‘It’s not over’: Flat tire spoils Denny Hamlin’s strong Phoenix showing

Posted on October 18, 2026October 20, 2026 by Dustin Albino

AVONDALE, Ariz. – Denny Hamlin’s 2026 postseason has been defined by missed opportunities, and Sunday at Phoenix Raceway offered another frustrating chapter in that trend.

“Opportunities lost in various ways by all of us,” Chris Gayle, crew chief of Hamlin’s No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team, said to a group of media members Sunday evening, summing up the group’s disappointing Chase presented by Mobil 1.

MORE: Race results | Phoenix weekend schedule

With Kyle Larson searching for answers throughout the Freeway Insurance 500, Phoenix offered a prime opportunity for his championship rivals to capitalize. Hamlin looked poised to do just that, banking 12 stage points through the first two stages before settling into fourth with the best-handling car he’d had all afternoon.

Hamlin’s afternoon took a hit on Lap 221 of 312 when the No. 11 Toyota suffered a right-rear tire failure while navigating Turns 3 and 4. He limped to pit road for service and lost a lap seconds before Cody Ware had a similar issue and backed his car into the Turn 1 wall. The ensuing caution left Hamlin trapped a lap down.

Hamlin was penalized for speeding on pit road and deemed ineligible for the wave-around. As a result, he was relegated to restarting outside the top 30.

“I’m thinking that this is not ideal, but thinking we’re going to be early on this green-flag sequence and probably come out with the lead for a portion of the time,” Hamlin said of what was racing through his mind while experiencing the flat tire, “and when the caution comes out, we’ll pit for that last set of tires and be up front. Blowing a rear tire when the best the car had been all day. We had battled back and were able to pass a bunch of really good cars. Just frustrated.”

Gayle said the No. 11 team’s tire pressures shouldn’t have been a concern, as they stayed above his predetermined minimum threshold. Race winner Tyler Reddick ran the same tire pressures, he said, leading him to suspect Hamlin had run over a piece of debris around the 1-mile oval.

“I wish I could change it, you just can’t,” a dejected Hamlin said after finishing 28th, snapping his record streak of 31 consecutive lead-lap finishes.

MORE: Cup Series standings | Cup Series schedule

Larson was the first to pit during another round of green-flag pit stops at Lap 262. Hamlin pitted five laps later on the same circuit as race leader Bubba Wallace. Gayle wanted to keep his driver on offense, knowing the No. 11 Toyota was unlikely to earn the free pass if a caution fell during the cycle because of its lack of track position.

From there, the strategy hinged on a late-race caution that would give Hamlin an opportunity to take the wave-around and regain a lap. That caution came on Lap 283 when Larson experienced his own right-front failure, pancaking the Turn 1 wall. Chase Briscoe, Chase Elliott and Ty Gibbs all stayed on track, preventing the No. 11 team from regaining its lap.

“Some things are meant to be, some things are not meant to be,” Hamlin added. “There have been so many cards that have been dealt in my career in these playoffs, Chase, that I’ve seen it all. Nothing surprises me. It’s not like I’m not shell-shocked because I’ve been here.

“We just cannot finish races to the best of our capability. Until we can start doing that in a really big hurry, you never know what can happen.”

Hamlin slipped to fourth in the Chase standings, surrendering positions to Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Christopher Bell and Briscoe. However, he gained 18 points on Larson and now sits 31 points behind the championship leader with three races remaining.

Despite the setback at Phoenix, Hamlin and the No. 11 team remain firmly in contention for the title.

Meg Oliphant | Getty Images

“Just one win – it’s doable,” Hamlin stated. “One win, we’re right there, and we need to do that.”

Gayle concurs with his driver, knowing that the No. 11 team remains in the title hunt. With Reddick snapping a 23-race winless skid, the top seven drivers are separated by 56 points entering Talladega Superspeedway.

“It’s unfortunate that we didn’t close the gap more because there was opportunity to do it,” Gayle indicated. “We were sitting in the spot to do that before the flat tire. It is what it is – there’s three more. All you can do is the best you can every week. As long as you don’t leave anything on the table that you knew you should have done, lay your head down at night and however it all plays out in the next three, it will play out.”

Hamlin has recorded three top-10 finishes in nine Next Gen starts at Talladega. From there, the series heads to his bread-and-butter track, Martinsville Speedway, for the penultimate race of the season before the championship is decided at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The 64-time Cup winner has multiple victories at all three venues throughout his Hall of Fame-worthy career.

“It’s not over,” Gayle stressed.

Posted on October 18, 2026October 20, 2026 by Dustin Albino

AVONDALE, Ariz. – Kyle Larson has twice reached the pinnacle of his NASCAR Cup Series career at Phoenix Raceway, capturing a pair of championships at the Arizona oval. Still, the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team left no stone unturned, dedicating as much time and effort to its preparation this weekend as it does for any race on the schedule.

That investment didn’t translate into results during Sunday’s Freeway Insurance 500. Larson’s torrid pace through the opening six Chase presented by Mobil 1 races, highlighted by a 2.8 average finish, came to an abrupt halt.

