What Happened?
Tyler Reddick wins at Phoe– oh, wait, sorry, it was starting to become automatic as much as he was winning.
No, Reddick’s three-race winning streak to start the season finally came to an end on Sunday (March 8) as Ryan Blaney took home his second consecutive victory at Phoenix Raceway.
Blaney had a fast car all day but was mired in the back for a good chunk of the race due to pit road miscues. He ended up getting back to the lead late as the field split strategies and held off a hard charging Christopher Bell for the victory.
Blaney’s win completed a NASCAR Cup Series/NTT IndyCar Series sweep of the weekend after Josef Newgarden won the IndyCar race the day prior (March 7).
Ryan Blaney Scores 1st Win of 2026 at Phoenix
What Really Happened?
Now that Reddick’s win streak is no longer the top storyline, let’s sit back and admire how nice the racing is without the playoffs, or at the very least, the win-and-you’re-in system.
Sunday’s race had it all – battles all over the racetrack, including for the lead, tire falloff, pit strategies, and the faster cars battling through adversity such as Blaney.
And throughout the day, there was no talk of playoffs, or what a win would mean for the season. There was a point late in the race where it felt like Ty Gibbs might finally break through and get his first career win, and on a bold strategy call, no less. At no point was there talk of how much a win would mean for the No. 54’s playoff run. The only talk was how good of a strategy call it would’ve been and how much a win could mean to a team that hasn’t found victory at all yet, something people had not seen coming at this point in the young Gibbs’ career.
For Blaney, it felt like a bit of a redemption win because his win in the fall was completely overshadowed by the winner-take-all format that ended up biting Denny Hamlin in one of the most heartbreaking losses you’ll ever see. That win, by the way, came on a last-corner pass where it looked like it Brad Keselowski would snooker a win.
It was an incredible finish, completely overshadowed by fan outrage over the title.
Even with all the tire failures throughout the day, it didn’t seem to cause as much anger within the fanbase as it did in the fall – to be clear, there’s still something amiss (even if only slightly) in the tires, because there really shouldn’t have been as many failures as we saw Sunday.
Instead, I thought about the drivers who did have those issues and how fun it would be to watch them try to claw their way back through the points. Chase Briscoe has had an abysmal start to the season – aside from a second-place finish at EchoPark Speedway, he hasn’t finished in the top 35 all year, and at Phoenix, a DNF only put him further in a hole.
As it stands, Briscoe sits 33rd in points with just 47 total points – it’s an immediate storyline to see if and how the No. 19 team claws its way out of a huge points hole to begin the season. And that’s exactly what Briscoe’s gonna have to do – he can’t just magically win and actually do nothing, he’s going to have to start riffing off wins and high finishes to get back into the Chase fight.
Elsewhere, Reddick’s eighth-place finish mitigated the damage from not winning his fourth race in a row, and even with Blaney getting the victory and moving to second in points, he still trails Reddick by a whopping 60 points. Blaney’s win is being celebrated as that – a win. Not a playoff berth.
After four races, the racing certainly feels more relaxed. Hamlin even said as much in his podcast Actions Detrimental after Circuit of the Americas.
“It seemed calmer,” Hamlin said when asked about the racing etiquette. “It seemed calmer to me.”
When you’re racing to maximize your points and strategize your wins instead of doing whatever it takes to win and only win at all costs, you don’t see as much stupid racing, you don’t see this overemphasis on the playoff points in the stage wins or the race wins, you see wins and finishes get celebrated for what they are instead of relating it back to the playoffs.
So when you get a fun race like we had at Phoenix, it’s nice to just sit back and enjoy the racing itself. There wasn’t even a thought that crossed my mind of Bell trying to pull an Austin Dillon Richmond Raceway 2024 moment on Blaney in the final corner – because we can finally think big picture.
Yes, we’re only four races in, and yes, there will certainly be better races this season than Phoenix. Yes, there are still things about the Next Gen car that deserve its fair share of criticism; same with Goodyear and its tires. Driver etiquette flare-ups will inevitably happen.
But for the first time in ages, it’s nice to watch NASCAR and not immediately think about playoffs. And since “the real season starts now” for most folks who choose to discredit drafting tracks and road courses for some reason, if Phoenix was a taste of what’s to come, it’s going to be a fun season.
Close but No Cigar for Christopher Bell at Phoenix
Paint Scheme of the Race
He may have missed out on his first win, but boy would it have been cool to see Gibbs get the win in the ampm colors.
It’s hard to go wrong with a paint scheme with a purple base color, especially as light of a purple as ampm has. The sleek black No. 54 makes it that much better, and the streaks of the am orange to go with the pm purple make this a top notch scheme.
It’s an especially cool scheme given how rarely ampm has been on a racecar, as anytime it has been, it’s been at a west coast race, since that’s where the company is based and primarily located.
It’s just an all-around beauty.
Gibbs started 14th and finished fourth in this hot rod, leading 12 laps in the process.
What’s Next?
Sin City, here we come.
