The following article is brought to you by BetMGM.
The western tour continues for the NASCAR Cup Series as it takes to the one-mile delight in the desert at Phoenix Raceway. The Instacart 500 will take place on Sunday, and this year’s field of drivers contains some of the all-time best competitors in track history. It makes the NASCAR odds this week even more interesting than usual.
Last week, we saw a competitive race at Las Vegas. Kyle Larson came out on top in that one. Could he repeat? Or will the all-time track winner mentioned below continue his dominance in Arizona?
Let’s face it, Elliott is going to be the popular choice at a lot of tracks this year. That happens when you’re one of the youngest NASCAR Cup Series season champions in history. His surname also doesn’t hurt the case, as he’s the son of Hall of Fame driver Bill Elliott.
The younger Elliott has a pretty solid resume at Phoenix — six top 10s in 10 races, one victory, and the fourth-best average finish among active drivers. This kid continues to impress, and he’s proven to be a jack-of-all-trades driver, conquering a diverse array of tracks.
The NASCAR odds this week favor Elliott, but only slightly.
OTHERS: The truth is, Kevin Harvick (+600) is the most successful driver of all time at Phoenix, and it is not even close. Harvick’s nine all-time wins dwarf the next competitor (Jimmie Johnson with four). He has 25 top 10s in 36 starts and hasn’t been outside the top 10 at all since coming over to Stewart Haas Racing in 2014. Kyle Busch (+800) has won 16 total races at Phoenix in the top three NASCAR series. Keep an eye on these two this weekend.
THE DARK HORSE THREAT
Kyle Larson +1000
One has to like Larson’s momentum the past two races on similar-style tracks to Phoenix. He won last week’s race at Las Vegas, and he took fourth at Miami the week prior. While Larson doesn’t have a race win here, his past success on tracks like Phoenix is well-documented.
Larson has four straight top-six finishes at the Arizona track, and he seems to have some serious momentum going. He’s earned a front-row start to the race thanks to NASCAR’s formula that sets the field (during COVID-19). He’ll start second next to Brad Keselowski. Starting in the front row on a one-mile, tri-oval track like Phoenix is a massive advantage.
OTHERS: William Byron (+1600) is another guy to keep a close eye on. He’s been pretty consistent at Phoenix with two straight top 10s and a race win in the Xfinity Series a few years ago. Ryan Blaney (+1400) starts eighth, and in his past four starts there, he has three top-six finishes. That starting position combined with his recent success there makes him somebody to watch.
Honestly? It’s kind of weird calling Kurt Busch a “long shot”, but according to the odds, he is. He will start twelfth in the field, which isn’t bad. His Phoenix history is decent: one career win, 20 top 10s in 36 starts. He’s run rather well here the past two years since coming on board with Chip Ganassi Racing.
OTHERS: Christopher Bell (+2500) has done some special things this year, too. He already has a win (Daytona Road Course), and his season’s results have put him in the fourth starting spot. He also has won at Phoenix in the Xfinity Series. Erik Jones (+10000) may be considered a long shot in the NASCAR betting lines, but he has won twice at the track in the Camping World Truck Series and has four top 10s in nine races.
MOORESVILLE N.C. (March 12, 2021) – Longtime racer Bill Lester will drive the No. 17 Ford F-150 for David Gilliland Racing (DGR) at Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 20. Lester will make his first start in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) since 2007.
In total, the University of California Berkley engineering graduate has 142 starts in the series, spanning 2000-2007. Lester has three pole awards in the NCWTS and has led 92 laps. The African American driver has made starts in all three NASCAR national series.
Lester has partner support from series sponsor Camping World, Tommy’s Express Car Wash and the Greater Atlanta Ford Dealers. The Atlanta resident also just released his memoir, Winning in Reverse: Defying the Odds and Achieving Dreams.
“I’m excited to get back behind the wheel in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and I want to thank David Gilliland Racing for their help in making this happen,” Lester said. “It’s been more than a few years since my last race in the series, but to have strong partners like the Greater Atlanta Ford Dealers, Camping World, and Tommy’s Express Car Wash joining me for my return means a lot and I am honored to have them on-board. I look forward to competing at my home track, Atlanta Motor Speedway, and hope to make all those who are supporting me proud.”
The No. 17 is a part-time entry for DGR and has been driven by team co-owner David Gilliland and Riley Herbst this season.
A survey conducted by Whistle Wise finding 76% of sports bettors view gambling as a form of entrepreneurship (h/t Sports Handle) drew a collective gasp from the sports betting community, which knows the true percentage of people who make money betting on sports is nowhere near that.
Zack White, a professional bettor who specializes in NASCAR, laughed when told of the survey’s results.
“It’s not even close,” White said. “You’re talking 1%.”
It’s not impossible to win betting on sports, but it takes tremendous intelligence, hard work, discipline and capital. Proficiency in math and computer programming helps as well – necessary, in fact, some say.
