Posted on by Cameron Richardson

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Four races into a rookie campaign should come with its learning moments and an abundance of room for growth and improvement.

At just 19 years old, it only took a month into the 2024 Xfinity Series season for Jesse Love to score his first top-five finish: a runner-up Saturday afternoon at Phoenix Raceway.

Love nearly ran all 200 miles inside the top 10, making a beeline for his first milestone result. But then two golden opportunities sprouted for him to turn an almost guaranteed top 10 into an even better finish.

RELATED: Phoenix results | At-track photos

With 57 laps to go, a multicar wreck down the backstretch collected heavy hitters such as John Hunter Nemechek, Sam Mayer and Riley Herbst. Love was able to squeak by the melee and found himself immediately inside the top five.

As the race wound down, Love was in a hotly contested tilt for third place with Sheldon Creed, Love’s predecessor in the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.

With Love and Creed going 12 rounds for a podium spot, then-leader Justin Allgaier cut a left-rear tire, flipping the script of the race.

Starting on the second row behind Creed, Love said he had a race win in sight, but by the time the field entered Turn 1 on the overtime restart, Chandler Smith set sail for the eventual race victory.

“I thought I had it 100 percent. I have a lot of confidence on restarts and when that caution came out I was like ‘it’s mine,’ ” Love said. “I just got a little hitched up into [Turns] one and two there. I just didn’t have the real estate I needed to get to the 18 (Creed) or 81 (Smith). And yeah, we were able to get by the 18 there, which was good for our guys and morale, but I wanted that one pretty bad. So I’m trying to be genuine about it and express some of my frustration, right? But at the same time I’m, I’m pumped to be here and I’m pumped to have had a good run. It’s something to build off.”

Love’s first month has been a whirlwind and he’s been thrown into the fire immediately in dealing with multiple scenarios. He put the No. 2 on the pole in his first two career Xfinity starts at Daytona and Atlanta, and led a whopping 157 of 169 laps in the Peach State.

However, those races only amassed a best finish of 12th after Love ran out of fuel in the closing laps at Atlanta.

After pit-road mistakes at Las Vegas last weekend resulted in a pedestrian 17th-place result, Love took a more conservative approach for Phoenix.

“I think that’s that my 90 percent’s enough,” Love said. “I try to just race that 90 percent today and have a good day and maybe if I was rambunctious, I probably could have had a better shot to win, but we needed to have a good run and have a drama-free day.”

At such a young age where growing pains are bound to happen racing at a high level, Love kept his poise all afternoon around the 1-mile Arizona oval and was awarded with the second-place result over Creed on the final lap.

“I think it’s pretty obvious to say I wanted to get that position,” Love said. “I thought my car was better than his. “I just could not pass and he’s hard to pass. Sheldon is really good at being a race-car driver, as everybody knows, right? He’s hard to pass and he puts his car in good spots that are bad for me. So it took me a while and I knew that restart came out that I was at least going to be second, I just. … I wanted to win it.”

MORE: Xfinity Series standings

Love’s rapid maturity can be credited partly to his crew chief Danny Stockman. A longtime veteran atop the box for many drivers who have come through the ranks at RCR, Stockman said he’s been impressed by what Love has been able to do with just four races under his belt.

“He’s incredible. I like the way he races these guys,” Stockman told NASCAR.com. “He could’ve moved Sheldon out of the way a few times, and he didn’t. He chose to race and clean, and those are the guys I want to be surrounded by. Such a hell of a race-car driver, and he’s got a bright future for sure.”

Since rolling off the hauler at Daytona, Stockman knew how fast the No. 2 was going to be with Love behind the wheel but understood the natural adversity that came with developing a teenage driver and getting them in the right mindset.

“Everywhere we’ve been, we’ve had speed capable to run in the top five,” Stockman said. “Last week, we had a really good car. We just had some pit road issues that we fixed this last week, and we came here this weekend and executed and it all worked out. We’re having a lot of fun right now. I got a heck of a team behind me and a lot of guys that know the talent that we have sitting in this race car. So I think we hold our expectations within ourselves really high, and when you can do that you have a team that believes in what we got going on, the sky’s the limit.”