MORE: Race results | Phoenix weekend schedule

“We put as much effort into this race as we have for a Phoenix race, really, ever – and that’s a lot to say because typically Phoenix is the championship race,” Cliff Daniels, crew chief for the No. 5 team, said to a group of media members after Larson DNF’d with a tire failure and was credited with a 34th-place finish. “We put a lot of hard work into it. I’m a big believer that the Good Lord has us right where we’re supposed to be, and sometimes you have difficulty, you have struggles. Today was a terrible day. Our car was way off, don’t know why, because we had done a lot of work in the sim.

“Kyle, to his credit, was really invested in it, and we were too as a team. We thought we were solving for something correctly from where we’ve been here in the past. It obviously didn’t come together today.”

Larson sounded the alarm throughout the week, repeatedly acknowledging that the 1-mile oval hasn’t historically been one of his strongest tracks. Yet when the checkered flag waved in previous instances, the No. 5 team had capitalized on every opportunity, extending its streak to three consecutive third-place finishes and four straight top fives entering this weekend.

From the moment the track opened for practice Saturday, Larson and the No. 5 Chevrolet appeared a tick behind, especially compared to his primary championship rivals, who swept the top five starting spots in qualifying. Larson could manage only the 22nd-fastest lap in time trials.

When the green flag waved Sunday, Larson made early progress, climbing five positions in the opening four laps. By the end of Stage 1, however, he had slipped back to 22nd after a two-tire gamble briefly brought him inside the top five.

His struggles intensified during a lengthy green-flag run in Stage 2, as Larson fell a lap down and dropped to 28th. A caution on Lap 157 allowed him to take the wave-around and return to the lead lap, which he managed to maintain — barely — through the end of the stage.

An extended pit stop at the end of Stage 2 allowed Daniels to make a massive swing, hoping to find answers.

“We threw so many things at that car, that man, I’m just waiting to see a sign of life, and I don’t know that we made it a lot better,” Daniels added. “Don’t know why, very unfortunate. I very much give Kyle a lot of credit for not cussing me out or quitting, all the things that he could have done – he kept fighting, too. Just an ugly day.”

During another round of green-flag pit stops, Larson pitted early and climbed to 16th in the running order. He quickly slipped back to 17th behind Austin Cindric before suffering a right-front tire failure on Lap 281, 31 laps shy of the finish.

Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR Digital Media

“I went to the brakes into [Turn] 1 and the right front was down,” Larson said from the infield care center, “so couldn’t slow down and along for the ride.”

Larson wasn’t stunned by the No. 5 team’s struggles at Phoenix. But just how much the Daniels-led group missed the mark was puzzling, particularly given its knack for finding solutions during the heat of battle.

“I didn’t expect to be good, but I didn’t expect to be that bad either,” Larson added. “We were just trying to fight as much as we could and scratch and claw for whatever finish we were going to get.”

MORE: Cup Series standings | Cup Series schedule

Daniels was surprised the team had run the tire pressure too low. He noted that the No. 5 team had a full pound more air pressure in its tires than it did during last year’s Championship 4 race, when Larson also suffered a tire failure.

Daniels said: “I thought we had margin in the tank there and obviously we didn’t.”

With Larson scoring just three points, the competition ate into their deficits. The reigning champ now holds a five-point lead over Christopher Bell while Chase Briscoe (minus-24), Denny Hamlin (minus-31), Ryan Blaney (minus-40), Joey Logano (minus-44) and Tyler Reddick (minus-56) are all in the mix with three races remaining.

As Daniels explained, having a misstep isn’t uncommon for the No. 5 team.

“If you plot the average finishing position of the 5 team, ever, it looks just like this,” Daniels noted. “We’re OK, and we have a lot of strength; we have a lot of poise. We are not fearful of what’s ahead. We’re going to keep fighting hard.

“I know Talladega is a tough one next, but we are typically capable of putting together two-thirds of a really good race at Talladega. Now we just need to put all three of the thirds together. Martinsville, we will be OK, and Homestead, it’s game on. Three more races, we’re going to be strong, we’re going to be tough.”

All 15 of Larson’s fellow Chase competitors gained at least 12 points on the championship leader at Phoenix. Tyler Reddick, who earned his first victory since mid-April, made the biggest move, gaining 58 points and cutting more than half of his 114-point deficit. Larson’s average race over the last seven races ballooned to 7.3.

Posted on October 18, 2026October 18, 2026 by Reid Spencer

AVONDALE, Ariz. — After a phenomenal start to the 2026 season, followed by an agonizing dry spell, Tyler Reddick returned to Victory Lane on Sunday — and simultaneously did NASCAR Cup Series leader Kyle Larson a significant favor.

Snookering the top contenders in The Chase presented by Mobil 1 after a restart on Lap 294, Reddick surged past Chase Briscoe and into the lead a lap later, pulling away to beat runner-up Ryan Blaney by 0.801 seconds in the Freeway Insurance 500 as Briscoe faded to eighth on older tires.

Reddick’s sixth win of the season and first at Phoenix Raceway, combined with Larson’s catastrophic 34th-place result, brought seven drivers into the mix for the series championship with three races left.

The driver of the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota won five of the first nine races this season, including the first three, but since then had endured a winless streak of 23 races.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Phoenix

“That’s way too long,” a relieved Reddick said after performing a massive celebratory burnout in front of the main grandstand. “Man, the way we worked there, I mean, thinking of Phoenix, we wanted to be a lot better when we came back here (after the March race). I think we checked that box.

