Phoenix Raceway offers a mix of close battles and bold moves, putting on an exciting show for the West Coast fans. (Photo: Myk Crawford | The Podium Finish)
AVONDALE, Ariz. – For the past six years, Phoenix Raceway has been the host of the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Weekend. While there won’t be a championship weekend to look forward to this year, the talk of the week surrounds the possibility of this one-mile track landing in the history books as the site of a fourth consecutive win for 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick.
As the first driver in NASCAR history to win the first three races of a season, Reddick is seeking to break another record this week with a win at Phoenix. A victory would not only make him the first driver to win the first four races of a season, but also the first driver to win four races in a row since Jimmie Johnson in 2007.
“My experiences in spring in Phoenix, I have a number of years, I think dating back even to the start of this car, we’ve been able to go there and kind of be knocking on the door,” Reddick said in his post-race press conference at Circuit of the Americas. “Last year, we had the power steering failure that kind of knocked us out of it. Two years ago, I remember me and Denny got together, that caution came out in the middle of the cycle.”
With a best finish of third in the 2023 spring race, Reddick hopes for a good performance and improvement from last year.
“I’m really excited to see what we have for speed and pace over the next two weekends because we’ve worked really hard to improve things here. We’ve worked hard to kinda rethink how we get around Phoenix, and we’ve just kind of doubled down on the things that we’ve been improving at Vegas.”
Sitting second in the Cup Series standings is Reddick’s 23XI Racing teammate Bubba Wallace. Three solid performances in a row have left Wallace itching for a night in Victory Lane. With a whopping 70 points standing between him and his teammate at the top of the standings, a win for the No. 23 would help chip away at Reddick’s sizable lead. However, Wallace has only a handful of top-10 finishes at Phoenix to his name, so he will have his work cut out for him in the desert this week.
Chase Elliott on-track in the Shriner’s Children’s 500 at Phoenix Raceway in the spring of 2025. (Photo: Myk Crawford | The Podium Finish)
On the other hand, Phoenix holds a special place in Chase Elliott’s heart, as it was the site of his first Cup Series championship in 2020. That win plus 10 career top-10 finishes highlight a strong history at Phoenix for the Hendrick Motorsports driver. Like Wallace, Elliott is also on the hunt for his first win of the 2026 season. He has had strong performances for the past three weekends, including being so close to winning his first Daytona 500. A win this weekend would most likely launch him past Wallace to take second place in the standings before heading to Las Vegas.
Last year’s fall race weekend was riddled with tire failures in practice and qualifying. Teams pushed the limits of their cars with low tire pressures and extreme camber settings to combat the variable banking of the Desert Jewel. With a sunny and warm week ahead, it will be interesting to see how the teams seek a balance between a fast-qualifying car and a well-handling car on long runs.
In addition to a packed NASCAR schedule this weekend, the NTT IndyCar Series will join the stock cars at Phoenix for their first run on the oval since 2018. Fans are in for an exciting experience as the NASCAR Cup Series closes out the “Desert Double” on Fox Sports 1 and HBO MAX at 3:30 PM ET on Sunday, March 8th.
