Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell enjoy rivalry that’s not quite friendly

Posted on October 17, 2026October 18, 2026 by Reid Spencer

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Christopher Bell defined his relationship with Kyle Larson in no uncertain terms.

“We’re not friends,” Bell said of his racing rival.

That’s not surprising, given that Bell and Larson have been competing for the same trophies during parallel careers for well over a decade.

Initially, they battled each other on dirt in such events as the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals, where Bell and Larson have triumphed three times each. In 2020, Larson ended Bell’s quest for a record-tying fourth straight Chili Bowl title with the first of his three victories.

Now, Bell is chasing Larson in a quest for NASCAR’s biggest prize, the Bill France Cup that goes to the Cup Series champion, and while there may be mutual respect and admiration between the drivers, there is no friendship.

“I think Kyle and I have raced each other hard basically our entire career, and I think it’s fair to say that we’re different people, and we hang out with different people and I think were not friends,” said Bell, who trails Larson by 51 points with three races left in The Chase presented by Mobil 1.

“But we are acquaintances and will race each other hard.”

In a departure from solo driver interviews on the media center dais, the top three drivers in the Chase standings appeared together on Saturday at Phoenix Raceway.

The trio included Denny Hamlin, who is 49 points behind Larson entering Sunday’s Freeway Insurance 500 at the one-mile track (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Larson agreed with Bell’s assessment but was quick to point out that their long-term rivalry has made him a better driver.

“I think I’ve said it in other press conferences; nobody’s pushed me more than Christopher to become a better racer, so I appreciate that,” Larson said. “I think in all forms of sports, there’s always athletes that push athletes, and he’s been the guy to push me to be better because he’s beaten me so much throughout my career.

“I appreciate the competitive rivalry, for sure. Like he said, we’re different people and hang out with different crowds. We’re just different. You’re always going to have that.”

Hamlin acknowledged that it would be hard to maintain close friendships at the elite level of stock car racing.

“Close friends is difficult,” Hamlin said. “It’s easy when one is good and one is not. It’s tougher when they’re both good, because you’re going to race each other a lot, and there’s always going to be contact at times, and feelings get hurt.

“I think it’s difficult to have really close friendships, but I think that there is an ability to separate on-track from off-track and still get along with someone really well off the race track.”

Chase Briscoe, who preceded the top three Chase drivers in the media center, offered a possible question as a way to create banter between Bell, Larson and Hamlin.

“Ask who would be the strongest without power steering, who could handle it best?” suggested Briscoe, referring to post-race sparring between Bell and Larson after Bell lost power steering in The Chase race at Las Vegas.

Larson was quick to express doubt as to whether Bell had zero power assist in his car.

“Zero percent power assist on an intermediate (speedway)? No way,” Larson proclaimed on the “Stacking Pennies” podcast.

In a subsequent media availability, Bell retorted, “I hope it happens to him, so he can talk about it.”

When Briscoe’s question was relayed to the three drivers on Saturday, Bell responded first.

“Not me,” he said.

“Definitely not me,” added Larson.

“You have your answer,” said Hamlin.

That moment provided a good laugh, but underlying the levity is the very serious race for the Cup title. Larson has produced an unprecedented Chase record so far, finishing no worse than sixth and winning twice in the first six postseason races.

The size of Larson’s lead has only increased the urgency of those behind him.

MORE: Larson reveals which JGR driver is biggest Chase threat

“I think that you have to start by winning the day and then go from there,” Hamlin said. “But ultimately, with the races winding down, we’ve got to start chopping into this.”

Bell agreed.

“So, certainly myself and Denny are both 50 back right now,” Bell said. “We need to close that gap. But looking at the rest of the races, we are all going to be running up front and scoring stage points and competing for wins, so the difference maker is who gets those wins.

“And then Talladega (Oct. 25). Whatever happens at Talladega, the likelihood of a crash at Talladega is a lot higher at that track than other tracks. It can hinder your points that you take away. Between Talladega and race wins, that’s going to be the deciding factor.”

Posted on October 17, 2026October 17, 2026 by Dustin Albino

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Team Penske knows what Phoenix Raceway demands. The organization captured three consecutive NASCAR Cup Series championships in must-win scenarios in the Sonoran Desert, but this time, a victory would merely keep its title hopes alive.

With three consecutive top-five finishes for the first time in 2026, 2023 Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney leads Team Penske in the standings in fifth, 85 points behind Kyle Larson. Three-time champion Joey Logano sits one position behind his teammate, trailing the No. 5 team by 92 points.

Blaney has doubled down on collecting the checkered flag in the last two visits to Phoenix. This weekend, he feels the pressure of needing to win Sunday’s Freeway Insurance 500 (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Cup Series standings | At-track photos

“You’ve only got four (races) left and the points that we’re out, I think you do kind of have to treat it as a must-win,” Blaney said during a press conference on Saturday. “It’s gonna be really hard if you only gain four or five or six points on (Larson) this weekend. You know that’s hard, so you need to try to take a big chunk with the 20 (bonus points for winning), and then you hope you outpoint him in the stages too and just keep chipping away.