“For us, this group never lost motivation, never lost the drive to keep searching and keep trying to find ways to make ourselves better, just be an all-around better team … Just something about today, I had a really good feeling. Practice was amazing. Yeah, we’re back to Victory Lane.”

Before Sunday’s race at the 1-mile speedway, Larson led second-place Denny Hamlin by 49 points with four races left in the postseason. After Reddick won for the 14th time in his career, there are now six drivers within 56 points of The Chase leader.

Fourth-place finisher Christopher Bell climbed one spot in the standings and trails Larson by five points, having trimmed 46 points from his previous deficit to the driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

SHOP: Winner gear

“We’re right there in it,” said Bell, who led a race-high 85 laps and finished third in each of the first two stages. “Really proud of our team. They’ve been doing a really good job of bringing fast race cars, executing races. We’ve been able to qualify well and run up front in stages.

“I felt like our performance probably tapered off a little bit as the day went on. We had the strategy to put tires there at the end, had good restarts to get some track position. We’re in the hunt.”

Briscoe is 24 points back in third place, followed by Hamlin, who fell from second to fourth but gained 18 points to 31 back, despite a blown tire that relegated him to 28th at the finish.

“The beginning was not great, and once we got back in traffic, I thought the second half of the race we were really strong,” said Hamlin, who was trapped a lap down after pitting with a shredded tire on Lap 221 and incurring a speeding penalty.

“Could contend for the win. Just right there with the 19 (Briscoe) when the tire blew (while battling) for third.”

Blaney, the pole winner, is 40 points in arrears, followed by Team Penske teammate Joey Logano, who swept the first two stages of Sunday’s race and is 44 points behind Larson after a sixth-place run.

“It was good and bad, I guess,” said Logano, who led 84 laps but lost track position on pit road. “The good part is that we were fast and led a bunch of laps and won two stages.

“The bad part is we gave away a win. That part hurts a little bit, but I guess we made up close to 50 points to the leader, so you can’t be too mad about it. I wish we had it back.”

After qualifying 22nd, Larson struggled from the outset in a car that lacked speed. Despite a two-tire call that vaulted him temporarily to fifth, Larson remained 22nd at the end of Stage 1. From that point, his race went from bad to worse.

On Lap 283, Larson blew a tire in Turn 1, slammed the outside wall and retired from the event, scoring just three points for his efforts, compared with Reddick, who notched 61.

MORE: What happened to Larson | What happened to Hamlin

“We never found the improvements we needed, so that was a bummer,” Larson said. “I didn’t expect to be good, but I didn’t expect to be that bad either. It wasn’t a lot of fun today, but we were just trying to salvage what we could of the day.

“We’ll go to Talladega and try to forget about today and get back after it. We’ve done well at the superspeedways, so hopefully we can execute, get some points and keep ourselves in the hunt.”

The only saving grace for Larson was that Reddick’s win kept him in the series lead. Either Bell, Briscoe or Hamlin could have taken the top spot in The Chase with a victory.

Larson’s teammate, Chase Elliott, finished third but remains 149 points out of The Chase lead. Reddick’s teammate, Bubba Wallace, led 52 laps and had control of the race in the final stage before a pit road speeding penalty under caution for Larson’s accident knocked him back to 17th at the finish.

Corey Heim came home fifth, followed by Logano, Daniel Suárez, Briscoe, Ross Chastain and Ty Gibbs.

All told, there were six cautions for 43 laps and 21 lead changes among 10 drivers. Reddick led only the final 18 laps after a lane opened up for him soon after the final restart.

“Yeah, just got really fortunate,” Reddick said. “I didn’t have a good launch. There was a hole. I was able to get through it. I thought the 19 (Briscoe) was going to be able to cover the move into (Turn) 3.

“I got him loose. We checked out.”

The NASCAR Cup Chase continues next Sunday with the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway (2 p.m. ET, NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Stage 2 recap: Logano sweeps the first two segments

Joey Logano swept the stages in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Chase race at Phoenix Raceway, earning max points in the first two frames. The race is the seventh of 10 postseason events in The Chase presented by Mobil 1.

Chase Briscoe finished second, followed by Christopher Bell, Josh Berry and Bubba Wallace. Ryan Blaney, Tyler Reddick, Denny Hamlin, Todd Gilliland and Chase Elliott rounded out the top 10 and points earners.

RELATED: At-track photos: Phoenix

Logano held serve after pit stops during the Stage 1 break, restarting from the top spot after taking right-side tires.

But that advantage didn’t last long as Bell snuck past the three-time champion in Turn 2 to take his first lead of the afternoon on Lap 69.

Bell jolted ahead to a multi-second advantage, but as the stint progressed and tires began to wear out, Logano reeled the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Bell darted for pit road on Lap 123, taking four fresh Goodyear tires and fuel and handing the lead to Logano.

Hamlin pitted moments later from just outside the top 10, executing a clean four-tire stop after a hang-up on the left-rear last time down.

MORE: Full Stage 2 results | Watch Logano sweep the stages

Midway through service, Brad Keselowski spun entering pit road, nudging the rear of Connor Zilisch’s No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet. The race stayed green.