In his long tenure as a crew chief, Stockman has created separate categories for drivers and puts Love in one where he sees him making it to NASCAR’s highest level.

“There’s guys that can do this and there’s guys that are going to do this, and he’s one of the guys that are going to do this,” Stockman said. “He’ll be racing on Sundays someday, and in my career, I’ve been fortunate to work with some really talented kids, but this one’s pretty high up on my stature for sure. We’re having a lot of fun right now. I mean, last week at Vegas, we had a few pit road issues and we’re learning from it, right? We’re not keeping up making the same mistakes and today we had a flawless day. We had great pit stops. We had good execution. We made good adjustments, and the driver drove his ass off, so that’s all you want these days.”

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

AVONDALE, Ariz. — For as well as Justin Allgaier runs at Phoenix Raceway, some days the 1-mile tri-oval is just cruel to him.

Leading by a three-second margin with five laps to go, Allgaier suffered his latest catastrophic fate Saturday: a suddenly flat left-rear tire entering Turn 1. The trouble sent the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet into a slide 180 degrees backward and left-side first into the SAFER retaining barrier.

RELATED: Chandler Smith prevails in OT | At-track photos

Allgaier was fine physically and was evaluated and released from the infield care center. But the disappointment shrouding the 37-year-old’s face said more than any words ever could.

“Not a lot of good emotions to be honest with you at the moment,” Allgaier said. “Just proud of the effort. Proud of everybody at JR Motorsports. I mean, everybody at GM and Chevrolet have been working really hard and everybody at JR Motorsports is working really hard. It just seems like this is the story of our year so far.

“We’ve had really fast Camaros every week and just nothing to show for it. I think the heartbreaker from today was being that far out, knowing that we had the car to win at the end there.”

The tire appeared to go soft upon exit to Turn 4, but upon braking for the entry to Turn 1, the tire completely flattened and nearly ripped off the rim, erasing any chance Allgaier had to save his car. Instead of celebrating a win, Allgaier was relegated to a 29th-place finish in the blink of an eye.

“I definitely had to have run something over,” Allgaier said. “I mean, wear-wise, there’s no way we were wearing the left-rear far enough to do that. Going through the dogleg, I felt it wiggle a little bit — and I kind of knew what that already meant. But at that point, there’s quick (five) laps to go and you’ve got to hope that it holds on. And unfortunately, it just blew out. As soon as I soon as I lifted, it blew out. That was the end of it.”

Allgaier has won twice at the Arizona oval but could arguably have at least a few more trophies for his efforts. His last triumph here came in the penultimate race of the 2019 season, the year before the championship finale shifted to Phoenix. In the nine races since then, Allgaier has led at least 20 laps six times. Unfortunately, he has just three top-five finishes in that span to show for it, bested by a pair of third-place finishes.

“I feel like we’ve had really good race cars here. It just seems like it’s stupid stuff like today happens,” Allgaier said. “I wouldn’t have done anything different today. I felt like I was patient. I felt like I raced people really cleanly — and got raced not so clearly in some aspects — and just tried to do everything I could to manage the day well.

“You never know when a tire is going to blow out like that if you run something over. I mean, there’s debris everywhere on the race track, so you never know where you pick it up from or whatever. But it’s just so frustrating to come out of here with a finish like we’re gonna come out of here and know that our car was that good.”

Through four races in 2024, Allgaier sits eighth in points, 64 markers back of series leader and eventual Phoenix winner Chandler Smith. The opening month has been a tale of two seasons for the veteran racer with two top 10s — eighth at Daytona; 10th at Las Vegas — to pair with finishes of 28th at Atlanta and 29th at Phoenix.

