Posted on by Pat DeCola

AVONDALE, Ariz. – At her current scorching pace, it feels like rising superstar Hailie Deegan will be racing at NASCAR’s highest levels much sooner than later. 

But why rush a good thing?

That’s how Kevin Harvick, one of the 17-year-old driver’s most vocal proponents, feels.

RELATED: Deegan wins K&N West opener at Las Vegas | Deegan lands ARCA deal

“The thing I like about Hailie is she loves to race. She’s very good at talking about racing and very energetic in doing things off the race track,” Harvick told NASCAR.com Friday at ISM Raceway, site of Sunday’s TicketGuardian 500 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). “But the thing that I like the most about Hailie is that her dad, Brian, has been there, done that and right now — and this is my opinion that I’ve voiced to both of them — is what’s the hurry?”

Good luck stopping her. In her short time in the spotlight, one thing stands out about Deegan: She likes to go as fast as possible, as often as possible.

Harvick’s perspective on her burgeoning career is particularly sharp, and it’s evident he has spent considerable time analyzing her situation. Not only was Harvick around when phenom Joey Logano broke into the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series at the ripe age of 18 in 2008 – and subsequently struggled to find his footing until a move to Team Penske in 2013 – but the 2014 champion had a front row seat as a teammate to Danica Patrick during her foray into full-time stock car racing with Stewart-Haas Racing. 

“The biggest difference that Hailie has … right now is she’s going to have more stock car experience when she gets to the top level,” said Harvick, looking for his 10th career ISM Raceway win on Sunday. “I used to tell Danica Patrick this: ‘You’ll never catch up to the experience I have. It’s impossible. The only way you catch up is if I quit, and I’m going to have 25 years on you, no matter what you do.’ ”

RELATED: Deegan named to Forbes list

So what do you say to try to manage expectations on a meteoric trajectory that could potentially see Deegan racing on Sundays within a few years, or at least impart the knowledge – to a feisty, hungry 17-year-old race car driver, no less — that low and slow might be the recipe to glory at the highest level?

Especially if Deegan keeps winning races – she won the K&N opener at Las Vegas with a thrilling last-lap pass less than two weeks ago – the movement to move up may accelerate.

But Harvick says the knowledge, wisdom and lessons Deegan will learn in lower series is invaluable to the rest of her career.

“The thing about it is, having that experience when you get to that next levels and being even on that experience level with the people that you’re competing against to be a top-caliber driver needs to be as even as possible,” he said. “It’s like holding your kid back in school. A lot of parents do that in sports nowadays. They hold them back as long as they can and they take a seventh or eighth grade year then wait another year to put them in high school so that they can be bigger, stronger, faster and have an advantage.  

“To me, the advantage is it doesn’t matter when you get here. You’re going to be a star and you will be a bigger star if you can compete.”

Posted on by Pat DeCola

AVONDALE, Ariz. — It’s been a long climb back to prominence for Ryan Truex, but the Garden Stater might finally feel at home in his new jersey fire suit.

Having driven for about as many different national series organizations as a 26-year-old in the sport possibly could at his age, the two-time K&N Pro Series East champion found himself once again looking for a ride this past offseason. Coming off a NASCAR Playoffs appearance in the Xfinity Series with Kaulig Racing in 2018, the organization shifted directions by putting Justin Haley in the No. 11 Chevrolet for ’19.

Faced with uncertainty over his future, Truex elected to go the Ryan Preece Route © and bet on himself and his talents — signing up for a handful of races with JR Motorsports and its re-branded No. 8 Chevrolet on a part-time, ride-sharing basis rather than land with a lower-caliber, potentially full-time opportunity.

What’d he do in his first crack at racing this season in Saturday’s iK9 Service Dog 200 at ISM Raceway? Nearly hit one out of the park.

“Felt good (to get back out there.) I kind of spent the first stage learning. It’s been a while since I’ve been in one of these cars. Well, not a while but it feels like a while,” Truex told NASCAR.com after matching a career-high finish of second.