Blaney pitted on Lap 127, along with Larson — who continued plummeting through the field. Logano surrendered the lead for service a lap later, and Bell cycled back to the lead with the No. 22 Team Penske Ford seven seconds behind him – but with a tire advantage.

Larson, who entered Sunday’s race with the series lead, cycled to 27th, a lap down and multiple spots behind the free-pass position.

On Lap 157, Austin Dillon suffered a flat tire entering Turn 3, bringing out the second caution for incident of the afternoon.

The leaders came down pit road for service, with most drivers electing to take four tires. Logano eked past Bell as the first car off, setting him up for the lead on the restart.

Because all lead-lap cars pitted, that allowed for Larson to take the wave around and return to the lead lap — a key development for the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet near the race’s midpoint.

Logano held serve on the restart as Briscoe jumped into second, the highest the No. 19 driver has run in his quest for three straight wins.

With 15 laps left in the stage, John Hunter Nemechek suffered a tire issue, but nursed his No. 42 Legacy Motor Club Toyota to pit road, and the race stayed green the rest of the frame.

Stage 1 recap: Logano wins opening frame

Joey Logano won Stage 1 of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Chase race at Phoenix Raceway, leading the final nine laps of the opening frame in the desert.

Denny Hamlin finished second by a hair over Christopher Bell, followed by Ryan Blaney and Chase Briscoe. William Byron, Chase Elliott, Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick and Josh Berry rounded out the top 10 and points earners.

MORE: Full Stage 1 results | Watch Logano win Stage 1

Blaney, the polesitter, jumped out to the lead on the initial start and paced the first 44 laps until the first caution of the afternoon. Michael McDowell and Riley Herbst crashed in Turn 4 while battling for 20th, Herbst contacting the No. 71 Chevrolet from behind after close-quarters racing down the backstretch.

That resulted in the first batch of pit stops. Hamlin, Byron and Elliott each took two tires and were the first three drivers off pit road. Larson, who started 22nd and gained only a minuscule position during the first stint, also took two and lined up fifth. Blaney had a slow four-tire stop and dropped to eighth in the running order.

But it was Logano, who elected for four tires, who passed Hamlin on Lap 51 to win the stage. Larson struggled on two tires and plummeted back to 22nd, where he started the 312-lap event and did not earn points.

Note: Post-race inspection was completed in the Cup Series garage with no issues, confirming Reddick as the Phoenix winner.

Contributing: Staff report

Posted on October 18, 2026October 18, 2026 by Staff Report

The NASCAR national series head west for a pivotal weekend at Phoenix Raceway as The Chase presented by Mobil 1 enters its final four races across all three divisions. The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series opens the action Friday night, followed by the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series on Saturday and the NASCAR Cup Series on Sunday. Phoenix marks the second of five straight tripleheader weekends to close the 2026 season. This weekend also marks the first time since 2019 that the 1-mile Arizona oval will not host the Cup Series season finale, with that distinction shifting to Homestead-Miami Speedway. Bookmark this page and return often for your race-week essentials, from qualifying orders, pit stalls, results and more.

NASCAR Cup Series

Race day: Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on USA Network. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information becomes available.

Tires: Eleven total sets — eight new sets for the race, two for practice and one for qualifying that transfers to the race.

Entry List
Qualifying Order
Practice Results
Practice Lap Averages
Practice Lap Times
Starting Lineup
Pit Stalls
Stage 1 Results
Stage 2 Results
Race Results

NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series

Race day: Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET on The CW. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information becomes available.

Tires: Five total sets — three new sets for the race, one for practice and one for qualifying that transfers to the race.

Entry List
Qualifying Order
Practice Results
Practice Lap Averages
Practice Lap Times
Starting Lineup
Pit Stalls
Stage 1 Results
Stage 2 Results
Race Results

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series

Race day: Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information becomes available.

Tires: Five total sets — three new sets for the race, one for practice and one for qualifying that transfers to the race.

Entry List
Qualifying Order
Practice Results
Practice Lap Averages
Practice Lap Times
Starting Lineup
Pit Stalls
Stage 1 Results
Stage 2 Results
Race Results

Posted on October 18, 2026October 18, 2026 by Dustin Albino

AVONDALE, Ariz. – Winning the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series championship may have slipped out of reach for William Byron and the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team, but the powerhouse group has no intention of letting the season fizzle out, remaining determined to finish the year on a high note.

“I’m showing up every week like we can win,” Byron said on Saturday in a media scrum when asked if the No. 24 team is in research and development form. “I certainly have no indication that we’re in that mode. We’re going out, trying to win. We certainly don’t want to go winless.”

RELATED: Starting lineup | At-track photos

Aside from an engine failure to kickstart The Chase presented by Mobil 1 at Darlington Raceway and being an innocent bystander of a wreck involving Alex Bowman and Bubba Wallace in the closing laps of Stage 1 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the No. 24 team has strung together top-10 finishes. It began with a fourth-place outing at World Wide Technology Raceway, with HMS putting three cars inside the top five, led by Kyle Larson snapping a 51-race winless drought. Byron backed that performance up with finishes of ninth at Bristol Motor Speedway, seventh at Kansas Speedway and sixth at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The four straight top 10s tied his longest run of the season.