The series returns to action on March 23 at Circuit of The Americas (5 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), where Allgaier has two top fives in three starts.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Chandler Smith had a message for his Joe Gibbs Racing team after taking the checkered flag in overtime in Saturday’s Call811.com Every Dig. Every Time. 200 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Phoenix Raceway.

“We’ll take ’em when we can get ’em,” Smith radioed before celebrating his second career victory with a burnout near the start/finish line.

It was good fortune — combined with Justin Allgaier’s disastrous bad luck — that put Smith in Victory Lane after 205 laps at the 1-mile track in the Sonoran Desert.

RELATED: Official results | At-track photos

Allgaier held a lead of nearly three seconds after crossing the stripe on Lap 195 of a scheduled 200. But as the driver of the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet approached Turn 1, his left-rear tire went flat.

Allgaier’s car turned sideways and smashed into the outside wall, ending the race for the veteran driver from Illinois.

On the subsequent overtime restart, Smith pulled away from teammate Sheldon Creed and reached the finish line 0.365 seconds ahead of Sunoco rookie Jesse Love, who edged Creed for the runner-up spot by 0.019 seconds.

“Going through the dogleg (on the front stretch), I felt (the tire) come apart, like I ran something over, and at that point you’re just a passenger,” Allgaier said. “I just hate it that we tore up a race car. We didn’t go to Victory Lane. I hate it for all the guys and gals at JR Motorsports.”

Allgaier’s ill fortune was determinative, but it wasn’t that Smith didn’t deserve the victory. He won the first 45-lap stage wire-to-wire and led a race-high 88 laps to Allgaier’s 52.

“We just lacked a little bit on the 7 (Allgaier),” Smith said. “I hate that happened to him — he had that in the bag. I’m so proud of everybody back at Joe Gibbs Racing. It’s good finally to get this first win off our back for these guys.

“So let’s go keep racking ’em up.”

Stage 2 winner Cole Custer led 61 laps, but his car suffered from a loose handling condition during the final run.

With Custer fading badly, Smith was in the lead, more than 2.5 seconds ahead of Allgaier, when Hailie Deegan brushed the Turn 2 wall on Lap 137. To that point, Smith and Custer had combined to lead all the laps.

The relatively innocent-looking fourth caution, however, set the stage for the chaos that followed. Smith lost three spots on pit road as John Hunter Nemechek took the lead.

On the subsequent restart on Lap 144, Smith and Nemechek were racing in close quarters when contact from the right-front of Smith’s Toyota turned Nemechek’s Supra in front of the field.

All told, 11 cars sustained damage, with Nemechek, hard-luck Sam Mayer (third DNF in four races), Hailie Deegan, Parker Retzlaff and Jeb Burton unable to continue.

MORE: Lap 144 pileup thins field | Weekend schedule: Phoenix

Smith’s No. 81 Toyota was none the worse for wear and restarted next to Allgaier, the race leader, on Lap 152. On the longest green-flag run of the day, Allgaier pulled away and was cruising toward a comfortable victory when disaster struck, opening the door for Smith to secure his first victory since last April’s win at Richmond for owner Matt Kaulig.

Austin Hill came home fourth, with Custer, the defending series champion, claiming the fifth spot. Sunoco rookie Shane van Gisbergen, Brandon Jones, Parker Kligerman, Sammy Smith and Anthony Alfredo completed the top 10.

The Xfinity Series will take a week off and return to action March 23 at the Circuit of The Americas (5 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Notes: Post-race inspection in the Xfinity Series garage was complete without major issue, confirming Smith as the race winner. The No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet of Jesse Love and the No. 48 Big Machine Racing Chevy of Parker Kligerman were each found with one unsecured lug nut, which will result in a fine for each team’s respective crew chiefs in the midweek penalty report. … Chandler Smith jumped into the Xfinity Series points lead, leapfrogging Austin Hill by one spot in the standings. … Richard Childress Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing have two victories apiece in the early stages of the season.

Contributing: Staff reports

Posted on by Reid Spencer

AVONDALE, Ariz. — In some cases, statistics can be deceptive — but not when it comes to the quality of racing on display in the first three NASCAR Cup Series races of the season.

