2 months agoAlthough he finished the 2024 season as the NASCAR Cup Series pole leader, Michael McDowell's qualifying run in his last race for Front Row Motorsports was quite the opposite as his 35th-place qualifying run matches his worst of the season from the spring Martinsville race. The poor qualifying run is rather puzzling, as McDowell's last three races at his hometown track were clearly his best as he set his best career finish at Phoenix each of the last three races (13th, ninth, eighth). It seems likely that as a lame-duck driver, he is thinking ahead more to next year at Spire Motorsports than this race. Spire is putting all its energy into Todd Gilliland since he is remaining with the team, or the team is distracted because of its lawsuit against NASCAR. Either way, it doesn't seem like he'll have a good run this time.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
2 months agoJimmie Johnson is arguably the second-greatest Phoenix driver of all time behind only Kevin Harvick, but all four of his wins came at the height of his championship power run in 2007-2009 and he has not raced there since the 2020 season finale, his last race as a full-time driver where he did manage his last top five finish. Johnson actually qualified a little better than usual as his 23rd-place starting position is tied for his second best since his return, but he was still outqualified by his teammates John Hunter Nemechek and Erik Jones and neither of them has had a good season either. The Legacy Motor Club qualifying times suggest they may have a little more speed than usual so it's possible Johnson might beat his best finish of 28th for Legacy, but it's hard to imagine him actually being competitive.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
2 months agoDaniel Hemric delivered his all-time career highlight when he won the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series championship at Phoenix and scored his only national series win in so doing, but in the NASCAR Cup Series, he hasn't been so hot. Although he has earned two top twenty finishes, he has never finished better than 17th for any of his teams although admittedly he did outrun Bubba Wallace when he drove for 23XI Racing in the 2022 season finale in a one-off after Ty Gibbs sat the race out in the wake of his father Coy's death. Hemric starts 22nd for today's race, his last race at Kaulig Racing and possibly his last in the Cup Series. Hemric may be eager to prove himself for next year so he may put more effort to secure a ride for the future, but he still likely won't finish any higher than the teens.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
2 months agoJustin Haley qualified 13th for Sunday's race at Phoenix, beating both of his Spire Motorsports teammates Carson Hocevar and Zane Smith. Although Haley has finished all seven of his previous races at Phoenix, he has only finished better than 24th once, when he finished 17th in the March 2022 event. It is possible that his current Spire equipment is the fastest he has had yet in his career, but this was never one of his best tracks, as he's never led a lap there, even in the Xfinity Series and the Craftsman Truck Series. Despite his strong qualifying, it's likely Hocevar will be the team's primary threat in the race.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
2 months agoNoah Gragson qualified 21st for Stewart-Haas Racing's last ever race at Phoenix on Sunday. He was actually pretty fast there in the spring event as he started seventh, finished 12th, matched his best average running position of the season, and had his fifth-best driver rating. Nonetheless, it seems like he's gone through the motions somewhat since he signed with Front Row Motorsports for next year and he's lately posted a string of entirely invisible above-average finishes without notice. He seemed to be building towards something in the first third of the season, but that seems to have fizzled out. Much like recent weeks, he probably has a good shot at a top-20 finish but a rather minimal one for a top-10.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
2 months agoTodd Gilliland qualified a lackluster 32nd in a race where his outgoing Front Row Motorsports teammate Michael McDowell qualified an even worse 35th. Gilliland had speed in the March event at Phoenix, where he led the only 14 laps for a non-Toyota driver after long-pitting, although he faded to 17th at the end. Besides that race, he has rarely contended at Phoenix in any national series. The fact that both FRM drivers qualified so poorly relative to their own usual performance suggests that the team may be somewhat distracted after filing its lawsuit against NASCAR. Since both FRM cars seem much slower than they were in the spring race, bettors should likely stay away from both.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
2 months agoAustin Dillon's only good runs seem to happen at shorter ovals these days, such as his sixth-place finish at Gateway, his win at Richmond, and last week's seventh-place finish at Martinsville, although he was stripped of 50 points in that race for following Chevrolet's manufacturer orders to stay behind William Byron to help him advance to the playoffs. However, Phoenix is a track where he's never run very well, even in his good years. His best finish there is eighth, and he has never led a lap, even in seasons when he had faster cars than this one. Since Dillon had the slowest year of his career in 2024, and his 36th-place starting position is also his worst ever at Phoenix, it's unlikely he'll even meet his usual mediocre standard.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