“Everybody thinks they can do it,” White said. “There’s very few people that are able to do it year over year for the long term. It takes a lot of different aspects as a person – discipline, money management. You’ve gotta be well-bankrolled to start. Nobody’s gonna take $10,000 and turn it into enough money to live off of.
“These days, you (also) need computer programmers, you need inside information to create a well-rounded betting portfolio to win long term.”
The good news for NASCAR bettors is the sport’s betting markets are neither as liquid nor efficient as those for the NFL, college basketball or even golf. In other words, not as much money is bet into NASCAR as those other sports, so it’s easier to find an edge.
“It’s just a matter of being able to dig a little deeper than the sportsbooks,” said Blake Phillips, another sharp NASCAR bettor. “I don’t know how much work is actually put into creating the opening lines, and it’s a pretty illiquid market, so (it’s easier to beat) than the NFL or NBA.”
Easier. Definitely not easy.
And that’s OK. Even if you are not among the 1% of bettors who win over the long haul, you can still derive plenty of enjoyment from getting some action down on NASCAR races. The key is to view gambling as recreation, not a form of income. Budget an amount you’re comfortable losing and stick to that budget.
For example, instead of going out to dinner Sunday, give yourself $100 to play with for the Instacart 500 from Phoenix Raceway (Sunday, 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX). Even if you lose, you’ll probably have more fun cheering on your wagers than you would waiting for your overcooked steak. And the beauty of betting is sometimes you win. No one goes out to dinner and comes home with more money.
Bettors are fading Kevin Harvick in early wagering on Sunday’s race in Phoenix, as the line has moved against the No. 4 Ford in three matchups posted at SuperBook USA. Here is how the numbers have shifted since Tuesday’s openers:
Chase Elliott vs. Kevin Harvick
open: Elliott -110, Harvick -110
move: Elliott -120, Harvick even-money
Kevin Harvick vs. Kyle Larson
open: Harvick -130, Larson +110
move: Harvick -120, Larson even-money
Kevin Harvick vs. Denny Hamlin
open: Harvick -130, Hamlin +110
move: Harvick -120, Hamlin even-money
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
“People are anti-Stewart-Haas since they were so bad last week,” Ed Salmons, who handles NASCAR odds at the SuperBook, said in a text message.
Phillips isn’t sure this is the right sentiment, noting Harvick is the co-second favorite to win the race, offered at +500 at the SuperBook.
“I’m a little more tentative (to bet against Harvick),” Phillips said. “If I’m going just based on (my statistical) model, sure Harvick doesn’t look great, and the model is going to be really heavy on (Brad) Keselowski (the +450 favorite to win the race). It’s going to make him look like an absolute superstar, and it’s going to make Harvick look like he’s going to struggle here.”
Giving us a peek into his handicapping process, Phillips said his model provides “a rough approximation of what’s going to happen and then I decide what I’m going to be cautious on. I’m really cautious betting against Harvick this week, just as I’m cautious about betting blindly on Keselowski. I think that he’s a little bit overrated on the model right now.”
Phillips added, “If there’s a race where Harvick is going to make a rebound and show us what he’s got for the 2021 season, Phoenix is going to be the track. If he’s still struggling after Phoenix, it’s going to really inform my opinion on Harvick for the next few races after that.”
GROWTH OF LIVE NASCAR BETTING
Last Sunday, we monitored in-race wagering on a variety of apps, and we found that Barstool Sportsbook offered some fun ways to get involved after the green flag had dropped. You could bet on the driver you thought was going to win the race (eventual winner Kyle Larson could be had for 8-1 odds in live betting), for a driver to finish in the top 3 and even on a few head-to-head matchups.
As legal sports betting expands, the live betting options for NASCAR will grow along with it, according to bookmakers and pro bettors.
The expansion of legal gambling “will pump some liquidity into the market and give us some more offerings,” Phillips said.
For now, since the amount of money wagered on NASCAR is relatively small, there’s caution on both sides of the betting counter when it comes to in-race wagering. For the books, posting live odds for NASCAR races is less formulaic and more labor intensive than for stick-and-ball sports, White believes, and from the bettor’s perspective, the limits (the amount of money books allow you to bet) aren’t high enough to make the work required worth it.
“There’s not a huge market right now for that, so I haven’t really dived into trying to analyze the race as it’s going on,” White said. “There’s not really a market for me to bet into if I did find an angle there. But I’ve got some ideas if it does become widespread.”
Phillips is also looking forward to in-race betting achieving a critical mass, particularly live matchup props.
“I intend to spend more time on it,” he said. “I’ve done a little bit of in-game betting on outrights (the driver to win the race), which is primarily the market you’ll find there. It’s definitely on my radar. I think there’s a lot of opportunity there.”