The average margin of victory so far is 0.222 seconds, fourth closest in that category since the advent of electronic timing and scoring in 1993 and just behind the series record of 0.136 seconds through three races in 2022.

RELATED: Top Phoenix story lines | Phoenix starting lineup

Foremost among the close races was the Cup Series event at Atlanta Motor Speedway, where winner Daniel Suárez and runner-up Ryan Blaney were separated by 0.003 seconds at the finish line.

It was the third-closest finish in series history, and with third-place Kyle Busch just 0.007 seconds behind the winner, it also stands as the closest finish among three cars in the history of auto racing.

Other important milestones include a record 407 green-flag passes for the lead through three races (based on loop data that debuted in 2005), obliterating the previous mark of 302 set in 2022.

Overall, the young season has produced 23,027 green-flag passes, surpassing the mark of 21,245 set last year. A total of 28 different drivers have led races in 2024, the second largest number in the Modern Era (1972-2024). Only 2011 had more (32).

The average number of lead changes per race is 37.7, second in the Modern Era to 2011, which averaged 41.0 through three events.

The NASCAR Cup Series has also produced three different point standings leaders in the first three races of the season for the first time since 2017.

The bottom line is that the first three races of 2024 have produced compelling racing, as increased fan interest and television ratings will attest, too.

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

Shriners Children’s 500

(⏰ Sunday, 3:30 p.m. ET | FOX | MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

Weekend schedule | TV schedule | Weather tracker | NASCAR 101

Location: Avondale, Arizona
Track length: 1 mile
Cup Series race purse: $7,806,252
Race distance: 312 laps | 312 miles
Stages: 60 | 185 | 312
—
Starting lineup: Hamlin charges to 41st career pole
Pit stall assignments: Where drivers will pit Sunday
Defending winner: William Byron, March 2023

Key things to watch

Friday and Saturday sessions

Toyota shined in Friday’s extended 50-minute practice session, with six Toyota Camry XSEs claiming top-10 spots in single-lap speed and posting five of the seven best 10-lap averages. Fastest overall in the session was Joey Logano, whose No. 22 Team Penske Ford Dark Horse Mustang has qualified on the front row in each of the three NASCAR Cup Series races so far this season. | Read practice recap 

Toyota’s speed carried into Saturday’s qualifying session as Denny Hamlin rocketed to his 41st career pole and the manufacturer’s 150th at the Cup level. The No. 11 car was P2 in Friday’s practice and will be joined by sophomore teammate Ty Gibbs on the front row. Toyotas make up four of this week’s top six starters. | Read qualifying recap

Big story line

Will Sunday provide a preview of the 2024 championship fight?

Exactly eight months from Sunday, the NASCAR Cup Series will return to the Arizona desert with a championship on the line. But will anything teams learn from a race in March apply when they return for the season finale on Nov. 10?

Joey Logano, the 2022 Cup title and finale race winner, argues there is a “fair amount” that teams can take from Sunday that could inform what we see come November.

“The cars don’t change that much,” Logano said Saturday. “Obviously, with the new rules package, we’ll take more from it. And you have practice at both of these races, so you take some of that with you throughout the year, but I don’t think it’d be that different when we come back.”

In the spring race of 2023, all of the eventual Championship 4 finished sixth or better: William Byron won ahead of Ryan Blaney with Kyle Larson fourth and Christopher Bell sixth. That wasn’t lost on Tyler Reddick, who finished third — the only top-four finisher that day who didn’t return to Avondale in the title hunt.

“I was in the mix,” Reddick said. “I was excited about that if we could make it back here in that fight. We obviously didn’t but yeah. … If you looked at the closing laps of this race, you know, three of the top four were the championship contenders.”

Even with 245 days between Phoenix races — the most between a track’s two events on the schedule — 2012 champion Brad Keselowski believes data learned from the spring is perhaps more valuable now than ever.