2 months agoSunday's race at Phoenix marks Kyle Busch's last chance to extend his record streak of 19 consecutive winning seasons in the NASCAR Cup Series to 20. However, the odds of him doing that seem astronomically remote given that he starts 25th, and the Richard Childress Racing cars have not seemed to have winning speed on short tracks and one-mile ovals lately with the bizarre exception of Austin Dillon's win at Richmond. Although Busch has thrice won at Phoenix, he has not led a lap there since 2019 and has finished in the 20s a lap down in each of his last two starts. Nearly all his good runs this season have come on either intermediates, drafting tracks, or road courses, and he has not had a top-10 finish since Atlanta to start the playoffs. His streak is almost certainly coming to an end.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
2 months agoJeb Burton surprisingly makes his return to NASCAR Cup Series action with Team AmeriVet, which has not started a race since Ty Dillon drove for them in the Coca-Cola 600. Burton's No. 50 team failed inspection four times, was not allowed to set a qualifying time, and will have to serve a stop-and-go penalty under green flag conditions. The illegalities did nothing to make the car faster as he was last in practice and 39th place Chad Finchum was closer to practice leader Ryan Blaney than Burton was to Finchum. If Burton finishes the race, he will almost certainly be the last car running, but don't be surprised if he fails to meet minimum speed.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
2 months agoAlex Bowman first attracted significant attention in the NASCAR Cup Series at Phoenix in 2016 when he won the pole and led 194 laps en route to a sixth-place finish. That race now stands out as an extremely bizarre outlier in his career as not only does that remain his highest laps led count, he has hardly ever run well at Phoenix in the years since as he has never finished better than ninth and has only led a single lap as a full-time Hendrick Motorsports driver. He tends to have relatively generic runs at Phoenix with finishes between 10th and 20th, and his 16th-place starting position is commensurate with that. Hendrick will obviously be almost entirely focused on William Byron's championship bid, so expect Bowman to fade in the background at Phoenix like he usually does.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
2 months agoRyan Blaney will be defending his Cup Series Championship at Phoenix next weekend after all. Despite a disappointing second-place finish at Homestead just one week ago, Blaney put on a very impressive effort at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday afternoon to grab his second straight win in the fall race at the track while simultaneously punching his ticket into the Championship Finale at Phoenix next weekend. He entered the race in a "must win" situation to advance in the playoffs. Blaney's No. 12 Ford was clearly the best on the long run in Sunday's Xfinity 500 race at Martinsville, and that speed showed as he beat Chase Elliott by 2.593 seconds to grab his third win of the season. "We'll try to go back-to-back next week," Blaney said with a smile on his face when being interviewed after his clutch win at Martinsville on Sunday.
--Jordan McAbeeSource: Yahoo! Sports
2 months agoAt the end of the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway, it looked as though Christopher Bell was going to advance to the Championship Four at Phoenix and compete for this year's title, but NASCAR had other plans. The series decided that Bell committed a safety violation and penalized him by moving his finishing position back, which allowed William Byron to advance in the playoffs while Bell was eliminated. After the race, a disappointed Bell stated, "I made a mistake and slid into the wall. They ruled that as a safety violation. I don't know what to say. I didn't advance my position into the wall. I lost time on the racetrack." He later added, "It's not meant to be." This was yet another controversial decision by NASCAR as the series heads into the final race of the season next week at Phoenix. Bell was considered one of the favorites to win the Championship if he advanced to the final race, as the No. 20 Toyota was the class of the field in the first Phoenix race this season.
--Jordan McAbeeSource: Fox Sports
2
months
agoTyler
Reddick
finished
34th
after
struggling
throughout
the
entire
duration
of
Sunday's
Xfinity
500
at
Martinsville
Speedway.
Beginning
the
race
from
the
31st
position,
Reddick's
car
was
off
from
the
start
as
he
failed
to
move
up
through
the
field
and
fell
off
the
lead
lap.
The
No.
read more...
2
months
agoHendrick
Motorsports
driver
Kyle
Larson
settled
for
a
third-place
finish
in
Sunday's
Xfinity
500
at
Martinsville
Speedway.
Starting
the
race
from
ninth,
Larson
did
not
encounter
any
issues
and
advanced
to
sixth
by
the
end
of
the
first
stage,
collecting
a
few
stage
points.
In
the
second
stage,
read more...
2 months agoRFK Racing's Brad Keselowski placed ninth at the end of Sunday's Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway. Starting from the 18th position, Keselowski quietly made his way forward during the race's first stage without issue. The No. 6 Ford driver ended the first stage in 10th and gained one single stage point. In the second stage, Keselowski gained track position by staying off of pit road during a lap 184 caution for Martin Truex Jr. spinning. As a result, Keselowski found himself in the Top 5 and battled his way to the lead on lap 203 after passing Ryan Blaney on another restart. Keselowski would win the second stage and become one of the dominant drivers of the race. In the final stage, Keselowski maintained the lead outside of green flag pit stops until a lap 393 caution, which had the No. 6 team take two tires for track position. Keselowski would then slip from the top 5 and eventually end up in ninth, his first top-10 finish at Martinsville since joining RFK Racing in 2022.
--Sean Engel - RotoBallerSource: NASCAR.com
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