Phoenix International Raceway Tag

By David Morgan, Associate Editor PHOENIX – Embrace the chaos. Denny Hamlin has found himself wrapped up in a social media firestorm after his actions following last weekend’s race at Martinsville, but as he heads into the NASCAR Cup Series championship weekend in Phoenix, the driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota is enjoying being the bad guy, turning the hate into motivation. “I live in chaos,” Hamlin said. “My life is chaos and I thrive under chaos. I mean, honestly, you can probably ask Kyle (Busch), the moreRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service In 2022, the NASCAR Cup Series will return to the Last Great Coliseum after visiting one of the first great coliseums for the first time. The series will make its first trip to the shores of the Mississippi under the shadow of the Gateway Arch. And the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs will have a new look, with Homestead-Miami Speedway moving back into the postseason and each round featuring a shakeup of the participating tracks. For the first time in its history, the Clash, theRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor This weekend, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads into Phoenix for the second race of the West Coast swing. In this week’s edition of “Throwback Thursday Theater”, we take a look back to the race that started it all in the Valley of the Sun, the 1988 Checker 500. As the series headed into Phoenix in November of 1988, Bill Elliott and Rusty Wallace were locked in a championship battle that had seen Wallace gaining on Elliott’s lead over the last quarter of theRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor IndyCar has announced changes to the rules and format of qualifying for oval races from 2018 on, according to a recent article by RACER.com. The old system of a driver lottery, the equivalent of drawing a name from a hat is replaced by a new system designed to up the tension and spectacle in a logical and fair manner. For the races at Phoenix, Texas, Iowa, Gateway and Pocono drivers will qualify in championship order according points. Drivers at the bottom of the standings will qualifyRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor IndyCar has increased the minimum weight for both the super speedway and road course/short oval trims for the universal aerokit equipped cars in 2018, according to RACER.com. The weights, which exclude driver, fuel, drinking bottle and ballast have gone up by 10 pounds in each trim and are now 1,620 pounds for the road course/short oval trim, and 1,590 pounds for super speedway trim. The move is due to the new safety measures introduced for the coming season, specifically more robust zylon anti-intrusion panels for theRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor After locking himself into the championship race at Homestead, Justin Allgaier and his No. 7 JR Motorsports team got some bad news on Monday that they will likely have to battle for the title without crew chief Jason Burdett. Allgaier’s car was found to have an unattached brake cooling hose in post-race inspection at Phoenix, leading to a L1 penalty for the team. The rule that was broken (Section 20.15.2.2) reads that “Rear brake cooling assemblies must be sealed from air inlet to exhaust.” AsRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Each week, NASCAR Editor David Morgan will break down who’s hot and who’s not after the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race weekend. Today, we break down the Can-Am 500 at Phoenix Raceway WINNERS Matt Kenseth – The old man has still got it. In what may have been his final race at Phoenix, Kenseth took it to the youngsters, showing them he has still got plenty in the tank when it comes to driving a race car. After announcing last week that he wouldn’tRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service AVONDALE, Ariz. – The middle-aged man without a ride for 2018 drove a dagger through the heart of the youngster expected to shine in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series for years to come. With nine laps left in Sunday’s Can-Am 500 at Phoenix Raceway, 45-year-old Matt Kenseth passed 21-year-old Chase Elliott for the lead and pulled away to win for the first time since the July 2016 New Hampshire race, breaking a 51-event winless string. Kenseth’s victory, the 39th of his career, deprived ElliottRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Runner-up finishes have been the storyline of Chase Elliott’s sophomore season in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, with the 21-year old Georgia native coming close to victory time and time again. On Sunday at Phoenix, Elliott would fall just short of both the win and being able to advance to the championship race on a must-win day for him and his No. 24 team. “We were so close to having another shot next week,” said Elliott. “But man, I can’t say enough for ourRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service AVONDALE, Ariz. – With a pickup pit crew, at the track that cost him a shot at the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series title last year, William Byron won Saturday’s Ticket Galaxy 200 to advance to the Championship 4 race in the NASCAR XFINITY Series. Behind him, JR Motorsports teammates Justin Allgaier and Elliott Sadler also qualified for the title race with finishes of 10th and 18th respectively. The JRM trio will join Daniel Hemric in an all-Chevrolet finale, after Hemric ran fifth andRead More