If there were such a thing as a NASCAR frequent-flyer card for Phoenix Raceway, Team Penske would now qualify for free coffee and a reserved parking spot. Because over the course of one desert weekend they did something rather extraordinary: they won everything in sight.
A day after Josef Newgarden planted the Penske flag in the IndyCar Series race, Ryan Blaney delivered the second half of the double by winning Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series showdown at Phoenix Raceway.
And he didn’t do it the easy way. Oh no. That would be far too sensible.
Blaney spent the afternoon driving like a man attempting to escape a revolving door. Twice he was sent to the back of the field. Twice he clawed his way forward. By the end of the day he had made 49 passes, recovered 24 positions lost on pit road, and somehow still had enough left to beat Christopher Bell to the checkered flag by 0.399 seconds.
Behind Bell came Kyle Larson in third after his own rally from the wilderness, followed by Ty Gibbs and Denny Hamlin. Bubba Wallace was sixth, William Byron seventh, and Tyler Reddick — whose three-race win streak finally ran out of fuel — finished eighth. Michael McDowell and Erik Jones completed the top ten.
But to understand how Blaney got there, you have to rewind to a calmer moment early in the race — roughly five minutes before the chaos began.
Pole sitter Joey Logano led the field into the opening stage and quickly formed what looked like a Penske convoy: Logano, Blaney, and Austin Cindric running nose-to-tail. By lap 48 Blaney muscled past Logano for the lead and eventually captured Stage 1, with Bell charging to second just before the end.
So far, so tidy.
Then the pit stops happened.
Bell beat everyone off pit road to start Stage 2, while Blaney’s day began unraveling like a cheap sweater. A loose wheel forced him back down pit road, dumping him to 24th place while Bell took command of the race.
And Bell looked untouchable.
He led a race-high 176 laps, sliced through restarts with alarming ease, and collected the Stage 2 victory while Blaney hovered just outside the top ten trying to undo the damage.
Meanwhile the race itself was turning into a demolition derby.
Kyle Busch slammed the wall. Shane van Gisbergen spun. Chase Briscoe lost a tire and pounded the Turn 4 wall. Debris from a brake rotor turned the front of Cole Custer’s Ford into something resembling modern art.
And Blaney? He was busy playing NASCAR’s least enjoyable video game: Start at the back and try again.
Another loose wheel forced him to stop in Logano’s empty pit stall to get it tightened — which naturally earned a penalty and yet another trip to the rear of the field.
By the final stage, Bell appeared to have things comfortably under control. He built a lead of more than three seconds and looked ready to cruise home.
Then Phoenix remembered it was Phoenix.
Cautions began flying like confetti. Twelve of them, tying the track record. Restarts turned into traffic jams. At one point both Anthony Alfredo and Cindric got airborne in a crash triggered in the dogleg. Meanwhile Logano’s afternoon ended in the garage after his second accident.
With 24 laps remaining, the race took its final twist when Austin Dillon lost a tire and brought out another yellow. The leaders rolled the dice on pit strategy. Gibbs and Blaney took two tires. Bell opted for four and restarted seventh.
Suddenly the race had turned into a short sprint — the motorsports equivalent of throwing a handful of dice across the table.
Gibbs led the restart with Larson and Blaney lurking behind. Larson slipped. Blaney pounced.
With nine laps to go, Blaney surged into the lead.
Bell, now armed with fresher tires, began hunting him down. Lap by lap he chipped away at the gap, closing to within striking distance.
But the laps ran out.
Blaney crossed the finish line first, completing the Penske weekend sweep and earning his second career Phoenix victory.
After climbing from the car, the winning driver summed up the afternoon in refreshingly straightforward terms.
“No, I mean, just perseverance,” Blaney said. “I mean, everybody on the 12 group persevered all day. We had a couple mistakes that we learned from, got better, had to come from the back a couple times.
“Obviously the 20 was the best car. Jonathan made a great call to take two. We were able to get the lead. Hold them off.
“I don’t know how many more laps I could have held them off. We were able to do that. Really proud of everybody at Team Penske. We swept the weekend, Newgarden winning yesterday, us winning today.”
The win carried extra meaning for Blaney, who recently became a father.
“Honestly when I crossed the start/finish line, I thought of Charley and Gianna,” he said. “I wish they were here. They’re watching.
“It’s different. Obviously winning feels great, but going home to my family, my wife, my son, it’s even better.”
Bell, meanwhile, was left wondering what might have been after leading most of the afternoon.
“Yeah, I mean, ultimately,” Bell said when asked if the final caution changed everything. “If we had more green flag laps, I think we could have made a run at him.
“You win some, you lose some. This one stings… but on the positive side I’m really proud of our entire team.”
Next up the series heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway next Sunday, where Josh Berry is the defending winner.
But if this weekend proved anything, it’s that if you see a Penske transporter parked in Phoenix for a while longer…
Well, it might not be an accident.
RACE RESULTS
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, and a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.
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