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TOYOTA RACING – NOAPS Phoenix Post-Race Report – 03.07.26

By
Official Release
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LATE RACE INCIDENT COLLECTS MULTIPLE JOE GIBBS RACING TOYOYTA GR SUPRA’S AT PHOENIX
Taylor, Jones, and Crews bring home Top-20 Finishes after Running in Top-10

PHOENIX (March 7, 2026) – Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Taylor Gray (15th), Brandon Jones (16th) and Brent Crews (18th) recorded top-20 finishes in Saturday night’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Phoenix Raceway.

Crews and Gray ran consistently inside the top 10 throughout the night, but an incident with 27 laps remaining caused damage to Crews, Gray, Jones and JGR teammate William Sawalich. The damage to all four cars was enough to take them out of contention for the win.

Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series (NOAPS)
Phoenix Raceway
Race 4 of 33 – 200 miles, 200 laps

TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS

1st, Justin Allgaier*

2nd, Jesse Love*

3rd, Carson Kvapil*

4th, Sheldon Creed*

5th, Sam Mayer*

15th, TAYLOR GRAY

16th, BRANDON JONES

18th, BRENT CREWS

23rd, HARRISON BURTON

25th,, DEAN THOMPSON

37th, WILLIAM SAWALICH

*non-Toyota driver

TOYOTA QUOTES

WILLIAM SAWALICH, No. 18 Soundgear GR Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 37th

Were you just an innocent bystander in that accident?

“Wrong place, wrong time as usual. Our Soundgear GR Supra was alright tonight. We had to work on it to get it where it was. A lot of hard work to get it to where it was, honestly. It just is what it is and we’ll move onto Vegas.

How did you feel about the run before that?

“I thought it was good, I thought we fired off really well with my starts and restarts, which is a positive for the team. We were able to get positions early but we would just fall behind in the long run.”

About Toyota

Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in the U.S. for nearly 70 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands, plus our nearly 1,500 dealerships.

Toyota directly employs nearly 48,000 people in the U.S. who have contributed to the design, engineering, and assembly of more than 35 million cars and trucks at our 11 manufacturing plants. In 2025, Toyota’s plant in North Carolina began to assemble automotive batteries for electrified vehicles.

For more information about Toyota, visit www.ToyotaNewsroom.com.

Justin Allgaier rallies for late O’Reilly victory at Phoenix

By
Andrew Kim
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Photo by Ron Olds for SpeedwayMedia.com.

Justin Allgaier was not to be denied amid a slow pit service in the late stages as he rallied to win the GOVX 200 at Phoenix Raceway on Saturday, March 7.

The 2024 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion from Riverton, Illinois, led the final 11 of 200 scheduled laps. He started in 17th place and motored his way to the front. After accumulating a pair of fourth-place results during the event’s first two stage periods. However, Allgaier hit a roadblock due to slow pit service and lost numerous spots.

Despite restarting in 21st place to start the final stage period, Allgaier methodically carved his way back towards the front. Then, through two late-race restarts, including the last one with 15 laps remaining, Allgaier positioned himself into race-winning contention as he reeled in the top-four leaders. Once he assumed the runner-up spot with 13 laps remaining, Allgaier cycled past Jesse Love for the lead two laps later. From there, Allgaier fended off late challenges from Love and teammate Carson Kvapil to score his first victory of the 2026 campaign.

On-track qualifying determined the starting lineup on Friday, March 6. Taylor Gray secured his first pole of the season with a lap at 130.743 mph in 27.535 seconds. Gray was joined on the front row by Jesse Love, who posted the second-fastest single-lap qualifying run at 130.695 mph in 27.545 seconds.

Before the event, the following drivers, including Nathan Byrd, Ryan Ellis and Sam Mayer, dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments that were made to their respective entries.

When the green flag waved and the event commenced, Taylor Gray, who elected to start from the outside lane, launched ahead as the field dived through the frontstretch’s dogleg before navigating through the first two turns. Gray cycled back to the frontstretch and led the first lap while teammate Brandon Jones challenged Jesse Love for the runner-up spot. 

Over the next four laps, Gray maintained his early advantage by within three-tenths of a second over Love and Jones. Teammate Brent Crews and William Byron followed suit in the top five, respectively. As Anthony Alfredo, Sammy Smith, Jeb Burton, Carson Kvapil and Justin Allgaier trailed in the top 10, respectively, Byron overtook Crews for fourth place. Meanwhile, Gray maintained a narrow lead over Love by Lap 10. Love, though, would overtake Gray to assume the lead for the first time during the following lap.

Through the Lap 20 mark, Love, who stretched his advantage to more than a second since assuming it on Lap 11, was leading Byron as the latter assumed the runner-up spot from Gray three laps earlier. Behind, fourth-place Sammy Smith trailed by more than two seconds, while fifth-place Jones and sixth-place Crews both trailed by more than three seconds. A few laps later, Justin Allgaier cracked the top five after he overtook both Crews and Jones. As Joe Gibbs Racing’s Gray, Jones and Crews slipped to fifth, seventh and ninth, respectively, Sammy Smith muscled up into second place over Byron while Love continued to lead by a second at the Lap 30 mark.

Then on Lap 41, Sammy Smith, who was reeling in on Love, capitalized on Love being mired in lapped traffic by getting beneath Love and leading for the first time through the frontstretch. Smith proceeded to lead the next four laps before he captured his first stage victory of the 2026 O’Reilly season on Lap 45. Love settled in second ahead of Smith’s three JR Motorsports teammates (Carson Kvapil, Allgaier and Byron) while Jeb Burton, Corey Day, Crews, Sheldon Creed and Jones were score in the top 10, respectively. By then, 29 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap.

Under the event’s first stage break period, the lead lap field led by Smith pitted for a first round of pit service. Following the pit stops, Love exited pit road first and he was followed by Kvapil, Smith, Allgaier and Jones. During the pit stops, Corey Day overshot his pit box and had to re-adjust his car since he parked too close to his pit stall on the driver’s left side. The move dropped Day to 23rd place in the running order.

The second stage period started on Lap 56 as Love and Kvapil occupied the front row. At the start, the field dived through the frontstretch’s dogleg. Love motored ahead of Kvapil, Allgaier, Byron, Smith, Crews, Jones and the field through the first two turns. Love led the next lap and retained the lead through the Lap 60 mark while the field fanned out and jostled for on-track spots.

At the Lap 70 mark, Love stretched his advantage to more than two seconds over Kvapil. Third place, Byron trailed by more than three seconds. Meanwhile, Crews, Allgaier and Gray trailed by four seconds in the top-six mark. Smith, after losing the lead during the first stage break period on pit road and could not rally his way back to the front, was mired in seventh ahead of Jones, Sheldon Creed and Sam Mayer. Over the next 10 laps, Jeb Burton cracked the top-10 mark. Corey Day rallied his way back up into the top-15 mark and Austin Hill was mired within the top-20 mark. Meanwhile, Love added another second to his advantage as he led by three seconds over Kvapil on Lap 80.

When the second stage period concluded on Lap 90, Love, who built his lead to more than four seconds, cruised to his second O’Reilly stage victory of the 2026 season. Kvapil settled in second ahead of teammates Byron and Allgaier while Crews, teammate Smith, Jeb Burton, Gray, Creed and Jeremy Clements were scored in the top 10, respectively. By then, 29 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap.

During the event’s second stage break period, the lead lap field led by Love returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Love retained the lead by exiting pit road first while Gray, Kvapil, Crews and Byron followed suit, respectively. During the pit stops, Allgaier, who pitted from the top five, plummeted to just outside the top-20 mark after enduring a slow pit service, where his pit crew had issues changing the right-rear wheel.

With 99 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Love and Gray occupied the front row. At the start, the field dived through the frontstretch’s dogleg for a third time. They fanned out to multiple lanes (as wide as five lanes) through the first two turns. Amid the on-track jostling and battles, Love retained the lead for the following lap. Gray retained second place while Kvapil, Creed, Byron and Mayer followed suit in the top six, respectively.

As the event reached its final 90-lap mark, Love stretched his lead to more than a second over Gray, Kvapil and Creed. Fifth-place Mayer trailed by two seconds. Behind, Byron, Smith, Crews, Clements and William Sawalich occupied the top-10 spots ahead of Jones, Jeb Burton, Corey Day, Austin Hill and Allgaier. Anthony Alfredo, Ryan Sieg, Dean Thompson, Parker Retzlaff and Rajah Caruth trailed in the top 20, respectively.

Fifteen laps later, Love’s advantage shrank to half a second over Kvapil as the latter reeled in the leader through every turn and straightaway. Meanwhile, third-place Creed trailed by more than three seconds. Mayer and Byron trailed in the top five ahead of Crews, Clements, Gray, Smith and Allgaier. 

Then, with 66 laps remaining, the battle for the lead ignited. Kvapil drew himself beneath Love in a side-by-side battle for the lead through the first two turns. Despite Kvapil leading the next lap and having a faster car than Love, the latter refused to surrender from the outside lane through every turn and straightaway. As both navigated through a handful of lapped competitors, they continued to swap and duel fiercely over the next several laps before Kvapil cleared Love with 62 laps remaining. Kvapil proceeded to lead by two seconds with 55 laps remaining.

With approximately 50 laps remaining, a late cycle of green-flag pit stops occurred. Sheldon Creed was the first of the front-runners to pit along with Brennan Poole and William Sawalich. Jeremy Clements, Byron and Jones pitted with 48 laps remaining and Crews and Anthony Alfredo pitted during the next lap before the leader Kvapil, Mayer, Love, Allgaier and Gray pitted with 46 laps remaining. As the pit stops cycled through, Creed benefitted from pitting early by cycling to the lead. Creed proceeded to lead by a second over Kvapil with 40 laps remaining.

With 36 laps remaining, the caution flew when Anthony Alfredo made contact and spun Lavar Scott entering the backstretch. By then, Creed was leading by a second over a hard-charging Kvapil. Mayer, Love and Clements were scored in the top five. During this caution period, some drivers, including Gray and Sawalich, pitted. The rest, led by Creed, remained on the track. 

The beginning of the next restart, with 29 laps remaining, featured Kvapil briefly motoring ahead of Creed and Mayer from the outside lane through the frontstretch’s dogleg. However, the latter two used the inside lane and the dogleg to overtake and slide in front of Kvapil through the first two turns. Teammates Creed and Mayer then battled dead even through the frontstretch for the next lap. They continued to battle fiercely during the following lap while Love, Kvapil and Clements tried to reel them in. 

Seconds later, the caution returned with 27 laps remaining due to a multi-car wreck that erupted in Turn 2. The wreckage occurred when Jones, who was battling Ryan Sieg for eighth place, got hit by Smith. This caused Jones to slide through the first two turns and barely clip the rear end of Byron before he was hit on the left side by his teammates Gray and Sawalich, with Thompson and Blaine Perkins also piling into the carnage.

As the field restarted with 15 laps remaining, the field dived through the frontstretch’s dogleg. The front-runners that included Creed, Love, Mayer and Kvapil raced nearly four-wide deep through the first two turns. Amid the scramble, Creed motored ahead and he led the next lap over Love. Behind, Mayer and Kvapil went wide entering Turn 3, which allowed Allgaier to move into third place. Allgaier overtook Creed for second place with 13 to go and proceeded to catch Love. Creed, meanwhile, was being pressured by Mayer and Kvapil for third place.

Then with 11 laps remaining, Allgaier used the outside lane through the backstretch to overtake Love for the lead. As Allgaier led the next lap, Love kept Allgaier in front of his windshield. Kvapil, Creed and Mayer all trailed by a second. As Love tried to reel in on Allgaier’s rear bumper with the laps dwindling, Kvapil also started to reel in on the two leaders. Kvapil then drew himself within sight of Love’s rear bumper while Allgaier continued to lead by three-tenths of a second with five laps remaining.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Allgaier remained in the lead by four-tenths of a second over Love and by a second over teammate Kvapil. Despite Love’s late attempts to use the dogleg and the turns to reel in on Allgaier, he could not make up the deficit. Allgaier smoothly navigated around Phoenix for a final time, cycling back to the frontstretch to claim the checkered flag and the victory by four-tenths of a second over Love.

With the victory, Allgaier achieved his 29th career win in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series division, which moves him into a tie with Matt Kenseth on the series’ all-time wins list. By winning at least a single O’Reilly race for a 10th consecutive season, Allgaier also notched his third victory at Phoenix and his first series’ win since Nashville Superspeedway in May 2025. 

Allgaier’s Phoenix victory marked the second in a row in recent weeks for JR Motorsports and kept Chevrolet four-for-four to start the 2026 O’Reilly season. He also achieved his first victory with his new crew chief Andrew Overstreet

“[I’m] Just so proud of this team,” Allgaier said in Victory Lane on the CW Network. “Andrew Overstreet has done a great job taking over [as a crew chief]. He’s been telling me all week this is our house and we’re going to go take it. It wasn’t for lack of adversity. It seems like those are the ones that are great for us. Really proud of this team, everybody on this No. 7 team. We had an issue on that first pit stop and these boys rebounded, did a great job…It never gets old winning.”

Jesse Love, who led a race-high 114 laps, settled in second place. He was just four-tenths of a second shy of winning at Phoenix for a second consecutive time. Carson Kvapil led 22 laps and was within striking distance of achieving his first O’Reilly victory. However, he had to settle for third place for his 11th top-five career result.

Haas Factory Team’s Sheldon Creed and Sam Mayer, led a combined 31 laps and finished fourth and fifth, respectively. Sammy Smith, Jeb Burton, Rajah Caruth, Corey Day and Anthony Alfredo completed the top-10 results in the final running order.

Notably, William Byron, Taylor Gray and Brent Crews finished 13th, 15th and 18th, respectively, after pitting before the final restart. Brandon Jones ended up in 16th place. In addition, Nick Sanchez, who had early power issues, finished the event seven laps down in 35th place.

There were 20 lead changes for nine different leaders. The event featured four cautions for 37 laps. In addition, 19 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

Following the race, Justin Allgaier leads the standings by three points over Jesse Love. He is five points ahead of Austin Hill, 38 over teammate Carson Kvapil and 41 over Sheldon Creed.