“With this car, a lot more translates than what translated with the old car,” Keselowski said. “With the old car, I felt like you were always in a development cycle … and things were always changing. … With this car, just by the nature of how its governed and amalgamated and so forth, you don’t have that, at least especially not in the third season of this car. So I think it’s probably a better indicator than it used to be and what to expect.”

Denny Hamlin celebrates his pole win at Phoenix.
Getty Images

History tells us…

Ryan Blaney will be one to watch this weekend. The defending Cup champion has been runner-up in each of the last three Phoenix races but has yet to visit Victory Lane — though he enjoyed the spoils of the championship celebration on Phoenix’s frontstretch some four months ago.

The No. 12 Ford will take the green flag from 16th position after Saturday’s qualifying session but that shouldn’t sound too many alarm bells. Blaney fired off from 15th back in November before charging to the front and putting himself in position to bring home the title. Maybe he can leave with another trophy on Sunday.

He may not be the betting favorite to win, but watch out for…

Chase Briscoe. At 20-1 odds, the driver of the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford makes for a sneaky pick this weekend. Briscoe earned his first career Cup win in the 2022 spring race at Phoenix and showed speed again Saturday, placing his car eighth on the starting grid. The Indiana native has finished inside the top 10 in three of his four Phoenix starts as well as in each of his four Xfinity Series starts. Briscoe hasn’t visited Victory Lane since that win in March 2022 and could use another trip. | Phoenix odds

Speed reads

Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles. 

• Turning Point: Trends from Vegas, heading to Phoenix | Read article
• Why ‘representation is so important’: Caruth’s win, interview highlight  | Read article
• Elliott eyes return to Victory Lane: 2020 champ “willing to take however many steps it takes” | Read article
• New short-track package: Drivers react after Friday practice | Read article
• RFK Racing appeals penalty: No. 17 team penalized after lost Vegas wheel | Read article
• NASCAR Classics: Picks to click from our video library for Phoenix viewing | Read article
• 36 for 36: NASCAR survivor pool selections for Phoenix | Read article
• Memory lane: Through the years with Phoenix Raceway’s biggest moments | See the photos
• Inside the numbers: Racing Insights projects the final race results | Read article
• At-track photos: Scenes, sights from the desert | Photo gallery
• Fantasy Fastlane: Lineup advice for Phoenix | See fantasy tips
• Paint Scheme Preview: Painting the Phoenix desert | Pick a favorite
• Power Rankings: Chastain looks like big-time force | Latest driver rankings

Fast facts ⏩

Race-relevant statistics, brought to you by the experts at Racing Insights.

• Hendrick Motorsports is three laps led away from 80,000.
• There were 10 speeding penalties at Phoenix last March, the most in a race last season.
• 23XI Racing is the only team to have a car finish in the top five in each of the first three races this year.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Three races into the NASCAR Cup Series season, the performance of Kyle Busch’s pit crew hasn’t matched the two-time champion’s prowess on the track.

Following pit road mistakes that cost Busch dearly last Sunday at Las Vegas, Richard Childress Racing made wholesale changes to the over-the-wall crew on the No. 8 Chevrolet.

RELATED: Logano tops Cup practice | Hamlin lands 41st career pole

Shiloh Windsor replaces Michael Russell as front tire changer, Michael Johnson takes Chris Jackson’s spot as rear tire changer, and Doug Warwick replaces Garrett Crall as jackman. All three new crew members are full-time competitors in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, on the cars of Anthony Alfredo, Austin Hill and Parker Kligerman, respectively.

All three also will continue in their Xfinity Series roles. The tire changers will have to adapt to single-lug Cup cars from the Xfinity cars, which still use five lugs per wheel.

You can forgive Busch if he isn’t thoroughly familiar with the circumstances of the changes. Warwick will be the third jackman on the car in four races this season.

“I don’t have any idea of where guys are coming from, what their background is or what their experience is,” Busch said before Friday’s practice at Phoenix. “I always just kind of assume that the Cup guys were the Xfinity guys, so news to me. We’ll find out how good they are come around (3:30 p.m. ET) on Sunday.”

