Ryan Blaney did not let two slow pit services due to loose wheels deny him an opportunity for a race victory. He rallied from his pair of pit road miscues by utilizing a late two-tire strategic call that enabled him to win the Straight Talk Wireless 500 at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday, March 8.
The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion led twice for 28 of 312 scheduled laps in an event where he started in fifth place, led for the first time on Lap 47 and claimed the first stage victory. Despite losing the lead at the start of the second stage period, Blaney remained upfront until he pitted multiple times under caution towards the Lap 100 mark to have a loose left-front wheel addressed.
After carving his way up the leaderboard following the first pit road issue, Blaney endured another roadblock due to a loose left-rear wheel during another caution period just past the Lap 130 mark. He also received a penalty for pitting in teammate Joey Logano’s pit box to have the wheel addressed.
Amid both loose wheel issues, Blaney survived a wild event mired with numerous tire wear issues and on-track incidents to march his way back to the front. Then after opting for a two-tire pit service during a late-race caution with 25 laps remaining, Blaney navigated his way through two additional late-race cautions and restarts, including the final one with 12 laps remaining, to motor away with the lead. Despite having a dominant Christopher Bell reeling in during the final laps, Blaney used the lead to fend off Bell and achieve his first Cup victory of the 2026 season.
On-track qualifying to determine the starting lineup occurred on Saturday, March 7. Joey Logano secured his first Cup pole position of the 2026 season with a pole-winning lap at 135.537 mph in 26.561 seconds. Kyle Larson qualified in second place with a lap of 134.943 mph in 26.678 seconds and he started alongside Logano on the front row.
Before the event, Brad Keselowski was sent to the rear of the field in a backup car after wrecking his primary car during Saturday’s practice session. Carson Hocevar dropped to the rear of the field due to an alternator change. Zane Smith was also sent to the tail end of the field due to an unapproved adjustment involving the underbody that was made to his entry during the practice/pre-qualifying inspection procedure. Smith was assessed a drive-through penalty after taking the green flag and his car chief, Will Norris, was also ejected for Sunday’s event.
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, the field dived through the frontstretch’s dogleg and fanned out across multiple lanes through the first two turns. Amid a series of on-track jostles and early battles for spots, Joey Logano led the first lap while teammate Austin Cindric challenged Kyle Larson for the runner-up spot. Over the next four laps, a multitude of on-track battles across the field continued to ensue, starting with William Byron and Daniel Suarez fiercely dueling for fourth place. Their battles allowed Ryan Blaney, Tyler Reddick, Ross Chastain and Denny Hamlin to join the battle. Meanwhile, Logano retained the lead by seven-tenths of a second over Larson while Cindric trailed by a second.
Through the first 10-scheduled laps, Logano was leading by a second over both Larson and teammate Cindric, while teammate Ryan Blaney trailed by two seconds in fourth place. Behind, Suarez occupied fifth place and was racing ahead of Reddick, Byron, Hamlin, Christopher Bell and Chastain while Josh Berry, Ty Gibbs, Chase Briscoe, Ryan Preece, Michael McDowell, Shane van Gisbergen, John Hunter Nemechek, Chris Buescher, AJ Allmendinger and Chase Elliott pursued in the top-20 mark ahead of Bubba Wallace, Todd Gilliland, Austin Dillon, rookie Connor Zilisch and Riley Herbst. Meanwhile, Carson Hocevar was up in 26th place after starting at the rear of the field. Zane Smith was at the tail end of the field in 37th place after serving his opening lap penalty.
Fifteen laps later, Logano stabilized his lead to a second over a hard-charging Blaney while Cindric, who trailed by two-and-a-half seconds, retained third place, thus placing all three Team Penske competitors in the top-three spots. Meanwhile, Reddick and Hamlin moved up into the top five ahead of their third Toyota teammate, Bell, while Larson dropped to seventh place in front of Suarez, Byron and Chastain.