Results:

  1. Justin Allgaier, 11 laps led
  2. Jesse Love, 114 laps led, Stage 2 winner
  3. Carson Kvapil, 22 laps led
  4. Sheldon Creed, 20 laps led
  5. Sam Mayer, 11 laps led
  6. Sammy Smith, 10 laps led, Stage 1 winner
  7. Jeb Burton, one lap led
  8. Rajah Caruth, one lap led
  9. Corey Day
  10. Anthony Alfredo
  11. Jeremy Clements
  12. Austin Hill
  13. William Byron
  14. Parker Retzlaff
  15. Taylor Gray, 10 laps led
  16. Brandon Jones
  17. Ryan Sieg
  18. Brent Crews
  19. Joey Gase
  20. Daniel Dye, one lap down
  21. Chandler Smith, one lap down
  22. Austin Green, one lap down
  23. Harrison Burton, one lap down
  24. Kyle Sieg, one lap down
  25. Dean Thompson, one lap down
  26. Patrick Staropoli, one lap down
  27. Brennan Poole, one lap down
  28. Blaine Perkins, two laps down
  29. Garrett Smithley, two laps down
  30. Josh Bilicki, three laps down
  31. Nathan Byrd, three laps down
  32. Mason Maggio, four laps down
  33. Lavar Scott, five laps down
  34. Austin J. Hill, five laps down
  35. Nick Sanchez, seven laps down
  36. Dawson Cram, eight laps down
  37. William Sawalich – OUT, Accident
  38. Ryan Ellis – OUT, Suspension

Next on the 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series schedule is The LiUNA! at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, March 14, and air at 5:30 p.m. ET on the CW Network, PRN Radio and SiriusXM.

TEAM CHEVY INDYCAR SUNDAY RACE REPORT – Newgarden wins at Phoenix Raceway

By
Official Release
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CHEVROLET IN THE NTT INDYCAR SERIES
Good Ranchers 250
1-mile, Phoenix Raceway short oval
Avondale, Arizona
Saturday Race Report
March 7, 2026

AVONDALE, Arizona (March 7, 2026) For the 33rd time in his NTT INDYCAR SERIES career, Josef Newgarden, the pilot of the No. 2 XPEL Team Penske Chevrolet, won a race with Chevrolet power, the most of any driver. In a race that featured a Phoenix Raceway record 565 on-track passes and 18 lead changes among 11 drivers, Newgarden took the lead with six laps remaining, winning his second race at the historic one-mile oval in the “Valley Of The Sun.’

His Team Penske teammate and pole-winner David Malukas stood on the third step of the podium after leading 73 laps, the most of any driver today. The double podium means that nine of the dozen drivers who have stood on the Phoenix Raceway podium since the introduction of the 2.2L Twin-Turbo V6 in 2012 have been wearing Bowties.

Completing Team Chevy’s strong day were Pato O’Ward in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, his second straight top five to start the 2026 season. Alexander Rossi brought the No. 20 ECR Java House Chevrolet home sixth, making it four of the top six finishing positions for Chevrolet-powered cars.

Rossi’s ECR teammate, Christian Rasmussen, in the No. 21 ECR Splenda Stevia Chevrolet, put on a show all day, twice moving through the field to lead 69 laps.

After his 23rd to seventh-place drive in the season opener, Newgarden now leads the NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship point standings.

Chevrolet by the numbers:

  • Newgarden’s win is the 237th for Chevrolet all-time
  • Newgarden’s win is the 128th for Chevrolet since the introduction of 2.2L Twin-Turbo V6 in 2012
  • Today’s win is Newgarden’s 33rd with Chevrolet, tops all-time for Team Chevy and since the introduction of 2.2L Twin-Turbo V6 in 2012
  • Today’s win is 125th with Chevrolet, tops all-time for Team Chevy and since the introduction of 2.2L Twin-Turbo V6 in 2012
  • Newgarden and Malukas first and third place finishes are the 679th and 680th podiums all-time for Chevrolet
  • Newgarden and Malukas first and third place finishes are the 365th and 366th podiums all-time for Chevrolet since the introduction of 2.2L Twin-Turbo V6 in 2012
  • Newgarden’s podium is his 60th with Chevrolet power, he’s in second all-time and since the introduction of 2.2L Twin-Turbo V6 in 2012
  • Malukas’ podium is his 2nd with Chevrolet power, moving him into a tie for 41st all-time, and 21st since the introduction of 2.2L Twin-Turbo V6 in 2012
  • Newgarden and Malukas’ podiums are the 326th and 327th all-time and 223rd and 224th since the introduction of 2.2L Twin-Turbo V6 in 2012

Good Ranchers 250 race results:

Up next

A three-race in three-week stretch to start the 2026 NTT INDYCAR SERIES concludes with a visit to a new event in and around the Arlington Entertainment District, including AT&T Stadium, Globe Life Field, and Choctaw Stadium. The 2.73-mile, 14-turn Arlington Street Circuit will play host to the Java House Grand Prix of Arlington, with the race airing on FOX at 1 pm (Eastern).

What They’re Saying – Good Ranchers 250

Josef Newgarden, No. 2 XPEL Team Penske Chevrolet won:

“I’m just very surprised. I mean, look, we, it’s only been a race since we haven’t won, so it’s not like it’s been a while, but I just, in the middle of the race, I don’t know that I was fully believing that we had the capability to win. and we just we kept working through it and I’m like, look, if we get another opportunity, we’re going be on the aggressive side, we’re going to be on the offense.

“We took tires, and the thing was like a rocket ship when it needed to be, was right at the end of the race. So, hats off to the whole crew. XPEL back in Victory Lane. We had them in 2021.

“Team Chevy!! So, I’m pumped. I love to be here in Phoenix.

“I’m so happy we are here. This is you know, this is an INDYCAR track I think people that know the history of the sport know this is an INDYCAR track. So, to be here with NASCAR is fantastic. but we gotta be here as well and, I love being here with this group.

“It’s early going, but you’re in the championship lead again. What does momentum mean?”

“Do we really have the lead?


“I mean, it’s 2 races in, so I don’t want to read too much into it, but look, momentum’s a big deal. You know, I don’t know. it’s very difficult to understand how things work.”

David Malukas, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet finished 3rd:

“Man. That’s wow. I mean, the whole day we were fighting that car. It didn’t play out for us in the end. But I want to say congrats to Josef. They were there with the new tires there at the end. That last set was, we were burning it. I mean, drifting sideways, but I think that’s actually where we excelled. It seemed like on new tires; I couldn’t really do much. And when the tires degged, I think it showed there.

“We were reeling in Kirkwood. We got round Rasmussen Good job from all everybody in team Penske, Verizon, Chevrolet, everybody. It was, it was a good race. Scott. Big weekend with the pole and the podium.”

Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet finished 4th:

“It was a really nice experience. I really enjoyed driving around this place. The team did a great strategy call there in the end, which ended up being the winning strategy. But sadly, we ran out of tools in the inside of the car to get the balance back in the window. We started the race really loose, and, then we really struggled at the end of the race with front and rear. So, I’m definitely bummed because, you know, after our first stop, it looked like we were in great in great shape, but then, you know, we just kinda fell out of our hands and not a lot we could have done balance wise.”

Alexander Rossi, No. 20 ECR Java House Chevrolet finished 6th:

“A day of many emotions. At the beginning, we thought we were in a really good spot. Then we had some things in the middle of the race that got away from us and we went to the back. We ended up sixth and that kind of up and down was really the story of the whole weekend. The ECR team did a good job of hanging in there and making the most of what we good. We’ll take some good points and go again next week. Looking forward to getting to Texas and the first Java House Grand Prix of Arlington!”

Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Gallagher Insurance Team Penske Chevrolet finished 8th:

“Battled all day in the Gallagher Chevy. I wasn’t entirely happy with the balance and it wasn’t really that comfortable. We have to do a little bit of studying. Overall, it’s a great day. The team won. That’s a good thing. Congrats to the No. 2 team. We’ll rebuild and go to a great race in Arlington.”

Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 HOMES FOR OUR TROOPS Chevrolet finished 11th:

“Just honestly unbelievable how we overcame the car issues today. We started not in a great spot [dropped back to last]. Just took multiple pit stops, and we got it right, got into the top 10. The last minute call not to pit was a collective group decision. You know, in our position [were sixth at the time] it’s really hard to make that call. And, we wish we did, but that’s racing sometimes. So we did the best we could, with what we had. Took some points and it was a good finish for the Homes For Our Troops Chevy.”

Christian Lundgaard, No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet finished 13th:

“It was a long race. I felt the pace was decent. We were pretty good around the pit sequences which is where it really matters. Obviously we were unlucky with that yellow flag that shuffled us from a top three at that point down to the high teens. It was very unfortunate; it undid the good job that the 7 VELO crew had done up until then. They were awesome on strategy, so it’s a bummer. I thought we had a much better race going for us. I’m proud of what we did. We made some good changes and had some good progression on the 7 Chevy on the ovals, so I’m pretty excited for Indy and also the rest of the short ovals. But first, Arlington.”

Christian Rasmussen, No. 21 ECR Splenda Stevia Chevrolet finished 14th:

“I think it is very clear what happened. We were the class of the field today. The best car out there.

I was so happy with the car…you can’t just run people into the wall which was what happened today. He ran me straight into the wall, and I had damage. I think lower wishbone front, upper/lower wishbone on the rear and the toe-link which obviously some of that might have been from after, but the car was impossible to drive after that. I did what I could to salvage the day and not crash the car…but…just frustrating. Man so frustrating. We should have won the race today. We obviously didn’t.”

Caio Collet, No. 4 COMBITRANS AMAZONIA Chevrolet finished 19th:

“I think the start and the first stint was quite good. We were able to be up there. Just after that, I just lost a bit of pace and was lacking a bit of confidence on the rear again. Think when the pace started to go quicker, I just was a little bit stuck and but, happy to finish the race. Obviously, there’s a lot of things to improve for myself and just trying to understand a little bit better what I need from the Combitrans car to be able to be quick. A little bit of a tough weekend to be honest, and glad we finished the race and we will move on to the next one.”

Nolan Siegel, No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet finished 20th:

“It was a long race today. There was an issue with the car I fought in Practice 2 that continued in the race. It’s disappointing because I really wanted to make the most of our Qualifying position, but we’re all eager to get and stay up front. Im confident in our group, and we’re looking forward to Arlington.”

Sting Ray Robb, No. 77 Juncos Hollinger – Goodheart Chevrolet finished 21st:

Really, really tough day today. I’ve had a lot of tough short oval races, but that’s the worst one to date. Our best qualifying to date and we squandered it. Really frustrating. Every stint, we struggled a lot and some confusion at the end put us some laps down, with lapped cars. Really, really unfortunate day for the whole JHR team. We deserved a lot more than this and their is definately a lot to learn. There is a long ways to go up and remember our qualifying, and move forward. Huge thank you to Goodheart, Service dogs of America and everybody else involved for supporting us. Good job for the team for being consistent on the pit stops. We’ll look forward to Arlington and put this one behind us.”

Rinus VeeKay, No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Chevrolet finished 22nd:

“Not the day we were looking for. Started eighth, a great staring position. Moved up to fifth and there on the restart and had a run on Palou. I took the outside and had two or three feet alongside him on the outside and I got ran up into the wall. It’s really unfortunate there. I got some damage and lost four laps and was on the back foot the rest of the race. A bit of an unlucky one, unfortunately. Even after the contact the car felt great. I think we could have had a good run at a top five this weekend. So, a tough one to swallow. The good thing is that we’re racing again in a few days. Thank you to ARCO for coming on board. I’m excited to get to Arlington for the first visit there. Great job by the guys to scramble all race and get everything done.”

NTT INDYCAR SERIES News Conference

David Malukas

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Currently joined bycthird-place finisher David Malukas with his first podium of the season, first with Team Penske as well.

THE MODERATOR: David, starting from pole today, coming home with a podium finish. Your thoughts on a third-place finish here today.

DAVID MALUKAS: I mean, I was really happy. That race, like Kyle said, it was awesome. There were so many different strategies, so much going on. In the middle of that race, I thought, All right, here we go, hopefully we can stay in the top 10.

Things really played out. Another yellow came out. We still had an opportunity at the end. Big congrats to Josef for getting the win there. New tires, hard work to get through everybody. Last stint, I don’t know what Kyle thought, but that’s the hardest I pushed a tire before. That was drifting. I never drifted in an INDYCAR that much before. Through one and two, the first turn is actually left, then when you’re in the corner, the rest of it you’re turning right. Some big moments.

I’m very excited to go back and clip all the videos of almost spinning out in one and two.

THE MODERATOR: Open it up for questions.

Q. Every time INDYCAR comes to a new oval, especially with the hybrid, everybody says it’s going to be single file, and it’s not.

DAVID MALUKAS: I just started thinking about the race, what could have been different. I was focused on Kyle. What was the question (laughter)? Why wasn’t it single file?

That’s kind of been the case with a lot of these races, these new ovals that we’ve been going to. I think on top of what Kyle said, I think it also adds to the drivers now, we’re trying that second lane more.

I just feel like first few years in INDYCAR when I came, people didn’t really go up there. Now I feel like there’s more people trying and keeping it clean throughout the race as it goes by. Makes for better racing. I think that also adds to it.

Q. Were you aware of Rasmussen having a really great drive until the very end, just how aggressive he was. What was it that you saw at the end when the car just started to fade?

DAVID MALUKAS: Yeah, he’s just all attack. Even when he was behind me for a few laps, I mean, I don’t know, I was defending. I came to the point that I’m going to stop defending this because I feel like we’re going to crash. He is all or nothing. He is all or nothing. It’s into the wall or I’m making that move. Obviously that strategy works very well.

Fair play to him, that tire deg doesn’t seem to affect him. He can still keep attacking and keep making passes. I think it caught up to him a little bit at the end there. I think he hit the wall multiple times. He was pushing very hard.

Q. David, did you feel in the car just the cinema that was going on? Awesome race, the stands were full. Could you feel how entertaining that race was?

DAVID MALUKAS: I mean, yeah, dude. For my brain-rotted TikTok brain, I was so focused. I didn’t have a second to think about anything else.

We were full drift the whole time. It was an awesome race. I had a really good time from start to finish. Like I said, that second lane, it worked really well. We were making moves.

That race felt like an instant to me. 30 minutes and we were done. It was awesome.

Q. First podium with Penske. Are you a little disappointed with the third or are you going to take this and keep the momentum rolling?

DAVID MALUKAS: No, I mean, I’m so happy. I haven’t touched a trophy I feel like in a long time. It’s been a very long time.

