By Roy J. Akers — www.skyviewsports.net
The IndyCar/NASCAR doubleheader has come down to the Straight Talk 400, and if the words are to be believed, drivers from both series want to do this again and Soon! 568 passes by IndyCar on Saturday, was an expectation many of the drivers of that series did not expect. Many of the drivers of that series saw CUP drivers practice using both lines instead of one, and they took the cue to do it as well. Joey Logano is the pole winner and FORD runs well at this Phoenix track. Josef Newgarden pilots a Penske to victory on Saturday. Will it be a Ford kind of day?
Let’s go Racing Boys…..
1st Stage – Lap 1-60
Logano, Cindric, and Blaney give Ford 1-2-3 early. Drivers are protecting their right side with braking affecting the front and tire wear on the back. By lap 37, Ryan Blaney has slowly been reeling in Joey Logano, now trailing by 0.21 seconds. Tyler Reddick is experiencing Brake Shake by lap 40 and many in the field are expected to have the same complaint before the end of the Stage. Blaney’s attempt to go around Logano was thwarted on lap 48 as lapped traffic stymies the move. A lap later, Blaney is your leader. The #12 has went around lapped traffic and Logano trails by nearly 1.5 seconds. Tyler Reddick is blasting through the field in fourth place. Blaney wins the Stage and the ten points. Twelve drivers are a lap down and four Toyota’s pace the manufacturers in this caution-free stage.
Rotors, Softer caliper on right front
2nd Stage – Lap 70-195
With machines needing the pits, the new leader is Christopher Bell, the winner of this spring’s race in 2025. Logano has went in front of Blaney and the bottom-feeding cars a lap down, belong to Chevy. Toyota has five of the top seven cars. Bell-Blaney, and Logano continue to run 1-2-3 as SVG cuts a tire and brings a caution. The caution-free S1 did not continue in S2. Daniel Suarez, startin the race P4, causes the second yellow flag. Larson and Zilisch are penalized for pit road penalties. Chase Briscoe brings about another penalty when his right brake failed, and a 4th caution comes out. Drivers come in and pit. Blaney is called for a penalty.
In all, four cautions shuffled the field and Bell, Hamlin and Buescher are 1-2-3. Thirteen lead changes in the race and 36 caution laps. Toyota’s have four machines in the T-10. Bell, Hamlin, and Logano are your T-3.
Final Stage (Lap 71-Finish) Updated Standings after Phoenix
Christopher Bell leads coming to the green flag with Bubba Wallace and Logano right behind. A huge surprise is Austin Cindric running T-4. He qualified well and his Discount Tire Ford has had a strong race. Drivers are going through tires and some only have one set left. The latest restart collects Cindric, Anthony Alfredo, and Chastain. The eighth time occurs with 94 laps remaining. The race has featured 17 lead changes among six different drivers. Bell, Blaney, and Logano (#22) are your top 3. Logano has the first pit stall after qualifying (P1) and with 64 laps to go, the field is pitting.
Most drivers are on their final sets of tires raw dogging their last four. Bell, Ty Gibbs, Larson and Reddick are 1-4. Bell has extended his lead to three seconds over Bell with Blaney rising to third. Hamlin is the big slider moving south to sixth. This stage features six cautions and 12 overall. The final12 laps bring Gibbs to the green flag with the lead with Blaney second and Larson third. Blaney slingshots to the lead and builds nearly a one-second lead over the Bell with the 54 falling to fourth. Blaney’s own undoing has fim passing 54 cars during the race. Blaney holdsoff Bell and Larson with Gibbs fourth.
Checkered Flag
Blaney wins for the 18th time in his career and his second time at Phoenix. Penske wins for the 157th time in NASCAR. This breaks the three-race streak of Tyler Reddick. CHECKERED FLAG WAVES AT PHOENIX! Ryan Blaney takes the victory after 312 laps of intense racing that featured 23 lead changes among eight different drivers. The race saw 12 cautions for 86 laps, with the final stage producing some dramatic moments.
Blaney, who started fifth in the #12 Ford, led 28 laps across two different stints to secure the win. He maintained an impressive average running position of 7.47 throughout the race, spending 185 laps in the top five and 222 laps in the top ten. His best lap time was 27.752 seconds (129.72 mph) on lap 227.
TEAM PENSKE SWEEPS THE WEEKEND. THE INDYCAR GUYS PUT THE HEAT ON YOU AFTER WINNING FOR ROGER YESTERDAY. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO WIN BOTH RACES FOR HIM? “Anytime you can win for Roger it means the world, but those IndyCar guys put a lot of pressure on us yesterday. When Josef won I was like, ‘Alright, one of us has got to do it today.’ It’s a shame that the three others weren’t able to finish, but at least we got Roger back in Victory Lane for the second day in a row and completed the Penske sweep. That’s a cool deal.”.
They Said It…
CHASE BRISCOE, No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing- Finishing Position: 37th
Do you know what caused the incident? – “I don’t know. I’ve only seen the replay one time, it almost looked like something in my left front. When I had my vibration, I told them that I thought it was in the front end. Just par for the course for how this year started. It was another car that was extremely fast, felt like we were certainly going to be in contention for the win and just another failure for us. Definitely frustrating, we’ll go on to next week and see if we can turn it around with our Bass Pro Shops Toyota team.”
Factoids that May Interest Only Me
Kevin Harvick holds the all‑time record for the most NASCAR Cup Series wins with nine at Phoenix Raceway. He is widely recognized as the track’s most dominant driver, earning the nickname “The King of Phoenix” thanks to his unmatched success there. Ironically, the property address is 7602 Jimmie Johnson Dr, Avondale, AZ 85323.
Fantasy
Ordinarily, below is where the picture of my team is. Boy, I hate technical difficulties. My starting six are: Hamlin, Larson, Byron, Bell, Chastain, and Logano. All of them run well. After the Superspeedways at Daytona and Atlanta, and the road course at COTA, hopefully my points will heat up in the desert heat. All of these drivers have a super track record. That is not a guarantee of anything. Lap 255 wrecked my team. Logano’s car was destroyed in a wreck and three drivers are taken out.
My matchup team is Larson, Blaney, Logano, and Chastain. The team’s final score is 210, including matchup wins by Blaney and Larson.
Best Pick: Blaney- The race winner. Worst pick: Chastain, collected by a midrace wreck. Logano’ late race exit cost the team roughly 30 points.
Tale of the Tape
With the graphics out, there were 12 cautions for 86 laps and 23 lead changes.
