Good news, bad news for NASCAR Cup teams ahead of Phoenix weekend
NASCAR travels this weekend to Phoenix Raceway for its first of two visits to the 1-mile track this season.
Cup teams will have a primary tire and an option tire at Phoenix. If things go well, the plan is for the option tire to become the main tire for teams when they return in November for the season finale.
Here is a look at the good news and bad news for Cup teams heading to Phoenix.
23XI Racing — Good news: Tyler Reddick has finished in the top three in two of the first three races of the season. … Riley Herbst won the Xfinity race at Phoenix last November. … Bubba Wallace has finished in the top 10 in two of the last three Phoenix races. Bad news: Herbst has finished 17th in each of the first three Cup races this season.
Front Row Motorsports — Good news: Noah Gragson's eighth-place finish at COTA was his first top 10 in the last 16 Cup starts. … Todd Gilliland is coming off a 10th-place finish at COTA. Bad news: Gilliland has not finished better than 17th in six Cup starts at Phoenix. … Zane Smith has not finished better than 29th in three Phoenix Cup starts.
Dustin Long,
Haas Factory Team — Good news: Cole Custer's best finish at Phoenix is ninth in six Cup starts there. Bad News: Custer has yet to score a top-20 finish this season.
Hendrick Motorsports — Good news: William Byron has finished in the top two in two of the first three races and leads the points. … Byron is the only driver to lead laps in each race this season. … Kyle Larson finished in the top 10 in four of the last five races at Phoenix. … Chase Elliott rallied to finish fourth at COTA after being spun on the first corner of the first lap. Bad news: Alex Bowman has not finished better than ninth in his last 14 starts at Phoenix.
Hyak Motorsports — Good news: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. enters the weekend 10th in the points. … Stenhouse is one of 11 full-time Cup drivers who have completed every lap in the first three races of the season. Bad news: Stenhouse does not have a top 10 at Phoenix in his last 14 Cup starts there.
Joe Gibbs Racing — Good news: Christopher Bell has won two races in a row and is the defending winner of the spring Phoenix race. … Bell scored 99 points in the two races at Phoenix last year. That is 22 more than any other driver. … Chase Briscoe has finished in the top 10, including a win, in each spring Phoenix race with the Next Gen car. Bad news: Ty Gibbs has finished 30th or worse in two of the first three races this season and in seven of the last eight races, dating back to last season. … Denny Hamlin's last win at Phoenix was November 2019.
Kaulig Racing — Good news: AJ Allmendinger is making his 450th career Cup start this weekend. Bad news: Ty Dillon does not have a top-10 finish in 14 Cup starts at Phoenix.
Legacy Motor Club — Good news: John Hunter Nemechek enters the weekend 14th in points after scoring two top 10s in the first three races of the season. Bad news: Erik Jones has four top 10s at Phoenix but none in his last 10 starts there.
Richard Childress Racing — Good news: Kyle Busch scored a race-high 46 points last weekend at COTA. … He had a race-best 2.11 average running position mark at COTA last weekend. … Busch has scored back-to-back top-10 finishes for the first time since September. Bad news: Austin Dillon has never finished better than eighth in 22 career Cup starts at Phoenix. … Dillon finished a season-worst 35th after contact from Denny Hamlin ended his race at COTA. … Busch has not led a lap at Phoenix since November 2019.
Rick Ware Racing — Good news: The organization scored its best finish at Phoenix last spring when Justin Haley finished 24th. Bad news: The organization already has had three DNFs this season.
RFK Racing — Good news: Chris Buescher has three top 10s in a row at Phoenix, including a runner-up result in last spring's race there. … Brad Keselowski finished fourth at Phoenix last spring. … Ryan Preece won stage 2 at COTA. Bad news: Keselowski's best finish in the first three races of the season is 15th, which came last weekend at COTA. … Preece has finished 30th or worse in two of the first three races of the season.
Spire Motorsports — Good news: Michael McDowell is the only driver to finish in the top 15 in each of the first three races of the season. His average finish is 11.7, fifth-best in the series. … McDowell enters the weekend eighth in points. … McDowell has two top 10s in his last three Phoenix starts. … Justin Haley has two top-20 finishes in the first three races this season. … Carson Hocevar has had back-to-back top-15 finishes entering this weekend. Bad news: Haley does not have a top 15 in eight Cup starts at Phoenix.
Team Penske — Good news: Ryan Blaney has scored seven consecutive top-five finishes at Phoenix. That is the second-longest streak at Phoenix, trailing only Jimmie Johnson's mark of 10 top fives in a row there. … Joey Logano is the only driver to win multiple races at Phoenix with the Next Gen car. Bad news: Austin Cindric has not had a top-10 finish in six Cup starts at Phoenix. … Logano is only the fourth reigning Cup champion not to have a top-10 finish in the first three races of the season, joining Bill Rexford (1951 season), Bill Elliott (1989) and Jimmie Johnson (2017).
Trackhouse Racing — Good news: Ross Chastain has four top 10s, including a win, in the six races at Phoenix with the Next Gen car. … Shane van Gisbergen finished a season-best sixth at COTA last weekend. … van Gisbergen will be making his first Phoenix Cup start this weekend. Bad news: Daniel Suarez has finished outside the top 30 the past two races.
Wood Brothers Racing — Good news: Josh Berry's best finish at Phoenix is 10th in March 2023 when he was subbing for Chase Elliott in the No. 9 car. Bad news: Berry has not finished better than 25th in the first three races this season.
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