No, I’m very happy. Everything at Team Penske, St. Pete leading up to Phoenix here, we’ve had a fantastic start. It just seems that we’re still getting better and building that momentum. It’s still a new team, new guys and everything. We’re already starting off on very high standard, so very happy.

Q. David, with Team Penske as a whole, for Scott to podium last week, Josef winning today, what does it mean for this team as it’s trying to bounce back from last year?

DAVID MALUKAS: I think it means very much. I think it goes to show the resilience of Team Penske, right? They had some mad moments last year. Now they come back. We’re hitting it off on a very high note. Even from the NASCAR side, Joey got pole as well. Team Penske right now has been fantastic.

Me being a part of it, obviously for me it’s new, but just being in that environment, I can see why the 60 years of victories and podiums and all this stuff is the way they run things very well.

Q. With the history here at Phoenix Raceway, the crowd that showed up today, how important is it that you remain established in the Phoenix market?

DAVID MALUKAS: Yeah, I mean, I thought it was really important. It was a fantastic race. Everything you said. On top of it, we get to go back to back to back. Now we’re going to Arlington next week.

It’s good from a viewing standpoint, coming from St. Pete we got a lot of new viewers. Let me tune in again. Phoenix, that was a fantastic race to watch, incredible.

I think we need to keep this momentum going and we’ll see what comes for next year.

Q. For a lot of people in the grandstands that came here that are NASCAR fans, they’ve never seen an INDYCAR SERIES race before. What do you think their reactions are? Are you confident that you guys won a few fans today?

DAVID MALUKAS: I mean, yeah, I think that they would enjoy it. I mean, I had a fantastic time. I think everybody here thought it was a good race. I would assume from their perspective they’re going to say, Hell, yeah, INDYCAR is awesome (smiling).

Q. I know you got to stick around for tomorrow?

DAVID MALUKAS: Oh, got to go to Miami.

Q. You have some meet-and-greets to do in the morning.

DAVID MALUKAS: I’m going to be shadowing Austin tomorrow. This is awesome. I get to see it from the NASCAR world how things are run. I’m new. I’m actually super pumped. I’m going to be bugging Austin all the time. It’s going to be awesome.

Q. David, you and Newgarden raced pretty tight. Did you have a little bit of contact once?

DAVID MALUKAS: Really, really early on. We were just bobbing and weaving a little bit. It wasn’t intentional.

Q. When you’re racing side by side with him, are you wondering what can you do with a teammate, what can I not do? Are you still learning that?

DAVID MALUKAS: No. We try to help each other in every single way, work as a team to get the car better and each other better.

When it comes to racing, we’re racing side by side the same way we would with anybody else out there. It’s nothing different just because we’re teammates. We race to race.

I think we had good racing. We were pretty much together the whole time until the very end when they made the strategy to new tires. I raced him hard every chance I got, and he did the same.

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations. We’ll see you in a couple days on the streets of Arlington.

Josef Newgarden

Jonathan Diuguid

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Welcoming the winning driver today in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, as well as team president from Team Penske in Jonathan Diuguid. Josef Newgarden led eight of the 250 laps, including the last six. His first win of the season, 33rd of his career. 10th on the NTT INDYCAR SERIES all-time list. 19th win on an oval. The last 10 wins for Josef have come on ovals. Has now won a race in his 12th consecutive season in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES. For Team Penske it’s win 247 all told for Jonathan and company.

Josef, for you, how proud are you to get a win early here in 2026?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, what a day. I didn’t know how today was going to go. I don’t think any of us did. We were trying to make our best guess as how do we build a new car, approach this. I think we came in with a good mentality.

At the end of the day I think the team just executed. They executed at a super high level. That is what it takes to win these races. I am not going to sit here and say we were the best today. I don’t think we were. We have work to do leaving here. We’re never shy to admit that when we’re somewhere. I think we try and be realistic about where we’re at.

We executed at a super high level. Everyone was on it. The timing stand did a great job, made the right calls, great pit stops. When we needed to be fast, we were fast. Really proud of the execution.

Just like St. Petersburg, we had a really tough start there. We executed on race day. We’ve been talking about this, this is what we need to do, we need to be better every time we show up, do our jobs to the best of our ability, I think the pieces will fall into place.

So far it’s definitely been a decent start. We got to keep it up.

Last thing I’ll say is it was a good race. I didn’t know what we were going to get. That second lane really started to open up. People were exploring. There were some really good cars out there. Guys were doing some amazing things in the middle of the race, even the beginning.

It just turned it into certainly a show, something you could pick apart. You could choose your battle at the end, what you want to do. It was fun to be a part of that.

THE MODERATOR: Jonathan, obviously the tire change helped out perhaps at the end for Josef. This is a big weekend for Team Penske.

JONATHAN DIUGUID: Yeah, absolutely. I think Josef mentioned it, getting a win this early on in the season is fantastic.

I think he mentioned St. Petersburg there. I would say we were conservative, kind of had a boring strategy today. Today before the race started, we decided we were going to be aggressive.

The opportunity came with 40 laps to go, that caution came out. Decided to give up the track position we had, take tires, put it in Josef’s hands. He did an amazing job.

10 laps from the end, I was like, Okay, I don’t know if we’re going to do this. Then we started moving forward pretty quickly.

It was amazing to watch. Really happy for the group.

THE MODERATOR: We’ll start with questions.

Q. This really stands out like last weekend at St. Pete where Josef charged through the field, great result. Team went through a huge evolution during the off-season. It feels like we’re seeing the effects of that. What do you say after two races?

JONATHAN DIUGUID: I think it’s just starting. What Josef said there is we pretty much talk about everything, whether it was finishing second in qualifying yesterday. We could have gone around and gave each other high fives. We were talking about why we weren’t on the pole.

We qualified poorly in St. Petersburg. We talked about how we could be better.

I think that’s the biggest thing that’s going to keep moving us forward is being open about the good parts and the bad parts. I would say that’s what got us the win today, was we had a plan. We stuck to it. We were pretty open.

I think if you listened to the radio, you could have probably figured out what we were going to do. We weren’t talking any codes or anything. We wanted to be exactly clear and make no mistakes. Like Josef said, it was execution that mattered.

Q. With David as a teammate, you had some fun on track, but also demonstrated what you are capable of. Thoughts about the two of you working together.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I got asked about this at the beginning of the year on Content Day.

I think David is doing excellent. I’m not going to be surprised to see him win sooner than later. I just won’t. I think he’s done a good job.

He’s a little different. I don’t mean that good or bad. He’s younger. He’s like from a different generation. He acts differently to me and Scott. He’s very complementary in some ways. It’s always nice to see something new. He’s got that youthfulness to him.

You can tell he’s eager to perform. I think he does a good job. He performed excellently in St. Pete. He had a little bit of a mishap with the braking, but he was fast all weekend. His feedback is good. It’s concise and consistent.

Same thing here. When he says something, you can kind of trust what he’s saying. That helps propel the team forward. That’s all we really need for him. I think he’s a great addition. I got nothing but good things to say about him. I think he’s going to win a race at some point here soon.

I’ll echo J.D. We’re on a good start. Pretty open and honest in trying to move the ship forward. So far so good. I think we just got to keep our feet on the ground.

It’s very early days. You can’t get too excited after two races. We’re working on things. We still got some things we got to work on. We got to be better leaving here. We’re going to talk about that. There’s a lot of other places we got to be better that we are working on. We just got to stay on it together as a group all year.

Q. Is it too early to anoint you a championship contender?

JONATHAN DIUGUID: At least a championship leader.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: That is a factual statement. We are leading the championship.

Palou had his mishap early. Two races, it’s a very small sample size. Not surprised to see that everything got shuffled up there.

Look, I don’t recall a time being at Team Penske where I didn’t believe we could achieve any goals we marked out. If you go, Hey, look, for us winning the Indy 500 is most important, then how do we excel at every other track and win the championship.

I’ve never come into a year with this team and thought I don’t know that we can excel this year, I just don’t know that we can get there. I never believed that. I’ve always seen the potential with this team.

It looks a little different now. But that potential was always there in the past and we could deliver on it. I think we can deliver on it this year.

It’s an everyday process. We’re going to take it one step at a time. Doesn’t mean there’s not going to be some turbulence. I think if we do our jobs and control what’s in our control, I don’t see why we can’t be in the fight.

Q. You come to a track that nobody has been to since 2018 and you win.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I think we just had a great day. Typically when you see me in Victory Lane, it’s probably ’cause I had the best car on the day.

I got to say I was not a believer midway through the race. But when I needed that car to be good, it was really good. I mean, it’s not like I was doing something magical. It was right where I needed it to be.

That was just down to working on it, kind of going the wrong way, then coming back the right way and having the right calls, having the right support.

That’s what should happen. When you show up, you’re prepared, you do your job, put yourself in position and you execute. You should be able to win races. I think we did that today.

Q. Talk about the competition level out there. You were battling McLaughlin. Talk about midway through how competitive this was. Also talk about the last pit stop to take tires.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I mean, it was a tough day. There’s a lot of good cars I saw today. I think you got to have tremendous respect for the competition in this series. There’s not just one guy I look at. There were a few cars that looked really competitive at different times.

I think Christian looked phenomenal. He was just driving a great race. Then Kirkwood looked really good at certain points. Certainly at the end. There was many others. I could sit here and talk about it all day. I think there were a lot of people that had great potential in this race. It’s tough competition. You have to have respect for that.

I was happy to see that the race turned into a good battle is the way I would put it. The second lane did open. It got better towards the end of the race. I thought the track was in the best position at the end. That would make sense. Even the lane condition was the best at the end. I was able to go where I needed to. I could find grip when the car was starting to lose grip in certain areas. It was really cool.

INDYCARs have not always been that way. I don’t remember 10 years ago where I could start searching for lines to find a better compliance or better grip level for my car. I was doing that at the end there. It was really fun to race.

I hope the show was as good as it felt from inside the car.

Q. Pit stop…

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: The pit stop? I mean, Jonathan already touched on this. We just stuck to our plan. We knew what we were going to do as far as our process going into the race. I think we stayed true to that. We made the right calls, right stops, we executed at the end.

Q. Josef, to the pit stop point, were you surprised that more people didn’t gamble on tires?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Actually no. I think because of the prior situation. The restart prior, we were talking about this on the radio.

JONATHAN DIUGUID: 26 and 27 were able to stay out front.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I was really shocked when they did that. It kind of coincided us with de-tuning our car. We didn’t have a good stint on that restart. I was really surprised how competitive the people that stayed out on the prior yellow were. I think they maintained their position, from what I saw.

Q. Lost the lead to Rasmussen.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: So they were pretty good.

I think you sort of pick your poison at that point. Gamble to some degree.

If I’m gambling, I want to be on the offense. I would rather be on the offense and lose the race. We did that today. Ended up working out.

Q. Similar to the way you won the 2018 race. Describe the similarities or not the similarities.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, different day. I mean, very different race. We weren’t doing this. I mean, I thought guys were about to run the fence in one and two. It was wild looking on some of this. It was cool.

It was not like that in 2018. 2018 was a little bit more simplistic. Same sort of deal where I thought we were stronger on an attack position on a restart, so I won that then there. I felt that today, too. I could make more happen in an offensive position at the end. That rung true.

Yeah, it was a very different race. We were all over the place today in a good way.

Q. J.D., the boys early in the race were all together and banging wheels. What were your thoughts about that?

JONATHAN DIUGUID: ‘The boys’ meaning teammates?

Q. Yes.

JONATHAN DIUGUID: I thought it was close racing. Like Josef said, there’s a pretty high level of respect. When you’re racing your teammate for the top five, that means your teammate is doing a good job.

They understand that as well. They’re not going to put us in a situation where we have to talk about something different. Like Josef said, the group did a good job today, covered the strategies there with the 12 staying out. The 2 took tires and the 2 took the day.

I think they all respected each other and raced quite well.

Q. Before you came here, maybe you had proven this during the test at the short oval, how is the traffic situation? Is this a risky factor for the race?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Was it tough when you get in traffic?

Q. Yes.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I think that was a big component of this race, which is pretty typical nowadays for a short oval. If you want to excel in this type of race, you’ve got to be excellent in traffic. I mean, there’s just no getting around it.

That’s what happens on a short oval situation, is the circulation is so high that you can’t just kind of sit there and control the lead. You’ve got to be able to go. People are going to press you. I think people pressed hard today, really hard. There were points where they were pressing us and they were winning. We had to kind of raise our level at the end there. It all worked out.

But yeah, traffic is critical at a race like this.

Q. It is shaping up to be a Penske weekend sweep. Malukas had the pole, you win the race, Joey Logano has the pole. How important is that to get a sweep? There aren’t many opportunities where that can happen with him winning both series at the same venue.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I think it’s incredibly important. It will be so disappointing if the Cup guys do not deliver tomorrow (smiling).

JONATHAN DIUGUID: Horribly disappointing.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Great point, Bruce (laughter).

It’s always fun. We got to go first. It worked out. Now you got to put the pressure on him. Look, it was very hard. I didn’t think we were going to win today, to be honest with you.

It’s fun. I wish we had more weekends like this to be honest with you. It’s fun going on an oval together. Has it ever happened?

THE MODERATOR: First time on an oval.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It’s so cool. I think we could get a couple more like this.

Q. There were fans in the grandstands that have probably never seen an INDYCAR race in person. What do you think they’re going to walk away with?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I’m excited to watch it back personally. It was pretty thrilling to be in it. I hoped it would turn into what it did.

The first stint, from my vantage point, didn’t feel that exciting. I thought it was going to be a little processional. That does happen sometimes.

Look, we can’t make every race the most incredible racing show out there. I think today turned into a good INDYCAR product. This is what we expect now when we put an INDYCAR race on a short oval. This is the type of racing we want to produce.

There’s not an exact science to that. I think this sort of tire compound mixture versus the downforce level and track condition, there’s all a little unique, they need fine-tuning.

When we get it right, this is the type of show we want to produce. I was happy we were able to have that in front of this crowd today.

Q. What do you think it is that made this race so good compared with your win in Phoenix in 2018? Is it the tires? The reconfigured track? The fact it was held in sunlight?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: There’s multiple factors. I’m telling you the number one factor is that we have sort of taught this field a lot of things. The tires are different. For whatever reason, they seemed to produce a little less dust and marbling, kind of both those things. It does happen.