RELATED: Kyle Busch rolls at Phoenix | Weekend schedule

“Took a little bit to get my bearings and we were behind the 8-ball taking off and we were pretty free. I’m just proud of the team for being as young of a team as it is and Taylor (Moyer) being a first-time crew chief in these cars to make the right adjustments and we got the right restarts and in the right lanes and the car was just badass.”

With just a select few races currently on Truex’s schedule — he said his next start will come at Kentucky Speedway … in July — the need to maximize every opportunity is massive. Adding to that pressure are the difficulties that come along with sharing a ride with four other drivers (Preece, Jeb Burton, Spencer Gallagher and Zane Smith) and the obstacles to getting into any sort of flow.

“It’s a little tough (to share the ride with other drivers) but I think it’s a little tougher on the crew guys, really, because Taylor has to deal with different feedback and every one of us is from a different place, has a different accent, has a different personality, has a different amount of experience. Like, everything you could think of, and it makes it hard on him,” said Truex. “For him to come in here and do this well is a team effort, for sure.”

The driving talent clearly runs in the family — see: Truex Jr., Martin — and just like his older brother and former driver of the No. 8, it sometimes just comes down to having the chance to show what one is capable of in the right equipment.

Ryan Truex feels like he finally has that opportunity.

“Absolutely, absolutely (I feel validation from this),” he said.

“It’s one thing to say you can do it. It’s one thing for everybody to think you can do it. But to go out and prove it feels really good.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

AVONDALE, Ariz. – How did Kyle Busch win Saturday’s IK9 Service Dog 200 at ISM Raceway?

Poof! His closest pursuers in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Busch was out front on Lap 130 when the engine in the No. 01 Chevrolet of Stephen Leicht exploded in front of Justin Allgaier and pole winner Christopher Bell, who were running second and third at the time.

RELATED: Race results | Weekend schedule

Enveloped in a “Days of Thunder”-style cloud of smoke, Allgaier spun in the fluid from Leicht’s car, hitting the outside wall and damaging the rear of his car. Bell, the series leader entering the race, fared far worse.

His No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota backed into the outside wall, crumpling the rear of the car beyond repair. Bell exited the race in 30th place.

With his two most formidable challengers out of the picture, Busch led the field to the subsequent restart on Lap 143 and stayed out front the rest of the way, beating runner-up Ryan Truex to the finish line by 3.025 seconds.

The victory was Busch’s 11th at ISM Raceway, tying him with NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin for most Xfinity wins at a single track. Martin accomplished the feat at Rockingham.

Busch won for the second time in two starts this season and for the record 94th time in the series, bringing his total victories across NASCAR’s three national series to 198 and putting him within reach of his stated goal of 200 during the current West Coast Swing.

Three races remain before NASCAR heads back east to Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. Busch will compete in Sunday’s TicketGuardian 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series event at ISM Raceway (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN, SiriusXM) before running both the Cup and Xfinity races next weekend at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif.

“Christopher was certainly going to give me a run for my money today,” Busch said of his JGR teammate. “I can’t say enough about the guys at Joe Gibbs Racing. Obviously, they build really fast Supras … Christopher, I hate he got caught up in that mess. Obviously, it was going to be a really fun run to the end there.”

Busch deflected the notion that he’s toying with the competition in the lower series.

“There’s a lot of talk and that sort of stuff, but if I’m allowed to enter a race, I’m going to enter the race and go out there and try to win it,” said Busch, who led 116 of the 200 laps. “If I win, I win. If not, we’ve got to go again the next time.”

Bell led 68 laps and won the second stage but fell to third soon after a restart on Lap 101 and couldn’t advance. Then came Leicht’s engine explosion and the end of Bell’s race.

“As soon as I entered the smoke wall, I couldn’t see anything,” Bell said. “I lost my bearings of where I was and the next thing you know, I was in the wall. Frustrating and very disappointing, because our Rheem Supra was extremely strong.

“I don’t know, it was weird. My car didn’t really feel that much worse that run, but once I got back behind those guys, I just really couldn’t pass them.”

Truex started ninth, fell back early but worked his way back through the field in his first run in the No. 8 JR Motorsports Chevrolet. After Bell and Allgaier crashed, Truex restarted second on Lap 143 and kept reigning series champion and eventual third-place finisher Tyler Reddick behind him.

