One obvious solution for NASCAR Cup Chase pursuers: find Victory Lane
Those chasing Kyle Larson for the NASCAR Cup Series championship might be tempted to look with dismay at the respective career statistics of the top competitors at Phoenix Raceway, site of Sunday’s Freeway Insurance 500 (3 p.m. ET on USA, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Among the top six in the Chase standings—Larson, Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe, Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano—the driver with both the best average start and best average finish at Phoenix is Larson.
In 24 starts at the one-mile track in the Sonoran Desert, Larson has posted an average starting position of 6.8 and an average finish of 10.0. He has finished either third (four times) or fourth (twice) in his last seven races there.
Comparatively speaking, though, the defending series champion is on the short side when it comes to victories at the track. Each of the remaining top five, with the exception of Briscoe, has more Phoenix wins than Larson.
Logano, the runaway leader at Phoenix with four victories, is sixth in the standings, 92 points behind Larson. Bell, Blaney and Hamlin have won twice each at the track. Larson got his only Phoenix victory en route to his first championship in 2021, the year before the Gen 7 race car debuted in the series.
Briscoe’s lone win at the track came in the first Gen 7 race there in the spring of 2022.
In a quote often misattributed to Vince Lombardi, UCLA football coach Red Sanders once said, “Winning isn’t everything—it’s the only thing.” In a NASCAR Chase context, winning is the only thing that assures the victor of gaining a significant chunk of points.
With two straight victories, Briscoe has come from the cheap seats to fourth in the standings, 65 points behind the leader. On Sunday, he’ll try for a third consecutive win in a season where two fellow Toyota drivers, Tyler Reddick of 23XI Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Hamlin already have manufactured streaks of three in a row.
The only problem for the pursuers is that time is starting to tick away. Realistically, to catch Larson, one of the other contenders will have to win multiple races in the final four and hope the Chase leader encounters the sorts of problems he has scrupulously avoided in the first six races of the postseason.
Briscoe, however, is not ready to concede the title.
“I feel great about all the tracks we’re going to,” he said. “Phoenix is where I’ve been able to at least win my first Cup race, so I feel confident going there. Even just in the 19 car, stats-wise, I would say we have been one of the worst cars—if you just look on paper at the finish.
“But we have passed so many cars and went from the back to the front I don’t know how many times. I think we’ve blown five tires in two races there. So, the end result doesn’t always show great, but we’ve been really fast there.
“Talladega we were able to win last year. Martinsville to me is the big question mark for our group. We’ve been okay. We’ve just been a seventh-to-10th-place car, and we’re going to have to be better if we’re going to go and contend.
“Homestead is a place I feel really good about. Just going to have to go perform the next four weeks.”
Corey Day’s win at Charlotte tightened NASCAR O’Reilly Chase
In sharp contrast to the NASCAR Cup Series Chase presented by Mobil 1, where leader Kyle Larson has widened his advantage to 49 points, the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series version couldn’t be much closer.
Despite a third-place finish last Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Sheldon Creed saw his series lead shrink to two points over defending O’Reilly champion and race runner-up Jesse Love.
Creed will try to protect that slim margin when the series comes to Phoenix Raceway for Saturday’s Timberland PRO 200 (7:30 p.m. ET on CW, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Because he scored only one stage point at Charlotte, Creed lost at least 15 points to each of the three drivers immediately behind him in the Chase standings—Love, race winner Corey Day and Justin Allgaier.
With his second straight Chase victory, Day was the biggest gainer, lopping 34 points off his deficit to Creed. Day arrives at Phoenix third in the standings, seven points in arrears, but by his own admission, posting a third consecutive victory will be a challenge.
“Phoenix hasn’t been my strongest track in the past, and I’ve struggled there in my last two starts, so I’ve been working on reviewing footage to make sure I’m as prepared as possible,” said Day, who finished 14th in his debut at the track last year and ninth earlier this season.