Rudy Fugle, crew chief of the No. 24 group, believes that since the series regrouped from an off week in early August, Byron and Co. have been hitting its stride. He would argue it’s the best the team has performed all year.

“Really, it’s the best part of our season,” Fugle told NASCAR.com at Phoenix regarding The Chase. “Really, our season hasn’t gone great, but we’ve strived since the Indy to Iowa break and have done really well. We want to achieve higher and consistently run in the top three to five – and that’s our goal. That experience of getting used to and hunger to win races will come out, and we should be able to sneak out a win.

“We’ve been that seventh-place car since that Indy/Iowa break, and we just need to make that next jump. It’s super hard this time of the year with these guys dogfighting for a championship; they are going to bring a whole lot of car potential.”

MORE: Cup Series standings

Byron has scored victories at three of the final four venues on the 2026 schedule. Next week will mark a full calendar year since the No. 24 team last sipped champagne in Victory Lane, stomping the field at Martinsville Speedway by leading a career-high 304 laps.

While Byron believes a victory remains within reach over the final month of the 2026 campaign, he’s not ready to call the No. 24 team’s recent stretch its strongest of the season.

“I think we’ve been solid. We haven’t had winning speed,” Byron noted. “I think there were flashes of more winning speed at Chicagoland (Speedway), Pocono (Raceway) and Vegas in the spring; we were close – top two. I don’t think we’ve had winning speed these last few weeks, but we’ve been solid, and there’s something to be said about that. Finishing solid is good.

“We haven’t scored a lot of stage points, so I wouldn’t say our speed and handling has been good enough to score a lot of stage points in bunches, which is what it takes to climb the standings nowadays.”

Meg Oliphant | Getty Images

After the first six Chase races, Byron sits 13th in the championship standings, the same seed he entered the postseason.

Phoenix marks the final race in which Byron will represent the Axalta colors, as the company is rebranding to Axanzo in early 2027. The 16-time Cup winner is running a Jeff Gordon, vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, throwback scheme from the 2013 season this weekend to commemorate the partnership with the coating systems company.

“It seems like they nailed the gradient on the front, so the fans were happy about that,” Byron said of his Phoenix scheme. “Really sharp-looking race car; a lot of detail went into this paint scheme, which Axalta has always been known for a lot of detail and a lot of strong paint schemes.”

The Axanzo rebrand will introduce a new orange-based paint scheme in 2027, though keeping the flames hasn’t been ruled out.

Sunday’s Chase race at Phoenix is set for 3 p.m. ET (USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on October 17, 2026October 19, 2026 by Reid Spencer

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Last November at Phoenix Raceway, Jesse Love won the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series championship.

On Saturday at the same 1-mile track, he may have done it again with a victory in the Timberland PRO 200.

Unlike last year, however, there are three races left in the O’Reilly Series Chase presented by Mobil 1, run under a new nine-race format this season. But with his second win at Phoenix, his second this season and the fifth of his career, Love established himself as the convincing frontrunner for the series title.

In a race that spelled disaster for former Chase leader Sheldon Creed, Love opened a 36-point lead over second-place Justin Allgaier, who finished third. Fourth-place finisher Corey Day is 39 points behind in third, with Creed falling to fourth in the standings, 59 points back, after finishing 32nd, two laps down.

RELATED: Race results | Best Phoenix photos

“I would say it’s a day we prepared for, not just dreamed of,” Love said after climbing from his car. “I’ve got a great group around me, just preparing me to be in these situations, to be calm, cool and collected.

“I’ve learned from a lot of mistakes that allow me to execute at a high-level at a track like this. I’ve been here, it feels like, a million times… Grateful to the fans for coming out. It’s my favorite race track. I love coming to Arizona—I’m a West Coast kid.”

The 21-year-old from Clovis, California, swept the first and second stages and led 156 of 200 laps, scoring 75 points for his efforts—one short of the maximum. The statistics, however, don’t tell the story. Over the final 35-lap green-flag run, race runner-up Sam Mayer hounded the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet all the way to the finish line.

Gaining ground over the final two laps, Mayer got to Love’s bumper off the final corner but finished 0.128 seconds behind the race winner. Mayer’s effort was all the more spectacular, given that his No. 41 Haas Factory Team Chevrolet started the race from the rear of the field after an engine change.

“Hats off to them, man,” Love said. “The 41 team did a great job coming from the back and making their car better. Honestly, it felt like they were a little better than we were at the end. I was having to just drive a lot over the tire to make any sort of lap time.

“I’m just grateful to be in a situation to win races. I’ve got a great pit crew who just maul everybody on pit road every week. It makes my job a lot easier. I’m really proud of the whole group.”

Mayer, who remained sixth in The Chase standings, 86 points behind Love, knew he had narrowly missed an important opportunity.

“Good job to him (Love)—he drove a great race,” Mayer said. “We definitely pressured him the whole time. It came down to making a mistake or not, and he executed really well. Really close…

“The Hendrick Engine shop brought a really good engine for us—two of them, technically I guess, ’cause we blew one up. I haven’t had fun this year like that. That was just a lot of fun. It was just great racing, and hopefully we put on a show for everyone at home.

“That’s some pretty big championship implications if we could have won that one. I’m looking at the numbers right here, and they look pretty ugly for the old 41 and, honestly, the 00 (Creed), too.”