“I guess it’s good when you lose to Kyle Busch,” Truex said. “I just got us behind there at the start. I was too free, and I couldn’t run anywhere on the track, so I lost a lot of track position early. We worked hard all day to get it back.

“I got that restart behind Kyle and was able to get a huge run in (Turns) 1 and 2. Our car was just so good on the long runs that I was able to hold Reddick off.”

For his part, Reddick inherited the series lead from Bell.

“I’m not very good at this race track,” said Reddick, who leads Bell by four points. “But hats off to RCR (Richard Childress Racing), they brought a fantastic Chevrolet. Our Camaro was great through most of this race. I honestly couldn’t give us a good sense of direction, so we just kind of threw in here what Daniel (Hemric) ran last year.

“Had a pretty good setup under this thing. Hopefully, I can figure out what I need to break through and contend with the 18 (Busch) in the end. All in all, it’s better than what I’ve run in the past. I’m just not very good at this race track.”

Cole Custer ran fourth, followed by fellow Ford drivers Austin Cindric (the Stage 1 winner) and Chase Briscoe, who fought his way forward after a pit road speeding penalty with an impressive closing drive. Brandon Jones was seventh, ahead of Daytona winner Michael Annett, John Hunter Nemechek and Ryan Sieg, who recorded his third top-10 finish in four starts.

The Xfinity Series’ next race is the Production Alliance Group 300, scheduled next Saturday (5 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Auto Club Speedway. The 300-miler is the fifth of 33 races for the circuit this season.

Notes: Busch’s winning No. 18 Toyota was all clear in post-race inspection. The only post-race issues were one lug nut not safe and secure for each the No. 8 Chevrolet of runner-up Ryan Truex and the No. 74 Chevrolet of 25th-place finisher Mike Harmon. … Busch, who competes for championship points in the Monster Energy Series, has won all four races he has entered this season in the Xfinity and Gander Outdoors Truck Series.

Contributing: Staff reports

Posted on by RJ Kraft

Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney will start from the pole position for Sunday’s TicketGuardian 500 (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Does he merit a spot in your lineup? We’ve dissected the numbers to offer a suggested lineup worthy of your Fantasy Live consideration as you make roster decisions.

PLAY NOW: Set your lineup | How the game works | Tips to set your lineup

Remember that the garage locks at the end of Stage 2. Once the final stage starts, your roster is locked in.

RJ Kraft’s Fantasy Live lineup for race-day at Phoenix:
1. Kyle Busch
2. Kevin Harvick
3. Ryan Blaney
4. Denny Hamlin
5. Chase Elliott
Garage: Brad Keselowski

RELATED: Odds for Phoenix | 10-lap averages from Phoenix | Podcast: Fantasy Fastlane

Analysis: I started this week looking to save the Team Penske drivers for races where the rules package is more pronounced — think 1.5-to-2-mile tracks — but like Special Agent LeRoy Jethro Gibbs’ Rule #51 — sometimes you’re wrong. The Penske group looked too strong in practice and I’d be risking more not playing some of them. That decision puts Blaney and Keselowski in my lineup over William Byron and Aric Almirola. Blaney won the pole and had top-seven 10-lap averages in both Saturday practices. He’s qualified well here in the past and not produced, which is why I am sticking his teammate Keselowski in the garage to guard against that happening again. Keselowski has a good history here and, along with Busch and Harvick, makes up the class of the field here this weekend.

Busch and Harvick are the two best at this track and nothing I’ve seen this weekend has dissuaded me from that thought. Both look good on the 10-lap run and over longer runs.

RELATED: Busch vs. Harvick–a case of anything you can do, I can do better

This is a shorter race in the Cup ranks based on mileage so I am going to play the early track position game and take two drivers starting in the top five with solid Phoenix histories in Hamlin and Elliott. Elliott has two top-three finishes in his last three starts here and Hamlin has five top 10s in his last seven starts here. I didn’t love Elliott’s 10-lap averages, but I like the track position he’ll start with. Among the drivers I debated for my final spots: Almirola, Kurt Busch and Byron.