“I know my team will bring a fast No. 17 Chevrolet, so the goal is to keep it clean, execute throughout the race and come away with a strong points day.”
Allgaier, who righted an unsteady ship with a strong fourth-place run at Charlotte, has loftier ambitions at Phoenix. The driver of the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet won at the one-mile flat track in the spring—one of his six victories in the O’Reilly Series regular season.
Overall, Allgaier has three victories and 22 top-10 finishes in 33 starts at the track.
“This entire No. 7 group is ready to get to Phoenix this weekend,” said Allgaier, who trails Creed by 15 points. “This has been a really strong track for us, and I know that we will have what it takes to continue to gain ground in the points.
“(Crew chief) Andrew (Overstreet) has had this place circled on our calendar since the Chase started. We just need to go out and execute like we did here in the spring. If we do that, I feel like we can have a great day on Saturday.”
Chandler Smith enters favorable stretch in NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Chase
Those who have condensed the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race to a two-driver contest probably haven’t considered Chandler Smith’s stellar record at Phoenix Raceway, the venue for Friday’s
Zero Carbon Bioethanol 150 Powered by Poet (7:30 p.m. ET on FS1, NRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
It’s true that Smith’s teammate, Layne Riggs, is the only driver within close striking distance of Chase leader Kaden Honeycutt. After completing a season sweep at Charlotte last Friday, Riggs is 17 points behind his TRICON Garage rival.
Smith is third in the standings, 77 points in arrears, but with Phoenix on the horizon, he has reason to be optimistic.
“That’s good,” said Smith in last Friday’s post-race after confirming he was third in the standings. “Sweet. It sounds good to me. Let’s go to Phoenix.”
It shouldn’t be surprising that the driver of the No. 38 Ford is eager to get to the Sonoran Desert. His average finish at Phoenix is 3.6, a record that includes a victory in 2021 and three third-place finishes in five starts.
Honeycutt is second-best at the one-mile flat track, with an average result of 6.8.
Overall, Smith’s aggregate average finish of 7.4 over the last four Chase tracks—Phoenix, Talladega, Martinsville and Homestead-Miami—also leads the Chase field. Both Riggs and Honeycutt are winless at the four remaining tracks.
“We just need to go out there and execute at the highest caliber that we can, and the points will sort themselves out, however that may be,” Smith said. “If we just go out there and execute and take what we can on a given weekend, the points will sort themselves out.”
NASCAR Cup Series
Next Race: Freeway Insurance 500
The Place: Phoenix Raceway
Track Length: 1 Mile Asphalt Oval
The Date: Sunday, October 18
The Time: 3 p.m. ET
The Purse: $11,233,037
TV: USA, 2:30 p.m. ET
Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR (Channel 90)
Distance: 312 Miles (312 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 60),
Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 185), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 312)
NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series
Next Race: Timberland PRO 200
The Place: Phoenix Raceway
Track Length: 1 Mile Asphalt Oval
The Date: Saturday, October 17
The Time: 7:30 p.m. ET
The Purse: $1,661,806
TV: CW, 7 p.m. ET
Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR (Channel 90)
Distance: 200 Miles (200 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 45),
Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 90), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 200)
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
Next Race: Zero Carbon Bioethanol 150 Powered by POET
The Place: Phoenix Raceway
Track Length: 1 Mile Asphalt Oval
The Date: Friday, October 16
The Time: 7:30 p.m. ET
The Purse: $789,700
TV: FS2 & FOX Business Network, 7:30 p.m. ET
Radio: NRN, SiriusXM NASCAR (Channel 90)
Distance: 150 Miles (150 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 45),
Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 90), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 150)
ARCA Menards Series West
Next Race: Desert Diamond Casino West Valley 100
The Place: Phoenix Raceway
Track Length: 1 Mile Asphalt Oval
The Date: Saturday, October 17
The Time: 11 p.m. ET
TV: FloRacing, 11 p.m. ET
Distance: 100 Miles (100 Laps)
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