“I would kind of categorize this as a big championship moment weekend for our team of if we can win this weekend, I think we can hopefully keep chipping away at it. If we don’t win this weekend, the job is exponentially harder going into the next three weeks.”

No. 12 crew chief Jonathan Hassler shares his driver’s mindset, knowing it’s time to tap into Penske’s flat-track prowess at Phoenix and make a significant dent in the No. 12 team’s points deficit.

“I think we need to win to gain enough to feel like we can get ourselves into contention,” Hassler told NASCAR.com. “I think if we don’t win, it gets a lot harder, especially if someone else we’re racing does manage to win.”

Don’t count the savvy Logano out. While 92 points back seems like an uphill battle, the No. 22 team went on a summer surge, rocketing from 20th to eighth in the regular standings in less than two months. But he, too, knows that it’s going to take wins to have a chance at banking a fourth Bill France Cup.

“If we’re going to make up 90-plus points in four races, you have to win,” Logano said. “It’s a must-win scenario — and probably multiple times to do that. If we want to win this whole thing and do it without wishing bad luck upon somebody, we’re going to have to win.

“Desperate people do desperate things, and we’re at that desperate level. It feels to me a bit of a cutoff-race scenario. That’s where we are.”

Logano acknowledged that the No. 22 team’s sluggish start to the 2026 season has left the Paul Wolfe-led bunch playing catch up down the stretch. Still, the three-time Cup champion has a proven track record at Phoenix, where he owns four victories — tied with Las Vegas Motor Speedway for his most at any track on the circuit.

The feeling of having to win isn’t ideal. Logano went as far as saying “it sucks,” with a wide chuckle. But the Penske teammates have had their backs up against the wall in prior Phoenix visits during the Championship 4 era, coming out on top in half of the six championship-deciding races at the 1-mile oval.

Jonathan Bachman | Getty Images

“Winning when you have to win is one of the most rewarding things you can do,” Logano said. “The fact that we’re still in the hunt and still have a chance is something we should be proud of. We have that, and we’re on a pretty good recovery compared to where we were earlier in the year.”

Said Blaney: “You try to win every week, and I think coming here, being a part of the Championship 4 in those years was kind of the mindset like, ‘We’ve probably got to win the race to win the championship.’ We ran second when we won the championship in ’23, but you treat it as like a must-win, so I feel like we’ve been in some of those situations before. I look at Martinsville in ’24; that was a must-win for us to get here, and I thought we faced that challenge head-on and did a very good job, so we’ve been in these spots before. Hopefully, we have some experience, and we can lean on that.”

The Penske duo recognized Larson’s historic 2.8 average finish through the first six Chase presented by Mobil 1 races, the second-best stretch in postseason history. Neither driver expects the No. 5 team to falter down the stretch, emphasizing they’ll have to make up ground in the standings through their own performance rather than waiting for Larson to make a mistake.

“We’re not waiting on him to make a mistake,” Blaney said. “We want to capitalize on running well and winning races.”

Both Blaney and Logano will have prime real estate for the 312-lapper in the desert. They swept the front row in qualifying, with Blaney earning the pole and Logano set to roll off second at Phoenix.

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

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Michael McDowell and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. emerged from the NASCAR Cup Series hauler Saturday morning after an at-track consultation with officials, saying that built-up frustrations had fueled their dispute, but that they were ready to move past their differences.

The two Cup Series veterans shared a moderated meeting with competition directors Saturday at Phoenix Raceway, six days after their on-track get-together and post-race bumping session in last weekend’s race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The pair will be back at it Sunday in the Freeway Insurance 500 (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at the 1-mile track.

“It went fine. I mean, Ricky and I talked after the race, and obviously we disagreed on the track, but afterwards, we figured it out,” McDowell told NASCAR.com. “So nothing’s building between Ricky and I. And then, as far as NASCAR, they just don’t want us running into each other under caution and spinning each other out. So obviously, they weren’t happy about it happening under caution there. So yeah, but back to normal today.”

Their late-race disagreement over running room in last Sunday’s Bank of America 400 at Charlotte escalated into a post-race bumping duel during the cool-down lap, with Stenhouse’s No. 47 Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet ramming McDowell’s Spire Motorsports No. 71 Chevy on the backstretch. McDowell reacted to those side-door impacts by bumping back, first in the rear bumper and then in the left-rear fender, sending Stenhouse spinning.

While McDowell sat in his car on pit road, the two had a pointed but largely civil post-race conversation that started with Stenhouse asking: “Why do you race like that all the time?” In a Wednesday appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Stenhouse indicated a willingness to move on from the altercation — a sentiment he reiterated after meeting with officials.

“It’s fine. I mean, I think I got aggressive with him after the race. He did the same, and we talked it out,” Stenhouse told NASCAR.com. “I thought it was fine and settled, and then (NASCAR officials) asked me to come in there last night. Yeah, it’s all good.”

Both drivers noted how enduring race-long frustration at Charlotte (McDowell finished 19th, Stenhouse 23rd) had raised the temperature on their tensions. Some of those actions were self-ignited, but other factors were not of their own doing.