I’m telling you the number one factor is that more people explore the track now. It is not possible to keep all the lanes open unless people utilize them. You have more individuals now in this series that are open to kind of driving the car all over the place.

The car is capable of doing that as well. You can run the second lane because of the grip and downforce level and not be super slow. This all kind of feeds on itself.

I do think the difference we have now is you’ve got guys that are constantly trying to find that second lane, and they keep in it during the race. That’s why I ask my spotter who is using it, where they were at. I could hear people were using it. I was using it. I was trying to keep it clean just so we could have a good show. If they don’t do that, 50, 60 laps, it will close off. You have to wait for a caution to get a new opportunity to open that back up. But I think that is the biggest difference.

Q. Josef, can you help with a compare and contrast from 2018? I swear we had more fans here today, more energy than maybe for all three of the last races here. Speak about that. This feels like something really powerful might have been started.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I just think a great opportunity to have the type of race we had today. I really was hoping we’d have a good show. I think we produced what we expect from the INDYCAR SERIES.

I hope there was a lot of people that have maybe not seen an INDYCAR race in a while that are going to leave here and go, Hey, I should give that another look.

Both should complement each other. If you’re a motorsport fan, you’re just getting way more value for your weekend to have the top two motorsport championships together on the same weekend. I don’t see why we can’t do a little more of this. I think it’s good for everybody.

Very fun to see the crowd. Everyone seemed open and welcoming in a good way. I saw motorsports fans here this weekend that seemed excited to watch racing. We put on a good show. I hope the Cup guys put on a good show tomorrow. Let’s see if we can do more of it in the future.

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations on the win.

Chevrolet history at Phoenix Raceway

General Motors Wins – 16

Chevrolet Wins – 11

2026 – Josef Newgarden – Team Penske

2018 – Josef Newgarden – Team Penske

2017 – Simon Pagenaud – Team Penske

2016 – Scott Dixon – Chip Ganassi Racing

2002 – Helio Castroneves – Team Penske

1992 – Bob Rahal – Rahal Hogan Racing

1991 – Arie Luyendyk – Doug Shierson Racing

1990 – Rick Mears – Team Penske

1989 – Rick Mears – Team Penske

1988 – Mario Andretti – Newman Haas Racing

1969 – George Follmer – George Follmer

Oldsmobile Wins – 5

2001 – Sam Hornish – Panther Racing

2000 – Buddy Lazier – Hemelgarn Racing

1999 – Scott Goodyear – Panther Racing

1998 – Scott Sharp – Kelley Racing

1997 – Jim Guthrie – Blueprint Racing

General Motors Poles – 14

Chevrolet Poles – 9

2026 – David Malukas – Team Penske

2017 – Helio Castroneves – Team Penske

2016 – Helio Castroneves – Team Penske

2002 – Helio Castroneves – Team Penske

1991 – Rick Mears – Team Penske

1990 – Rick Mears – Team Penske

1989 – Rick Mears – Team Penske

1988 – Rick Mears – Team Penske

1987 – Mario Andretti – Newman Haas Racing

Oldsmobile Poles – 5

2001 – Greg Ray – Team Menard

2000 – Greg Ray – Team Menard

1999 – Greg Ray – Team Menard

1998 – Jeff Ward – ISM Racing

1997 – Tony Stewart – Team Menard

General Motors Podiums – 41

Chevrolet Podiums: 27

Driver Podiums: Bob Rahal (3), Emerson Fittipaldi (2), Rick Mears (2), Josef Newgarden (2), Simon Pagenaud (2), Will Power (2), Al Unser Jr. (2), Mario Andretti (1), Helio Castroneves (1), Gil de Ferran (1), George Follmer (1), Scott Dixon (1), Roberto Guerrero (1), JR Hildebrand (1), Sam Hornish (1), Arie Luyendyk (1), David Malukas (1), Danny Sullivan (1), Jimmy Vasser (1)

Team Podiums: Team Penske (14), Galles Racing (4), Chip Ganassi Racing (1), Doug Shierson Racing (1), ECR (1), George Follmer (1), Granatelli Racing (1), Hayhoe Racing (1), Newman Haas Racing (1), Panther Racing (1), Rahal Hogan Racing (1)

Oldsmobile Podiums: 14

Driver Podiums: Scott Goodyear (2), Buddy Lazier (2), Tony Stewart (2), Billy Boat (1), Jim Guthrie (1), Davey Hamilton (1), Donnie Beechler (1), Sam Hornish (1), Eliseo Salazar (1), Scott Sharp (1) Jeff Ward (1)

Team Podiums: A.J. Foyt Racing (3), Panther Racing (3), Hemelgarn Racing (2), Team Menard (2), Blueprint Racing (1), Cahill Racing (1), Kelley Racing (1), Pagan Racing (1)

General Motors Laps Led: 3145

Chevrolet Laps Led: 2158

Driver Laps Led: Rick Mears (247), Bob Rahal (242), Mario Andretti (198), Helio Castroneves (174), Scott Dixon (155), Paul Tracy (151), Will Power (139), Arie Luyendyk (129), Simon Pagenaud (119), Michael Andretti (88), David Malukas (74), Christian Rasmussen (69), Sam Hornish (67), Al Unser Jr. (65), Juan Montoya (56), Danny Sullivan (53), Josef Newgarden (40), George Follmer (29), Gil de Ferran (15), Kevin Cogan (13), Emerson Fittipaldi (10), Pato O’Ward (10), Christian Lundgaard (8), Eliseo Salazar (7), Tomas Scheckter (1)

Team Laps Led: Team Penske (1077), Newman Haas Racing (286), Rahal Hogan Racing (200), Chip Ganassi Racing (155), Doug Shierson Racing (129), ECR (69), Panther Racing(68), Galles Racing (68), Kelley Racing (39), George Follmer (29), Arrow McLaren (18), Patrick Racing (13), A.J. Foyt Racing (7)

Oldsmobile Laps Led: 987

Driver Laps Led: Tony Stewart (212), Sam Hornish (140), Scott Goodyear (134), Scott Sharp (94), Jim Guthrie (74), Greg Ray (61), Buddy Lazier (45), Billy Boat (41), Stephan Gregoire (36), Eddie Cheever (28), Jeff Ward (25), Kenny Brack (24), Al Unser Jr. (22), Mark Dismore (14), Affonso Giaffone (13), Robbie McGehee (11), Robbie Buhl (5), Helio Castroneves (4), Gil de Ferran (3), Donnie Beechler (1)

Team Laps Led: Panther Racing (274), Team Menard (273), Kelley Racing (104), Blueprint Racing (74), Galles Racing (46), A.J. Foyt Racing (45), Hemelgarn Racing (45), Dick Simon Racing (36), Team Cheever (28), ISM Racing (25), Chitwood Motorsports (13), Treadway Racing (11), Team Penske (7), Dreyer & Reinbold Racing (5), Cahil Racing (1)

Manufacturer History at Phoenix International Raceway

Wins

17 – Cosworth (1987, 1986 #2, 1986 #2, 1985, 1984 #2, 1984 #1, 1983, 1982 #2, 1982 #1, 1981 #2, 1981 #1, 1980, 1979 #2, 1979 #1, 1978 #2, 1977 #1, 1976 #2)

16 – General Motors (Chevrolet & Oldsmobile)

13 – Offenhauser – (1976 #1, 1975 #1, 1974 #2, 1974 #1, 1973, 1972 #2, 1972 #1, 1968 #2, 1968 #1, 1967#1, 1965 #1, 1964 #2, 1964 #1)

12 – Ford (1996, 1995, 1993, 1971 #2, 1971 #1, 1970 #2, 1970 #1, 1969 #2, 1967 #2, 1966 #2, 1966 #1, 1965 #2)

11- Chevrolet (2026, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2002, 1992, 1991, 1990, 1989, 1988, 1969 #1)

5 – Oldsmobile (2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997)

2- DGS (1978 #1, 1977 #2)

2 – Honda (2004, 2003)

1 – Toyota (2005)

1 – Ilmor (1994)

1- Foyt (1975 #2)

Poles

18 – Cosworth (1986 #2, 1986 #1, 1985, 1984 #2, 1984 #1, 1983, 1982 #2, 1982 #1, 1981 #2, 1981#1, 1980, 1979 #2, 1979 #1, 1978 #2, 1978 #1, 1977 #2, 1977 #1, 1976 #1)

14 – General Motors (Chevrolet and Oldsmobile)

14 – Offenhauser (1976 #2, 1975 #1, 1974 #2, 1974 #1, 1973, 1972 #2, 1972 #1, 1971 #2, 1971 #1, 1968 #2, 1968 #2, 1967 #1, 1965 #2, 1964 #1)

13 – Ford (1996, 1995, 1993, 1992, 1970 #2, 1970 #1, 1969 #2, 1969 #1, 1967 #2, 1966 #2, 1966 #1, 1965 #1, 1964 #2)

9 – Chevrolet (2025, 2017, 2016, 2002, 1991, 1990, 1989, 1988, 1987)

5 – Oldsmobile (2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997)

4 – Honda (2018, 2005, 2004, 2003)

1 – DGS (1975 #2)

1 – Ilmor (1994)

About General Motors

General Motors (NYSE:GM) is driving the future of transportation, leveraging advanced technology to build safer, smarter, and lower emission cars, trucks, and SUVs. GM’s Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC brands offer a broad portfolio of innovative gasoline-powered vehicles and the industry’s widest range of EVs, as we move to an all-electric future.

GM Motorsports, including the Cadillac Formula 1® Team develops and proves advanced technologies in the most demanding environments, accelerating innovation in performance, safety, efficiency, and electrification for its production vehicles. Cadillac Racing is one of the leading manufacturers in the IMSA and FIA World Endurance Championships (WEC). Chevrolet competes in single seaters in the US INDYCAR series, and in NASCAR with multiple team partners and drivers. Corvette customer teams compete in GT series across the globe including IMSA and WEC. Learn more at GM.com.

BROWN WINS RIGHT TRAILERS TOP FUEL ALL-STAR CALLOUT IN FRONT OF SELLOUT CROWD AT GAINESVILLE

By
Official Release
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Hart, Capps, C. Coughlin and A. Smith all qualify No. 1 at Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 7, 2026) – Four-time Top Fuel world champion Antron Brown won the Right Trailers All-Star Callout in front of a sellout crowd on Saturday at Gainesville Raceway, defeating Clay Millican in the final round of the bonus race as part of this weekend’s season-opening Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals.

Josh Hart (Top Fuel), Ron Capps (Funny Car), Cody Coughlin (Pro Stock) and Angie Smith (Pro Stock Motorcycle) all qualified No. 1 at the first of 20 races during the 2026 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season.

Brown became the first two-time winner of the Callout, going 4.290-seconds at 258.76 mph in his 12,000-horsepower Matco Tools dragster to get past Millican. Both cars ran into trouble, but Brown recovered in time to take the win and the $80,000 bonus.

Brown will now try to repeat last season’s Gatornationals win, taking on Gary Pritchett to open eliminations.

“Clay was right there and I got spoiled today,” Brown said. “The car had a fast shake and I pedaled a little bit, and we were able to get it done. It’s super exciting for us because in the offseason, we regrouped after last year and we want to revamp our program.”

“What’s going to make tomorrow so tricky is, first round is going to be really good to the point it’s going to be like our Friday night setup. So first round, you better watch who you got, and race who you got, and try to think about what kind of lap you can throw out to get the job done.”

Hart officially clinched his first career No. 1 qualifier, doing so in his debut with John Force Racing thanks to Friday’s run of 3.658 at a track-record 340.30 in his 12,000-horsepower Burnyzz/Speedmaster dragster. It was a special moment for Hart to do it at his home track, especially with the 340-mph run under his belt.

Hart will open eliminations against Dan Mercier, looking for his first victory since his debut season in 2021.

“The fans are awesome,” Hart said. “The energy is always good here. My wife always attends this race, so maybe it’s just a level of comfort. It’s the first place that I ever went down a drag strip. If I could figure out how to get that comfortable at all the other race tracks, maybe we could really chase a championship.

“We’ve literally broke every single one of my career bests already this weekend. So I have all the confidence in the world. (Crew chief David Grubnic) is like the Babe Ruth of drag racing. He can almost call a shot. We’ll be ready for race day and I believe him.”

Shawn Langdon qualified second with a run of 3.681 at 338.09 and Leah Pruett took third after going 3.690 at 329.10.

In Funny Car, three-time champion Ron Capps picked up his first No. 1 qualifier in nearly three years after Friday’s standout run of 3.890 at 334.07 his 12,000-horsepower NAPA Auto Parts Toyota GR Supra easily held up.

It’s the 38th career No. 1 qualifier for Capps, who last held the top spot at both Gainesville and Brainerd in 2023. Already the Gatornationals winningest active Funny Car driver, Capps is after his fifth victory in Gainesville and will take on John Smith to open up eliminations on Sunday.

“I know I’ll never lead that list [of No. 1 qualifiers], but almost every crew chief I’ve had has been more concerned about what they do on Sunday rather than what we do in qualifying,” Capps said. “It was all about winning races and figuring out how to battle on Sunday and I’ve been blessed to be around those kinds of guys, and I’m okay with it.

“First round Sunday is going to be the quickest runs of the weekend. Conditions will be better than they were Friday night. So, if you get past that round, it’s going to turn out like today [hotter], so today we were just seeing what the lanes would hold in those conditions because if we can get far enough tomorrow, it’s anybody’s game in those conditions.”

J.R. Todd qualified second with a 3.912 at 334.15 and Paul Lee is third after going 3.920 at 331.12.

After a solid rookie season, Pro Stock’s Cody Coughlin picked up his second career No. 1 qualifier on Saturday when his run of 6.523 at 210.01 in his Coughlin Construction Chevrolet Camaro couldn’t be topped.

Next up on Coughlin’s to-do list is getting his first career victory and he’ll have that opportunity on Sunday when Coughlin takes on Chris McGaha to open up raceday.

“It can’t get any better than this,” Coughlin said. “I couldn’t be more thrilled. The KB Titan guys and gals are fantastic and just really proud to drive for them. I wouldn’t want to compete in Pro Stock unless I could race with those guys. I’ve looked up to Greg Anderson for a long time.

“It’s really cool to be teammates with him and it’s also cool to race out here with my dad who competes in Super Stock. It’s a cool moment and I’m just excited to try to get a Wally this year – maybe tomorrow.”

Matt Hartford qualified second with a run of 6.533 at 210.41, with Matt Latino right behind thanks to a run of 6.533 at 210.37.