Another 10 laps later, Logano had his advantage shrink to three-tenths of a second over Blaney as the latter continued reeling in on his Team Penske teammate for the top spot through every turn and straightaway, including the frontstretch’s dogleg. Despite early issues navigating past Zane Smith before Smith was lapped, Logano maintained his steady advantage through and past the Lap 40 mark. Meanwhile, Reddick overtook Cindric for third place on Lap 42. Cindric was then pressured by Bell for fourth place.
On Lap 46, Blaney, who made numerous attempts to overtake Logano through every turn and straightaway, used the outside lane entering the backstretch to muscle past Logano and lead the next lap for the first time. Blaney motored away despite being mired between lapped competitors of Austin Hill, Cole Custer and Noah Gragson. He continued to lead by six-tenths of a second over Logano as Logano was dealing with radio issues. Meanwhile, Reddick continued to trail in third place while Bell and Hamlin moved up into the top five. This dropped Cindric to sixth place and Larson had fallen out of the top-10 mark while Suarez, Byron, Ty Gibbs and Chastain occupied the remaining top-10 spots.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 60, Blaney claimed his first Cup stage victory of the 2026 season. Bell used the lapped competitor of Connor Zilisch on Lap 58 to overtake Logano and settled in second ahead of Logano, Reddick and Hamlin. Cindric, Suarez, Ty Gibbs, Byron and Chastain completed the top 10, respectively.
By then, 25 of 37 competitors were on the lead lap. Riley Herbst, in 26th place, received the free pass for being the first competitor a lap down. Meanwhile, a bevy of names including Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Austin Hill, Zilisch, Erik Jones, Custer, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Anthony Alfredo, Zane Smith and Noah Gragson, were a lap down.
Under the event’s first stage break period, the lead lap field led by Blaney peeled off the racetrack and pitted for service for the first time. Following the pit stops, Bell exited pit road first. Logano, Blaney, Hamlin, Reddick, Ty Gibbs, Byron, Chase Briscoe, Cindric and McDowell followed in the top-10. Amid the pit stops, Larson received a penalty for speeding on pit road.
The second stage period started on Lap 70 as Bell and Logano occupied the front row. At the start, the field fanned out and dived through the frontstretch’s dogleg. At the front, Logano challenged Bell for the lead from the outside lane. Despite nearly gaining an edge through the backstretch, Bell maintained the lead for the next lap while Blaney, Hamlin, Reddick, Gibbs, Briscoe and a bevy of competitors followed suit. As Bell pulled away and led past the Lap 75 mark, Blaney assumed the runner-up spot from teammate Logano while Hamlin and Reddick intimated Logano for third place. Behind, Briscoe prevailed in a battle with teammate Gibbs for sixth place while Byron, Chastain and Cindric pursued in the top 10.
By Lap 90, Bell, who has led since the second stage’s start on Lap 70, stretched his advantage to more than a second over Blaney. In third-place, Logano was pursued by a quartet of Toyota competitors, including Reddick, Hamlin, Briscoe and Gibbs. Meanwhile, Byron was the highest-running Chevrolet competitor in eighth place while Cindric and Chastain continued to trail in the top 10 ahead of Michael McDowell, Bubba Wallace, Shane van Gisbergen, Carson Hocevar and Chris Buescher.
Three laps later, the caution flew when Shane van Gisbergen, who was racing in the top-15 mark, cut a right-front tire and spun towards the outside wall in Turn 4. Van Gisbergen’s incident occurred a lap after Kyle Busch, mired a lap down, cut a right-front tire and hit the outside wall entering the first turn. Busch lost a second lap to the leaders as he was limping his entry to pit road, while van Gisbergen dropped out of the lead lap category after he had issues re-firing his stalled entry.
During this latest caution period, the lead lap field led by Bell returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Bell barely edged Logano off of pit road to retain the lead, with Blaney, Briscoe, Reddick and Gibbs following suit, respectively. Shortly after, Blaney returned to pit road to have a loose left-front wheel addressed. In addition, Wallace received a penalty for speeding on pit road.