Creed, who entered the race with a two-point Chase lead, finished second to Love in the first stage with no idea what was about to happen to his car. During the caution for the stage break, a “kill switch” malfunction shut off the engine of his Chevrolet, and Creed lost three laps on pit road as his crew tried to get the car to refire.

MORE: Creed loses power early | Creed looks to rebound after Phoenix

It was only through attrition that Creed climbed from 37th to 32nd at the finish.

Sammy Smith finished fifth, followed by Brandon Jones, who lost a lap early after a move to wet tires during a brief shower in the first stage. Dean Thompson, William Sawalich, Rajah Caruth and Carson Kvapil finished seventh through 10th, respectively.

Next up for the O’Reilly Series drivers is The Progress Group 250 on Oct. 24 at Talladega Superspeedway (3:30 p.m. ET, The CW, ESPN Unlimited, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series garage, confirming Love as the Phoenix winner. The No. 42 Chevrolet had one lug nut not safe and secure, resulting in the loss of pit selection at Talladega.

Posted on October 17, 2026October 18, 2026 by Zack Albert

AVONDALE, Ariz. – Sheldon Creed’s lead in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Chase disappeared with the flip of a switch.

Creed’s mood-dampening 32nd-place finish Saturday at Phoenix Raceway altered the complexion of the postseason with just three races left in the 2026 campaign, opening an avenue for defending series champ Jesse Love to grab the reins with a dominating victory in the Timberland Pro 200. Creed entered Saturday’s 200-miler two points up on Love, but tumbled to fourth place in the O’Reilly Series standings with a 59-point deficit to overcome.

The culprit? An ignition glitch that caused Creed’s No. 00 Haas Factory Team Chevrolet to sputter out of power as he tried to save fuel during the Stage 1 intermission. When Creed hit the switch to shut the engine off as a fuel-conservation measure, the car would not re-fire.

The 29-year-old driver lost three laps after a wrecker pushed the No. 00 Chevy back to pit road and after his HFT crew scrambled under the hood trying to diagnose the gremlin. He only regained one of those lost laps before the checkered flag.

“Yeah, I mean just normal under caution, shutting it off and firing it back up, and yeah, shut it off there in the middle of (Turns) 1 and 2, and I went to re-fire, and there was nothing,” said Creed, who started fourth and finished second to Love after the first stage. “Then I recycled the power a few different times, and then yeah, I got to pit road, sort of looking at everything, and then started messing with the steering wheel buttons and everything, and then it just refired. So I didn’t shut it off the rest of the night. Yeah, bummer. Our car was really fast, especially after we got to work on it that first run.”

No. 00 crew chief Jonathan Toney was also among those looking for answers, hoping they might arrive in the days ahead.

“I think when we get to the shop, we’ll dig into it and figure out exactly what happened,” Toney told NASCAR.com. “It was something in the ignition that cut it off, and we were able to kind of reset things and get it to fire back up and luckily didn’t have any more issues the rest of the night. But man, had a really good Ollie’s Chevrolet for sure, and Sheldon did a good job getting back up there. We just needed a couple more cautions to kind of help get back a couple of those laps. When you lose two or three laps like that, it just … you’re just kind of along for the ride at that point.”

Creed had quickly risen to the top of the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series heap, starting off The Chase presented by Mobil 1 with finishes of first, second and first in the opening three races. The rest of the 12-driver postseason field had made incremental gains in the last two races, when Creed placed 13th at Las Vegas and then came home third with just one stage point added to his total last Sunday at Charlotte.

That advantage has suddenly transformed into negative numbers, with three vastly different tracks remaining on the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series schedule – Talladega Superspeedway next Saturday, Martinsville Speedway on Oct. 31 and the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 7.

Meg Oliphant | Getty Images

“Yeah, just move on,” said Creed, asked how he’d regroup. “I mean, it’s Talladega, so anything can happen. Martinsville, we’ve been pretty decent at over the years, and Homestead, I know we’ll be good. So yeah, I look forward to all of them. Bummer that it worked out this way, but honestly, I’m happy our car was really fast all night. I wish I could have got up there, and I wish I could have battled with the 2 (Love) all night.”

The roles will be flipped for Creed come next Saturday at Talladega (3:30 p.m. ET, The CW, ESPN Unlimited, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), where the Haas Factory Team driver will be a pursuer instead of a points protector. Instead of complicating the team’s Chase strategy, Toney says it actually makes it more fundamental.

“I mean, I think you go in there to Talladega with hope because chaos can happen, right?” Toney said. “Go to Martinsville, too. Chaos can happen, and I’ve told him that my goal was honestly, if we can start the last stage at Homestead within 19 points or less, I’ll put it on my man’s shoulders to go out there and win the race at Homestead, and if we do that, we win the championship. So it kind of simplifies it in a way: We’ve gotta go win three races. So we go win three races and get stage points, then we’ll be where we need to be.

“So you know, it’s disheartening from the standpoint of just having bad luck, but I try to look at the bright thing. We had a fast race car, and if we continue to do that and put our guy in position, then anything can happen.”

Posted on October 17, 2026October 18, 2026 by Zack Albert

Note: The No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driven by Ty Gibbs will start from the rear due to unapproved adjustments, NASCAR announced Sunday.