A. Smith clinched her third career No. 1 qualifier on Saturday on the strength of Friday’s 6.740 at 199.58 on her Denso Auto Parts Buell. Smith made a pair of solid runs on Saturday in front of a capacity crowd, giving her added momentum as she seeks her first Gatornationals victory. She’ll open raceday against Kim Morrell.

Reigning world champion Richard Gadson qualified second with a 6.746 at 200.00 and Matt Smith moved into third after going 6.749 at 200.71.

Eliminations for the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals begin at 10 a.m. ET on Sunday at Gainesville Raceway.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Sunday’s first-round pairings for eliminations for the 57th annual AMALIE Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway, the first of 20 events in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series. Pairings based on results in qualifying, which ended Saturday. DNQs listed below pairings.

Top Fuel — 1. Josh Hart, 3.658 seconds, 340.30 mph vs. 16. Dan Mercier, 3.885, 266.32; 2. Shawn Langdon, 3.681, 338.09 vs. 15. Maddi Gordon, 3.793, 321.35; 3. Leah Pruett, 3.690, 329.10 vs. 14. Jasmine Salinas, 3.791, 329.67; 4. Antron Brown, 3.694, 331.85 vs. 13. Gary Pritchett, 3.790, 304.67; 5. Tony Stewart, 3.703, 339.96 vs. 12. Clay Millican, 3.773, 321.35; 6. Doug Kalitta, 3.703, 334.07 vs. 11. Justin Ashley, 3.762, 334.73; 7. Tony Schumacher, 3.710, 338.60 vs. 10. Shawn Reed, 3.757, 325.61; 8. Tripp Tatum, 3.725, 323.81 vs. 9. Billy Torrence, 3.741, 334.90.

Did Not Qualify: 17. Scott Farley, 4.051, 298.73; 18. Will Smith, 4.248, 228.15; 19. Cameron Ferre, 7.365, 95.47.

Funny Car — 1. Ron Capps, Toyota GR Supra, 3.890, 334.07 vs. 16. John Smith, Dodge Charger, 4.188, 296.37; 2. J.R. Todd, GR Supra, 3.912, 334.15 vs. 15. Dave Richards, Ford Mustang, 4.127, 320.28; 3. Paul Lee, Charger, 3.920, 331.12 vs. 14. Spencer Hyde, Mustang, 4.104, 305.70; 4. Chad Green, Mustang, 3.926, 326.08 vs. 13. Terry Haddock, Mustang, 4.095, 305.36; 5. Matt Hagan, Charger, 3.931, 331.36 vs. 12. Julie Nataas, GR Supra, 4.081, 319.07; 6. Cruz Pedregon, Charger, 3.948, 329.91 vs. 11. Alexis DeJoria, Chevy Camaro, 4.060, 324.83; 7. Daniel Wilkerson, Mustang, 3.961, 323.19 vs. 10. Hunter Green, Charger, 4.048, 318.77; 8. Jordan Vandergriff, Camaro, 3.990, 318.47 vs. 9. Jack Beckman, Camaro, 4.029, 324.83.

Did Not Qualify: 17. Buddy Hull, 4.213, 267.22; 18. Todd Lesenko, 4.433, 278.17; 19. Austin Prock, 4.836, 217.74.

Pro Stock — 1. Cody Coughlin, Chevy Camaro, 6.523, 210.01 vs. 16. Chris McGaha, Camaro, 6.583, 208.52; 2. Matt Hartford, Camaro, 6.533, 210.41 vs. 15. Kenny Delco, Camaro, 6.575, 208.04; 3. Matt Latino, Camaro, 6.533, 210.37 vs. 14. Stephen Bell, Camaro, 6.566, 207.98; 4. Deric Kramer, Camaro, 6.535, 209.82 vs. 13. Greg Anderson, Camaro, 6.556, 208.84; 5. Greg Stanfield, Camaro, 6.538, 208.49 vs. 12. Cody Anderson, Camaro, 6.556, 209.88; 6. Dallas Glenn, Camaro, 6.540, 209.79 vs. 11. Jeg Coughlin, Camaro, 6.549, 208.36; 7. Troy Coughlin, Camaro, 6.541, 208.62 vs. 10. Aaron Stanfield, Camaro, 6.548, 209.88; 8. Eric Latino, Camaro, 6.545, 209.52 vs. 9. Erica Enders, Camaro, 6.547, 209.79.

Did Not Qualify: 17. Shane Tucker, 6.593, 208.49; 18. Mason McGaha, 6.599, 209.26; 19. Brandon Miller, 6.602, 207.62; 20. Rodger Brogdon, 6.624, 207.59; 21. Derrick Reese, 6.669, 206.48.

Pro Stock Motorcycle — 1. Angie Smith, Buell, 6.740, 199.58 vs. 16. Kimberly Morrell, Suzuki, 7.857, 148.97; 2. Richard Gadson, Suzuki, 6.746, 200.00 vs. 15. Geno Scali, Suzuki, 6.882, 197.94; 3. Matt Smith, Buell, 6.749, 200.71 vs. 14. Chris Bostick, Suzuki, 6.880, 195.08; 4. Gaige Herrera, Suzuki, 6.761, 199.91 vs. 13. Marc Ingwersen, Buell, 6.847, 196.70; 5. John Hall, Beull, 6.791, 199.08 vs. 12. Brayden Davis, Buell, 6.838, 196.33; 6. Clayton Howey, Suzuki, 6.800, 197.88 vs. 11. Kelly Clontz, Suzuki, 6.836, 197.97; 7. Chase Van Sant, Suzuki, 6.803, 198.15 vs. 10. Ryan Oehler, Buell, 6.811, 197.77; 8. Steve Johnson, Suzuki, 6.807, 197.65 vs. 9. Jianna Evaristo, Buell, 6.808, 199.91.

Josef Newgarden capitalizes late for thrilling IndyCar victory at Phoenix

By
Andrew Kim
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Photo by Ron Olds for SpeedwayMedia.com.

Josef Newgarden mounted an early comeback to this season by motoring his way to a thrilling victory in the Good Ranchers 250 at Phoenix Raceway on Saturday, March 7.

The two-time Indianapolis 500 and NTT IndyCar Series champion from Nashville, Tennessee, led eight of 250-scheduled laps in an event where he started on the front row and raced towards the front for a majority of the event. Through various pit strategies with tire management being a key topic, Newgarden executed his strategies when it mattered most as he pitted a total of five times, including a final time with 38 laps remaining following a late-race caution and a collision with the leaders Will Power and Christian Lundgaard.

Despite restarting in 10th place during the event’s final restart with 32 laps remaining, Newgarden used his four fresh tires to methodically carve his way up the leaderboard. After using the late duration to muscle back to the front, Newgarden reeled in and overtook Kyle Kirkwood for the lead with seven laps remaining. From there, Newgarden motored away and cruised to his first IndyCar victory of the 2026 campaign. 

With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, March 6, David Malukas achieved his first NTT P1 Award with a pole-winning average speed of 175.383 mph in 41.0530 seconds. Malukas shared the front row with teammate Josef Newgarden, the latter of whom generated an average-qualifying run of 174.548 mph in 41.2493 seconds.

When the green flag waved and the event commenced, David Malukas fended off an early challenge from teammate Josef Newgarden through the frontstretch to assume the lead entering the first turn. As the field jostled for early spots for a single lap, Malukas proceeded to lead the first lap while Newgarden, Graham Rahal, rookie Mick Schumacher and Scott McLaughlin followed suit in the top five, respectively.

Over the next four laps, Malukas stretched his early advantage to nearly two seconds over Newgarden. As Will Power climbed the leaderboard from the tail end of the field to 15th and Alex Palou motored from 10th to fourth, Malukas continued to lead at the Lap 10 mark by over one-and-half seconds over Newgarden while third-place Alexander Rossi trailed by more than two seconds.

Shortly after, the event’s first caution flew when rookie Dennis Hauger, who was racing in the mid-pack region and in front of Christian Rasmussen, spun in front of Rasmussen in Turn 2. Despite spinning, Hauger managed to preserve his entry from hitting the wall as he then slid backwards through the backstretch before he straightened his entry and continued.

The start of the next restart on Lap 20 only lasted for a single lap before the caution quickly returned. The caution’s return was due to Palou, who was overtaken by Rahal for fourth place entering Turn 3, making contact with Rinus VeeKay and getting turned into the Turn 4 outside wall. The incident spoiled Palou’s hopes of winning in his 100th IndyCar start and he was unable to continue while VeeKay was able to.

As the event restarted on Lap 30, Malukas mirrored his on-track performance from his previous restart to retain the lead over Newgarden and the field for a full lap. Meanwhile, Scott Dixon, who pitted during the event’s first caution period, used the outside lane to muscle his way up into the top-15 mark. In addition, Power continued his march forward as he navigated his way up to 13th place. Amid the battles within the field, Malukas retained the lead by less than half a second over Newgarden by Lap 40.

Through the Lap 50 mark, Malukas was leading by within eight-tenths of a second over Newgarden while Rossi, Rahal and McLaughlin continued to trail in the top five, respectively. Behind, Pato O’Ward occupied sixth place ahead of Christian Rasmussen, Kyle Kirkwood, Marcus Armstrong and Marcus Ericsson while Mick Schumacher, Nolan Siegel, Scott Dixon, Christian Lundgaard, Felix Rosenqvist, Will Power, Santino Ferrucci, Sting Ray Robb, Louis Foster and Dennis Hauger occupied the top-20 spots, respectively.

On Lap 68 and with the topic of tire wear crescendoing, green flag pit stops ensued within the field as O’Ward pitted his No. 5 Arrow McLaren Dallara-Chevrolet entry from the top-10 mark. McLaughlin pitted a lap later before more names that included Schumacher, Newgarden and the leader Malukas pitted within and past the Lap 70 mark. By the time Malukas blended back on the racing surface from pit road, he dueled with Newgarden, who pitted a lap prior to Malukas. Despite making light contact with his Team Penske teammate through the backstretch, Newgarden managed to cycle ahead of Malukas. Meanwhile, Rasmussen, who pitted during the event’s first caution and had carved his way into the top five with an early tire advantage, was leading before he pitted on Lap 77.

Towards the Lap 90 mark, Dixon was leading ahead of Felix Rosenqvist and Hauger. Meanwhile, O’Ward, who pitted early, was scored in fourth place, but racing ahead of Team Penske’s Newgarden and Malukas while Rasmussen reeled in from seventh place. By the time Rosenqvist, Dixon and Hauger pitted by Lap 98, O’Ward cycled into the lead while Newgarden, Malukas, Rasmussen and Kirkwood all followed suit in the top five, respectively.

Then on Lap 108, Rasmussen overtook O’Ward through the frontstretch to assume the lead. As Rasmussen proceeded to both stretch his advantage to two seconds over O’Ward and lap the competitors racing in the mid-pack region just past the Lap 110 mark, Newgarden and Malukas trailed the lead by three and four seconds, respectively, while Kirkwood retained fifth place ahead of McLaughlin, Rossi, Rahal, Power and Lundgaard, respectively. Meanwhile, Dixon, Ericsson and Rosenqvist were mired within the top-15 mark while Schumacher was mired within the top-20 mark.

At the halfway mark on Lap 125 and with various green flag pit strategies within the field ensuing, Rasmussen continued to lead by more than four seconds over Newgarden while Malukas, Kirkwood and McLaughlin were scored in the top five. Rasmussen surrendered the lead to pit a lap later before Newgarden, who cycled to the lead, pitted during the next lap. Meanwhile, O’Ward, who was mired within the top-15 mark but pitted several laps earlier than Rasmussen, managed to cycle ahead of both Rasmussen and Newgarden on the track while Malukas, who pitted prior to Lap 130, stalled his entry while trying to exit his pit stall.

By Lap 136, Rasmussen reassumed the lead after he reeled in and overtook several competitors, including the initial leader, Lundgaard. As Rasmussen proceeded to lead by more than four seconds over Dixon while Lundgaard pitted just past the Lap 140 mark, the caution flew on Lap 142 when Louis Foster went up the track and hit the outside wall on the right side in Turn 4. During this latest caution period, a multitude of front-runners, including the leader Rasmussen, Dixon, Armstrong, Rossi, Malukas, Rahal and Newgarden returned to pit road for service while Kirkwood and Power, both of whom last pitted on Lap 128 and 126, respectively, remained on the track.

With 95 laps remaining, the event restarted under green. At the start, Kirkwood maintained the lead over teammate Power through the first two turns while Rasmussen rocketed past Dixon for third place. As Kirkwood led the next lap, Dixon and Rasmussen dueled fiercely for third place and they even made contact during the following lap. Amid the contact, both continued to race in third and fourth, with Dixon still ahead of Rasmussen, while Kirkwood continued to lead by seven-tenths of a second over Power with 90 laps remaining.

Down to the final 75 laps of the event, Kirkwood was leading by more than a second over Power while Rasmussen, Dixon, Armstrong, O’Ward, Newgarden, Rahal, Malukas and Santino Ferrucci followed suit in the top 10, respectively. Meanwhile, McLaughlin, Rosenqvist, Hauger, Kyffin Simpson, Lundgaard, Rossi,, Ericsson, Schumacher, Caio Collet and Nolan Siegel trailed in the top 20, respectively.

Then with 60 laps remaining and with the field racing within the pit window to reach the event’s scheduled distance, Rasmussen made a bold move to the outside of Kirkwood entering the first turn to cycle back to the lead. Kirkwood pitted a lap later before Rasmussen pitted during the next lap. By the time Rasmussen cycled back on the track, he was overtaken by Kirkwood on the track. Meanwhile, Power, who pitted earlier than Kirkwood and Rasmussen, overtook teammate Ericsson, who has yet to pit, to assume the lead while O’Ward, who also pitted earlier, tried to reel in.

With less than 50 laps remaining, Power was leading by nearly a second over O’Ward while Rasmussen reeled in the latter for the runner-up spot. By then, Ericsson pitted under green before Rasmussen quickly assumed the runner-up spot from O’Ward. Rasmussen proceeded to reel in Power for the lead through every turn and straightaway over the next several laps.