The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the Pennzoil 400 Presented by Jiffy Lube. Josh Berry is the defending winner of the race. Coverage begins at approximately 4 p.m. on Sunday, March 15. Coverage can be found on FOX Sports 1.
I didn’t watch the entire race since the weather was nice here for a change
but what I saw was interesting since as you say there is less stupidity and desperation without win and you’re in. Yes the teams will have to work and maximize their finishes.
id still prefer NO chase in favor of a full season champ but at least it’s not completely a stupid crapshoot
Why does Nascar allow diving down below the yellow line in the one corner? Indy card didn’t do it and it doesn’t look that safe to me. Chastain wiped himself out going down there. What about driver safety? Isn’t that the most important thing?
Racing on the apron has happened at every track, except daytona and talledega.
It never works very well at Bristol and other tracks. Cars don’t handle well when going from banking to a flat area.
I’ll never be a fan of stage racing or the free pass. The restarts were exciting.
There’s always the option of only watching the last 50 laps if you don’t want to waste an entire afternoon watching commercials.
i’ve started watching the beginning of the race and check back during the race. racing just doesn’t hold my interest. really sad as i’d watch green flag to end of race checkers.
Stage racing and points gives drivers more of a reason to run up front, instead of hanging back coasting until the end. It also gives drivers who ran up front but ended up crashing at the end more points, so their day isn’t completely wasted. I’m not a fan of the cautions though, we all know they’re really just TV timeouts.
Same with the free pass, its a way for a driver who has bad luck during the race and goes a lap down, a way to get back on the lead lap and make up for his misfortune.
With that logic, shouldn’t everyone be entitled to a mulligan if they have some bad luck? Or perhaps some extra points/positions to the drivers that didn’t need a mulligan?
A driver staying on the lead lap all day, running mid-pack, often finishes behind cars that didn’t stay on the lead lap.
How is that fair?
Leaders used to slow down and let lapped cars pass them to get back on the lead lap, before they now freeze the field for a caution. Its not a new thing, its just a different way of doing it.
The leader would often race like hell to the line to keep a good car a lap down. The leader might cut his teammate a break if possible, but never the competition.
I’ve been watching since 2002, so you all have been watching a heck of a lot longer than me, but I distinctly remember the leader slowing down for cautions and letting 1-2 cars pass him and get a lap back. It was a “gentlemen’s agreement.”
Agreed, Kevin. Rarely would the leaders push back to the line when the caution was thrown. It was 100% a gentlemen’s agreement, irrespective of who may or may not get their lap back. Some here have been watching longer than yours truly as well, but I’ve been watching since the early 80’s.
The other piece of that was much of NASCAR’s history, lapped cars would line up beside lead lap cars. This meant not only was it easier to get a lap back then, because the top lapped car was on the front row, but if the leader gave a lapped car a hard time, they had to deal with them being on their door for the next restart.
The leader couldn’t pull over and not lap cars and/or give a lap back unless he had a gap on the field. He wouldn’t be the leader anymore at the start/finish line. The rest of the field had no such agreement.
The field would slow en masse. Generally, those behind the leader would begin slowing first, then the leader. Lapped cars would stay in the throttle, and often a handful would unlap themselves. Go back and watch classic races on YouTube, and they bear out what I recall. Racing to a caution flag was rare.
It makes sense. Would the leader rather have a fast (and annoyed) car beside him on the next restart, or a slower lapped car less likely to get in the way?
This came to a bit of a head when Robby Gordon passed Kevin Harvick for the lead under these circumstances.
I don’t really care to argue about it on Frontstretch, so for those who disagree, that is your right. I’d only recommend watching a few races from the 70’s – early 90’s, to test your theory.
If Richard was leading and Cale was trying to get his lap back there was no way Richard would move over for him. But he would for J.D. McDuffie.
Restarts after TV timeouts have cost a lot of money for the car owners and padded NA$CAR’s bank accounts with the money they get for the repair parts. POINTS can be awarded without throwing a needless caution flag for the network commercials which they would put in even without the caution. The drivers don’t have to wait to the end of the event to start a demo derby. They also take away the strategy planning for a real “race” when they don’t know when a caution will come, especially at road courses.
@anthonydamcott. Best article of the last ten years. Keep telling it like it is!
Much better column this week. This week I like the column but don’t agree with your paint job of the race. No matter the paint job, Ty Gibbs name painted over the door hurts it.
I liked Reddick’s car much better. That team has brought some beauties to the track the first 4 races.
I also agree about the racing. The ridiculousness of the win-and-you’re-in made for some pretty unwatchable (and long) races. The racing Sunday kept me interested when otherwise I would be waiting for the final laps to see who would get punted for the win. Its nice to get back to real racing and not the clown show of the past.
I highly doubt eliminating “win and you’re in” will stop the madness of “the clown show” in regards to restarts and the G-W-C demolition derby driving.
You are probably right, but it least they are using their heads more at the end of races. That late race restart at COTA I was expecting a demo derby to that first corner. Thankfully it was relatively clean. It appears teams/drivers are playing the long game with the new (old?) points system and its turning the end of these races watchable again.