Last Sunday, Busch slid though his pit box as he tried to compensate for the pit crew’s performance. Because the crew serviced the car with the splitter barely over the line, he was penalized for pitting outside the box and relegated to a 26th-place finish.

Posted on by Dustin Albino

During a media availability in late January previewing the 2024 NASCAR season, Toyota Racing Development president David Wilson hyped the manufacturer’s new body with the updated short-track package, fresh for ’24 as well. With Toyota drivers Christopher Bell and Erik Jones being the guinea pigs amidst a two-day test at Phoenix Raceway in December, the manufacturer was quickest in each session, Wilson recalled.

Qualifying, however, was a mixed bag, though Toyota did take up four of the top six spots and won its first pole of the season (and 150th in history) with Denny Hamlin. With extended practice this weekend, heavily consider 10-lap averages when creating a fantasy lineup.

FANTASY: Set your lineup | Phoenix 36 for 36 picks

Dustin Albino’s race-day lineup:

Starter 1: Denny Hamlin

Starter 2: Ty Gibbs

Starter 3: Ryan Blaney

Starter 4: William Byron

Starter 5: Ross Chastain

Garage pick: Erik Jones

NEXT IN LINE: Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson, Tyler Reddick, Chase Elliott

RISING: Legacy Motor Club is on the rise. There were expected growing pains with the organization transitioning from Chevrolet to Toyota, but collectively, this is the most speed the team has shown up to the race track with what feels like forever. John Hunter Nemechek ranked fourth in one-lap speed, while Jones wasn’t far behind in sixth. Their pace didn’t fall off over the long haul, either, ranking third and fifth, respectively. You might want more data points and consistency before using one of their drivers at a track like Phoenix, but Jones has moved into my garage pick.

Granted, it was with last year’s short-track package, but Gibbs dominated the Busch Light Clash on a quarter-mile bullring in the preseason. Phoenix is quadruple the size, but the No. 54 team excelled on short tracks and road courses in Gibbs’ rookie season last year as well. Gibbs will take the green flag from second position, matching his best career starting spot.

FALLING: When a car misses the setup unloading off the hauler, it’s not uncommon for the entire organization to be a step behind. That’s what happened to Richard Childress Racing on Friday. Kyle Busch led the way for RCR, deep down in 26th on 10-lap averages. Austin Dillon clocked in 31st. The good news is Phoenix isn’t an impound race, so adjustments can be made with an eye on improvement for Sunday.

Starting from 17th position at a venue where track position is critical, Larson will have an uphill battle to duplicate his performance from Las Vegas last weekend. He did score maximum points in Sin City, however, in a bout of pure domination. Larson’s numbers at Phoenix are equally unreal, but I’ve moved him to my bench this weekend, knowing he will likely be a threat again at Bristol next week.

FEATURED MATCHUPS:

Ryan Blaney vs. Ross Chastain: Both drivers underdelivered in qualifying, as neither made the final round. Both drivers tracked similarly in practice on the short and long run. Chastain is the most recent winner in the Phoenix desert, but Blaney’s strung together five straight top-five finishes … and also won the championship there last fall. I still believe he’s going to be a factor from 16th; he started 15th last fall, so he’s the pick.

Denny Hamlin vs. Chase Elliott: With how well Hamlin’s car fires off, the No. 11 car is going to be hard to beat on Sunday. That said, Toyota has led a scant 15 laps in the four Next Gen races at Phoenix. Elliott looked solid in practice and possibly overachieved in qualifying, and he will take the green flag from third. Hamlin is the pick, though.

Kyle Busch vs. Christopher Bell: By Joe Gibbs Racing’s standards, Bell’s numbers at Phoenix show relative inconsistency. Toyota has too much speed this weekend to bet against the No. 20 car, however. We highlighted RCR’s struggles in practice, and the No. 8 team welcomed three new members to the pit crew ahead of this weekend. Busch can wheel just about anything around any type of track to the limit, but he starts a distant 31st. Go with Bell.