Marcus DiNitto is a writer and editor living in Charlotte, North Carolina. He has been covering sports for nearly two-and-a-half decades and sports betting for more than 10 years. His first NASCAR betting experience was in 1995 at North Wilkesboro Speedway, where he went 0-for-3 on his matchup picks. Read his articles and follow him on Twitter; do not bet his picks.
Ahead of this year’s Daytona 500, Aric Almirola was among the pre-race favorites to win the Harley J. Earl Trophy. But less than 15 laps in, his race went awry, and the No. 10 team hasn’t been able to get on the right track since.
“It’s a character building year, and we are building lots of character,” Almirola recently told NASCAR.com of his season. “That’s exactly how I would describe it.”
While running at the front of the field in The Great American Race, Christopher Bell gave Almirola a great push down the backstretch. That shove turned the No. 10 Ford sideways, triggering the “Big One” with 16 cars receiving some sort of damage.
Believing he had one of the best cars in that race (Almirola dominated the first Bluegreen Vacations Duel three nights prior by leading 52 of 60 laps), there was no sugarcoating it — it was disappointing to be out of the race early. Devastating at that.
The following week at the Daytona International Speedway Road Course, Almirola was having a respectable run when he went for a late-race spin. Ultimately, he rebounded to take the checkered flag in 17th.
To round out the Florida swing, Almirola’s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway went downhill on Lap 201, when he got tight underneath Ryan Blaney, putting both cars in the fence. End result: 30th.
Most recently, Almirola was running in the mid-20s at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and then an incident occurred during the final stage. A piece of debris flew up into the left front of Almirola’s Ford and got sandwiched between the wheel and the brake caliper. Come the next corner, the No. 10 car was in the wall with a flat left front tire, ending the day 38th.
But even before the incident, Vegas wasn’t a stellar run for Almirola, or Stewart-Haas Racing as a whole, with Kevin Harvick leading the brigade in 20th.
“Of course I was surprised by (the way we ran),” Almirola said. “That’s been one of the things we’ve excelled at — mile and a half race tracks — especially with this 550 (horsepower) package. Those types of races are places where we’ve excelled and run very well. …
“Going to Vegas, I had a lot of high hopes and we were — overall as a company — scratching our heads, trying to figure out why we underperformed there.”
According to Almirola, it was an abnormal day by Stewart-Haas Racing standards.
“We’re way too good of a race team to run like that, and we all know that,” Almirola said. “There’s a lot of eyes on a lot of different parts of our race team and our race cars, engineers digging in and looking at what happened and answering those questions, trying to produce immediate results because that can’t and won’t be the norm. I promise you that.”
But even with moderate speed, Almirola has an average finish of just 29.8 through the first four events.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had a patch of races like this in my whole entire career,” Almirola said. “I know I’ve never started a season like this. I know for a fact I’ve never started the season with this many poor finishes.
“It’s not a situation I want to be in. It’s uncomfortable. It doesn’t feel good.”
Almirola still believes his No. 10 team is “great.” So even though he’s 28th in points, 49 markers below the cutoff, it’s not a cause for concern just yet.
“We’ve got a lot of fight in us and I’m not a quitter,” he said. “I’m not going to give up, I’m not going to quit, and we’re going to keep fighting. I can assure you we won’t consistently run like this; eventually we’ll get it turned around and capitalize on those moments.”
With the season still young, Almirola believes looking at points isn’t a true indicator of how the team is; as drivers can move up and down the “ladder” quickly. In fact, he said he hasn’t looked at points once.
The primary focus is to get the cars better.
“At this point, I don’t even care (about points),” Almirola said. “I know it’s bad. I know we have very little and I know we’re not in a good position. All that really matters for us is trying to get our cars competitive and trying to get speed in our cars to where we can go run up front. Because if you run up front you’re going to score points.”
Once the end of April and beginning of May comes around, Almirola will begin to look at points more closely. From there, he will be able to measure who the No. 10 car is racing around and needs to beat for the remainder of the regular season.
His next opportunity at a good run is this weekend at Phoenix Raceway. Over the past seven races in the Arizona sun, Almirola has earned five top-10 finishes, including a pair of top fives.
The goal is simple: Have a solid run to get back on track.
“At this point, I don’t think we need to throw a Hail Mary,” he said. “We’re not in a situation where we need to go do whatever it takes to win; we’re in a situation where we just need a good day.”
Knowing the deficit the team faces, Almirola said he needs to “persevere,” a term he brought to Twitter earlier this week to remind himself that the team is going to continue to fight.
Richmond Raceway, Martinsville Raceway and Virginia Tourism Corporation (VTC) announce a partnership on the entitlement for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour races in 2020.
The race at Martinsville on Thursday, April 8, will be the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 200.
And the Whelen Modified race at Richmond on Saturday, Sept. 10, will be the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 150.
— Martinsville Speedway (@MartinsvilleSwy) March 11, 2021
Martinsville Speedway will host an expanded spring race weekend with the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 200 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race in April. This will be the first Modified Tour race at Martinsville since 2010.