“It was a couple things. Ricky and I were pitted together on pit road, and we kept getting boxed in,” McDowell said. “He was boxed in. I was boxed in, so we ended up losing a lot of track position together, and as we came back through the field, we were stuck around each other a lot, and I made a bad block on him, and he got frustrated, and rightfully so, and it just kind of slowly escalated. So it really wasn’t anything that big of a deal, but it was just 400 miles of agitation for both of us.”

Said Stenhouse: “They obviously kept getting boxed in on pit road – not his fault or mine. I think that built some frustration, and then towards the end, man, I tried to pass him for like 15 laps, I felt like. I felt like he just – and I told him after the race – I felt like he was just looking in his mirror the whole time and blocked me into the dirt down the frontstretch, and finally ended up just killing my tires trying to pass them, and I felt like it was uncalled for 18th or whatever we were racing for. He had a little different opinion, but when I talked to him, he apologized afterwards. So yeah, it’s fine now.”

Competition officials issued no penalties after the incident, but noted that strong consideration was given to handing out sanctions after a lengthy discussion. Other post-race skirmishes with cars have resulted in punishment – most notably Bubba Wallace’s $50,000 fine for nudging Alex Bowman after the checkered flag at the 2024 Chicago Street Race, but the nature of the impacts and whether drivers had window nets down (both were up for McDowell and Stenhouse) factored into those decisions.

“I went back and watched Bubba’s, and their seat belts are undone, window nets are down. I don’t know, maybe that was a big difference,” Stenhouse said. “I mean, if I don’t spin out, I don’t think anybody says anything about it, because there’s races that we all run into each other afterwards. So I think the spinout was probably the biggest thing that people saw, you know. But yeah, from my end, I was just pretty frustrated. You know, he wrecked me at Michigan, and then felt like it was a little aggressive blocking for not a win or a top five or a top 10. But again, we talked it out pretty much on pit road. I think everybody saw that. I left, and he left, and that was it.”

McDowell left the hauler meeting with a clear impression of just how close penalties were.

“They definitely told us that,” McDowell said. “Yeah, they thought about fining us and penalizing us, and they look at the circumstances all sort of uniquely, and I think we were right on the line. So I’m thankful, obviously, and yeah, we just move forward.”

Posted on October 16, 2026October 16, 2026 by Dustin Albino

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Ty Majeski has long considered Phoenix Raceway one of his favorite stops on the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series schedule. On Friday night, vintage Majeski — the version that captured the 2024 series championship at the same 1-mile oval — was on full display.

Majeski showed the strength of the No. 88 Ford in the opening stage, powering by fellow Chase competitor Layne Riggs to claim the Stage 1 victory. It was his first stage win since North Wilkesboro Speedway, some three months prior. He followed with a dominant second stage, giving him more stage victories at Phoenix than he had earned through the first 21 races of the 2026 season.

As the sun went down, the handling on Majeski’s No. 88 truck faded. He remained inside the top five but couldn’t match the pace of Kaden Honeycutt, Christian Eckes or Riggs. Majeski took the checkered flag in fourth, earning his first top-five finish since placing third at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in late July.

“Missed opportunity, for sure, when you win those stages,” Majeski told NASCAR.com after debriefing with the No. 88 bunch. “The race track came to everybody else and was going away from us. When the sun started going down, we slowly got worse.

“We were really good the first run. We were good the second run — not as. As the sun went down, the track went through a change. I felt like the track came to those guys and didn’t suit the strength of our truck and took away the strength we had from everybody else. Good run, but certainly a missed opportunity.”

Majeski led 49 laps, his highest single-race total since pacing the field for 143 circuits at Richmond Raceway in August 2025. He entered Friday with just 34 laps led across the 2026 season, 23 of which came at North Wilkesboro.

Running at the front of the field was a relief for the Wisconsin native, who said ThorSport Racing had one of its roughest outings in recent memory last week at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Majeski led the four-truck brigade with an 11th-place finish, with none of its drivers earning a single stage point.

Returning to the top five allowed Majeski to breathe a sigh of relief.

“Just to get everything back going again for us,” Majeski added. “That was probably our worst race, maybe as a company, in a long time last week at Charlotte. To rebound like this, win two stages — I see the 98 finished fifth. Two trucks in the top five, trying to get the pendulum swinging in the right direction for us.”

With 53 points scored at Phoenix, Majeski leapfrogged Daniel Hemric and Gio Ruggiero to break into the top five in the standings for the first time since Dover Motor Speedway in May. He now has his sights set on cracking the top three by the end of the season, sitting just 23 points behind third-place Eckes.

“It’s going to be tough sledding to win the championship,” Majeski admitted, 135 points behind Honeycutt. “But we’re in the game for a podium or a top five. So, we want to go out, try to win these last few races and see what happens.”

With his fourth victory of 2026, Honeycutt extended his championship lead over Riggs to 39 points entering Talladega Superspeedway. Having captured seven checkered flags this season, Riggs knows the fight is far from over with more than 500 miles of racing remaining between Talladega, Martinsville Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“It’s anybody’s game still at this point,” Riggs stated after Phoenix. “With Talladega coming up, Martinsville, always been good there and Homestead, another track I felt like I’ve been good at. We just have to get on our game.”