Then with 43 laps remaining, Rasmussen tried to make a move to the outside of Power through the first two turns. As Power tried to defend while Rasmussen gained a slight advantage to Power’s right-rear wheel, they made contact as Rasmussen bounced off both the Turn 2 outside wall and against Power’s right-rear wheel. Following the contact, Rasmussen muscled ahead with the lead while Power fell off the pace with a flat right-rear wheel. The incident was enough to draw a caution as Power pitted. During this latest caution period, some led by O’Ward, Newgarden, Rahal, McLaughlin, Rossi and Lundgaard pitted while the rest led by Rasmussen remained on the track.

The start of the next restart with 32 laps remaining featured Rasmussen motoring away from Kirkwood, Malukas and the field through the frontstretch and the first two turns. As O’Ward tried to carve his way to the front from seventh place on four fresh tires, Rasmussen, who initially expressed concerns about damage to his entry, continued to lead by a steady margin over Kirkwood with 30 laps remaining.

Down to the final 25 laps of the event, Rasmussen continued to lead by half a second over Kirkwood and by more than a second over third-place Malukas. Meanwhile, O’Ward reeled in and overtook Armstrong for fourth place on four fresher tires than Rasmussen while Newgarden, Rossi, Dixon, McLaughlin and Rahal were racing in the top 10, respectively. Shortly after, Newgarden, who also pitted with O’Ward, overtook Armstrong for fifth place and O’Ward tried to reel in Malukas for third place while Rasmussen led by six-tenths of a second with 20 laps remaining.

With less than 14 laps remaining, the top-five competitors were separated by one-and-a-half seconds as Kirkwood started to reel in on Rasmussen for the lead through every turn and straightaway. Two laps later, Newgarden overtook O’Ward for fourth place and he overtook teammate Malukas another lap later while Rasmussen continued to lead by three-tenths of a second with 10 laps remaining.

Then with nine laps remaining, Kirkwood drew himself alongside Rasmussen entering Turn 4 and he assumed the lead following a brief duel entering the first turn. Rasmussen then hit the Turn 2 wall, which allowed Newgarden to overtake him for the runner-up spot. As Rasmussen began to fall off the pace, Newgarden reeled in and overtook Kirkwood through the backstretch with seven laps remaining to assume the lead. With four fresher tires than Kirkwood, Newgarden stretched his lead to a second with less than five laps remaining.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Newgarden remained in the lead by more than a second over Kirkwood. With Kirkwood unable to reel in the deficit, Newgarden cruised around Phoenix smoothly for a final time before he cycled back to the frontstetch and claimed the checkered flag by nearly two seconds over Kirkwood.

With the victory, Newgarden, who won for the first time for Team Penske and Chevrolet, achieve his 33rd career win in the NTT IndyCar Series division, his 19th on an oval-shaped track and his first since he won the 2025 season-finale event at Nashville Superspeedway in September 2025. Newgarden’s Phoenix victory was also his second at the track as he won IndyCar’s last-scheduled event at Phoenix in 2018 before the track’s return this season.

“I’m just very surprised,” Newgarden said in Victory Lane on FOX. “It’s only been a race since we haven’t won, so it’s not like it’s been a while. The middle of the race, I don’t know that I was fully believing that we had the capability to win. We kept working through it and I’m like look, if we get another opportunity, we’re going to be on the aggressive. We’re gonna be on the offense.

We took tires and the [car] was like a rocket ship when it needed it to be. It was right at the end of the race. I’m pumped. I love to be here at Phoenix. I’m so happy we’re here. This is an IndyCar track…To be here with NASCAR is fantastic, but we got to be here as well and I love being here with this group.”

“Momentum’s a big deal,” Newgarden added. “It’s very difficult to understand how things work. Sometimes things go against us, sometimes they go for us. This was just great execution by the team. Simply as that. It was a good car, great execution. [The team] won this race today.”

As Newgarden celebrated the race victory, Christian Rasmussen, who led 69 laps, was left dejected after plummeting to 14th place following both his late incident with Will Power and late scrape with the backstretch’s wall, the latter of which ultimately cost him the victory.

“I think it’s very clear what happened,” Rasmussen said. “We were the class of the field today. The best car out there. I was so happy with the car. You can’t just run people into the wall, which was what happened today. [Power] ran me straight into the wall and after that, I had damage…The car was just impossible to drive after that. I just did what I could to salvage a day and not crash a car. Just frustrating. Man, so frustrating because we should’ve won the race today. Obviously, [I] didn’t.”

Kyle Kirkwood settled in second place while David Malukas capped off a weekend that started with achieving his first career pole position and leading a race-high 73 laps by notching his first podium result with Team Penske with a third-place result.

Pato O’Ward took the checkered flag in fourth place ahead of Marcus Armstrong. Alexander Rossi, Scott Dixon, Scott McLaughlin, Graham Rahal and Kyffin Simpson completed the top 10 in the final running order. 

There were 18 lead changes for 11 different leaders, and four for 41 laps. In addition, 15 of 25 starters finished on the lead lap.

Following the second event of the 2026 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season, Josef Newgarden leads the standings by five points over Kyle Kirkwood, 12 over both Scott McLaughlin and Pato O’Ward, and 19 over Alex Palou. 

Race results:

  1. Josef Newgarden, eight laps led
  2. Kyle Kirkwood, 47 laps led
  3. David Malukas, 73 laps led
  4. Pato O’Ward, 10 laps led
  5. Marcus Armstrong, eight laps led
  6. Alexander Rossi
  7. Scott Dixon, 12 laps led
  8. Scott McLaughlin
  9. Graham Rahal
  10. Kyffin Simpson
  11. Santino Ferrucci
  12. Felix Rosenqvist
  13. Christian Lundgaard, eight laps led
  14. Christian Rasmussen, 69 laps led
  15. Dennis Hauger, three laps led
  16. Will Power, 10 laps led, one lap down
  17. Marcus Ericsson, two laps led, one lap down
  18. Mick Schumacher, two laps down
  19. Caio Collet, two laps down
  20. Nolan Siegel, three laps down
  21. Sting Ray Robb, four laps down
  22. Rinus VeeKay, five laps down
  23. Louis Foster – OUT, Contact
  24. Alex Palou – OUT, Contact
  25. Romain Grosjean – OUT, Mechanical

Next on the 2026 NTT INDYCAR Series schedule is the series’ inaugural Java House Grand Prix of Arlington at the Streets of Arlington, Texas. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, March 15, and air at 12:30 p.m. ET on FOX.

Newgarden Hunts Down Victory, Takes Series Lead at Phoenix

By
Official Release
-

AVONDALE, Ariz. (Saturday, March 7, 2026) – It took Josef Newgarden 17 races last year to earn his only victory of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES season.

That winning box already is checked this year, two races in.

Two-time series champion Newgarden earned his first victory of the season and 33rd of his illustrious career by closing down and passing leader Kyle Kirkwood with seven laps remaining to win the Good Ranchers 250 on Saturday at Phoenix Raceway. Newgarden, who started second, drove away to a 1.7937-second victory in the No. 2 XPEL Team Penske Chevrolet over the No. 27 JM Bullion/Gold.com of Andretti Global driver Kirkwood.

“I’m very surprised,” Newgarden said. “In the middle of the race, I don’t know that I was fully believing that we had the capability to win. We just kept working through it, and I’m like, ‘Look, if we get another opportunity, we’re going to be aggressive, we’re going to be on the offense.’

“We took tires, and the thing was like a rocket ship when it needed to be, right at the end of the race. Hats off to the whole crew. I’m pumped.”

NTT P1 Award winner David Malukas finished third in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet as Roger Penske’s legendary team celebrated its 60th anniversary season with two podium positions.

Pato O’Ward finished fourth in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, with Marcus Armstrong rounding out the top five in the No. 66 ROOT Insurance Honda of Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian.

INDYCAR’s first race in Phoenix since 2018 – Newgarden and Team Penske also won that event – featured plenty of action throughout the field, as there were 565 on-track passes, an INDYCAR record at the 1-mile desert oval. But a combination of tire strategy and deft maneuvering in traffic delivered the victory to Newgarden, who also won the season-ending race last August at Nashville Superspeedway to avoid a winless 2025.

Kirkwood made his last stop on Lap 192 and was running fourth behind teammate Will Power, Christian Rasmussen and O’Ward on Lap 207. Power and Rasmussen were engaged in a ferocious duel for the lead, with the left front wing end plate of Rasmussen’s No. 21 ECR Splenda Stevia Chevrolet making contact with the right rear tire of Power’s No. 26 TWG AI Honda exiting Turn 2.

That impact cut Power’s tire, triggering the final caution period of the race and ending his chances of an improbable victory after starting last in the 25-car field. Rasmussen’s car also was damaged.

During that final caution period, Newgarden and a handful of other drivers near the front entered pit lane for fresh Firestone Firehawk tires, as tire grip was a far bigger strategic factor in this race than fuel management. Rasmussen, Kirkwood, Malukas and Armstrong were among the drivers who decided to stay on track, opting for track position over traction.

Rasmussen led at the final restart of the 250-lap race on Lap 218, but his damaged car ended up being no match for Kirkwood, who drove past Rasmussen for the lead on Lap 242. Rasmussen faded in the last eight laps with car damage and worn tires, placing a bitterly disappointed 14th after thrilling the large crowd with many daring passes to get to the front five times for 69 laps.

“We were the class of the field today – best car out there,” Rasmussen said. “It’s so frustrating because we should have won the race today.”

Kirkwood led Newgarden by six-tenths of a second when he took the lead, but Newgarden’s tire advantage was obvious within less than a lap. Newgarden gnawed into Kirkwood’s lead and drove under Kirkwood in Turn 4 for the lead for good just two laps later, on Lap 244.

“We thought about it, but we were talking about it, and the pits opened,” Kirkwood said about the possibility of pitting during the late caution. “(Staying out) was the right thing to do at the time.”

As a bonus in this young season, Newgarden became the first driver other than four-time series champion Alex Palou to lead the standings since June 2024. Two-time Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge winner Newgarden leads Kirkwood, 78-73, after two races as he tries to win the series crown for the first time since 2019.

“Do we really have the lead?” Newgarden said. “Two races in, so I wouldn’t read too much into it. But momentum is a big deal. It’s very difficult to understand how things work. Sometimes things go against us, sometimes they go for us. It was just great execution by the team.”

Palou placed 24th, completing just 21 laps in No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, after side-by-side contact with the No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet of Rinus VeeKay led to a trip into the SAFER Barrier.

It was Palou’s worst finish since he placed 25th last June in Detroit after contact eliminated him from that street race.

The feverish start to the 2026 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season continues with a third race in three weekends, the highly anticipated debut of the Java House Grand Prix of Arlington on Sunday, March 15 in Arlington, Texas. The temporary street circuit travels around AT&T Stadium, the home of the Dallas Cowboys, and Globe Life Field, the home of the Texas Rangers.

Ford Racing Notes and Quotes – Logano Powers Ford Mustang Dark Horse to Phoenix Cup Pole

By
Official Release
-

Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Straight Talk 500 Qualifying — Phoenix Raceway
Saturday, March 7, 2026

LOGANO CAPTURES FIRST CUP POLE OF THE YEAR FOR FORD RACING

  • Joey Logano captured the first NASCAR Cup Series pole of the season for Ford Racing today.
  • The pole is Logano’s 34th overall and third at Phoenix Raceway.
  • Logano’s pole is his 29th with Ford Racing, which puts him fifth on the manufacturer’s all-time list. Only Fred Lorenzen (30), David Pearson (31), Mark Martin (39) and Bill Elliott (48) are ahead of him.
  • The pole is Ford Racing’s 713th all-time in NASCAR’s top series.

Ford Qualifying Results:

1st – Joey Logano
3rd – Austin Cindric
5th – Ryan Blaney
10th – Josh Berry
13th – Ryan Preece
17th – Chris Buescher
24th – Zane Smith
30th – Todd Gilliland
35th – Noah Gragson
37th – Brad Keselowski

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse – POLE-WINNING PRESS CONFERENCE

TAKE US THROUGH YOUR LAP. “Today the car was really good. I don’t know if I can take much credit. The car drove really well and I just kind of took what it gave me. The car, I thought was good in race trim – a lot of sliding around from everybody. It’s funny because it doesn’t drive nice, but the pace was there, which was encouraging for tomorrow because it still feels like there are some areas to get better, and then Paul and Joe and the guys did a good job at dialing it in and getting the balance really good for qualifying to where I didn’t have to do anything crazy to make speed. It just happened, so I’m really proud of that. Obviously, this is a big weekend for Team Penske with the Indycars here. Malukas getting the pole for here in a few minutes when that race starts, and then us being able to do it on our end, too. There’s a little bit of a rivalry there. I don’t know if we’ve really talked about it, but I think internally all of us want to deliver some wins this weekend. On top of that, our paint scheme for this weekend is also really special. It’s the Scott McLaughlin Bathurst 1000 win, so that was really big for his career, but also really big for Team Penske. That car won, I think it was 18 or 16 races that year. It was a boat load. You start to lose count when you get to your toes, so he’s definitely done a lot in that paint job, so it’s neat to continue some of that success, at least in qualifying.”

TEAM PENSKE WON BOTH POLES AND ROGER IS HERE. THINGS ARE LOOKING GOOD THIS WEEKEND. “This is a big weekend for us. There are a lot of partners here. The hospitality trailer setup there going into turn one, so you want to make sure you have a good run. It’s the worst feeling, and I’ve been through it on both ends. I’ve been through it where everybody comes to the race and you don’t show up. There’s just nothing good to show them, and then there are times where everybody is there and you win and there’s really nothing better than that, so everybody is here and it’s nice to show that. All of the Team Penske cars are fast – our three cars, the three IndyCars all looked solid yesterday in practice as well. Now it’s just time to execute the race, which is the hard part.”

ALL THREE DRIVERS ARE STICKING AROUND TOMORROW FOR YOUR RACE. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? “I think they’ll be on the pit boxes, yeah. I don’t know what a timing stand is. Welcome to NASCAR over here. We’ve got to get them used to it. I’ve got to go up to the Fox booth here in a minute for the IndyCar race and my terminology is a little different than what they’re used to over there, so it’s gonna be fun. We’ve had a good time doing some fun things this week so far out here all together. We obviously are around each other a lot at home with our race shops being the same building, but this is the second time I can remember that we’re at the same racetrack together, so it’s fun to be able to talk to each other about the differences. Usually, we talk about the differences, but we’re at different racetracks. Now we’re at least at the same track and you can hear how they drive their cars and what they need out of it and those types of things versus us. It’s polar opposites. It’s so different, but fun to talk about.”