The next restart on Lap 101 featured Bell and Logano dueling in front of the stacked field through the frontstretch’s dogleg and the first two turns. As the field fanned out to as wide as five lanes through the backstretch, Bell motored ahead of Logano through Turns 3 and 4 and led the next lap. Seconds later, the caution returned when Daniel Suarez, who was racing outside the top-10 mark, got loose entering the first turn and slid up the track. As Suarez slid, he made contact with Keselowski as the latter made contact and sent Chase Elliott spinning while Suarez slid backwards into the Turn 2 outside wall.
As the event restarted under green on Lap 108, Bell and Logano dueled for the lead for a second time through the frontstretch’s dogleg, the first two turns and the backstretch. Compared to the previous restart, Logano used the outside lane to lead the next lap by a hair over Bell. He then used the outside lane to muscle ahead of Bell through the first two turns. With the clean air to his advantage, Logano led the Lap 110 mark while Bell, who briefly got loose entering Turn 4, maintained second place in front of teammate Briscoe, Reddick, Byron and teammate Hamlin.
On Lap 124, Bell, who reeled in on Logano since losing the lead during the previous restart, used the inside lane entering the first turn to reassume the lead from Logano. Logano tried to execute a crossover move on Bell entering the backstretch, but Bell motored ahead as he led the next lap. As Bell returned atop the leaderboard, Reddick and Briscoe trailed by more than a second while Hamlin and Ty Gibbs both trailed by three seconds. Meanwhile, Blaney overtook McDowell to carve his way back into the top-10 mark. Hocevar was up into ninth place while both Larson and Wallace were mired in 16th and 22nd, respectively. In addition, Elliott and Suarez were mired at the tail end of the lead lap category in 29th and 30th, respectively.
Seven laps later, the caution returned when Briscoe, who was racing in third place in front of Reddick, lost a right-front tire exiting the backstretch and slid up hard against the Turn 4 outside wall on the driver’s right side. During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Bell pitted for service that included fresh tires and fuel. Following the pit stops, Logano returned atop the leaderboard after he exited pit road first ahead of Bell, while Hamlin, Gibbs, Reddick, Hocevar, Cindric, McDowell, Buescher and Byron followed suit, respectively. Amid the pit stops, Blaney received a penalty for stopping in teammate Logano’s pit stall to have a left-rear wheel tightened.
When the event restarted on Lap 138, Logano and Bell dueled for the lead through the frontstretch’s dogleg and the first two turns before Bell used the outside lane entering the backstretch to reassume the lead. As the field behind bumped and jostled for spots, Bell led the next lap over Logano, Hamlin and Gibbs while Hocevar challenged Reddick for fifth place. As Hocevar and Reddick continued to duel fiercely for fifth place in front of Cindric and Byron, Bell maintained his regained advantage to nine-tenths of a second over Logano by Lap 145.
At the halfway mark on Lap 156, Bell was leading by two seconds over both Logano and Hamlin while Gibbs, Reddick, Hocevar, Cindric, Byron, Buescher and Austin Dillon followed suit in the top 10, respectively. A lap later, the caution returned when Gragson, who was racing in the mid-pack region, blew a right-front tire, slammed into the outside wall entering the first two turn and left scattered tire debris from his wreckage scene. In addition, Cole Custer pitted due to a radiator issue.
During the caution period, Byron, Zilisch and McDowell limped their respective Chevrolet entries to pit road before pit road became accessible for the field as the trio had right-front tires flattened. Once pit road became accessible for the field, a majority of the field led by Bell pitted for fresh tires (two or four) and fuel, while Ryan Preece and Brad Keselowski remained on the track.
The next restart on Lap 167 featured the field fanning out through the fronstretch’s dogleg. As Preece and Keselowski were pursued by the field with their worn tires through the first two turns, Hamlin rocketed through with the lead. Hamlin led the next lap and teammate Bell muscled his way up to second place while Buescher, Cindric, Logano, Hocevar and Reddick navigated past Preece for positions. Preece continued to lose positions and he dropped out of the top-10 category while Wallace, Larson and Gibbs moved up the leaderboard. Amid the battles, Hamlin led past the Lap 170 mark.