Posted on October 16, 2026October 16, 2026 by Reid Spencer

AVONDALE, Ariz. — At the track where Corey Heim secured the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series title in the No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota last year, Kaden Honeycutt took a giant step toward this season’s championship in the same ride.

Taking control of the race in the third stage at Phoenix Raceway, thanks in no small part to a flawless effort from his pit crew, Honeycutt cruised to victory in Friday’s Zero Carbon Bioethanol 150 Powered by POET and expanded his Chase lead to 39 points over second-place Layne Riggs, who finished third.

Honeycutt led a race-high 53 laps — all during the final green-flag run — and beat a frustrated Christian Eckes to the finish line by 1.556 seconds to record his first win at Phoenix and the fourth of his career, all accomplished this season.

Second out of the pits on the final stop at the second stage break — and first among the Chase contenders — Honeycutt quickly dispatched Stewart Friesen, who had taken two tires on the stop and jumped 12 positions into a short-lived lead.

After seizing the top spot on the Lap 99 restart, the 23-year-old from Willow Park, Texas, remained out front the rest of the way. His victory was also the 39th in the series for crew chief Scott Zipadelli, who is now five wins shy of Eric Phillips’ all-time lead.

“My pit crew, they did a great job,” Honeycutt asserted. “I give them so much credit because they’re so damn good. I’m so fortunate to be able to drive these things. They spend all their hours in the day just for me to drive ’em, and I can’t be more grateful for them.

“In Stage 1, I just struggled. I just didn’t have good rear grip at the start of that first stage. Scott went to work for me. He was never concerned. He kept me locked in the whole time.”

Riggs led the first 43 laps from the pole before Ty Majeski prevailed in a spirited battle for the Stage 1 victory. Majeski scored his second stage win of the season and went on to sweep the stages at Phoenix and lead 49 laps before finishing fourth.

Riggs passed Majeski for the third position on Lap 104 of 150, but that was as far as he could advance.

“I’ve got to congratulate the 11 guys — they had a really good truck tonight,” Riggs said. “Obviously, they won the championship here with Corey last year, and they’ve got a really good package for Phoenix.

“It just wasn’t our night … We’ve got Talladega next week. You don’t know what’s going to happen there. Obviously, we’re running up front every single race, kind of a back-and-forth battle right now. Tonight, just wasn’t our night. I’m not going to hang my head on it, and I’m really proud of the effort by the team.”

Seeking his first victory of the season, Eckes couldn’t get close enough to Honeycutt to make a move during the final run.

“It still feels great to contend, but, man, it sucks, for sure,” said Eckes, who has finished second in the No. 91 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet for three straight races. “I came back here [to the Truck Series] to win, and we haven’t done that yet.

“We’re bringing race trucks that are just close enough to contend, but just kind of missing one or two things [compared with] the 11 [Honeycutt] and 34 [Riggs] right now.”

Eckes climbed to third in the standings with the runner-up finish, but he’s 112 points behind Honeycutt with three races left.

Jake Garcia finished fifth, followed by William Sawalich, Daniel Hemric, Gio Ruggiero, Grant Enfinger and Brent Crews.

Chandler Smith, Riggs’ Front Row Motorsports teammate, drew a pit road penalty for too many men over the wall and finished 15th. He fell one spot to fourth in the Chase standings, 117 points out of the lead.

The race featured two cautions for 16 laps, with the second yellow for debris in Turn 1 coinciding with the Stage 2 break. There were six lead changes among five drivers.

The Truck Series returns next Friday at Talladega Superspeedway (4 p.m. ET, FS1, FOX One, NASCAR Racing Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Three races remain in the 2026 season.

NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed in the Craftsman Truck Series garage with no issues, confirming Honeycutt as the Phoenix winner.

Posted on October 16, 2026October 16, 2026 by Zack Albert

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Jordan Anderson Racing announced another key component to its 2027 plans Friday, signing veteran Brennan Poole as full-time driver of its No. 31 Chevrolet in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series next season.

The announcement came at Phoenix Raceway, site of Saturday’s Timberland PRO 200 (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, ESPN Unlimited, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Chase.

RELATED: Weekend schedule: Phoenix

Poole replaces Blaine Perkins, who spent the last two years with the Anderson organization but will join Sam Hunt Racing’s No. 24 team in 2027. Poole makes the move after a three-year tenure with Alpha Prime Racing, which said Monday that the 35-year-old driver would depart at season’s end.

“For us, this is really cool just to see everything that Jordan and John (Bommarito, team partner) have built together the last several years and where the team’s at,” Poole said. “I think it’s just a huge opportunity for me. I think it’s one of the best – if not the best – opportunity I’ve ever had in my career, so just really excited to get to work and continue to do what I’ve been able to do the last several years and come in and work with some great people and have some fun doing it.”

Poole will compete next season alongside full-time teammate Daniel Dye, who was tapped as driver of Anderson’s No. 32 Chevrolet on Aug. 28 with a multiyear agreement. The team’s third full-time entry – the No. 27 Chevy currently driven by Jeb Burton – is slated to transition into a full-time “all-star” car for selected and development drivers. Burton will leave for RSS Racing at the end of the season, completing a four-year stint at JAR that brought the organization its only O’Reilly Series win (Talladega, 2023).