I’m taking Kyle Busch to win Stage 1 with Harvick winning Stage 2 and Busch winning the race — the winner selection is heavily influenced by my props plays. I took Busch to finish higher than Harvick and want to stay true to that on my race-winner pick in Fantasy Live. But really it’s a toss-up between both of them.

Each week in this space, we’ll also highlight two Props Challenge items for players.

MORE: Play the Props Challenge today

1. Five of the last six winners at ISM Raceway have started outside the top five. Will Sunday’s race winner start outside the top five? I’m saying no on this one, even though as the question says, recent history has shown that the winner is more likely to come from outside the top five. The risk in saying no is you are essentially betting against Kevin Harvick — starting eighth — and at Phoenix that is a tough sell since he has nine wins there. Why am I essentially going against him on this question? It’s because three of the four strongest cars this weekend based on practices — Ryan Blaney, Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski (Harvick is the other of the four) — will start in the top five. I like the odds that one of those three will win on Sunday.

2. Fresh off a sixth-place result at Las Vegas, does Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finish in the top 10 at ISM Raceway? I’m going no here as well. Stenhouse finished outside the top 10 in all three practices and his 10-lap average times in Saturday’s practices were outside the the top 15. Add in his two finishes outside the top 20 at the 1-mile track last year and five finishes outside the top 20 in his last seven starts here and history suggests another top 10 isn’t in the cards for Stenhouse.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

AVONDALE, Ariz. — During the opening laps of last Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Jimmie Johnson looked like the driver who has won 83 races and a record-tying seven Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championships.

Johnson’s No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was running in the top five, suggesting that Johnson and crew chief Kevin Meendering might have a car capable of challenging for the win.

But as Johnson lost positions, the handling of his Chevy got positively evil and revealed a problem Hendrick has to solve to make its cars consistently competitive.

“We were very aggressive with the setup of our car,” Johnson said on Friday afternoon at ISM Raceway before qualifying 15th for Sunday’s TicketGuardian 500 (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). “I think once we took consistent air off the top of it, it just started bouncing and went haywire. That thing was bouncing all over the place once I got to like 15th or 20th on the track.”

MORE: Lineup for Sunday’s race

The challenge is to find a setup that is fast in clean air without being out of control in the dirty air a car encounters mid-pack. At Las Vegas, Johnson finished 19th, the first car one lap down.

“As hard as we try, when the car’s performance is based on over-body downforce, you are never going to change the fact that the leader has better air. I don’t think it matters how big the spoiler is, which throws air up higher and then you’ve got these (front drag) ducts that throws it out wider.

“The way we create downforce is tough. It’s tough to have that consistent downforce in traffic. It’s just the way it is.”

To win a record eighth championship, Johnson and his team will have to master the idiosyncrasies of the new rules package. In the past, the ability to adapt to new challenges has been one of Hendrick’s hallmarks.

“I’ll race whatever they bring,” Johnson said. “I’m here to figure out whatever the rules package is, and I’ve been doing this long enough to have a lot of downforce, no downforce, a lot of power, no power. We have not gotten off to the start that we expected to.

“Atlanta (a 24th-place result), was pretty rough for us. Vegas we had a lot more speed in the car, but when I lost track position as the race wore on, my car was pretty evil to drive. We are learning each and every step. We have been off to a good start here in Phoenix. I know it’s way different than that other package, but we’re learning as we go, and we just have to do a better job and get better.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Joey Logano landed atop the leaderboard in Saturday’s final Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice, leading another 1-2 sweep for Team Penske at ISM Raceway in Phoenix.

RELATED: Final practice results | Best 10-lap averages

Logano, last week’s winner at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, topped the 50-minute session with a lap of 137.794 mph in the No. 22 Ford. He was just ahead of teammate Ryan Blaney, who registered a 137.221-mph lap and will start from the pole in Sunday’s TicketGuardian 500 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM) after reigning in Friday’s Busch Pole Qualifying.

Nine-time Phoenix winner Kevin Harvick recorded the third-fastest lap (136.685 mph) in the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Ford. Kyle Busch (136.431) and Aric Almirola (136.322) completed the top five.