On Lap 173, Bell tracked down and dueled against teammate Hamlin for the lead through Turns 3 and 4. He then motored ahead of Hamlin entering the first two turns and assumed control of both lanes with the lead during the next lap while Buescher, Logano and Cindric followed suit in the top five, respectively. Behind, Wallace moved up to sixth place in front of Hocevar and teammate Reddick while Larson and Elliott trailed in the top 10 ahead of Gibbs, Todd Gilliland, Austin Dillon, Josh Berry and Blaney.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 185, Bell, who stretched his lead to three seconds, claimed his first Cup stage victory of the 2026 season. Teammate Hamlin settled in second ahead of Logano, Buescher and Wallace. Cindric, Hocevar, Reddick, Larson and Gilliland completed the top 10, respectively. By then, 33 of 37 competitors were on the lead lap, with Preece and Keselowski plummeting down to 32nd and 33rd, respectively, on their worn tires.
During the event’s second stage break period, the field led by Bell returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Bell retained the lead by exiting pit road first. ahead of Logano, Wallace, Buescher, Cindric, Hocevar, Reddick, Gibbs, Hamlin and Elliott.
With 116 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Bell and Logano occupied the front row. At the start, the field fanned out across multiple lanes through the frontstretch and the first two turns as Bell rocketed ahead to retain the lead for the following lap. Behind, Wallace dueled with Logano for the runner-up spot while Cindric, Reddick, Buescher, Gibbs and Hocevar followed suit. With numerous on-track battles still ensuing across the field, Bell continued to lead by a second over Wallace with 110 laps remaining.
The caution flag flew with 102 laps remaining due to Preece spinning after Zilisch got turned by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. into Preece through the frontstretch’s dogleg. Nearly the entire field, led by Bell, returned to pit road for service. At the conclusion of the pit services, where mixed pit strategies ensued, Bell exited first, followed by teammate Hamlin, Buescher, Chastain, Alfredo, Logano and Wallace. Meanwhile, Josh Berry and Chase Elliott remained on the track as they occupied the front row.
The next restart, with 96 laps remaining, did not last long when Logano, who restarted as the fourth competitor in line from the inside lane, bumped and got Chastain loose through the frontstretch’s dogleg. The contact resulted in Chastain getting turned by Logano. He then veered to the right and collided with Wallace, Alfredo and Cindric. The latter two made hard contact against the frontstretch’s outside wall and against one another. At the moment of caution, Berry maintained the lead over Bell, Elliott, Gibbs and Buescher while Wallace and Logano continued in seventh and 11th, respectively.
As the event restarted with 87 laps remaining, the field fanned out through the frontstretch’s dogleg and the first two turns, with Bell reassuming the lead. As Bell motored away, Blaney carved his way back to second place. He was followed by Gibbs, Buescher, Hamlin, Wallace, Logano, Reddick, Larson and Hocevar in the top 10. Meanwhile, both Berry and Elliott plummeted with their worn tires.
Down to the final 70 laps of the event, the battle for the lead ignited as Bell maintained an advantage of a tenth of a second over Blaney, the latter of whom had spent the previous several laps reeling in on Bell with a fast race car. Meanwhile, Hamlin trailed in third place by nearly two seconds while Gibbs, Wallace, Buescher, Logano, Reddick, Larson and Hocevar were racing in the top 10 ahead of Byron, AJ Allmendinger, Todd Gilliland, John Hunter Nemechek, Erik Jones, McDowell, van Gisbergen, Austin Dillon, Zane Smith and Ty Dillon, respectively.
Three laps later, the caution flew when van Gisbergen, who was racing in the top-20 mark, spun entering Turn 4 after he got loose in front of Austin Dillon. Seconds before van Gisbergen’s incident, Kyle Busch pitted under green with a flat right-front tire. At the moment of caution, Bell fended off a bump from Blaney entering the first two turns to retain the lead. When the field led by Bell returned to pit road for service, Bell retained the lead by exiting pit road first. He was followed by teammate Gibbs and Blaney as Buescher received a penalty for speeding on pit road.
