This weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series makes their first visit of the year to the desert in Arizona. Coverage of the NASCAR Cup Series Straight Talk Wireless 500k will begin with NASCAR RaceDay at 3 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1. Race coverage will begin at 3:30 p.m. ET with the green flag around 3:45 p.m. ET. Radio coverage will be provided by local MRN Radio affiliates and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
(Channel 90).
Remember that Daylight Savings Time will begin at 2 a.m. ET Sunday morning, regardless of your time zone. Before you go to bed Saturday night, make sure to adjust your clocks that need to be manually adjusted up one hour.
Records and
facts
Last year's Shriners Children's 500k saw Christopher Bell lead a race-high 105 of 312 laps, but the race ended up coming down to the final laps. Bell was leading until teammate Ty Gibbs crashed late and brought out a caution.
On the restart, Denny Hamlin was able
to briefly take the lead away from Bell. Bell then got him back and held on to take the win, his third straight victory at the time and second straight in this event.
Bell barely held on by .049 seconds over Hamlin. Kyle Larson was third, then Josh Berry and Chris Buescher.
Kevin Harvick is the winningest driver at Phoenix International Raceway all-time with nine victories on the tricky tri-oval. Jimmie Johnson and Joey Logano have four victories each, while Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. each have three.
Among active drivers, Johnson (not entered) is the leader of the group. Bell and Hamlin
have two victories each, while six others have a single victory.
Track Facts
Track / Race Length: 1 mile tri-oval, 312 laps (312 miles, 502.32 kilometers)
Banking: 10-11
degrees in the Dogleg (flat below the yellow line), 8-9 degrees in turns 1-2, 10-11 degrees in turns 3-4.
Frontstretch: 1,551 ft., banked 9-11 degrees
Backstretch: 1,179 ft., banked 3 degrees
Grandstand Seating: 45,000
Pit Road Speed: 45 mph
Pace Car Speed: 50 mph
Opened: 1964 (first Cup race in 1988)
Website: http://www.phoenixraceway.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PhoenixRaceway
Twitter: http://twitter.com/phoenixraceway
Pre-Race Schedule:
Practice: Saturday,
March 7, 12 - 1:50 p.m. ET on Prime Video
Qualifying: Saturday, March 8, 1:05 p.m. ET on Prime Video
Say What!
"Phoenix Raceway is a really cool racetrack because it’s only a mile in length, but it still races like a big track. Some of the most exciting opportunities at Phoenix to set up passes and make moves are on restarts. Everybody is so close together at the dogleg, which is really unique because it lends itself to ten wide racing where you can be ten lanes wide with grooves
to operate in. You’re going to venture to get away from everybody that’s around you, but it all funnels down to about two to three lanes wide when you get to the corners, so it gets pretty tight when you get into the turns. You want to make your passes right after the restarts." - Kyle Busch
"I look at
Phoenix much better nowadays. I would say for a large portion of my career I wanted to burn Phoenix down to the ground. So, we are in a better headspace when we head there with our Ford Mustang Dark Horse now. We've been good there. And honestly, that just fixes a lot of things when you go to a racetrack and you're competitive and it's fun. It puts you in a better place. Our team has done a really good job at RFK [Racing] over the last, probably three years. It is now to the point
where we have a lot of good races under our belt at Phoenix. It's just enjoyable to go and feel like we have a legitimate shot to win, not just trying to figure it out still. We have pretty high hopes heading into that one." - Chris Buescher
"Phoenix will be good. It’ll be nice to get on our first traditional oval of the year, and just getting to a
short track will be good. This is a track where I think we saw a good bit of improvement in the November race. We ran a little bit better than we had in years past. We would qualify well and have good speed, but we just couldn’t get the long run and race setup quite where we wanted it. I’m excited to get there with added horsepower and see what that’s all about on an oval. Hopefully, it’ll be a bit better on racing versus years past of going there. Looking forward to it. I’ve always liked this
track. We’ll see where we stack up on some traditional ovals." - Erik Jones
Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Photo is courtesy of our own Danny
Peters.