WERE YOU EXPECTING TO WIN THE POLE TODAY? “You never know anymore. When you have practice like we used to have, like a longer practice when you can put a set of tires on and you can maybe make a mock run. You’re like, ‘OK, I kind of see what we have for pace.’ But these days you just don’t know. You just go out there and you go as fast as you can and you don’t know if you’re gonna be 30th or first. It’s really hard to say before the run starts. Obviously, the 2 had a pretty good lap going out early and still was able to qualify, I think, in the top five, so that’s pretty impressive to do it as early as he did, so I felt like if I didn’t screw up, the speed was in the car. I just had to make sure I got all of it out of it. Like I said, the speed is there for the Penske cars right now.”

WHAT HAS ROGER MEANT TO YOU PERSONALLY AND PROFESSIONALLY? “I think probably everyone in this room has had some kind of interaction with Roger at some point, probably, and I don’t want to speak for everyone, but I’m sure it’s been the most professional thing that you can be involved around. As a driver for him, or even someone just on the team, those are the people that you want to be around – somebody that’s gonna do something the right way, that’s gonna do it in a professional way, but is also very competitive and wants to win no matter what it is. Business. Racing. You name it, he’s gonna want to be the best at it. You can imagine as a competitor no matter what your position is on a team, you want to be with the best. I say this all the time, but you can’t soar like and eagle when you’re working with turkeys and he’s an eagle. Those are the ones you want to attach to. You want to fly together and I’ve been very fortunate to drive for him for the last 14-15 years and I think when you look at the tenure of the employees, the sponsors, the drivers, no one really moves that often. Once you’re in, you want to be there. Nobody wants to leave because you’re gonna see success eventually, one way or another. Everyone works hard. Everyone has the same culture and the same thought process. It’s something I’m really proud of. I take a lot of pride in saying I drive for Team Penske because I think it’s a dream for almost all drivers to say that you’ve driving for Roger Penske. You see the list of legends that has driven for him and it’s ridiculous, so to have your name be part of that, it’s something I take a lot of pride in and I don’t take that lightly. Those guys are the ones that built the company over 60 years, and then for us to have the opportunity to carry the flag and continue that, that’s really special.”

IT SEEMS LIKE PHOENIX IS SPECIAL PLACE FOR YOU. “Yeah, I mean it’s been special for the last few years because of the championship race and we’ve had some success out here racing for championships, so it’s been a special place for that reason. The cars have been fast here, but, to your point, Roger’s got some dealerships right up the road with the museum as well that’s really, really cool. So, yeah, I wouldn’t call it a home track, but it’s definitely one of our tracks that we consider close to home – maybe a vacation home if you will. It’s a place that everybody enjoys coming to because there are a lot of partners we have out here as well with Discount Tire and them as well, so it’s definitely a special place.”

HOW WILL YOUR MINDSET CHANGE FROM QUALIFYING TO THE RACE? “I think tomorrow the big thing that’s in our mind right now is that the track temp is going to be up significantly from what we just had in practice and what does that do to our race car. Obviously, we’re gonna go slower. The pace for the whole field will be down. The cars will be slipping and sliding. The track will rubber up. It will get wider, which is good. It was already getting wide in practice, so the track will be getting a little bit wider so we can have more options to pass. Fall off is gonna be a real thing. There’s a lot of thoughts right now and some things that we want to do to dial our car in a little bit better too as well.”

CAN YOU TAKE US THROUGH HOW YOU MENTALLY PREPARE FOR A RACE AND HOW THAT CHANGES WHEN YOU GET IN THE CAR? “For me, I just want to be prepared to see everything that’s coming my way and that’s how I mentally prepare. I don’t have a psych you up music or something that tries to get you rolling or any superstitious stuff. That’s not who I am. I just want to know the facts and get as many of those in my mind as I can and that’s gonna mentally make me feel confident. If I can know as much about the race before it happens, that’s what’s gonna get me prepared and ready. That’s my job during the week and then you get your report card when it comes to Sunday.”

WHAT PERCENT OF THE SLIDING AROUND IS DUE TO THE 750, THE TIRE, AND JUST TEMPERATURE? “It’s hard to put a percent on it. I’d say the power is definitely in effect. It’s not huge, but it’s directionally that way. I think anytime you talk to a race car driver they’re gonna say to put more horsepower in it, but the fact that it seems like the fall off is pretty high, cars are searching around already. That has to go into the equation somehow. You’re on the brakes more. You’re on the gas a little bit less, but you’re spinning them more. It’s just easier to wear the tire out. That just promotes a wider track. That just promotes better racing, so whether it comes from tire wear or the engine, more power that creates tire wear. All of it kind of goes together. It’s all a package. It’s hard to say what is affecting it the most. There’s no doubt that Goodyear has done an incredible job of bringing a tire that actually falls off because for years here you’d run a whole run and it was like three-tenths, four-tenths slower than what you started. Now, you’re second off, so we’ve come a long, long way. Goodyear has done the biggest amount. If you were to say what’s what. Goodyear is the biggest component to that. The engine definitely is directionally better. I think we also have to be open for more. Just because we’re sitting up here saying this is good, it’s never good enough, but I think for what we’ve done at this racetrack, this is gonna be a great race tomorrow. One of our better races, in my opinion.”

WERE YOU SLIDING AROUND MORE? “I felt like it. I felt like I was sliding around a little bit more and the tire is the same, so I’ve got to assume that it’s the temperature a little bit, but also the power.”

AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Menards/Quaker State Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “Our Menards/Quaker State Ford Mustang Dark Horse had really good speed in practice and qualifying, so starting third puts us in a solid position. If we can keep tires on it and stay in the mix, I think we’ll have a shot. It’s been a tough start to the year with some of the damage we’ve dealt with, but today showed what this team is capable of.”

RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Dent Wizard Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “It’s a really good day for us. It looks like we’re gonna be really good in qualifying. I thought our race speed was pretty good and the qualifying lap was OK. I kind of missed it a little bit. I didn’t have the cleanest one, but we’re starting fifth. I’m proud of the effort. All three of our Ford Mustangs are in the top five, 1-3-5. It’s awesome and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Fry’s/Artesano/Kraft Ford Mustang Dark Horse – IS THERE CONCERN ABOUT TIRES? “Yeah. There’s some concern. It’s something we’ve got to figure out and dive into, knowing the issues we had here the last race I thought we took steps to correct. We’ll dive into that a little bit further. I would say that where we fired off and balance and long run speed, if you call 15 laps long run, I was fairly happy with our car, but at the end of it we need it to last a little longer. We’re gonna certainly dive into it. We’ve got our post-practice meetings coming up here, so we’ll try and figure out if we can diagnose if it’s something specific to us or another Phoenix.” DID YOU NOTICE ANY DIFFERENCE WITH HORSEPOWER? “I would say I was not quite to the point of the run where it’s really gonna show up big. I unfortunately did get to watch a lot of SMT and it sure looks like it’s gonna be a handful as we get late in the run. I would say the amount of fall off that we’ve seen, that’s where you’re gonna feel it is that point where you’re not able to use it. When we fire off in qualifying and you can get wide-open, whether it’s 670 or 750, you don’t get that big seat-of-the-pants feel, but when you’re unable to use all you’ve got, that’s when you start noticing. I’d say it’s got potential to change this race a little bit.” YOUR TIRE PROBLEM WAS AT 15 LAPS, SO COULD IT BE AN ISSUE WITH INDYCAR OR NOAPS RUBBER? “Maybe. We were group one, so is there something to that? Maybe. It was a right side. I know the 35 had a left side. The 6 had a right side, so it’s strange to be both sides. I feel like that’s not very typical, so I don’t have the answers yet.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 Consumer Cellular Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT HAPPENED? “I guess I blew a right-front tire going into turn three. It’s surprising. We had put a bunch of air in it after our teammate had issues and we still had an issue.” YOU’VE HAD A CHANCE TO ASSESS. WILL YOU GO TO A BACKUP? “Most likely. The front clip appears bent, but I’ll let these guys figure it out.”

Joey Logano wins first Cup pole of 2026 at Phoenix

By
Andrew Kim
-
Photo by Ron Olds for SpeedwayMedia.com.

Joey Logano sped to his first Busch Light Pole Award of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season for the Straight Talk Wireless 500 at Phoenix Raceway on Saturday, March 7.

The event’s starting lineup was determined through a single-car, single-lap qualifying format. In this format, all 37 competitors vying for 37 starting spots cycled around Phoenix Raceway once to post the fastest lap amongst one another. The competitor who posted the fastest single lap was awarded the pole position.

During Saturday’s qualifying session, Logano, who was the 19th-fastest competitor during Saturday’s practice session and fought through slick on-track conditions, clocked in a single-qualifying lap at 135.537 mph in 26.561 seconds. The lap was enough for Logano to achieve the first pole position of this season for himself, Team Penske, and Ford.

With the pole, Logano achieved his 34th career Cup Series pole, which places him in 18th place on the all-time Cup poles list. The pole was also Logano’s third at Phoenix and his first in the series since New Hampshire Motor Speedway in September 2025.

“Obviously, [the car] was good for qualifying,” Logano said on Prime. “I thought we were pretty good on the long run, too. A really special weekend for Team Penske, celebrating our 60th [anniversary]. Cool for Team Penske. [David] Malukas got the IndyCar pole [for Saturday’s Phoenix race], so we were able to sweep the poles at least here so far. Hopefully, we can do it more in the race. It matters a lot more then.”

Logano will share the front row with Kyle Larson, the latter of whom clocked in the second-fastest single-qualifying lap at 134.943 mph in 26.678 seconds. Logano’s teammate, Austin Cindric, qualified in third place with a lap at 134.675 mph in 26.731 seconds. 

Daniel Suarez, who was the fastest competitor in practice, claimed the fourth starting spot with a lap at 134.610 mph in 26.744 seconds. Ryan Blaney, Penske’s third Cup competitor, posted his lap at 134.595 mph in 26.747 seconds to grab the fifth starting spot.

Ross Chastain, Carson Hocevar, Tyler Reddick, William Byron, and Josh Berry completed the top-10 starting grid.

Notably, Anthony Alfredo, who is subbing for Alex Bowman in the No. 48 Ally/Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry, qualified in 31st place with a lap at 132.900 mph in 27.088 seconds. Bowman is currently sidelined due to a vertigo diagnosis. Bowman’s timeline for returning to competition remains to be determined.

In addition, Brad Keselowski was the lone competitor who did not post a qualifying time due to wrecking his primary car after he cut a right-front tire and slammed into the Turn 3 outside wall during Saturday’s practice session. Keselowski’s teammate, Chris Buescher, and Riley Herbst also had tire issues during practice, but both were able to keep their primary entries intact and qualify 17th and 22nd, respectively.

With 37 competitors vying for 37 starting spots, all made the main event.

Phoenix – Qualifying position, Best speed, Best time:

  1. Joey Logano, 135.537 mph, 26.561 seconds
  2. Kyle Larson, 134.943 mph, 26.678 seconds
  3. Austin Cindric. 134.675 mph, 26.731 seconds
  4. Daniel Suarez, 134.610 mph, 26.744 seconds
  5. Ryan Blaney, 134.595 mph, 26.747 seconds
  6. Ross Chastain, 134.544 mph, 26.757 seconds
  7. Carson Hocevar, 134.539 mph, 26.758 seconds
  8. Tyler Reddick, 134.394 mph, 26.787 seconds
  9. William Byron, 134.373 mph, 26.791 seconds
  10. Josh Berry, 134.258 mph, 26.814 seconds
  11. Denny Hamlin, 134.233 mph, 26.819 seconds
  12. Christopher Bell, 134.148 mph, 26.836 seconds
  13. Ryan Preece, 134.143 mph, 26.837 seconds
  14. Ty Gibbs, 134.128 mph, 26.840 seconds
  15. John Hunter Nemechek, 134.038 mph, 26.858 seconds
  16. Michael McDowell, 134.018 mph, 26.862 seconds
  17. Chris Buescher, 133.953 mph, 26.875 seconds
  18. Shane van Gisbergen, 133.939 mph, 26.878 seconds
  19. Connor Zilisch, 133.919 mph, 26.882 seconds
  20. Chase Briscoe, 133.844 mph, 26.897 seconds
  21. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 133.834 mph, 26.899 seconds
  22. Riley Herbst, 133.819 mph, 26.902 seconds
  23. AJ Allmendinger, 133.804 mph, 26.905 seconds
  24. Zane Smith, 133,799 mph, 26.906 seconds
  25. Austin Dillon, 133.591 mph, 26.948 seconds
  26. Chase Elliott, 133.551 mph, 26.956 seconds
  27. Austin Hill, 133.536 mph, 26.959 seconds
  28. Bubba Wallace, 133.230 mph, 27.021 seconds
  29. Kyle Busch, 133.151 mph, 27.037 seconds
  30. Todd Gilliland, 133.131 mph, 27.041 seconds
  31. Anthony Alfredo, 132.900 mph, 27.088 seconds
  32. Erik Jones, 132.871 mph, 27.094 seconds
  33. Ty Dillon, 132.680 mph, 27.133 seconds
  34. Cody Ware, 132.441 mph, 27.182 seconds
  35. Noah Gragson, 132.319 mph, 27.207 seconds
  36. Cole Custer, 130.833 mph, 27.516 seconds
  37. Brad Keselowski, Did Not Qualify

The 2026 Straight Talk Wireless 500 at Phoenix Raceway is scheduled to occur on Sunday, March 8, and air at 3:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM, and HBO Max.

Ford Racing Notes and Quotes – Brad Keselowski Phoenix Media Availability

By
Official Release
-

Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Media Availability — Phoenix Raceway
Saturday, March 7, 2026

Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 6 Consumer Cellular Ford Mustang Dark Horse, stopped by the Phoenix Raceway infield media center to answer questions about his season to date and this weekend’s race. Keselowski is currently 12th in the series point standings.

BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 Consumer Cellular Ford Mustang Dark Horse – THERE’S BEEN A LOT OF TALK ABOUT COOL SHIRTS SINCE AUSTIN. WHAT DO YOU TELL YOUR TEAMS AS FAR AS THE BALANCE OF KEEPING A DRIVER COOL VERSUS POTENTIAL MODIFICATIONS FOR PERFORMANCE? “Our group, we let the teams have that autonomy of what they want to run, so if the driver wants to run a cool shirt, he runs a cool shirt and we try to provide the necessary engineering support to make sure that there isn’t an issue. I had one last year where we probably didn’t do a good enough job with that and we came back in and buttoned it up. Cool suits are a tough thing because they’re not designed in our environment to fail to safe, so when they fail, it’s fairly devastating and occasionally those things are gonna happen. It’s unfortunate when it happens to anyone, not just our team. There’s a solve that’s being worked on for all the different teams, but nothing seems to have been bulletproof yet. It’s one of the nuances of currently racing in the Cup Series.”