The next restart with 60 laps remaining lasted only a single lap when Logano, who was racing in the top 10, made contact with Allmendinger through the frontstretch after Logano tried to shift to the right from the dogleg. As Logano spun through the frontstretch’s infield, he then slid back up the racing groove. Numerous competitors dodged him before he was hit by Berry and Suarez, while Elliott also piled into the carnage. At the time of caution, Bell maintained the lead over Gibbs, Blaney, Hamlin and Larson.
With the event restarting with 49 laps remaining, teammates Hamlin and Gibbs dueled for nearly a full lap, from the dogleg through the first two turns, as Gibbs nearly forced Bell up the track. Amid Gibbs’ challenge, Bell fended off the challenge and motored ahead to lead the next lap while Larson, Reddick, Blaney and Hamlin battled for third place. Hamlin lost a handful of spots down to ninth place as Gibbs was pressured by Larson, Reddick and Blaney for the runner-up spot. Wallace maintained sixth place in front of Byron. Meanwhile, Bell led by seven-tenths of a second with 45 laps remaining.
Down to the final 35 laps of the event, Bell was leading by nearly two seconds over teammate Gibbs and by two seconds over third-place Blaney while Larson, Reddick, Hamlin, Wallace, Byron, Austin Dillon and McDowell trailed in the top 10 ahead of Allmendinger, Hocevar, Herbst, Preece, Erik Jones, Gilliland, Zane Smith, Keselowski, Nemechek and Ty Dillon, respectively.
Ten laps later, the caution flew when Austin Dillon, who was racing in ninth place, blew a right-rear tire and wrecked against the outside wall entering the first two turns. At the time of caution, Bell was leading by more than three seconds over a hard-charging Blaney. Giibbs, Larson and Reddick followed in the top five.
During this caution period, the field led by Bell pitted, and Gibbs exited pit road first after he was one of several front-runners who elected to pit for only two fresh tires. Blaney, Larson, Reddick, Byron, McDowell and Hocevar followed suit while Bell, who pitted for four fresh tires, exited eighth.
The next restart, with 19 laps remaining, only lasted for a single lap before the caution was displayed once again. The caution was due to Stenhouse, Nemechek and Zane Smith colliding against one another when the trio ran out of racing room while stacked up against the mid-pack region entering the backstretch. Smith then spun to the bottom of the backstretch and was hit by Ty Dillon. At the time of caution, Gibbs was ruled the leader over a hard-charging Larson, Blaney, Byron, McDowell and Reddick.
During the next restart with 12 laps remaining, Gibbs motored ahead of Larson through the frontstretch and from the outside lane while Blaney, who restarted behind Gibbs, tried to follow suit. As the field fanned out through the first two turns, Blaney reeled in on Gibbs and challenged him for the lead during the next lap. Meanwhile, Bell stormed to fourth place with four fresh tires and proceeded to reel in on Larson before Blaney used the dogleg to overtake Gibbs entering the first turn.
Despite slipping up, Blaney used the outside lane and the momentum to motor ahead and lead with both lanes under his control with nine laps remaining. Meanwhile, Bell was struggling to reel in on Larson for third place while Gibbs maintained second place.
Down to the final five laps, Blaney maintained the lead by nine-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Bell. Larson, Gibbs and Byron were scored in the top five ahead of Hamlin, Wallace, Reddick, McDowell and van Gisbergen. Despite being pitted against Bell’s four fresh tires and Bell’s efforts to narrow the deficit, Blaney used the clean air and the inside lane to lead by within half a second as the laps dwindled.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Blaney remained in the lead by four-tenths of a second over Bell. As Bell tried to reel in to Blaney’s rear bumper, Blaney was not to be denied as he cycled around Phoenix for a final time before he returned to the frontstretch and claimed the checkered flag by three-tenths of a second over Bell.