The session was slowed at the 11-minute mark for extended clean-up of fluid dropped by the Premium Motorsports No. 15 Chevrolet of Ross Chastain.

Eight teams served 15-minute penalties at the end of final practice for issues in inspection. The Team Penske No. 2 Ford team for Brad Keselowski was docked practice time for failing inspection twice before Friday’s Busch Pole Qualifying. Those troubles resulted in the ejection of a team engineer for the rest of the weekend.

MORE: Officials eject No. 2 team engineer

The other seven teams had time deductions for final practice because they arrived late to inspection:

  • No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford for driver Paul Menard
  • No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet of William Byron
  • No. 32 Go Fas Racing Ford of Corey LaJoie
  • No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford of Michael McDowell
  • No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford of David Ragan
  • No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Chevrolet of Cody Ware
  • No. 52 Rick Ware Racing Ford of Bayley Curry

Buescher leads the way in Saturday’s early session

Chris Buescher topped the speed charts in the first of two Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practices on Saturday at ISM Raceway, his No. 37 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet clocking in at 137.973 mph.

MORE: Best 10-lap averages | Practice 2 results

Polesitter Ryan Blaney, who paced opening practice on Friday, was second on the speed charts with a fast lap of 137.915 mph in his No. 12 Ford. Blaney’s Team Penske teammate Brad Keselowski was third-fastest (137.646 mph), while Kyle Larson’s No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet ranked fourth at 137.615 mph. ISM Raceway’s most recent winner Kyle Busch rounded out the top five in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota (137.594 mph).

Nine-time Phoenix winner Kevin Harvick ranked sixth-fastest on the leaderboard in his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford.

After their physical altercation during Friday’s qualifying, Daniel Suarez and Michael McDowell met one-on-one and with NASCAR before Saturday’s practice. Suarez’s No. 41 ranked 22nd in practice, while McDowell came up 29th-fastest in the No. 34.

MORE: Suarez on McDowell | McDowell reflects on fight

Posted on by Pat DeCola

AVONDALE, Ariz. – Clown. Two-faced. Head up his rear end.

That’s just a small sampling of terms tossed out there over the years from both parties of one of NASCAR’s longest-running feuds – Kevin Harvick vs. Kyle Busch.

These days? No name calling here. Just nothing but mutual respect.

Arguably NASCAR’s two most talented drivers over the course of their decade and a half of racing against each other, Busch and Harvick have somehow gone from Harvick’s arm extended through Busch’s driver-side window – you know, for punching purposes – at Darlington in 2011, to being wrapped around Busch’s shoulder in the garage area, sharing a laugh just last year.

Kyle Kevin

At some point, Harvick says, that animosity toward each other turned to true appreciation for each other’s talents and skill on the race track.

“As rough as our relationship was to start things off, there’s a mutual respect that we have found over the past several years that have created a healthy competitiveness instead of an unhealthy competitiveness,” Harvick told NASCAR.com Friday at ISM Raceway, site of Sunday’s TicketGuardian 500 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“Look, Kyle’s a great race car driver. Kyle and I have really not much in common off the race track, but I have an extreme amount of respect for what he does in the race car and the things that happen on the race track. There isn’t a guy in the garage that I want to beat more than Kyle just because of the fact that if you’ve beat him on the race track, you’ve had a really good day. Racing with him head-to-head is something that I enjoy. Definitely, he wants to beat me, I want to beat him, but I feel like I have a good relationship with Kyle.”

Even last year, the two raced hard for the win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, culminating in Harvick bumping Busch out of the way in the closing laps en route to the win.

Surely, Busch would be furious after the race, having his shot at holding a giant lobster in Victory Lane clawed away from him by his fiercest rival, right?

“That’s fine; (if) that’s how (he) wants to race, that’s how I’ll race back,” Busch said at the time – an extremely measured response given their history.

MORE: Busch on Harvick’s race-winning move: ‘How you race is how you get raced’

Perhaps it can be attributed to the fact that they’ve each matured, become dads and champions, all in the last six years. Regardless, it’s fascinating to see two of the sport’s top competitors – probably each other’s biggest competitor – go from spewing vitriol at each other in post-race interviews to sparking a healthy relationship solely based on mutual respect on the race track.