Martinsville hosted a modified race in NASCAR’s inaugural season on July 4, 1948. The race was the third NASCAR sanctioned race in the history of the Commonwealth of Virginia. NASCAR’s National Modified Championship, the predecessor to the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, competed at Martinsville from 1960-1984. The modern-day Modified Tour continued to race at the historic half-mile short track from 1985-2002 and 2005-2010. The series was originally scheduled to return to Martinsville last year, but was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Racing Virginia legend Ray Hendrick, who is the career leader in wins at Martinsville with 20, is the all-time leader in modified wins at the track with 13. NASCAR Hall of Famer Richie Evans is second with 10. Mike Stefanik, elected to the 2021 class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame and one of the Modified Tour’s 10 greatest drivers of all-time, holds the modern-day record with five wins at Martinsville. In qualifying for a 1986 modified event, Greg Sacks set the current Martinsville track record with a one-lap average of 101.014 mile-per-hour.
Richmond Raceway expands the fall race weekend to host the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 150 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race under the lights in September. This will be the first Modified Tour race at Richmond since 2002.
Richmond first hosted a modified race in NASCAR’s inaugural season on May 16, 1948. The race was the first NASCAR sanctioned race in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Richmond hosted the modern-day NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour from 1990-1993, 1997 and 1999-2002. Mike Stefanik, elected to the 2021 class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, and one of the Modified Tour’s 10 greatest drivers of all-time, holds the modern-day record with three wins at Richmond.
Racing Virginia will be active in April as the Commonwealth will host two NASCAR Cup Series race weekends in the same month for the first time since the April 2017 with Martinsville on April 8-10 and Richmond Raceway on April 17-18. For more information, visit martinsvillespeedway.com and richmondraceway.com.
To learn more about Virginia Tourism Corporation, visit virginia.org.
STATESVILLE, N.C. — Halmar Friesen Racing announced Thursday that Jessica Friesen will drive the No. 62 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Toyota Tundra in the Pinty’s Truck Race on Dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway on March 27.
Friesen will be driving a second truck out of the HFR shop, which will be the first time HFR fields two trucks. She will be racing as a teammate in the same event as her husband, Stewart Friesen. While the couple regularly race together in Northeast Dirt Modifieds, this will mark the first time a husband and wife compete in the same race on the same NASCAR team.
The Friesens will be the third husband-wife duo competing in the same NASCAR event. Frank and Sara Christian were first, making their debut at the Daytona Beach Road Course in NASCAR’s inaugural 1949 season. Elton Sawyer and Patty Moise then competed in several NASCAR races together in the early 1990s.
Partners onboard the No. 62 truck for the Bristol race include Halmar International, Parks Companies, A. Colarusso & Son, Corr Pak Merchandising, Tammy 10 Media, Hills Racing, One Zee Tees and CASP The Council of Autism Service Providers.
“I’ve been racing Sprint Cars and Modifieds on dirt for my entire racing career, and it’s amazing to get an opportunity to compete at this level. I’m looking forward to the experience of driving a truck for the first time,” Jessica said. “The fact that this race is happening on dirt is really exciting. I couldn’t ask for a better group to work with than the team we’ve assembled at HFR. I want to thank everyone who has made this possible, including our team owner, Chris Larsen, and all of our other sponsors who have supported me in the past both in Dirt Modifieds and Sprint Cars who have come back on board for this race.”
There have been four different winners in as many NASCAR Xfinity Series races this season and plenty reason to expect a fifth in Saturday’s Call 811 Before You Dig 200 presented by Arizona 811 (5:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Championship leader Austin Cindric, who won the season-opening race at Daytona International Speedway, arrives at the one-mile Phoenix Raceway as the most recent race winner. His victory there last November earned the 22-year-old his first NASCAR championship and has by all accounts, helped put Cindric on a high-octane performance course in 2021.
He is the only driver to earn top-five finishes in every race this season and his 163 laps led is nearly double that of any other driver. Last week’s Las Vegas race winner, AJ Allmendinger is second with 93 laps out front.
Both Cindric and Allmendinger are well aware that their stiffest competition this weekend may well come from 24-year-old Joe Gibbs Racing driver Brandon Jones, who is ranked third in the Xfinity Series championship standings.
The driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota is the defending winner of the Phoenix spring race, finished third in the season finale race. And Jones has finished top 10 in four of his last five starts on the desert oval. His 3.556-second win over Harrison Burton last March was the largest margin of victory in nine Xfinity Series races at Phoenix – since Kyle Busch dominated the race by more than 6-seconds in November, 2016.
“Our 19 Toyota team is thrilled to be heading back to Phoenix,” Jones said. “We had a pivotal win there last spring when we won against our teammate Kyle Busch. You take that strong win and mix it with us coming off our third consecutive top-four finish in the past three races. This momentum gives us the confidence to build on and focus on winning at Phoenix Raceway.
