletive].’ There is no way I’m flying under radar.”

Roger Penske ranks 2024 season among team’s best-ever

Roger Penske ranks 2024 as one of the greatest in his history as a team owner after Joey Logano added a NASCAR Cup Series championship to a list of achievements going back to January that also includes victories in the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona and the Indianapolis 500, and championships in the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Series and FIA World Endurance Championship.

Logano gave Team Penske its third consecutive NASCAR title and its first-ever NASCAR championship one-two after beating teammate Ryan Blaney in Sunday’s season-finale at Phoenix.

The Phoenix result means Penske swept every championship it competes in this year with the exception of IndyCar, where Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou went back-to-back while Penske’s highest-placed driver was Scott McLaughlin in third.

“I guess you’d have to say it’s probably, if not the best, one of the best [years in the team’s history],” Penske said.

“Obviously, not to win the IndyCar championship, which of course is where we started and build our first racing team, was disappointing. But it’s one of those things that… Ganassi, you have to give him credit. He continues to put up great numbers with his guys. I told him, ‘Come on back to NASCAR, it’s gotten easier!’” (ED: Chip Ganassi Racing competed in NASCAR between 2009 and 2021).

Throughout the Phoenix weekend, Logano and Blaney both made reference to a Penske team culture where competing for championships is an expectation, not just an aspiration.

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“Well, as you know, racing is a common thread through our company,” Penske agreed. “It’s our brand, and of course we want to win.

“What I try to do is provide them with what they need to be champions. We’re not always up like this. Sure, we want to win more. We want to win properly. I think when you race in this league with the teams we have here, and you see the execution — you’ve got to give (Penske’s President of NASCAR Operations) Mike Nelson and Travis Geisler (Penske’s NASCAR competition director) and (Logano’s crew chief) Paul Wolfe, (Blaney’s crew chief) Jonathan Hassler, these guys are just outstanding. And we grew them. We didn’t put them in from the top in the final, they came up through the bottom, every one of them. They have that domain knowledge, which makes it so important, and they work as one team.

“What I need to do is continue to push them, because we’re not interested in sitting here and not having the success, and I think that’s been a great thing for us, not only here in NASCAR racing but in all the other series, because it rubs off. We talk about the 24 Hours of Daytona; that rubbed off on these guys. They’re always asking me: How are we doing?

“I think when you think about it, the number of people that we have that touch every race in our company… we have 74,000 people that tomorrow are going to be just climbing the walls with happiness because of the success.

“That’s what I’m in it for. It’s not another race. It is, but it isn’t. It’s about being able to show our people and our partners what kind of company we are. This certainly helps.”

Truex ‘still not sad’ as full-time Cup career comes to a close

Martin Truex Jr. capped off his NASCAR Cup Series career wishing he could have performed better at Phoenix Raceway while still denying those expecting an emotional sendoff. “No emotions,” Truex said after finishing 17th. “I wanted to run [well], …

Martin Truex Jr. capped off his NASCAR Cup Series career wishing he could have performed better at Phoenix Raceway while still denying those expecting an emotional sendoff.

“No emotions,” Truex said after finishing 17th. “I wanted to run [well], man. I wanted to run better than that and thought early on it was going to be a good day, and it just kept getting worse and worse and worse the harder we tried and the more we tried to do to the car. I don’t know.

“It’s been [like that] lately — qualify good and then the hotter the track gets, the more rubber goes down, the more we struggle. I don’t know what we got going on there, but I wish we could have put some tires on at the end, at least, and had a shot to go forward. It wasn’t much fun at the end running on old tires.”

Truex started from the pole in his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and led the first nine laps. It was the only time he spent at the front of the field.

Joey Logano overtook Truex for the top spot and won the first stage. Truex crossed the line second, but on the pit stops under the stage break caution, Truex came off pit road seventh and the lost track position ended up being the beginning of the slide backward.

“It started off well,” crew chief James Small said. “We contended to win the first stage, and then we lost a lot of track positions there, and everything got worse. Through the middle of the second stage we started to have some brake issues and that just created handling problems. The pedal started getting long, and he couldn’t slow down. It (the car) started getting tight, and it was a vicious cycle going backward.

“It started off so promising – yesterday was great. It’s a frustrating way to end. It kind of sums up our season the way it unraveled there.”

Truex was the toast of Sunday pre-race activities. A video package in the driver’s meeting led to a standing ovation from his fellow competitors.

“It was unexpected, I guess,” Truex said. “It was very cool, a huge honor. I’m very honored and humbled to be recognized like that.”

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On the grid, it is a procedure to use chalk to mark the car number as a placeholder for when the team brings out their car. NASCAR, however, did not use No. 19 for Truex’s car on Sunday but wrote “Gone Fishing” on pit road instead.

“I thought that was cool because I’m going to be doing a lot of that,” Truex said.

He has plans to run the Daytona 500 next season, a race he has never won. Joe Gibbs is also open to having him potentially run Xfinity Series races for the organization, but he still has no second thoughts about retirement.

“Still not sad,” he said. “Everybody wants me to be sad [and] I’m happy. I’m celebrating. I’ve got a lot to be thankful for, a lot to be proud of. I’m going to enjoy some time off here and do the banquet and all that fun stuff, and it’s going to be fun to come back in a different role and race for fun.

“Hopefully I’ll be able to have fun. It’s so hard to have fun when you take it this seriously, and I was having fun early today, and then it got miserable. I was hoping today would go better so it’d be more fun. We’ll see. I’m looking forward to Daytona.”