MORE: Catch up on Silly Season moves

Poole has competed in six full seasons of O’Reilly Auto Parts Series competition, with a best finish in the standings of sixth in 2017. The Texas native, who has made 301 starts across NASCAR’s three national series in his career, currently ranks 17th in the O’Reilly Series standings.

The connection between Poole and Anderson runs deep, with the two sharing the track as competitors in Legend Cars at a young age in 2004. Both driver and team owner said that joining forces had been in the works for years.

“We looked at all the different opportunities that would make sense bringing Brennan in and what he could do for our team,” Anderson said, “and I think the biggest thing for us is we’ve got a guy now that has the experience, and he can carry the flag as a veteran for our team. We’ve seen what he’s done the last several years. I mean, I remember when Brennan and I were running the Truck Series together … and then kind of had the same journey as I did, where we both came through Mike Harmon, driving for Mike and a crazy connection that we had there, and what he’s done to build his career and come from all he’s done and getting the most out of equipment. I feel like what we’ve done with our team, we kind of have that same … I won’t say chip on our shoulder, but we want to prove what we’re capable of doing every single week.”

Zack Albert | NASCAR Digital Media

Posted on October 16, 2026 by Nathan Solomon

When the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Chase presented by Mobil 1 began, the top four drivers were separated by 40 points.

More than halfway through the postseason, and with Phoenix Raceway on the horizon (Sat., 7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, ESPN Unlimited, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the battle among the top four has tightened to just 15 points — shaping what could be an incredible four-race fight for the championship.

With back-to-back victories, Corey Day shaved 85 points off his deficit, going from 92 behind to just seven points back of leader Sheldon Creed with four races to go. Speaking of Creed, he made a statement of his own to open The Chase, winning two of the first three to dethrone Justin Allgaier — who’s combated execution issues — to take the top spot. But Allgaier is certainly not out of the fight yet. Don’t forget defending champion Jesse Love, either, who’s well positioned for another title before leaping to Cup in 2027.

To put this Chase in perspective, first to fourth in the NASCAR Cup Series are separated by 65 points, with fifth place another 20 in arrears. The top four in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series are separated by 88 points, with second place sitting 60 markers ahead of third.

So how’d we get here?

The Chase has been anything but clean for 2024 champion Allgaier, who’s suffered costly issues in all five races and quickly lost his 25-point advantage as the No. 1 seed. He hit the wall in the opener at Darlington Raceway after leading 60 laps, fading well out of the top 10 at the checkered flag. A loose wheel and damage plagued him at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. While contending for the win at Bristol Motor Speedway, Allgaier was pushed into the wall by Love and ultimately finished fourth. He wrecked out at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, finishing 34th and earning just five points.

Allgaier’s cleanest race came last weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway, when he finished fourth — but not before hitting the wall with 17 laps to go.

A 14.4 average finish in the postseason is not remotely close to the version of Allgaier that won six regular-season races. This is an obvious trend, though: The top seeds in all three national series enter Phoenix having surrendered the points lead.

But nobody’s capitalized better than Creed and Day, who have combined to win four of the first five Chase races.

Creed commanded the final stint at Darlington, pacing the final 53 circuits to win his second career race – and first on a traditional oval. He finished second at WWT Raceway and then, in a race where he admittedly struggled to find pace, survived a pair of late restarts to score an unlikely victory at Bristol, where Allgaier’s tension simmered in a heated conversation with Love on pit road.

The victories were massive breakthroughs for the 29-year-old Creed. He entered the season winless in 137 starts, recording 15 runner-ups – the most by a driver all time before earning a victory.

MORE: O’Reilly Series schedule | Phoenix entry list

The No. 00 Haas Factory Team driver departed Thunder Valley with an 11-point lead, and that only grew after Allgaier’s DNF at Las Vegas. Creed finished 13th in Sin City, leading the series by 19 points over Carson Kvapil as Allgaier plummeted to fourth, the lowest he’s been in points since EchoPark in February.

Allgaier outpointed Creed for the first time all postseason at Charlotte, even though Creed finished third. The Californian earned only one stage point and spent just 23 laps running inside the top five.

But in the last two weeks, Day came to life. Trailing by 92 points after three Chase races, the Hendrick Motorsports driver’s championship odds seemed slim. But in a long green-flag run to the end in Las Vegas, Day and Kvapil banged fenders coming to the white flag before Day ripped the fence in the final corners, pounding the wall as he squeezed every bit of juice out of his No. 17 Chevrolet for a thrilling win. He somehow one-upped it last weekend, making a daring three-wide pass on Allgaier and Love with 10 laps to go for his fourth win of 2026.

Day’s combined 144 points are the second-most scored in a two-race stretch all season. His only blip is a tango with William Sawalich at WWT Raceway, which resulted in a DNF and a 33rd-place finish — leaving him to wonder what could’ve been if not for that crash. But he’s still in the thick of the title fight amid a stellar rookie season thus far, and his 242 points scored are the most among Chase drivers.

Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images

Then enter Love, just two points behind Creed in second. He earned his first victory since last fall at WWT Raceway, snapping a 25-race winless streak after countless missed opportunities earlier in the season. Love’s only snafu in The Chase came at Bristol, where he finished 17th after the late contact with Allgaier.

The Richard Childress Racing driver’s postseason hasn’t been the flashiest. But he hasn’t needed it to be — at least not yet. With podium finishes over the last two races — and 80 laps led at Charlotte — that could wake the sleeping giant as the series pivots to the site of his championship a year ago.

With the O’Reilly Series heading to the Valley of the Sun, the pressure rises — and the stakes might be highest for Allgaier, who’s made Phoenix his playground. He’s a three-time winner at the 1-mile oval, including this spring — defeating Love late. Allgaier has 22 top 10s and a whopping 824 laps led across 32 starts, bar none the best in the field.

But Day has the momentum. Creed has the monkey off his back. Love has title defense at stake. And at 40 points back, Kvapil, a two-time winner this season, could become a factor again before this championship fight is all said and done.

So will Phoenix be where the savvy Allgaier finally finds his Chase mojo?

If it isn’t, the title race could stay just as wide open between now and Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Posted on October 16, 2026October 17, 2026 by Dustin Albino

Editor’s Note: Keep tabs on this page for lineup advice following qualifying, including changes you should consider.

Fantasy Update: The big guns showed up at Phoenix Raceway, with the five drivers closest to Kyle Larson in the championship standings sweeping the top five starting spots while the No. 5 Chevrolet mustered just a 22nd-place effort. Christopher Bell was particularly impressive over long runs, leading the field in 10-, 15-, 20-, 25- and 30-lap averages. Busch Light pole award winner Ryan Blaney and Team Penske affiliate Josh Berry also showed strong long-run speed, while Bubba Wallace ranked among the best in 15-, 20-, 25- and 30-lap averages. With limited starts remaining for several of the field’s top fantasy options – Larson, Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe and Tyler Reddick – I’m making just one lineup adjustment, swapping Wallace in for Austin Cindric.

Starting five: Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell, Joey Logano, Josh Berry, William Byron.
Garage: Bubba Wallace.

With four races remaining in the 2026 Cup Series season, the cream has risen to the top of The Chase presented by Mobil 1. The six drivers who have separated themselves from the pack have combined to win 10 of the last 14 visits to Phoenix Raceway, with Ryan Blaney chasing history as he aims to become just the third driver to win three consecutive races in the Sonoran Desert, joining Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson. In the fantasy realm, though, the battle will be Team Penske versus the field.

Returning to Fastlane this year is my weekly NASCAR 36 for 36 pick, where you can come play along. It’s a season-long points battle introduced in 2024 where strategy is the primary emphasis. With 36 chartered cars and 36 races on the 2026 schedule, players can choose each car once for the duration of the season.

MUST START
Driver: Ryan Blaney, Team Penske, No. 12 Ford
Selections remaining: 3
Comment: Blaney scored his crowning achievement at Phoenix in 2023, hoisting the Bill France Cup. But he has been stellar here for years, placing inside the top two positions in six of the last eight visits. The No. 12 pit crew – now with Austin Cindric – had multiple woes during the spring race and Blaney still rebounded to win.

Driver: Christopher Bell, Joe Gibbs Racing, No. 20 Toyota
Selections remaining: 2
Comment: Outside of the Penske walls, Bell seems to loom as Blaney’s toughest opponent in “The Valley of the Sun.” The No. 20 team has won twice in its last five trips to Phoenix, with four top-five efforts during that span. Bell led a race-high 176 laps in the spring but left dejected after the first of his eight runner-up finishes in 2026.

Driver: Joey Logano, Team Penske, No. 22 Ford
Selections remaining: 4
Comment: Despite a 92-point deficit, don’t count the three-time Cup titleist out yet. Logano has captured four checkered flags at Phoenix, tied for his most at any race track (Las Vegas Motor Speedway). Team Penske thrives on flat tracks, and Logano has won this race – and the championship – twice in the last four years.

Sean Gardner | Getty Images

DRIVERS TO AVOID
Driver: Ty Gibbs, Joe Gibbs Racing, No. 54 Toyota
Selections remaining: 4
Comment: Gibbs has been streaky at Phoenix since joining the big leagues, though he placed fourth in March. His two victories have come at short tracks in 2026, but an average finish of 20.3 here ranks him 13th out of the 16 championship hopefuls.

Driver: Carson Hocevar, Spire Motorsports, No. 77 Chevrolet
Selections remaining: 5
Comment: Hocevar trails Gibbs among Chasers with a 22.7 average finish, tied with Ryan Preece for 14th among the 16 Chase drivers. His Phoenix struggles are apparent, with three consecutive finishes of 20th or worse and a best result of 15th in six starts.

Sean Gardner | Getty Images

SLEEPERS OF THE WEEK
Driver: William Byron, Hendrick Motorsports, No. 24 Chevrolet
Selections remaining: 3
Comment: Byron’s championship hopes may be fading, but his Phoenix numbers shouldn’t be overlooked. The 2023 winner has finished seventh or better in six of his last eight starts at the Avondale oval and leads all drivers in laps spent inside the top five (1,963) and top 10 (2,510) in the Next Gen car.

