Doubling down in the desert: Next Gen vs. championship notes at Phoenix

AVONDALE, Ariz. — The importance of Sunday’s race at Phoenix Raceway isn’t misplaced. It has just been slightly redirected due to the Next Gen car. Phoenix is still NASCAR’s championship site, and that’s still an important detail. It’s just, that’s also 32 race weekends away. Sunday's race (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) is only the fourth event on the schedule, and drivers are treating it as such. “I obviously want to come back and have a purpose in November,” said Austin Cindric, who topped Saturday’s practice leaderboard. “But it is also the first short-track race we are going to.” PHOENIX: Weekend schedule | Paint schemes | Betting odds Cindric, from Team Penske, is one of three drivers already locked into the 2022 NASCAR Playoffs by virtue of a win (Daytona International Speedway). Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson (Auto Club Speedway) and Alex Bowman (Las Vegas Motor Speedway) join him. [caption id="attachment_344746" align="alignright" width="300"]Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR Digital Media[/caption] And Cindric has a point: Phoenix is indeed the first short track, at exactly a mile in length. Daytona was 2.5 miles, Auto Club was 2 miles, and Las Vegas was 1.5 miles. That means superspeedway and intermediate have been checked off the Next Gen to-do list, as the brand-new car slowly but surely continues to make its debut at each venue. “It is really early,” said teammate Ryan Blaney, who earned the Busch Light Pole Award on Saturday. “My bigger concern is just trying to figure out this new car. It is really the first short track we’ve been to. The (Clash at the) Coliseum was kind of its own thing. This is a place you will be using the brakes pretty hard and things like that.” PHOENIX: Practice results | Starting lineup Said Cindric: “There will be a balance between what we learn this weekend and how much we are going to evolve as a sport and race teams by the time November comes around. All those things are in my head, and I think this is certainly a solid foundation for your notebook to start the year.” The next short track on tap is Richmond Raceway (0.75 miles) immediately followed by another with Martinsville Speedway (0.526 miles) and Bristol Motor Speedway (0.533 miles), albeit the latter will be covered in dirt. After Sunday, NASCAR won’t return to Phoenix until Nov. 6. It’s not the only repeat -- Richmond and Martinsville are among the tracks that will be visited again -- but it is the only place where a champion will be crowned. The sport’s previous title location -- Homestead-Miami Speedway for 18 years -- didn’t have a regular-season show. Its sole race was the finale. “We think about it, and I think about it for sure,” Joe Gibbs Racing pilot Denny Hamlin said. “I just make sure I do my part and give them the feedback they need to make the car better for when we come back.” PHOENIX: Can Denny Hamlin turn 2022 around Sunday? Hamlin placed third in both Phoenix visits in 2021. In fact, eight of the top-10 finishers in this first Phoenix race also finished top 10 in the second. Three of the top five were also top five, too. Three drivers, including Hamlin, actually matched their two runs -- Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott with fifth and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell with ninth. Unless the Next Gen car really does shake things up, Sunday’s results may sound familiar come season’s end in November. “This is an important race,” Hamlin said. “Even though it’s early in the season, it’s the first real short track that we are going to. It’s going to create a big data point for us when we go to set up our cars for other race tracks, so it’s very, very important.”