Ty Gibbs vs. Alex Bowman: It feels like at any moment, Gibbs will strike for his first series victory. This could be the weekend for that. Bowman was average in practice and had a discouraging 25th-place qualifying run. Gibbs is the heavy favorite here.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Denny Hamlin was convinced he had to improve his performance at Phoenix Raceway, and on Saturday afternoon, he took the first step in that direction.

Touring the 1-mile track in 27.138 seconds (132.655 seconds) in the final round of qualifying, Hamlin put his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota on the pole for Sunday’s Shriners Children’s 500 (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Starting lineup | At-track photos | Weekend schedule

Hamlin, who hasn’t won at Phoenix since 2019, beat JGR teammate Ty Gibbs (132.227 mph) by 0.088 seconds for the top starting spot in the fourth NASCAR Cup Series event of the season.

“I’m really trying to get better at this place,” Hamlin said after securing his first Busch Light Pole Award of the season, his third at Phoenix and the 41st of his career, 13th-most all-time.

“If we want to make a run at a championship — and you’ve got to win it through Phoenix — you’ve got to get better at Phoenix.”

The pole position was the 150th for Toyota in the Cup Series, with Hamlin accounting for 36 of those. His first five poles came in Chevrolets before Joe Gibbs Racing switched to Toyota. Included in that group of five was Hamlin’s first career pole, at Phoenix in 2005.

Unlike the rest of his final-round competitors, who made sharp cuts across the front stretch dogleg, Hamlin took a more conservative approach and benefitted from a more favorable angle into Turn 1 on his money lap.

“I was kind of 50-50 on it,” Hamlin explained. “I didn’t cut it in the first round, but we consistently saw that I was about a half-car-length behind entering Turn 1, but my angle was better.

“That was a very indecisive decision — ‘OK, I won’t go all the way, but I won’t stay where I was,’ and it netted out in a good position where I was able to cut a little bit but also keep my angle into Turn 1.”

Chase Elliott (132.144 mph), winless since the fall Talladega race in 2022, qualified third in his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, followed by Toyota drivers Erik Jones and Daytona 500 winner William Byron.

Tyler Reddick was sixth fastest, ahead of Noah Gragson in the top Ford, followed by Chase Briscoe, Michael McDowell and Sunoco rookie Carson Hocevar.

Hamlin’s pole-winning run broke a streak of three straight poles to open the season by Ford drivers.

Posted on by Cameron Richardson

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Donning a hoodie and jeans, Chase Elliott entered the media center following Friday’s 50-minute Cup Series practice session at Phoenix Raceway insouciant about how the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet fired off the hauler.

Despite putting down the seventh-quickest lap around the 1-mile oval, the 2020 Cup champion trudged through discussing how his car felt and how Sunday’s race would play out (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Instead, Elliott deferred to opening up about where his mindset is early into the 2024 season versus the end of 2023.

RELATED: Phoenix weekend schedule | Cup Series standings

Elliott crossed the finish line of last season 16th at Phoenix and 17th in points after missing the postseason for the first time in his career. While 2023 involved recovery from a fractured leg around this time last year, the numbers were still so-so for the perennial title contender.

Elliott’s best finish in the final four races of 2023 was 15th. After the sun gave way to desert twilight, signaling the end of the 2023 season, Elliott had already started thinking about 2024.

“At that point, obviously, our season was all been over and we were just trying to think about this year, or at least I was, you know and just trying to think about what I could do to drive the car in a better way that suits the way it wants to be driven,” Elliott said. “I wasn’t necessarily spent. Yeah, I was frustrated at different times. But I mean, I could be frustrated today and you wouldn’t know it so it’s some days I might show a little more than others.

“But it’s not because I don’t want to be here. It’s not because I don’t want to do good. In fact, it’s really the exact opposite. It’s because I do want to do well and it’s because I do care. And you know you can take that for whatever you want, but I, I just want to be good at my job.”