Track: Phoenix Raceway
Location: Avondale, Arizona
Track length: 1 mile
When: 3 p.m. ET
Where to tune in: USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Race purse: $11,233,037
Race distance: 312 laps | 312 miles
Stages: 60 | 185 | 312
Sunday’s starting lineup | Pit stall assignments

Chase hopes hinge on Phoenix opportunity

AVONDALE, Ariz. — It’s a smidge different returning to Phoenix Raceway in the fall this time around, marking the first time since 2019 that the 1-mile track isn’t the host of championship weekend. That slot on the schedule goes back to Homestead-Miami Speedway this year, but finale or not, Phoenix still looms as a pivotal postseason venue for the NASCAR Cup Series – even if it’s taking some getting used to.

“It’s usually like the last-day-of-school moments, right, when you come to Phoenix,” said 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace. “So yeah, we’ve still got three more races after this, but definitely is interesting.”

Sunday’s Freeway Insurance 500 (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) marks the seventh of 10 races in The Chase presented by Mobil 1. While the 312-lap showdown in the desert won’t decide the championship outright, as it did six times in the playoff era’s elimination-style system, an ever-so-compelling pursuit of points is on the table as the new-look Chase format nears its crescendo. It’s a familiar, crucial spot on the calendar for Phoenix, which hosted the circuit’s penultimate race for years after joining the Cup Series schedule in 1988.

MORE: Weekend schedule | At-track photos: Phoenix

One holdover from the last time the postseason was here: Kyle Larson is in front of Denny Hamlin. Last November, that positioning was especially painful as Larson lunged to his second Cup title, making the most of a split in pit strategies and denying Hamlin again in the final battle for the Bill France Cup. This time, Phoenix isn’t winner-take-all, but the window for Hamlin to make substantial gains on Larson’s 49-point advantage is becoming narrower.

“No desperation, but the gap needs to close starting now,” Hamlin said. “That’s probably pretty accurate with our position. Then just to get back on our front foot. I think that you have to start by winning the day and then go from there. But ultimately, with the races winding down, we’ve got to start chopping into this.”

The Chase contenders made at least signs of a preliminary trim in Saturday’s qualifying session, when Larson stumbled to a 22nd-place starting spot after a bobble during his timed lap. All of his closest challengers, meanwhile, thrived. Team Penske drivers Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano swept the front row to give themselves prime footing for the “must-win” situation they’re in, and Joe Gibbs Racing drivers rounded out the top five, with Chase Briscoe, Hamlin and Christopher Bell (in order) all savoring starting berths further up the grid.

Bell lurks third in the Cup standings with a 51-point deficit, but also with a reputation for accumulating runner-up finishes this year – including a heart-stopper last weekend at Charlotte. Behind that lead trio are two drivers carrying separate bids for three in a row – Briscoe (minus-65) and Blaney (minus-85), whose streaks could help sway the complexion of The Chase for both.

Briscoe is vying for his third consecutive Cup Series win in Sunday’s event, having closed out a white-hot scorch through the three-race stretch of 1.5-mile tracks with finishes of fourth, first and first. Phoenix was the site of his first Cup Series victory during his sophomore season in 2022, but his last seven races here have failed to produce a top five, with a series of tire-pressure issues thwarting those efforts in the last three Phoenix events.

RELATED: Saturday recap

“We’ve been really, really strong here. Just been a matter of keeping air in the tires and them not blowing,” Briscoe said. “I know that we’ve brought a different approach, at least that’s the plan. So we’ll find out, I guess, here in a little bit if that plan worked out.”

Blaney’s streak is more Phoenix-specific, with victories in the tour’s two most recent visits to the Southwest. The track historically has been friendly to his Team Penske outfit, home to clinching performances in title runs for himself in 2023, and teammate Joey Logano in 2022 and 2024.

Making strides in the pursuit of Larson has been made more difficult by the No. 5 team’s near-flawless execution and an impeccable 2.83 average finish through the postseason’s first half-dozen races. Blaney, for one, isn’t waiting for Larson to tumble back to earth.

“No, I’m treating it as they’re not gonna have a mistake and we have to go win races to catch him,” Blaney said before scoring his fourth Phoenix pole and his fifth of the season. “It could go either way. Everyone is like, ‘Oh, the law of averages, he’s gonna have a bad weekend,’ but they might not, and if they don’t, then props, 100 percent. You did a heck of a job. You really whooped up on everybody, so that’s my mindset is they are not going to have a bad week and we have to capitalize on it. If he fifths it out the rest of the way, we have to go win a couple at least to try to get there. That’s where our mindset is at.”

The last two races here have also boiled down to a split in pit-stop strategy, with right-side tires only being the winning ticket over four-tire stops in the closing laps. Larson downed Hamlin in the 2025 championship contest after a two-tire stop provided track position, and Bell’s dominant performance here last spring was short-circuited after a four-tire stop in the late going resulted in the first of his eight second-place finishes this year.

Sean Gardner | Getty Images

Leadership skills: Setting the Phoenix pace

Sunday’s race will mark the 10th Phoenix race for the Next Gen car platform that debuted in the 2022 season. The nine events in the books so far have produced an elite list of Cup Series pros who have a tendency to be out front – and usually win.