Driver: Josh Berry, Wood Brothers Racing, No. 21 Ford
Selections remaining: 4
Comment: We are all in on Team Penske this weekend, which includes its affiliate Wood Brothers Racing. Berry has been phenomenal down the stretch, especially at flatter venues. Two of his three Phoenix top 10s have come in the famed No. 21 machine, earning a personal best of fourth place (March 2025).

David Jensen | Getty Images

FEATURED MATCHUPS
Kyle Larson vs. Denny Hamlin
Pick: Hamlin
Comment: Hamlin has lost ground to Larson in all six Chase races, but Larson believes Phoenix is a wild card for the No. 5 team as the finishes have overshadowed the performance in recent years. Hamlin led 208 of 319 laps last year, and the Chris Gayle-led group should come out swinging.

Ryan Blaney vs. Christopher Bell
Pick: Blaney
Comment: This is a dead heat to call, as Phoenix ranks among both drivers’ best venues. Blaney gets the historical edge, with six top-two finishes in the last eight races. It may take a win to settle this one.

Chase Briscoe vs. Joey Logano
Pick: Logano
Comment: With back-to-back victories, Briscoe is the hottest driver in Cup, shaving 58 points from Larson’s lead in just two weeks. Despite being a former Phoenix winner, he faces an uphill battle against Logano, with Team Penske poised to come out guns blazing at one of its strongest tracks.

Bubba Wallace vs. Chase Elliott
Pick: Wallace
Comment: History favors Elliott, who clinched the 2020 championship with a walk-off victory at Phoenix. But the No. 9 team hasn’t scored a top-five finish here since 2021 and has managed just one since its May victory at Texas, which came at Richmond. Wallace offers more upside this weekend, with a pair of top 10s in the last four appearances.

MY LINEUP
Starting five: Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell, Joey Logano, Josh Berry, William Byron.
Garage: Austin Cindric.

36 FOR 36
Pick: Riley Herbst, 23XI Racing, No. 35 Toyota
Comment: Getting down to the nitty-gritty part of the 2026 season, there are limited options here. Herbst is a formidable Phoenix player, winning the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series season finale in 2024 in dominant fashion. His best Cup finish in three Phoenix starts is 18th, which came earlier this season, and his results have improved with each visit.

Posted on October 16, 2026 by Zach Sturniolo

Chase Briscoe is in the midst of a heater in the NASCAR Cup Series Chase presented by Mobil 1.

Two wins and a fourth-place finish in the past three races have him firmly in the championship conversation, just behind his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell, all chasing Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson in the points lead.

Surely, with four races to go, that means this championship is a battle between JGR and Hendrick Motorsports, right?

“I don’t know if I would say that,” Briscoe cautioned after his Charlotte victory. “I think Penske is still very much in the mix.”

MORE: Chase standings | Phoenix schedule

Lurking at the back of the top five is Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney, 85 points behind Larson and 20 markers behind the JGR trio that sits between them. Logano, Penske’s three-time Cup Series champion, sits sixth, 92 points in arrears but still getting a whiff of the lingering point lead. In previous editions of the postseason, Team Penske had a knack for coming alive late, earning critical wins to advance through rounds and capitalizing at Phoenix Raceway, one of its most successful venues. Gone are the days of win-and-in, but victories for either Blaney or Logano could significantly alter the championship conversation with Phoenix ahead on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Blaney has won each of NASCAR’s past two trips to the Arizona gem, not to mention his three Talladega Superspeedway wins and two straight fall wins at Martinsville Speedway … the two tracks where NASCAR heads after Phoenix.

“When you think about Phoenix, they’ve been almost untouchable,” Briscoe said. “You go to Martinsville, I mean, Blaney has been absolutely unreal. So I feel like Penske is still very much in play. Blaney has even been leading on the white flag at Homestead too, and they’re going to be great at Talladega. So, I mean, I definitely think it comes down to Hendrick, JGR and Penske, which we hear every single week, right? But yeah, I would not say that it’s just a two-team race at this point.”

The 2023 champion has recent momentum on his side too. Blaney has finished inside the top five in each of the last three races, notching three straight top fives for the first time this season and all on intermediate ovals — the exact track type that concerned Team Penske entering The Chase.

“I’m very proud of the effort for sure,” Blaney said. “It’s at tracks that we’ve really put a big emphasis on ‘we have to get better here.’ And the last three weeks have been very, very good. Like our cars, the 2 (Austin Cindric) was good. The 22 (Logano) has been strong, so I feel like we’ve taken a big step in the right direction. We still have about another half step to go, I think, to catch a couple of those other guys, but overall, very proud of the effort that we want at Team Penske for digging in and getting better. … We’re not throwing sinks at it anymore. It’s small knobs.”

Team Penske’s competition director Travis Geisler knew this stretch of The Chase would be pivotal if any of the team’s three entries would contend for a championship. With two champions under the team’s banner inside a 100-point margin and a career-best stretch in progress for Cindric, he sees the Bill France Cup well within sight.

