RELATED: Full lineup for Sunday | Chase Grid | Photos from Friday
AVONDALE, Ariz. — Teammates offering differing opinions on last-lap contact, a feud fizzles and one of the season’s best teams couldn’t get out of inspection in time to post a qualifying lap.
It was that kind of day Friday at Phoenix International Raceway, drenched in sunshine and the site of Sunday’s Can-Am 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Hiccup-y if there is such a word.
It’s the final race before NASCAR’s championship-determining event scheduled for the coral and seawater blue of Homestead-Miami Speedway, and maybe it’s fitting that it will play out here in the desert, 30 minutes or so from Phoenix proper.
PIR is surrounded by desert, hard-scrabble land that’s full of cactus and jackrabbits and roadrunners and the occasional warning that, yes, be mindful of the rattlesnakes.
Trouble lurks out there, and here too, on the 1-mile PIR layout. It’s a quirky little facility for the most part, and the track itself is unique and challenging. In other words, it’s perfect in so many little ways for the determination of those who still dream of being a champion.
Chase talk dominates the day, with one final opportunity for guys not named Jimmie Johnson or Carl Edwards to prove their worth. Johnson and Edwards are in, no matter what happens here on Sunday thanks to their Round of 8 wins. The other six? They know the deal. They know a win washes away all sin and everything else is just a numbers game. If they do this, then we’ve got to do that. It’s advancement by accounting.
Three of the six are teammates of Edwards. Joe Gibbs Racing won’t put all four of its drivers in the championship, but it could put three of four. Just don’t count on teammates going out of their way to help one another. The company line has become “I’ll help you but only as long as it doesn’t hurt me.”
And if it comes down to the last lap, all-on-the-line, “hey buddy-buddy?”
Denny Hamlin says he wouldn’t move a teammate, be it Matt Kenseth or Kyle Busch or Edwards. Then again, it’s only Friday. “That’s my answer today,” he admitted.
For Busch, it’s always race day. Move a teammate in order to advance? “Absolutely,” the defending series champion said.
RELATED: Hamlin, Busch talk moving drivers for advancement
There may be some ill feelings lingering between Austin Dillon and Kevin Harvick after last week’s contact in Texas, but Dillon brushed aside any retaliation talk Friday, saying that “I’m here to race and win this race.”
His Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet is “good,” he said, “and I’m looking forward to showcasing that here in a little bit and trying to get two poles in a row.”
That didn’t happen, but the youngster will start seventh on Sunday. Harvick, tasked with saving his season at a track he has dominated in the past, will start sixth.
MORE: Harvick left hanging by Dillon | Dillon fires off at Harvick
Martin Truex Jr. and his Furniture Row Racing team saw Friday come undone in practice after the driver brushed the wall and the No. 78 Toyota was deemed unfit for further competition. Unable to clear inspection and get on the track in time to post a qualifying lap with the backup car, Truex will start 40th. It will be the first time this season he has started outside the top 30.
The status of the backup won’t be known until Saturday, when two more practices are scheduled.
WATCH: Truex, No. 78 team miss qualifying
There’s hope for Truex, a four-time winner this season — Busch and his team rolled out a backup just this past weekend at Texas and finished fifth.
Friday was a day when the kids stepped up — Alex Bowman, 23, doesn’t have a ride for next year but he now has a Sprint Cup Series pole. Kyle Larson, 24, will start second, but the Chip Ganassi Racing driver admits he’s still trying to figure out the complexities of PIR. And Chase Elliott, 20, will start third. It’s the fourth top-five start in the last six races for the Hendrick Motorsports driver.
The rest of the top 12 is Chase heavy, with only Johnson and Busch qualifying outside the top 15 in 17th and 19th, respectively.
The desert’s a spectacle, particularly when the sun begins to slowly slide below the horizon in a burst of orange and red and yellow.
Day one, at least for Sprint Cup teams and Chase hopefuls, is done.
It’s the calm before the storm.