“As we look at data and notes from last year, I have already picked up on several areas where I can improve. This is an important weekend for our team to learn as much as possible; with Phoenix being the track that will hold the title to the Xfinity Series Championship later this year.”
They will undoubtedly face a challenge from series veteran and JR Motorsports driver Justin Allgaier, a two-time Phoenix race winner – the only current full-time Xfinity Series driver with multiple wins (2017 and 2020) at the 1-mile track. His 461 laps led at Phoenix is most among series regulars and he’s scored top-10 finishes in nine of the last 12 races.
Another Joe Gibbs Racing driver, Daniel Hemric shows up in Phoenix extremely motivated. He finished runner-up to Allmendinger at Las Vegas last weekend – the eighth second-place finish in the series for the well-liked North Carolinian. He has three top-five finishes in four races this year and his effort last week will put him in pole position this week at Phoenix, where he has a pair of top-five finishes in six Xfinity Series starts; including a runner-up in fall of 2018.
This weekend marks the second NASCAR Xfinity Series start for 18-year-old Ty Gibbs, grandson to NASCAR Hall of Famer Joe Gibbs, who showed some serious competitive mettle by winning at the Daytona Road Course in February – in his series debut in the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Gibbs earned one ARCA Menards Series West victory (then-NASCAR K&N Pro Series West) at Phoenix in 2019. If Gibbs were to win in his first two consecutive races he would become the first driver in NASCAR Xfinity Series history to accomplish the feat.
The rookie’s veteran team has every expectation for another solid outing.
“The No. 54 team is excited to go back to the racetrack with Ty Gibbs in Phoenix,” said the team’s crew chief Chris Gayle. “Ty did such an exceptional job at the Daytona Road Course of being cautious and learning as a rookie driver, mixed with being very aggressive late in the race when he was in position to win the event. He’s really good at Phoenix and we’re looking forward to helping him progress and learn more at his first oval event for this team. Not every event will go as smoothly or successfully as DRC (Daytona Road Course), but it’s important we remain focused on helping Ty get valuable experience at a variety of racetracks and continue to develop his skills behind the wheel.”
Other drivers deserving a watch this week include 22-year-old JR Motorsports driver Noah Gragson, who had a rough start to the 2021 season but rebounded last week with a fifth-place finish at his home track in Las Vegas – his first top five of the year. Gragson has never finished worse than 11th in four Phoenix starts with results of seventh in this race last year and a runner-up in the November finale.
Jeb Burton, who is competing in his first full-time season in the series with Kaulig Racing, has been ranked among the top-five in the standings all season. The 28-year-old son of former Daytona 500 winner Ward Burton, has finished top-10 in every race this year with best showings of fourth-place at the Daytona International Speedway season-opener and at Homestead-Miami Speedway in South Florida two weeks ago. He finished 17th in his only Xfinity Series start at Phoenix back in 2016.
This is an especially important weekend on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule as teams compete Sunday in the Instacart 500 at Phoenix Raceway (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) – the historic 50th race at the recently-renovated venue that will host Championship Weekend in November.
Not only is there a trophy to win, but teams will use the race to help prepare for the title-stop later in the season.
Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin arrives in Phoenix leading the driver standings by 38 points over Team Penske’s Brad Keselowski. However, neither driver has hoisted a trophy yet this season.
Four different drivers – Michael McDowell (Daytona 500), Christopher Bell (Daytona road course), William Byron (Homestead-Miami) and last weekend’s winner, Kyle Larson (Las Vegas) – have won a race to start the season and secured a position in the June 13 NASCAR All-Star Race at Texas Motor Speedway. Plus, they have locked themselves into the NASCAR Playoffs.
Should a fifth different driver win this weekend it would mark the first time since 2017 a season has opened with five different winners. The record is 10 different winners – launching the 2000 schedule.
Only one of these 2021 winners – Byron – made the 2020 NASCAR Playoffs. That leaves the more typical headline makers such as Hamlin, an seven-time winner in 2020 and the 2012 season champion Keselowski, a four-race winner last year still vying for their first trip to Victory Lane. Count the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion Chase Elliott and perennial title-chasers Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano and Kyle Busch among those still driving for a victory in 2021 as well.
Team Penske’s Joey Logano is the defending race winner of this week’s Phoenix event, which marked the last regularly-scheduled race to run in 2020 before the sport took a time-out for COVID-19 and the resulting new competitive reality.
Among those without a victory this year, Harvick, the driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, has a particular stellar record at Phoenix with a series leading nine victories, 18 top fives and 25 top 10s in 36 starts. He leads the series in pre-race driver rating (110.6) at Phoenix and has the best average finish (8.917) as well.
A win this weekend would make him one of only six drivers in NASCAR Cup Series history to earn a double-digit victory total at a track – joining an esteemed list that also includes Richard Petty, Darrell Waltrip, Jimmie Johnson, David Pearson and Dale Earnhardt.
