Phoenix International Raceway Tag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service AVONDALE, Ariz. – Three red flags told the story of Friday night’s Lucas Oil 150 at Phoenix Raceway. The third of the three gave defending NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion Johnny Sauter the chance he needed to win the race that set the field for next Friday’s championship event at Homestead-Miami Speedway. When Kyle Busch Motorsports teammates Christopher Bell and Noah Gragson wrecked during an intense side-by-side duel with seven laps left, Sauter inherited the lead for a restart on Lap 149 ofRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service AVONDALE, Ariz. – Ryan Blaney got what he needed in Friday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series knockout qualifying session—but only by a thousandth of a second. In the final round, Blaney covered the one-mile distance at Phoenix Raceway in 26.098 seconds (137.942 mph) to edge Denny Hamlin (137.936 mph) by .001 for the top starting spot in Sunday’s Can-Am 500, the final race in the Playoff’s Round of 8 (on NBC at 2:30 p.m. ET). With the Playoff field set to be trimmed fromRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service AVONDALE, Ariz. – Last year at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Jimmie Johnson won his seventh Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship with a serendipitous victory in the Championship 4 race. This year, Johnson will need more than serendipity. He’ll need what amounts to a miracle just to earn a shot at a record eighth title. Johnson comes to Phoenix Raceway eighth in the series standings, last among the drivers trying to survive the Playoff’s Round of 8. With one berth available in the Championship 4, theRead More

It’s that time of the year again. After the 16 driver field for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs was set last weekend at Richmond, the intensity of the season is about to ramp up over the final 10 weeks of the season as we’ll whittle the championship field down to four at Homestead to see which driver will walk away with the title at season’s end. As a refresher, there will be three rounds of eliminations before the Championship Four is set. The Round of 16 will includeRead More

The Verizon IndyCar Series just concluded their return to Gateway Motorsports Park and it provided its own unique element to the season. The gang reviews that, the upcoming race at Watkins Glen, expectations moving forward on the potential 2018 television deal and more. Gateway’s return to the series brought out one of the more intriguing races of 2017, what is your assessment of their return and might we see more tracks return to the schedule that follow their approach? Frank Santoroski, Contributing Writer and Host of Drafting the Circuits podcast:Read More

By Josh Farmer, IndyCar Reporter AVONDALE, Ariz. – Yellow flags and equally fast teammates kept Helio Castroneves out of Victory Circle in last night’s Desert Diamond West Valley Phoenix Grand Prix at Phoenix Raceway. The driver of the No. 3 REV Chevrolet sat on pole for Saturday night’s race and led the opening 73 of 250 laps. Team Penske teammate Will Power inherited the lead by staying out a few laps longer before pitting than Castroneves. Following the stop, the 41-year-old Brazilian settled into second place until a yellow onRead More

By Josh Farmer, IndyCar Reporter AVONDALE, Ariz. – Cast off, gloves on. JR Hildebrand is glad to be back this weekend at Phoenix Raceway. Hildebrand was forced to sit out last week’s Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama after he broke his left hand in a last-lap accident with Mikhail Aleshin at the 43rd Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach three weeks ago. If breaking a bone in his left hand wasn’t bad enough, the incident came just three months into his full-time return to the Verizon IndyCar Series. “It’sRead More

By Josh Farmer, IndyCar Reporter AVONDALE, Ariz. – Helio Castroneves rose to the occasion and claimed his second straight pole for the Desert Diamond West Valley Phoenix Grand Prix at the Phoenix Raceway. Driving the No. 3 REV Group Team Penske Chevrolet, the Brazillian pulled off a blistering fast 194.905 mph two-lap average to claim his 49th career Indy car pole. By doing so, Castroneves eclipsed his previous single lap track record of 19.0997 with an even quicker lap of 18.8701 seconds (194.975 mph). Castroneves was a clear .1728 secondsRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief JR Hildebrand was cleared Tuesday and will return to the cockpit of the No. 21 Fuzzy’s Ultra Premium Vodka Chevrolet in this weekend’s Desert Diamond West Valley Phoenix Grand Prix. The 29-year-old from Sausalito, California, sustained a broken bone in his left hand in a last lap accident with Mikhail Aleshin at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 9. Hildebrand was not cleared to drive last weekend’s Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park, forcing his Ed Carpenter Racing teamRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor Following the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Phoenix, penalties were expected to come down from NASCAR for post-race inspection issues and on Wednesday afternoon, the sanctioning body laid out the penalties that they had handed down to the teams involved. Brad Keselowski had finished fifth at Phoenix, but after the race, his No. 2 team did not pass weights and measures, failing the post-race rear wheel steer on the Laser Inspection Station. As a result, Keselowski’s finish will be encumbered and crew chiefRead More