Track: Phoenix Raceway
Location: Avondale, Arizona
Track length: 1 mile
When: 3:30 p.m. ET
Where to tune in: FS1, HBO Max, FOX One, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Race purse: $11,233,037
Race distance: 312 laps | 312 miles
Stages: 60 | 185 | 312
Sunday’s starting lineup | Cup Series pit-stall assignments
Reddick seeks history with a desert 4-by-4
AVONDALE, Ariz. — Despite going 3-for-3 to start the NASCAR Cup Series season, Tyler Reddick dismisses the notion that he’s something of a superhero. The roll he’s on and his high stature in the early standings, however, suggest that the cape might fit.
All eyes in the desert will be focused on Reddick’s No. 45 Toyota at Phoenix Raceway as he strives to write more history with a fourth consecutive win to start the year. The Daytona 500 champion and 23XI Racing teammate Bubba Wallace rank a well-cushioned 1-2 in the early standings, with hopes of stretching that margin in the Arizona mile’s 60th Cup Series race.
A fairly harmless spin by Reddick during Saturday’s practice at Phoenix Raceway stirred the notion that some potential vulnerability might exist in Sunday’s Straight Talk Wireless 500, but there’s evident momentum for the 30-year-old star from the dizzying streak he’s authored so far.
“It’s hard to put in words. It’s wild,” Reddick said before Saturday’s preliminary sessions. “I think I’ve said it multiple times, right, you have the hope. I’ve told you guys I’ve had hopes and dreams of just being a Cup driver one day, that hopefully that would happen, and here we are. That’s happened. And yeah, you never know who you’re gonna drive for, but I never would have, again, in my wildest dreams thought I’d be representing Jordan Brand and drive for Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin. So yeah, it’s really cool to see. A lot of messages I’m trying to get back to. Everyone inside Airspeed’s just super-pumped and their head’s where they need to be. Like we’re excited, we’ve won three races, but everyone’s really hungry. We’re not satisfied.”
Maintaining that intensity level is the smart play, especially with the rest of the Cup Series grid eager to pierce the win column in the just-started campaign. Reddick is 70 points clear of Wallace, but several others slot closer behind, and some usual front-runners aim to reverse sluggish starts. Phoenix will help to tell the tale of just how close the others are — or aren’t — to the early benchmark Reddick has set.
“Pretty far away right now,” joked Ryan Blaney, who became the most recent Phoenix winner by prevailing for Team Penske in last season’s finale. “… Yeah, I think we’re close, and I think they’ve been doing an amazing job. Like, you can’t really take anything away from that group. The competitor in me is like, ‘dang, they’re kicking our butt every week,’ but then also, the same competitor in me is, you have to respect what they’re doing and the run that they’ve been on, but I think we’re close. Look forward to this weekend, kind of getting out there and seeing what we’ve got at an oval, and we’ll see, but I think we’re closer than people think.”
If any group has the potential to break up the Reddick monopoly, it’s the Penske bunch, which has its own recent run of success at Phoenix. Three-time Cup champion Joey Logano made a preliminary throw of the gauntlet by winning the Busch Light Pole Award for Sunday’s 312-lapper, and his Team Penske mates Austin Cindric and Blaney both qualified among the top five. Christopher Bell has his own Phoenix-specific streak going, with two straight wins in this race.
They’ll all face a race with variables — a returning Goodyear tire setup that produced trouble in Saturday’s practice and went heavy on wear when it debuted here last November, plus a slight uptick in horsepower from the 2026 rules configuration. They’ll also try to make some sense of the volatile nature of the standings, which have jumbled the natural order of things after a three-race opener of two drafting tracks and a road course.
The next seven events — including Sunday’s — will take place at tracks that appear later this year in the 10-race Chase postseason. Unlocking the answers for which teams are the contenders and which need improvement, Logano says, may happen sooner than that.
“Anytime you get back from Vegas, you’ll have a pretty good idea of strengths and weaknesses, of where teams are at,” said Logano, pointing to next weekend’s race at the 1.5-mile Nevada speedway. “So yeah, I don’t think we’ve got the full report card yet. Some pretty odd tracks to start — Daytona, sure; Atlanta, pretty unique; and then COTA for a road course. Like we haven’t been to Phoenix and Vegas yet. Then, when you get to Martinsville, that might be your last bit of the report card, where you get kind of everything. Darlington, it’ll be interesting with the downforce package there and horsepower, that’ll be different. So we’ll have a good report card of where we are, strengths and weaknesses, and the points will start to average out a little bit to where, like I said, the cream always rises to the top, right? Eventually, when you average it out over the first 10 to 15 races, I think things clear up quite a bit.”
MORE: Schedule, TV info: Phoenix
In the details …
| Teams | Average finish | Driver with team's best average finish |
|---|---|---|
| 23XI Racing | 12.40 | Tyler Reddick -- 1.0 |
| Kaulig Racing | 14.33 | AJ Allmendinger -- 13.3 |
| RFK Racing | 15.56 | Brad Keselowski -- 14.0 |
| Spire Motorsports | 15.89 | Daniel Suárez -- 14.3 |
| Hendrick Motorsports | 19.00 | Chase Elliott -- 7.3 |
Speed reads
Race-day essentials:
– Phoenix hub: Key information, links, results | Read more
– Paint Scheme Preview: Fresh designs for the Arizona desert | View gallery
– Hauler Talk: Inside Snider’s approval to substitute for Bowman at COTA | Listen now
– ‘Full Speed’ on Prime: Relive the Daytona 500 with in-depth access | How to watch
– Power Rankings: Cup Series’ top 20 drivers after COTA | This week’s ranks
– NASCAR Classics: Inside the video vault from Phoenix | Watch now
Contributing: Zach Sturniolo | NASCAR.com