The first three NASCAR Cup Series races of 2025 have gone as advertised, but the drivers need to step it up this week because they go to the one track on the schedule out west where they must eventually run well over 312 laps.
Phoenix Raceway.
After putting three very different races in the books, NASCAR takes its series to the 1-mile speedway as a preview of what drivers can expect when they return to the desert on Nov. 2 to hand out championship hardware.
Tires will be at the forefront of the first Phoenix foray.
In January, NASCAR announced it would use the same approach to tires in Arizona as it did at North Wilkesboro last May in the All-Star Race and in Richmond last August in its 400-lapper.
Teams will get six sets of primary tires while having access to two sets of option rubber, a grippier tire that can improve speed but has a quick fall-off in wear.
However, the plan for now is to have two different sets only for this race, not the season-ending one in eight months.
“I like how the race went at Richmond (last season) … you know, green-flag pit stops and guys coming out on different tires,” said three-time Phoenix winner Kyle Busch.
Teams arrived in Arizona with interesting circumstances after leaving Austin and the delicious ending at The Circuit of the Americas in the first road race, circling and battling on the shorter National circuit in the state where supposedly everything is bigger.
First, the clean racing over the final 14 laps got high marks as Christopher Bell set up leader Busch, saddled with a soon-to-be 60-race winless streak, lap after lap on the 20-turn, 2.3-mile road course.
The winner two weeks ago in another Atlanta thriller, Bell, a 30-year-old Oklahoman, put his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in victory position with two-lap fresher tires than Busch and managed to hold off William Byron for his 11th career triumph.
Bell, who spun the Richard Childress Racing No. 8 Chevrolet last year at COTA, said it was important to race the two-time Cup champ — Busch — clean in the return to Phoenix.
“I’m so proud of the way everybody raced each other at the end of that race. I would love to change the narrative of the Cup Series, of running into people and moving them out of the way,” Bell said this week on Sirius XM’s NASCAR Radio. “I would love if this is a turning point for us, where we’re able to race respectfully and stay off of each other and make it less of a contact sport.”
On the topic of contact, Team Penske’s Austin Cindric received a 50-point penalty and $50,000 fine for using his No. 2 Ford to right-hook Ty Dillon on the COTA frontstretch.
Cindric’s move was deemed intentional by the sanctioning body, which suspended Bubba Wallace in 2022 and Chase Elliott the following season for using the same tactic.
After the right-front tire came off the No. 5 Chevrolet at COTA, Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson will be without jackman Brandon Johnson and front-tire changer Blaine Anderson for the next two races.
However, Chase Briscoe’s 100-point penalty for his spoiler in the Daytona 500 was overturned. That included a four-race suspension to crew chief James Small and a $100,000 fine of Joe Gibbs Racing.
In Saturday’s qualifying session, the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet of Byron — the last car to go out — turned a hot lap of 133.680 mph (26.93 seconds) to knock the No. 22 Team Penske Ford off the pole for Sunday’s race.
The No. 77 Chevrolet of Carson Hocevar and No. 21 Ford of Josh Berry will line up in the second row.
–Field Level Media