Elliott’s casual demeanor slowly turned into one of reminiscing and what drives him to compete.

It’s been 37 races since Elliott’s last trip to Victory Lane at Talladega in the fall of 2022. Any driver wants to get back to winning as soon as possible but as Elliott shares that sentiment, he’s taking every stride with purpose no matter how long it may take him to snag his next checkered flag.

“I’m a pretty realistic person and I kind of look at things for what they are probably too much some days,” Elliott said. “But I think that I recognize that things aren’t just going to get better overnight. I have known that for a period of time now and at the end of the day, I don’t know how many steps there are to getting to where you need to go. I think until you encounter that entire journey, I don’t think anyone really knows. But I’m willing to take however many steps it takes to get there and I think that’s the bottom line of the importance of what matters.”

That first step on the journey came last weekend at Las Vegas as the No. 9 team got the first look at what their car can do outside of a superspeedway this season. A 12th-place finish isn’t the standard neither Elliott nor the team wants but it was a massive improvement over a 32nd-place run at Vegas last fall, and it’s the first point of emphasis marked off the checklist to improve over the course of a 36-race calendar.

“That was our first report card, so I think until we’re just running more races, keep chipping away at it,” Elliott said. “Long ways to go, and hopefully, we can just continue to work in areas that we feel need to be worked on and hope that those areas lend results, and I thought they did a little bit last week. Was it good enough? No. Am I satisfied? No. Was it better than last fall? Yes, it sure was. So I think from that, you know, you just have to take little improvements where you can get them especially when you know you have a lot of work to do.”

With a diverse circuit of tracks every season, Elliott said it’s difficult to pinpoint what individual aspect he wants to improve on most to turn a 12th-place run into a top 10 or better. He’s yet to crack the top 10 on the results sheet through three races this season but consistency has found Elliott seventh in the Cup standings, just 23 points behind points leader and Hendrick teammate Kyle Larson.

On his quest for win No. 19 of his Cup career, Elliott has drawn comparison with another professional athlete — Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen.

MORE: Elliott through the years

In his current victory drought, Elliott can see similarities in the respective drives and chases to be the top guy in their respective sport. Whether it’s coming up short at the track every Sunday or an annual heartbreaking defeat in the postseason at the hands of three-time Super Bowl champion signal-caller Patrick Mahomes, Elliott understands both sides of being the top guy and falling short.

“I think one fortunate piece of my career as we’ve gone through periods of time and we’ve had a lot of success and we’ve also got also gone through periods of time where we haven’t,” Elliott said. “So I think kind of as we’ve gone down this path of having a tough year last year you kind of look at things a little differently and it kind of makes me think about a Josh Allen, a guy that just can’t quite get over that hump, but we all know he’s really good.

“How does he handle having to play Mahomes in the AFC Championship every year? and at some point, he’s gonna beat him. And you know, I think that journey is pretty cool to watch a guy who’s obviously very talented and can do a really good job and works hard at his craft and seems like a good dude. But he’s just just been that little tick off and I think there’s a lot to be learned and gained from that journey probably more so than just watching people dominate.”

Elliott’s current journey is a unique one where he’s not only trying to beat everyone on track but also playing catchup with his teammates as Larson and William Byron have won 13 races combined since Elliott’s last victory, including two of the first three to kickstart 2024.

Getting back to a standard is much easier said than done but Elliott isn’t rushing to force a result and respects the work and discipline it takes for athletes both in and outside of racing to work to the level they want to find.

“I enjoy watching people and I enjoy watching people work hard to be good at their craft and all that’s different,” Elliott said. I enjoy watching it and I respect it because while I might not know everything about it, I know it’s hard and I think that’s all I need to know. It’s hard, and they’re and they’re really good at what they do.”

“Just work hard, you know, make sure you’re putting the time in and pushing yourself in areas that you know you’re weak. You know, I think a lot of times they’re staring you right in the face and you just got to get to push yourself to get uncomfortable.”