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Carl Edwards and Kevin Harvick have combined for three wins, 15 top-fives and 18 top-10s at PIR.

Dominant performances dot landscape at Phoenix

By Jarrod Breeze, NASCAR.COM
April 16, 2009
09:57 AM EDT
type size: + -

There have been 14 Nationwide Series races at Phoenix International Raceway and nearly half of them have been won by three drivers.

Of the six victories they have equally divided, five have come in the past eight races:

2Wins by Kyle Busch including this race a year ago. He is the only driver to win back-to-back races at PIR. In seven starts he has four top-fives and five top-10s. He's the track leader with 449 laps led and three poles.
2Wins by Carl Edwards, who has a 4.0 average finish in eight starts. He has never finished worse than eighth and has six top-fives including a runner-up (April) and victory (November) last year.
2Wins by Greg Biffle including the first spring race in 2005 when PIR began hosting two events a year. Biffle has five top-fives and eight top-10s in 10 starts and has led 430 laps, second only to Busch.

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0Combined top-10s for Brad Keselowski and Steve Wallace. Keselowski has a best finish of 12th (April 2008) in four starts; Wallace has finished 16th twice (most recently in April 2008) and has three finishes of 29th or worse among his five starts.
1Non-Cup drivers to post a top-five finish in the past six races: Scott Wimmer finished fourth in Nov. 2007. However, four non-Cup regulars finished in the top 10 in Nov. 2008 -- Landon Cassill (6), Mike Bliss (8), Mike Wallace (9) and Joey Logano (10) -- the most in the past six races.
2Top-10s for Mike Bliss in seven starts. Making just his second start in his current ride, the No. 1 Chevrolet of Phoenix Racing, Bliss finished sixth in this race last year and came home eighth in the fall event. His overall average finish at PIR is the same as his average starting position: 18.7.
6Races that have gone beyond the scheduled distance since NASCAR introduced the green-white-checkered finish in 2004. That spans nine races overall and includes five of the past six.
9Races in which the winner led more than half of the laps. Only twice has a driver led 100 or more laps and not won: Greg Biffle led 185 laps in 2002 and finished third; Kyle Busch led 151 laps in 2004 and finished second. (All was not lost for Biffle, however. He clinched the series championship that day with one race still remaining).
11Races won from the top two starting rows including three from the pole: Carl Edwards (Nov. 2005), Matt Kenseth (Nov. 2006) and Kyle Busch (April 2008).

The Wow Factor

8Consecutive top-10 finishes at PIR for Kevin Harvick, matching Carl Edwards' current streak. Harvick has seven top-fives during that span and his nine top-fives and 10 top-10s in 13 career starts there are more than any driver. His lone win came in the spring race in 2006.

The Super Looper

171Number of Fastest Laps in the past eight races for Carl Edwards. Of the three other drivers to compete in all eight races at PIR in the Loop Data era, only Clint Bowyer comes close with 148.

Driver Rating at Phoenix (since 2005, eight races)
Pos. Driver Rating Starts Wins Top-5s Top-10s Led
1. Matt Kenseth 124.2 5 1 4 5 177
2. Tony Stewart 123.4 1 0 1 1 14
3. Carl Edwards* 119.0 8 2 6 8 227
4. Kevin Harvick* 115.3 8 1 7 8 156
5. Kyle Busch* 114.6 6 2 3 4 298
6. Clint Bowyer 110.7 8 1 5 6 214
7. Joey Logano* 106.7 1 0 0 1 0
8. Jeff Burton* 105.8 2 0 1 1 27
9. Greg Biffle* 104.2 6 1 2 4 133
10. Denny Hamlin 103.5 8 0 4 5 135
• Loop Data Statistics: Season-to-Date Box Score | * Entered in this race

Blast from the Past

1999Year in which the first series race at PIR was held. It was won by Jeff Gordon, who was making just his sixth series start since 1992. It remains his only series race at PIR. Gordon didn't win a Cup race at Phoenix until 2007. Gordon has won five Nationwide Series races, the most recent coming in his last series start to date, in 2000 at Homestead.

Series winners at Phoenix
Year Winner Make   Year Winner Make
1999 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet   2005 Carl Ewards Ford
2000 Jeff Burton Ford   2006 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet
2001 Greg Biffle Ford     Matt Kenseth Ford
2002 Scott Wimmer Pontiac   2007 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet
2003 Bobby Hamilton Jr. Ford     Kyle Busch Chevrolet
2004 Jamie McMurray Dodge   2008 Kyle Busch Toyota
2005 Greg Biffle Ford     Carl Edwards Ford

The End

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Nationwide Series

Driver Standings
Pos. +/- Driver Points Behind
1. -- Carl Edwards 959 --
2. -- Kyle Busch 936 -23
3. -- David Ragan 799 -160
4. -- Jason Leffler 762 -197
5. +2 Brad Keselowski 733 -226
6. +6 Joey Logano 728 -231
7. -2 Justin Allgaier 676 -283
8. -- Brendan Gaughan 676 -283
9. +1 Scott Lagasse Jr. 672 -287
10. -1 Jason Keller 667 -292

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