Harvick started the year with three top-10 finishes, but suffered a 20th-place showing last week at Las Vegas. The last time he finished outside the top 10 in Phoenix was in early 2013 – 16 races ago. He was runner-up to Logano last March and finished seventh in November. His last win at the 1-mile track was spring 2018.
With a $178 million facility renovation at Phoenix – from track surface and configuration to grandstands and parking – Harvick is eager to restore his winning ways.
“Our Jimmy John’s team won several races on this configuration,” said Harvick, who is seventh in the Cup standings. “It’s still the same racetrack that we’ve won the majority of our races on. The only thing that’s changed is the start-finish line. As you look at last year, we ran really well at the first race and really poorly at the second race. A lot of that just depends on where the grip level is and where your car settings are for that particular weekend. But it’s still a racetrack where we expect to go and contend for a win every time and, if we don’t, the expectations were not met.”
Hamlin, the points leader, has four top-five finishes in the last six Phoenix races including one of his two career wins there (Playoffs, 2019). The driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was 20th in this spring race last year and fourth in the season finale. Twice (2010 and 2017) he’s led more than 190 laps but didn’t win the race.
Keselowski, driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford, is racing for his first win at Phoenix. He has a pair of runner-up finishes in the last five events, including the Championship Finale last November.
Elliott, who claimed his first NASCAR Cup Series title with a win at Phoenix last November, has only one top-10 finish in 2021 – a runner-up in the Daytona 500 – even though he’s led laps in all four races. Certainly, the fact two of his three Hendrick Motorsports teammates have won already this season is encouraging for his No. 9 Chevrolet team as well.
Elliott has six top-10 finishes in 10 Phoenix starts and in the two races last year led 246 of the 628 laps.
“I am definitely looking forward to getting back to Phoenix this weekend,” Elliott said. “Our last trip there was something I will never forget. Obviously, it’s a new season, eyes forward for now and just thinking about what we need to do to be fast and have our car where it needs to be.
“I also hope we can learn a lot while we are there because you want to be prepared if you are in the Championship 4 at the end of the season.”
It’s time to gear up for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Instacart 500 at Phoenix Raceway (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Sunday afternoon’s showdown marks the 50th time that NASCAR is holding a premier series event at the track since the inaugural Phoenix race in 1988.
NASCAR RaceDay begins pre-race coverage at 2 p.m. ET on FS1 and transitions to FOX at 3 p.m. ET.
BETTING ODDS
Can the reigning Cup Series champion put another feather in his cap at Phoenix? Oddsmakers think so.
Chase Elliott opens as a 5-1 favorite to burn it down in Victory Lane this weekend, settling in just ahead of Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski and Denny Hamlin, who each appear at 6-1.
Grandstand seating for the Instacart 500 at Phoenix Raceway on March 14 is sold out. However, camping and premium packages may still remain for fans who wish to attend. For more information and to check availability, visit the Phoenix Raceway ticket site.
Seeking his first career win at the Arizona track, Brad Keselowski leads the field to green Sunday from the Busch Pole position. Last weekend’s Vegas winner Kyle Larson joins him on the front row, followed by Hamlin, Christopher Bell and Martin Truex Jr. to round out the top five. See the full starting lineup and how it was chosen.
RULES PACKAGE
The short oval and road course package returns this weekend, featuring a significantly shorter rear spoiler and front splitter. Cars are fitted with a tapered-spacer engine targeting around 750 horsepower and emphasizing lower downforce due to aerodynamic changes.
Cup Series teams have nine sets of Goodyear Eagle Intermediate radials for the 312-lap race on the one-miler. The minimum recommended inflation for the left side tires is 14 psi coupled with 32 psi for the right front and 30 psi for the right rear. Tire management should come into play later in the race, particularly on late-race restarts.
Stage 1 ends on Lap 75, Stage 2 on Lap 190 and the Final Stage is scheduled to end on Lap 312.
CUP SERIES’ 50TH RACE AT PHOENIX RACEWAY
— Phoenix has hosted a race every season since 1988 and two races per season since 2005. Kevin Harvick is the all-time leader with 9 wins and is tied at the top with Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman with 36 starts there among active full-time drivers.
— Five organizations have won the last 15 Phoenix races: Stewart-Haas (5), Joe Gibbs Racing (4), Hendrick Motorsports (2), Richard Childress Racing (2) and Team Penske (2).
— The last eight Phoenix races were won by seven different drivers. Kyle Busch is the only driver to win multiple races at Phoenix in that time with victories in 2018 and 2019.
— Phoenix is known for overtime finishes with nine all-time.
Want to manage a team and race your way to the top of the leaderboards? Checkout NASCAR Fantasy Live. The free-to-play game lets you choose your drivers each week and show off your crew chief instincts! It’s not too late to join in on the competition!