With the victory, Blaney achieved his 18th career win in the NASCAR Cup Series division, his second in a row at Phoenix and his first since he won the 2025 finale at Phoenix last November. He also delivered the first NASCAR victory of the 2026 season for both Team Penske and Ford. Speaking of Team Penske, Blaney capped off a clean weekend sweep for team owner Roger Penske at Phoenix as his IndyCar and NASCAR organizations swept both poles and race victories between Saturday’s IndyCar event and Sunday’s Cup event.
“Just perseverance,” Blaney said on the frontstretch on FS1. “Everybody on the No. 12 group persevered all day. We had a couple of mistakes that we learned from and got better, had to come from the back couple of times. Honestly, [Bell] was the best car, but [crew chief] Jonathan [Hassler] made a great call to take two [tires] and we were able to get the lead and just hold them off. I don’t know how many more laps I would’ve been to hold them off, but we were able to do that. Really proud of everybody at Team Penske. So cool, we swept the weekend. [Josef] Newgarden winning yesterday and us winning today. [I] Can’t wait to see Roger [Penske]. It’s cool to win here again, especially after a day like that.”
While Blaney celebrated the victory, Bell was left disappointed on pit road after falling a position short of winning with a dominant on-track performance. Amid the disappointment, Bell was also left pleased with his second consecutive top-three result and the stage points he accumulated following a slow start from the first two-scheduled events.
“Ultimately, if we had more green flag laps, I think we could’ve made a run at [Blaney],” Bell said. “I don’t know. You win some, you lose some. This one stings, but on a positive side, I’m really proud of our entire team. The pit crew did amazing. [Crew chief] Adam [Stevens] brought an amazing car. Engineers, our mechanics did really good. It’s something to build on. It was a day that we needed. We got a lot of stage points, finished second. Bummed whenever [race wins] get away like that.”
Kyle Larson navigated his way to a third-place result for his first top-three result of the 2026 season while Ty Gibs and Denny Hamlin finished in the top five. Bubba Wallace settled in sixth place ahead of William Byron and Tyler Reddick, with the latter’s hopes of winning a historic four-in-a-row to commence the 2026 season evaporating. Michael McDowell and Erik Jones completed the top 10 in the final running order.
There were 23 lead changes for eight different leaders. The event featured 12 cautions for 86 laps. In addition, 25 of 37 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the fourth event of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, Tyler Reddick continues to lead the standings by 60 points over Ryan Blaney, 72 over Bubba Wallace, 97 over Chase Elliott, 109 over Shane van Gisbergen and 112 apiece between Christopher Bell and Joey Logano.
Results:
- Ryan Blaney, 28 laps led, Stage 1 winner
- Christopher Bell, 176 laps led, Stage 2 winner
- Kyle Larson
- Ty Gibbs, 12 laps led
- Denny Hamlin, five laps led
- Bubba Wallace
- William Byron, one lap led
- Tyler Reddick
- Michael McDowell
- Erik Jones
- Shane van Gisbergen
- Todd Gilliland
- Ryan Preeece, four laps led
- Chris Buescher
- Brad Keselowski
- Austin Dillon
- Kyle Busch
- Riley Herbst
- AJ Allmendinger
- Carson Hocevar
- Austin Hill
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Chase Elliott
- Cody Ware
- John Hunter Nemechek
- Ty Dillon, one lap down
- Zane Smith – OUT, Accident
- Ross Chastain, 26 laps down
- Connor Zilisch – OUT, Suspension
- Daniel Suarez – OUT, Accident
- Joey Logano – OUT, Accident, 73 laps led
- Josh Berry – OUT, Accident, 13 laps led
- Anthony Alfredo – OUT, Accident
- Austin Cindric – OUT, Accident
- Cole Custer – OUT, Radiator
- Noah Gragson – OUT, Accident
- Chase Briscoe – OUT, Accident
Next on the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, March 15, and air at 4 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN Radio, SiriusXM and HBO MAX.
