RICK WARE RACING
Shriners Children’s 500k
Date: March 10, 2024
Event: Shriners Children’s 500k (Round 4 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Phoenix Raceway (1-mile oval)
Format: 312 laps, broken into three stages (60 laps/125 laps/127 laps)
Race Winner: Christopher Bell of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Stage 1 Winner: Tyler Reddick of 23XI Racing (Toyota)
Stage 2 Winner: Christopher Bell of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
RWR Race Finish:
● Justin Haley (Started 33rd, Finished 24th/ Running, completed 311 of 312 laps)
● Kaz Grala (Started 32nd, Finished 30th/ Running, completed 310 of 312 laps)
RWR Points:
● Justin Haley (29th with 52 points)
● Kaz Grala (34th with 37 points)
Haley Notes:
● This was Haley’s seventh career start at Phoenix. His best Phoenix finish remains 17th, earned in March 2022.
● Haley’s 24th-place finish was a team-best for RWR at Phoenix. The previous best-result was J.J. Yeley’s 26th-place finish in March 2020.
Grala Notes:
● This was Grala’s first career Cup Series start at Phoenix.
Race Notes:
● Christopher Bell won the Shriners Children’s 500k to score his seventh career NASCAR Cup Series victory and his first at Phoenix. His margin of victory over second-place Chris Buescher was 5.465 seconds.
● There were six caution periods for a total of 40 laps.
● Only 21 of the 37 drivers in the Shriners Children’s 500k finished on the lead lap.
● Ryan Blaney leaves Phoenix as the championship leader with a 10-point advantage over second-place Kyle Larson.
Sound Bites:
“I thought it was a good day, another good day of learning. We had a little too much a little too late. So, we’ve just got to keep working on unloading better and getting the car to a decent place before the start of the race, but I feel like at the end we were as competitive as anyone. I’m looking forward to a short track next week. Bristol is a lot of fun and I think we can find a good starting place to make some more progress.” – Justin Haley, driver of the No. 51 Fraternal Order of Eagles Ford Mustang Dark Horse
“I just didn’t have any pace, unfortunately. It felt like by the end of the race we got the balance pretty decent, but we were nowhere near where we needed to be to start, which put us further behind. We’ll go back to the shop and take a look at it. Our RFK friends had a pretty good day, so we can dig in and see what they had and if that can help us.” – Kaz Grala, driver of the No. 15 N29 Capital Partners Ford Mustang Dark Horse
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Food City 500 on Sunday, March 17 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. The race begins at 3:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FOX and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