“There was certainly a time where Harvick and I both would agree that if neither of us showed up at the race track anymore that we would totally be OK with that,” Busch said Friday. “Now it’s kind of resurfaced a little bit differently where I feel as though we feel like when we get to the race track we know we would much rather be able to beat each other and we’ve done it way more respectfully over the course of the last … I don’t know, 2014, since then. I don’t know if that was just his move to SHR and the relationship that I had with Tony (Stewart) and Tony kind of telling Kevin, ‘Hey, give him some slack,’ or whatever, but it’s definitely come more from his side than my side as far as the friendliness I guess you could say.

“It’s nice to be able to have that relationship with guys in the garage area. You don’t have to be friends with them, but you do have to know that you have to respect them and you do have to know that you have to have an opportunity to go out there and race door handle to door handle or bumper to bumper and know that you’re not going to get wrecked. Kevin and I have that going right now and hopefully we can keep that going that way and there are some others out there that could certainly learn a few things.”

RELATED: Busch vs. Harvick: Anything you can do, I can do better

As fate would have it, given their dominance and success at Phoenix — they combined to sweep the track last year — Busch and Harvick enter the weekend with the best odds to win Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at an identical 7-2 apiece.

It wouldn’t be surprising for the checkered flag to fall with either the No. 4 of Harvick or No. 18 of Busch leading the way, but don’t expect any fireworks in the desert between them if the racing is hard down to the wire — perhaps just a respectful tip of the helmet and an, “I’ll get you next week.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

AVONDALE, Ariz. – Denny Hamlin hit a high draw with a 7 iron from 178 yards, and the ball never left the flag.

“The number was perfect, the distance was perfect, and I hit it perfect,” Hamlin said after Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice Friday at ISM Raceway. “That one was pure all the way.”

When the ball disappeared into the cup on the second hole at Whisper Rock Golf Club on Thursday, Hamlin had the second hole-in-one of his life.

“Yeah, it was awesome,” he said. “I hadn’t had one since I was a 25 handicap, and it was 15 years ago. The first one was just luck. I didn’t hit it very good. I just luckily hit the pin, but this one was true the whole way.”

“I remember us talking to it in the air, saying, ‘Wow, this is close.'”

RELATED: Phoenix starting lineup

You’d think Hamlin would have kept the scorecard to frame and display after the round. Instead, he tore it up. Hamlin was so giddy from the ace that the rest of the round was eminently forgettable. What he shot for 18 holes remains a secret.

“I refuse to give that information up, because I tore the card up as soon as it was over,” Hamlin said. “I had a ‘7’ after it, I’ll be honest. It was a par-5, and I was not focused one bit because of the hole-in-one that just happened.”

“I didn’t want to keep the card or frame it, because that was one of the worst rounds I had all week out here.”

Afterwards, Hamlin treated golfers in the clubhouse to drinks in true hole-in-one tradition. On Friday, he was hoping the ace was a good omen for Sunday’s TicketGuardian 500 at ISM Raceway (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

PHOTOS: All-time winners at Phoenix 

“That’s the plan,” Hamlin said. “It’s hard to believe you can have a bad weekend after starting it off like that.”

Hamlin has a formidable record at Phoenix, with an average starting position of 11.0 and an average finish of 11.6. His only victory at the one-mile track in the Sonoran Desert came in 2012, but he has posted 11 top-fives and 15 top-10s in 27 starts.

He will start the race from the third place in the order.

“We’ve had good success here,” Hamlin said. “We won here in ’12. We continually run here pretty well. Definitely had a winning car just a few races ago here at this race track.

“Certainly, it’s a track I’ve got a good feel for, knowing what I need. It’s just a matter of knowing whether you can get it all done in such a short amount of time during practices.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Daniel Suarez and Michael McDowell got into a physical altercation following the first round of Friday’s Busch Pole qualifying session for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series at ISM Raceway.

RELATED: Suarez: ‘Lack of respect’ | McDowell: ‘He tried to crash us’

Following the scuffle, drivers were quick to react on social media, including Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney and Bubba Wallace. See their thoughts on what went down as things got heated in the Phoenix desert.