Seven of the top eight lap leaders at Phoenix in the Next Gen era are firmly in The Chase field, aiming to pad their numbers in Sunday’s 312-miler.

Driver	Next Gen laps led	Best Next Gen finish
Christopher Bell	474	1st (spring 2024, spring 2025)
Joey Logano	452	1st (fall 2022, fall 2024)
William Byron	326	1st (spring 2023)
Ryan Blaney	314	1st (fall 2025, spring 2026)
Denny Hamlin	298	2nd (spring 2025)
Kyle Larson	216	3rd (fall 2023, both 2025 races, spring 2026)
Ross Chastain	158	1st (fall 2023)
Chase Briscoe	117	1st (spring 2022)

Speed reads

Race-day essentials:

• Phoenix hub: Weekend information, pit stalls, additional results | Read more
• Sunday Setup: Crew chiefs put the brakes on Phoenix prep | Read more
• Paint Scheme Preview: Hot designs in the desert for all three series | View gallery
• Neil Paine: Briscoe’s recent run gives Kyle Larson an unintended lift | Read more
• NASCAR Classics: Dive into the video vault with full-race replays from Phoenix | Watch now
• Power Rankings: Blaney banking on further Phoenix success | This week’s ranks

Posted on October 17, 2026October 17, 2026 by Staff Report

See where your favorite NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series drivers will pit this weekend in a Chase tripleheader at Phoenix Raceway.

NASCAR Cup Series

NASCAR Cup Series Freeway Insurance 500 at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series

NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Timberland PRO 200 at Phoenix Raceway on Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, ESPN Unlimited, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: How to watch NASCAR on The CW

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Zero Carbon Bioethanol 150 Powered by POET at Phoenix Raceway on Friday (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, FOX One, NASCAR Racing Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on October 17, 2026 by Dustin Albino

AVONDALE, Ariz. — After multiple brake failures last month at World Wide Technology Raceway, NASCAR allowed Cup Series teams to replace front brake rotors and pads after Saturday’s practice and qualifying at Phoenix Raceway. Teams will be permitted to inspect rear rotors, per normal procedures, while making pre-race adjustments on Sunday.

Crew chiefs throughout the Cup Series garage are expecting all teams to cash in on that opportunity to make the approved modification.

“You are going to change, for sure,” Rudy Fugle, crew chief for William Byron’s No. 24 Chevrolet, told NASCAR.com. “I think the entire field will be changing just to have that fresh rotor, fresh pad and have the comfort and ease the mind that you are going to have enough.”

“I don’t know why you wouldn’t just check the box and eliminate an unknown,” added Jonathan Hassler, crew chief for Ryan Blaney, the two-time defending winner at the 1-mile oval.

Historically, Phoenix has been a venue that has been rough on brake pads. Catastrophic failures have been less common at Phoenix than at other tracks with significant braking demands, including Gateway, Iowa Speedway and Nashville Superspeedway.

Fugle views Phoenix as a blend of Iowa and Gateway, though the Arizona oval presents its own unique challenges. Entering Turn 3 requires heavy braking, albeit not to the same degree as Gateway, where longer straightaways allow the brakes to cool before the next application, creating thermal shock. At Phoenix, the challenge lies in the frequency of brake usage throughout an entire lap, which can generate significant vibration and increase the risk of overheating.

“[Phoenix] is tough because you hold on to the brake longer to help your handling,” Fugle noted. “You have a hard time getting off them, so you drag a little more duration and brake usage that way if your handling is not good. With the added power, a lot of the issues this year was us not getting the setups right. Hopefully, that tames it down a little bit.”

The challenge has intensified this season with NASCAR’s move to a 750-horsepower, lower-downforce configuration at tracks shorter than 1.5 miles.

Finding the right balance is difficult, especially as crew chiefs tape up their cars, trying to gain an aerodynamic advantage. External factors can also contribute to brake failures, including a malfunctioning cooling fan or damage sustained during an on-track incident. Plus, they have a single 50-minute practice session to make an educated guess on which direction to go come race day.

“A lot of it comes down to trying to guestimate with our 50-minute practices and short sessions on track of how to get the temperatures in the rotors perfect,” Fugle said, “and the temperature in the caliper is separate from that cooler, so the caliper and the pedal feels good. Sometimes, we just miss.”

Hassler learned valuable lessons from the No. 12 car blowing a right-front rotor at Gateway while Blaney was running inside the top five. That proved to be costly, as it was the first of consecutive DNFs during The Chase presented by Mobil 1.

MORE: Blaney feels Phoenix is a must-win to keep title hopes alive

The good news for Hassler is that this brake package has been used at Phoenix several times before. He’s familiar with its demands and, more importantly, knows what it takes to succeed with it.

“We know what to expect,” he said emphatically. “The big difference is the extra practice time will sort of mitigate that with the ability to change the rotors before the race. I feel pretty confident.”

Neither crew chief expects problems with the rear rotors, which teams may inspect during Sunday’s pre-race adjustments. But no stone will be left unturned as teams extract maximum performance.

“I think with the rears, there is a slim chance,” Fugle elaborated. “But you will check them out for sure.”

The No. 12 team will have track position from the green flag on Sunday, as Blaney won his fifth Busch Light pole award of the 2026 season. Byron rounds out the top 10, the best of the four Hendrick Motorsports entries.