The 2021 Fantasy Live points leaders are Denny Hamlin (187), Brad Keselowski (149) and Kyle Larson (143).
ALSO ON NASCAR.COM
Get additional camera views by logging on to NASCAR Drive, where each week a select number of in-car cameras will be available – as well as a battle cam and an overhead look.
New for this season, NASCAR has partnered with LiveLike to add fan engagement in the NASCAR Mobile App. Log in to the mobile app during the race for polls, quizzes, the cheer meter and more – and see instant results from NASCAR fans like you.
A look of shock comes across Juan Pablo Montoya’s face when he is reminded it has been seven years since he last raced in NASCAR.
“That’s crazy, it’s been that much already?” Montoya said with a laugh in a recent interview with NASCAR.com. “When you look back at it, you go, ‘Oh, my God, it’s crazy that it was that long ago. It’s the same thing with F1, which is worse because you can add another (six years before that). People still remember, people still talk about it (his time in NASCAR). It’s good.”
From 2006 through 2014, Montoya was one of the bigger stars in NASCAR, known for his fiery competitiveness, tenacity, and being one of the toughest drivers to pass on a race track.
But he was also unconventional. He didn’t fit the typical mold of a NASCAR driver.
Whereas most of his peers grew up racing stock cars, Montoya was already a world-class driver — a bonafide international celebrity — when he came to NASCAR.
He won the CART championship as a rookie in 1999. He won the Indianapolis 500 the following year (and again 15 years later, one year removed from his last go-round on the NASCAR circuit).
After conquering CART, he moved to Formula One from 2001 through 2006, earning seven wins and twice finishing third in the championship battle.
He struggled in his final F1 season (2006), yet still finished eighth in the standings for Team McLaren despite competing in only 10 of 18 races.
It was time for a new challenge for the Colombian native, and NASCAR beckoned. He was one of several international drivers of that era who also emigrated to America’s premier racing series, including Scotsman Dario Franchitti and Canadians Jacques Villeneuve and Patrick Carpentier. But while the others came and went, Montoya was the only one who had staying power.
Montoya came to NASCAR to race for Chip Ganassi Racing. His first full season, 2007, was also his breakthrough season, earning an Xfinity Series win at Mexico City in early March and following that up three and a half months later with his first Cup Series triumph at Sonoma Raceway.
That his first two NASCAR wins came on road courses was not surprising due to his prior road racing proficiency — five of his 10 wins in CART and all seven of his wins in F1 were on road courses.
While Montoya was always a formidable opponent in the Cup Series, his aggressive style at times proved his undoing. Of the 28 DNFs he recorded in his 255 Cup starts, 24 of those were due to crashes — although to be fair, not all were his fault.
Montoya’s best season statistically was 2009. While he did not reach Victory Lane, he had a career-best seven top-five and 18 top-10 finishes in 36 starts.
It was also the only season he made the NASCAR Playoffs, finishing a career-best eighth.
“You know, I really enjoyed NASCAR, and when I worked with Brian Pattie (Montoya’s crew chief from 2008-2011), it was very good,” Montoya said. “We had a really good relationship and we made a lot of good things.
“We worked really well together, we understood each other … we had a shot at the championship and everything (which) not a lot of people do. We did good with what we had.”
Jason Smith | Getty Images
Montoya would earn one more Cup win for Ganassi in 2010 — also on a road course (Watkins Glen) — before eventually parting ways after the 2013 season. He’d return to his open-wheel roots with Team Penske’s IndyCar program from 2014 through 2016, earning five wins in that period.
He also competed in two final Cup races for Penske in 2014.
“I had a few opportunities to go to different teams, but I felt loyalty to Chip (Ganassi) was more important,” Montoya said. “In hindsight, if I wanted to stay in NASCAR, I should have made the move. But for me, I felt loyalty was more important.”
Following his return to IndyCar, Montoya shifted to the IMSA Series for Penske, including winning the Prototype championship and three races in 2019 with teammate Dane Cameron.
These days, the 45-year-old Montoya remains busy and competitive, racing in three different series:
* Scheduled to drive seven races for DragonSpeed Racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship.
* Slated for at least three IMSA Series races for Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian, including January’s Rolex 24 Hours (finished fourth), next Sunday at Sebring and the season-ending event in Atlanta at Petit Le Mans.
* In a one-off start for Arrow McLaren SP, he returns to the Indianapolis 500 for the first time since 2017, seeking his third career win in The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.
“Honestly, I’m to the point I still enjoy racing, I’m still competitive,” he said. “As long as I have a drive to do it, I mean, it’s crazy because some people say you know with time you lose the drive, and this and that.”
But not Montoya. He continues to thrive on competition.
The other important part of his life these days is overseeing the development of son Sebastian’s racing career. Sebastian, who turns 16 on April 11, is in his second season of racing in Formula 4 in Europe for Italian team Prema Powertrain.