“It’s certainly been a good three races for us — it’s not as good as we need to be right now,” Geisler told NASCAR.com. “We’ve still got a little bit of margin to close up, but I think from where we’ve been, we feel like we’ve at least closed the gap significantly and have had some really strong cars. I think the 2 car’s performance over the last couple weeks has been great, honestly. The finish (Sunday) is unfortunate, but the rest of the races, they’ve had really good speed, and obviously Ryan’s had good speed. So yeah, still need to clean up some execution. Still got a little bit to go to be the best at these intermediates, but certainly able to walk out of these three and at least feel like we didn’t bury ourselves and we can race from here.”

Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR Digital Media

Now heading to some of the organization’s best tracks to close the season, the focus remains on improving rather than resting on its laurels. Blaney is a three-time winner this season, his most recent coming at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in August before The Chase began.

“He’s certainly got to get wins,” Geisler said of Blaney’s title hopes. “There’s no doubt you’re going to have to win a couple from here — which, hey, that’s the way the playoffs work. You should have to get wins in the playoffs. That’s the way any format of the playoffs should be. So I think that’s very possible. Obviously, the tracks line up really well for us. Still have a lot of confidence in that. Talladega is kind of an outlier for everybody, and that one’s just going to be ‘just try to finish.’ And if we finish there, we know we’ll be where we need to be.

“I think it’s all still up in the air right now. Certainly need to close the gap here over the next couple weeks and at least keep everybody honest at the end.”

A good chunk of the focus centers on Blaney thanks to his two wins at Phoenix and his recent Chase success at Martinsville. But Logano shouldn’t be an afterthought in this conversation. The three-time champ often performs best when the odds are stacked against him. They are right now, and Logano concedes he likely needs to win multiple times before the season’s over in order to win the title. But all the No. 22 team needs is a chance.

“At this point, I feel like we’ve definitely got to win at least two of the next four — maybe more — to pull this one off, which we can,” Logano said. “I feel like we’ve got a lot of good race tracks ahead of us. So still a positive attitude on it that we can still do it. It’s just gotten a little bit harder than we needed. I was really hoping to get out of this three-race stretch and these mile-and-a-halves 60 (points) or so out and try to make it up on our good tracks. But obviously, we’re a little further back than that.”

In the meantime, Blaney is all eyes forward, starting with Phoenix on the heels of his best stretch of races this year.

“I’m a big believer in carrying previous weekend momentum, confidence, stuff like that and going back to places that you’ve run well at,” Blaney said. “We got a lot of points to make up, but it is what it is. The best thing we can do is just go try to win two or three of them and see where you’re at and just keep going to work. So they’ve been doing a great job the whole Chase when we’ve been able to finish races, so just got to stick in there and keep running up front. Hopefully, we can get to Victory Lane a couple more times.”

Posted on October 16, 2026 by Zach Sturniolo

Spire Motorsports development driver Tristan McKee has signed with JR Motorsports to compete in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series on a part-time basis next season, with plans to go full time in 2029.

McKee, 16, will drive the No. 9 Chevrolet for JRM part-time in the 2027 and 2028 O’Reilly Auto Parts Series campaigns before becoming eligible to compete full time in 2029 with JRM.

The Kannapolis, North Carolina, driver — who shares a hometown with Dale Earnhardt — is set to make his O’Reilly debut at Bristol Motor Speedway on Aug. 13.

RELATED: JR Motorsports website

“Adding a driver like Tristan to our organization for multiple years is a testament to how we operate as a company,” Kelley Earnhardt-Miller, co-owner and CEO of JRM, said in a team release. “JRM has always looked to help the growth of young, up-and-coming drivers, and Tristan fits that mold. His accomplishments at such a young age behind the wheel speak for itself and I’m really looking forward to watching him develop and mature over these next three years while competing for race wins and championships.”

McKee remains deeply embedded in Spire Motorsports’ pipeline for the future as well. Shortly after his 16th birthday, McKee made his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut at Richmond Raceway, qualifying 13th and finishing eighth. In three Truck Series starts, McKee has finished inside the top 10 each time, placing sixth at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and fifth at Bristol, becoming the youngest driver to ever score a top-five finish in one of NASCAR’s national series. McKee will continue to make part-time Truck Series starts in the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet in 2027.

“I can’t wait to get started at Bristol next year with JRM,” McKee said in a team release. “It means the world to have the opportunity to compete in one of their cars, and I can’t thank Dale (Earnhardt Jr., co-owner), Kelley, LW (Miller) and everyone at JRM and Spire for this chance. I’m really looking forward to seeing what we can build together.”

MORE: Key players in 2026-2027 Silly Season

In addition to his select NASCAR starts this season, McKee also won the ARCA Menards Series East championship with four victories, two of which also came on the national ARCA tour. McKee also won the TA2 Series championship in the Trans Am Series in 2025, becoming the youngest driver to win the series’ title.

“We’ve been really fortunate to be a part of Tristan’s development and felt that this next step to JRM was the best thing for him as we look ahead to the future,” Spire Motorsports co-owner Jeff Dickerson said in a release. “JRM has been the benchmark of the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series for years, and I can’t think of a better place for Tristan to go and to learn from than with the best that the series has to offer.”