As a driver who needed to fulfill post-race media obligations, Truex was parked near the pit road exit with the championship contenders. It meant he had a long walk back down pit road toward the exit. As he did so, he came across Small, and the two stopped not to reminisce but to debrief about the day, even if the information was no longer relevant to Truex.

“Usually, I don’t get to see him afterward [because] he’s sprinting,’ Small laughed. “It was good to see him. I’m sure we’ll talk more this week, but he’s going fishing somewhere.”

Blaney used up everything he had to hunt down Logano at Phoenix

Ryan Blaney was physically spent after Sunday’s Cup Series championship race at Phoenix Raceway – wiped after trying to chase down and overtake his teammate. The 2023 champion handed the torch back to Joey Logano when he couldn’t get there. Blaney …

Ryan Blaney was physically spent after Sunday’s Cup Series championship race at Phoenix Raceway — wiped after trying to chase down and overtake his teammate.

The 2023 champion handed the torch back to Joey Logano when he couldn’t get there. Blaney could see Logano’s bumper, but there was no serious challenge for the lead in the final laps. The Team Penske drivers finished first and second in the race and the championship — the third straight for team owner Roger Penske.

“I was tired, man,” Blaney said. “I was driving hard and huffing and puffing and felt like I was going to pass out after the race. I was working hard trying to close the gap down. There were a lot of similarities to last week, and I just didn’t quite get there this week.”

Blaney restarted sixth when the race went green for the final time with 54 laps to go. He did not make up ground quickly and spent a lot of time having to battle Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson. It wasn’t until 35 laps to go when Blaney prevailed for third position.

Already, though, Logano was driving away. The No. 22 took the lead one lap after the restart. Blaney took the second position from William Byron, another championship contender, with 22 laps to go. There was a 2s deficit Blaney had to erase to get to Logano.

“Everybody put on defensive clinics today,” Blaney said. “Everybody I tried to pass. Everybody did, so props to them for that. They did a great job. It’s just what you have to do. I mean, [Larson] did it to me, [Byron] did it to me, [Logano] did it to me. It’s just what you’ve got to do if you’re struggling, and it just buys you time. It’s just part of the sport because it’s so powerful.

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“The defensive line is so powerful [with] dirty air. You have to do it if you have a faster car behind you coming down in these moments. I don’t blame them for doing it. Is it the funnest thing in the world? No, because I’ve lived that story many, many times. I had to work … to get by the No. 5, and I had to work … to get to the No. 24 and pass him, and I had to work my tail off to run Joey down from a long ways back. As I’m doing it, I’m thinking to myself, ‘I think I’m going to get there — get close — but I don’t know if I’m going to have anything to pass him. I can’t save because I’m never going to get there if I save.’

“Martinsville was a little bit different because I had more laps left. Here, I really just had to use my [expletive] up really hard to get close, and then I just didn’t really have anything left there, so it was a little bit of both. My tires were spent, and he did a good job of placing his car where he needed to be.”

The teammates were the class of the championship field. Blaney finished sixth in the first stage and won the second stage. He led a total of 12 laps and, at times, was in control of the championship. Logano won the first stage and finished second in the second stage.

Sunday’s run to the finish saw Blaney and Logano among a handful of drivers who pitted under the final caution. The field had already started a green flag pit cycle when the final caution occurred. Byron stayed out to inherit the lead, having pitted only one lap before the yellow.

Blaney and Logano restarted in the third row.

“I just got bottled up,” Blaney said. “I took sixth [because] I thought the top was probably the better row, personally, and got put in kind of a weird aero spot. A lot of guys washed up in front of me there through [Turns] 1 and 2, and Joey got clear, and then I only got to fourth. That was the outcome.

“Joey got to the lead pretty quickly with how the restart went, and it worked out for him. By the time I settled in, I was fourth and had to work my [tail] off to try to get by the No. 5 and the No. 24 and run Joey down, and then I had nothing left. Everything was spent on that car. … Yeah, just the restart, if I would have just been closer, if I would have come out second or so, I wouldn’t have had to work as hard and come from as far back and maybe would have had a little bit better shot.”

Byron’s shot at Cup Series title snatched away by Penske speed

There was a moment during Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series championship-deciding race in Phoenix when Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron thought he might have a shot at holding his Penske rivals off, but it was fleeting. Byron stayed out longer than …

Byron stayed out longer than Penske’s Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney before making his final stop on lap 247, which potentially set him up with tires roughly 15 laps fresher than his rivals for his final stint. That hope lasted all of one lap after Zane Smith crashed and triggered a caution, during which the two Penskes and fellow championship contender Tyler Reddick of 23XI all took the opportunity to make stops of their own under yellow.

They rejoined well behind Byron, who said he briefly thought he had enough of a gap to keep them at bay before the appearance of the Penske cars in his mirrors suggested otherwise.

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“I did,” he said when asked whether he thought he had them covered. “But just as good as they got through (Turns) 1 and 2, it was just like, man, now they’re right on me. I think going into the restart, I thought I had enough of a buffer and I didn’t really feel like one lap on tires was that big a deal. I don’t think it was.

“I just think that they were fast on the short run all weekend, and that was our struggle. We were decent throughout the run, but couldn’t really take off with a ton of speed. It wasn’t a huge surprise, but they were on me a little bit quicker than I thought they would be.”

Throughout the race Byron was fast enough to keep the Penskes in range, but not fast enough to engage them over a full run.

“I would just compliment Penske as a whole,” he said. “They had the two best cars today, and it was really a battle between them throughout the day. I was just hoping that they would make some mistakes and get up in there.”