“He’s very, very quick, he’s crazy fast,” Montoya says of his son. “I think he is a lot smarter than me in a lot of ways. And I think he can race just as good as me, I think, or even better sometimes.
“You know, looking from the outside, I think he just needs a little bit of luck for things to go his way. And once things start clicking, it’ll be like a non-stop thing. I’m pretty excited. I think this year, he’s got an opportunity to make that happen. And if he takes advantage of this situation, it could be an amazing year for him.”
Like his father, the younger Montoya aspires to race one day in F1.
“His number one thing is F1, for sure,” Montoya said of his son. “Probably number two would be like IndyCar. But honestly, he wants to race. He wants to race whatever he can race on.
“He loves it and he works hard and he trains hard and he does whatever. If you tell him he needs to run 20 miles a day, that it’s going to make him quicker, he’ll go and run 20 miles a day. Last year he was very timid and I think he was a little behind everybody when we started the year, mentally and everything. He’s matured a lot. And you can see it within.”
Because of his son’s budding career, Montoya is moving the family from its longtime base in Miami, when he first came to NASCAR, to Monaco in the coming weeks.
While a smattering of grey has started to creep into his boyish mop of dark hair, the impish grin on Montoya’s face is still there. But don’t expect him to return to NASCAR in the twilight years of his racing career.
“Not to disrespect anybody and I did it for seven years, I loved it,” Montoya said. “But when you run 30 something weeks a year, you really don’t have a life. I mean, you really miss a lot of things in life that when you’re doing it, you think it’s fine. And then when you stop, you realize, ‘Oh, my God. Why?’”
When NASCAR raced last week at Homestead-Miami Speedway, as on most days, Montoya could be found riding his road bike around Miami, pedaling over 20 miles from his home toward the track. But instead of renewing acquaintances with his former NASCAR brethren, he stopped about a mile short, turned around and rode back home.
Even though it’s now at a distance, Montoya still keeps up with NASCAR.
“They’ve always been focused on trying to make a better show and they do,” he said. “The races are always close and everything.”
While other racing series were significantly impacted last season due to COVID-19, Montoya applauds how NASCAR successfully weathered the pandemic and put on a full 36-race schedule as originally planned.
“It was a huge challenge and they did a good job,” he said. “Something that I think right that came out of that is the shorter weekends. At some point, they’re going to have to do some short races … and they’re going to realize you don’t need to be doing three-and-a-half-hour races anymore.”
In addition to missing many of his former rivals, Montoya especially misses NASCAR fans.
“NASCAR fans in general, they’ve always been very good to me,” he said.
Then, he adds with a laugh, “But for some reason, I’ve always been the bad guy. … I think it was funny when I came to NASCAR, everybody was so welcoming until I started running well. It was like, ‘Yes, we want you here, but we don’t want you to win.’
“But it was good. I really enjoyed my time in NASCAR. I don’t have any regrets whatsoever. I mean, it’s a shame we didn’t do more. But I think with what we had, I did pretty damn good.”
With his 46th birthday looming in September, Montoya brushes off talk of retirement from racing anytime soon.
“Honestly, I’m at this point in my career where I’m really happy to be driving, excited to be competitive,” he said. “And that’s really what it’s always been for me. I mean, go get in the car, go fast and that’s it.”
* Hometown: Bogota, Colombia. Has lived in Miami since 2006 but will be moving shortly to Monaco.
* NASCAR Cup career: Seven full-time seasons (2007-2013) – two wins, 24 top-five and 59 top-10 finishes; also made two starts in 2014 for Roger Penske at Michigan and Brickyard 400.
* NASCAR Xfinity career: 23 starts between 2006-2008 – one win, one top-five, three top-10 finishes.
* Best NASCAR season: 2009, finished eighth in the Chase for the Cup.
Other career highlights:
CART: 40 races over two seasons (1999-2000) – won championship as rookie – 10 wins (including 7 in first season, plus 2000 Indianapolis 500), 13 podiums, 14 poles.
INDYCAR: 53 starts – 5 wins (including 2015 Indianapolis 500), 13 podiums, 1 pole – best season finish was second in 2015.
FORMULA ONE: — 94 starts – 7 wins, 30 podiums, 13 poles – best season finish was third in 2002 and 2003.
ROLEX Grand-Am Series – 8 starts (7 in Rolex 24 and 1 on Indianapolis GP road course) – 3 wins, 5 podiums, 1 pole.
IMSA – 31 starts – 3 wins, 15 podiums, 9 poles – won championship in 2019.
Veteran motorsports writer Jerry Bonkowski is writing a number of Where Are They Now? stories this year for NASCAR.com. Check out stories he’s already done on Mark Martin and Marcos Ambrose. Also, follow Jerry on Twitter @JerryBonkowski, his podcasts on BLEAV.com, and his email newsletter, TheRacingBeat.substack.com.