YOU HAD JOEY HAND ON STAND BY LAST WEEK, BUT YOU OPTED TO STAY IN THE CAR. WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT WHEN YOU ALMOST HAD A FAIL SAFE PLAN TO HAVE A GOOD POINTS DAY? “Well, Joey was a fail safe in case I wasn’t able to run the race, where if I felt I couldn’t be competitive. In the car, I felt competitive. I felt like I could drive it to its limits and any change was just gonna put us further back, not because Joey isn’t a good driver, but by the time you execute a change and go to the back of the pack and do all those things and he can re-acclimate in a car that’s not made for him, not fitted for him, etc, that’s a lot to ask of somebody. If I felt like I was holding the team back, I would have made a change, but I didn’t feel that way.”

DID YOU ENJOY PARTICIPATING IN THE FULL SPEED SHOW? “I watched a few clips. I can’t say I’ve seen the entire thing. I think it just came out a day or two ago and I’ve been pretty jammed up, but that said, it’s great that this sport has that level of coverage. I think when I started in the Cup Series the teams and the sponsors were really, really protective around doing things like that, but the industry has found a way to get the teams in a better place and the different producers have over the years been more accommodating as well to making sure we don’t put things in there that embarrass ourselves or the sport, so I think that we’ve found a nice balance. I’m really proud of the sport for being able to put those types of things together, and I think Amazon as a whole, what they’ve brought to our sport, in my eyes at least, is underappreciated. They’ve put a big investment in the sport. They’re promoting really hard with not just the races that they cover, but the things they do outside of covering the races to cover the sport, so it’s refreshing to see that level of engagement.”

HOW DO YOU LIKE SHARING THE WEEKEND WITH INDYCAR AND WOULD YOU EVER WANT TO RACE IN AN INDYCAR? “I tested an IndyCar at Road America about 10 years ago and I loved it. I had a lot of fun. What’s really, really difficult is that all of my time in Cup I’ve never been with a manufacturer in the Cup Series that competes in the IndyCar Series and to go back and forth between the two is considerable pain for the OEMs that is tough to justify. I think that window for me has probably come and gone. There was a time where I was very, very interested, but life takes us in other places and I’m not complaining.”

HAS THE PREPARATION FOR PHOENIX THIS TIME AROUND CHANGED SINCE IT’S NOT HOSTING THE CHAMPIONSHIP EVENT ANYMORE? “One of the things that I really like about the format that we have switched to for 2026 is every race is kind of a championship race. The way the points stack up, significantly with a bonus to the winner. That has large ramifications to how the championship is gonna play out. Tyler Reddick winning the first three races is not just huge in the sense of how hard that is to achieve, it’s huge in the sense of the ramifications it has for him for being a real contender for the championship because of the extra bonus points that are offered. The structure of last year’s points, honestly, him winning the first three races was not super meaningful to the playoffs or to the championship. It was just a nice stat to have, so I look at this format and what it’s intended to do. It’s intended to make every race a big race and, for us specifically, this is what I think most of the teams would tell you is the start of the regular season. It’s more of a traditional racetrack and more of what we’re going to see. It values the things that most of the races from here on out are going to value, whether that’s speed in the race car, tactics by the driver, execution by the pit crew, or strategy by the crew chiefs. Those four elements are more represented here than they are the first three weeks of the season and more representative of the challenges we’re gonna have throughout the rest of the year.”

HOW ARE YOU FEELING AFTER THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE FIRST THREE RACES? HOW ARE YOU HEALING? “Really well. This is supposed to be a six to 12 month recovery and I’m on track to do it in three to four, which is great. I was just saying to my team when I was coming here that I got out of the motorhome and took my first three or four steps without a cane. I’m like, ‘I’m almost ready to be rid of this thing.’ Mentally, I’m ready to be rid of it, but physically I’m not. It feels good. Yes, driving the car is not the best thing for me in some ways, whether it be the vibration or the loads or just the movements to get in and out, but once I’m in the car I feel reasonable. I can’t say it’s the best I’ve ever felt, but I feel reasonable. There are little setbacks that come from driving the car with dehydration or just the workload in general, but with a day or two of recovery I’ve been able to come back even stronger each of the three races we’ve had so far. I’m really happy just staying the course and putting the work in and dealing with the pain. In some ways, it’s good for me because it provides the motivation to put the work in to do the rehab at a really high level and I think that’s been really good for me.”

THERE IS SOME IRONY THAT YOU’RE HIGHER IN POINTS THIS YEAR THAN A YEAR AGO WHEN YOU WERE HEALTHY. IS THAT A REFLECTION OF THIS ADDED WHATEVER YOU’RE HAVING TO DEAL WITH? “Certainly from the outside-in it could appear that way, but I would say that the start of last year was not very good for the 6 team and there was a lot of reasons for that. Some of it was poor luck and some of it was just poor execution. We turned over pretty much the entire team from ‘24 to ‘25 and that was a big transition. Now, the team has got its legs underneath it and I think it can position itself to be a contender.”

MICHAEL JORDAN HAS A TEAM THAT HAS WON THREE IN A ROW. DO YOU FIND THAT HIS PROFILE HAS BEEN GOOD FOR EVERYBODY IN THE SPORT? “Yeah. It’s hard to argue against Michael having a positive influence on the sport. I love the fact that he’s so engaged and at the races. I just can’t emphasize enough how important that is, not just for Michael, but for any of the key stakeholders to just have a physical presence at the racetrack, and that’s at all levels, not just the team level. So, for him to have a physical presence, I think it’s a testament to his fortitude for being a part of this sport because, let’s face it, even though he’s won the first three races, he’s lost a lot more as every car owner will. It’s not a dig on him. If I’m a guy like him, personally, and I wake up and say, ‘Where do I want to be today,’ and I know that I have less than a 10 percent chance of winning, flying my butt all across the country when I have all the things that Michael has is probably something that takes me a minute to emotionally justify, but he does. I’ll give him a lot of respect and credit for that because this sport is a grind, not just for the people that work in it, but also for the key stakeholders, whether it be team owners, executives, etc. He’s made the decision and choice to participate at a high level to be engaged. The fringe benefit for the sport is the brand that he has outside of it, which naturally comes with him, which I think is a great thing. I’m happy for him. I’m happy for the sport. It’s hard for me to see any negatives. I’m sure there are probably some out there, but I don’t see them and I”m genuinely happy that he’s a part of our sport.”

Ford Racing NASCAR: Brad Keselowski Phoenix Media Availability

By
Official Release
-

Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Media Availability – Phoenix Raceway
Saturday, March 7, 2026

Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 6 Consumer Cellular Ford Mustang Dark Horse, stopped by the Phoenix Raceway infield media center to answer questions about his season to date and this weekend’s race. Keselowski is currently 12th in the series point standings.

BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 Consumer Cellular Ford Mustang Dark Horse – THERE’S BEEN A LOT OF TALK ABOUT COOL SHIRTS SINCE AUSTIN. WHAT DO YOU TELL YOUR TEAMS AS FAR AS THE BALANCE OF KEEPING A DRIVER COOL VERSUS POTENTIAL MODIFICATIONS FOR PERFORMANCE? “Our group, we let the teams have that autonomy of what they want to run, so if the driver wants to run a cool shirt, he runs a cool shirt and we try to provide the necessary engineering support to make sure that there isn’t an issue. I had one last year where we probably didn’t do a good enough job with that and we came back in and buttoned it up. Cool suits are a tough thing because they’re not designed in our environment to fail to safe, so when they fail, it’s fairly devastating and occasionally those things are gonna happen. It’s unfortunate when it happens to anyone, not just our team. There’s a solve that’s being worked on for all the different teams, but nothing seems to have been bulletproof yet. It’s one of the nuances of currently racing in the Cup Series.”

YOU HAD JOEY HAND ON STAND BY LAST WEEK, BUT YOU OPTED TO STAY IN THE CAR. WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT WHEN YOU ALMOST HAD A FAIL SAFE PLAN TO HAVE A GOOD POINTS DAY? “Well, Joey was a fail safe in case I wasn’t able to run the race, where if I felt I couldn’t be competitive. In the car, I felt competitive. I felt like I could drive it to its limits and any change was just gonna put us further back, not because Joey isn’t a good driver, but by the time you execute a change and go to the back of the pack and do all those things and he can re-acclimate in a car that’s not made for him, not fitted for him, etc, that’s a lot to ask of somebody. If I felt like I was holding the team back, I would have made a change, but I didn’t feel that way.”

DID YOU ENJOY PARTICIPATING IN THE FULL SPEED SHOW? “I watched a few clips. I can’t say I’ve seen the entire thing. I think it just came out a day or two ago and I’ve been pretty jammed up, but that said, it’s great that this sport has that level of coverage. I think when I started in the Cup Series the teams and the sponsors were really, really protective around doing things like that, but the industry has found a way to get the teams in a better place and the different producers have over the years been more accommodating as well to making sure we don’t put things in there that embarrass ourselves or the sport, so I think that we’ve found a nice balance. I’m really proud of the sport for being able to put those types of things together, and I think Amazon as a whole, what they’ve brought to our sport, in my eyes at least, is underappreciated. They’ve put a big investment in the sport. They’re promoting really hard with not just the races that they cover, but the things they do outside of covering the races to cover the sport, so it’s refreshing to see that level of engagement.”

HOW DO YOU LIKE SHARING THE WEEKEND WITH INDYCAR AND WOULD YOU EVER WANT TO RACE IN AN INDYCAR? “I tested an IndyCar at Road America about 10 years ago and I loved it. I had a lot of fun. What’s really, really difficult is that all of my time in Cup I’ve never been with a manufacturer in the Cup Series that competes in the IndyCar Series and to go back and forth between the two is considerable pain for the OEMs that is tough to justify. I think that window for me has probably come and gone. There was a time where I was very, very interested, but life takes us in other places and I’m not complaining.”

HAS THE PREPARATION FOR PHOENIX THIS TIME AROUND CHANGED SINCE IT’S NOT HOSTING THE CHAMPIONSHIP EVENT ANYMORE? “One of the things that I really like about the format that we have switched to for 2026 is every race is kind of a championship race. The way the points stack up, significantly with a bonus to the winner. That has large ramifications to how the championship is gonna play out. Tyler Reddick winning the first three races is not just huge in the sense of how hard that is to achieve, it’s huge in the sense of the ramifications it has for him for being a real contender for the championship because of the extra bonus points that are offered. The structure of last year’s points, honestly, him winning the first three races was not super meaningful to the playoffs or to the championship. It was just a nice stat to have, so I look at this format and what it’s intended to do. It’s intended to make every race a big race and, for us specifically, this is what I think most of the teams would tell you is the start of the regular season. It’s more of a traditional racetrack and more of what we’re going to see. It values the things that most of the races from here on out are going to value, whether that’s speed in the race car, tactics by the driver, execution by the pit crew, or strategy by the crew chiefs. Those four elements are more represented here than they are the first three weeks of the season and more representative of the challenges we’re gonna have throughout the rest of the year.”

HOW ARE YOU FEELING AFTER THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE FIRST THREE RACES? HOW ARE YOU HEALING? “Really well. This is supposed to be a six to 12 month recovery and I’m on track to do it in three to four, which is great. I was just saying to my team when I was coming here that I got out of the motorhome and took my first three or four steps without a cane. I’m like, ‘I’m almost ready to be rid of this thing.’ Mentally, I’m ready to be rid of it, but physically I’m not. It feels good. Yes, driving the car is not the best thing for me in some ways, whether it be the vibration or the loads or just the movements to get in and out, but once I’m in the car I feel reasonable. I can’t say it’s the best I’ve ever felt, but I feel reasonable. There are little setbacks that come from driving the car with dehydration or just the workload in general, but with a day or two of recovery I’ve been able to come back even stronger each of the three races we’ve had so far. I’m really happy just staying the course and putting the work in and dealing with the pain. In some ways, it’s good for me because it provides the motivation to put the work in to do the rehab at a really high level and I think that’s been really good for me.”

THERE IS SOME IRONY THAT YOU’RE HIGHER IN POINTS THIS YEAR THAN A YEAR AGO WHEN YOU WERE HEALTHY. IS THAT A REFLECTION OF THIS ADDED WHATEVER YOU’RE HAVING TO DEAL WITH? “Certainly from the outside-in it could appear that way, but I would say that the start of last year was not very good for the 6 team and there was a lot of reasons for that. Some of it was poor luck and some of it was just poor execution. We turned over pretty much the entire team from ‘24 to ‘25 and that was a big transition. Now, the team has got its legs underneath it and I think it can position itself to be a contender.”

MICHAEL JORDAN HAS A TEAM THAT HAS WON THREE IN A ROW. DO YOU FIND THAT HIS PROFILE HAS BEEN GOOD FOR EVERYBODY IN THE SPORT? “Yeah. It’s hard to argue against Michael having a positive influence on the sport. I love the fact that he’s so engaged and at the races. I just can’t emphasize enough how important that is, not just for Michael, but for any of the key stakeholders to just have a physical presence at the racetrack, and that’s at all levels, not just the team level. So, for him to have a physical presence, I think it’s a testament to his fortitude for being a part of this sport because, let’s face it, even though he’s won the first three races, he’s lost a lot more as every car owner will. It’s not a dig on him. If I’m a guy like him, personally, and I wake up and say, ‘Where do I want to be today,’ and I know that I have less than a 10 percent chance of winning, flying my butt all across the country when I have all the things that Michael has is probably something that takes me a minute to emotionally justify, but he does. I’ll give him a lot of respect and credit for that because this sport is a grind, not just for the people that work in it, but also for the key stakeholders, whether it be team owners, executives, etc. He’s made the decision and choice to participate at a high level to be engaged. The fringe benefit for the sport is the brand that he has outside of it, which naturally comes with him, which I think is a great thing. I’m happy for him. I’m happy for the sport. It’s hard for me to see any negatives. I’m sure there are probably some out there, but I don’t see them and I”m genuinely happy that he’s a part of our sport.”

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