After two Superspeedway races and a road course, NASCAR is ready to go to one of its staple oval race tracks. But is Phoenix Raceway truly a staple? The 1-mile track neither fits with the traditional short tracks nor does it fit with the intermediate tracks. But it’s always high-speed racing action there. Folks, it’s the fourth race of the season and one NASCAR veteran thinks this race is more crucial than most drivers and teams seem to realize. And he reminds them to watch out for competition, because he believes Phoenix gives a trailer of the whole season. Who is this gentleman?
But even drivers know this and take advantage of it. Out of the big three, Team Penske is yet to find its winning form. And there’s a possibility that Roger Penske‘s men might not push it too hard at Phoenix and hold back and unleash later on. They could use it as a bluff. By deliberately underperforming at Phoenix to keep their expectations low.
Baam! Only to catch everyone off guard later in the season. That’s what happened last year. That’s how you had a driver with only four top 5s in the regular season be crowned champion. Will they pull that off?
Will Roger Penske’s team repeat 2024?
Folks, ahead of the race, NASCAR veteran Kyle Petty, has made a revelation. Taking about how to race at Phoenix. Petty on PRN live said, “Phoenix is the grind race. It’s that race that you got to get back to doing your nuts and bolts. Your fundamental. You gotta make it a turn. You got to make it come up off the corner. You gotta do the basic things that you have to do that the other 28 or 27 races that are like this.
Coming t0 how this is the time for teams, he said, “I think this is for the teams, when the real engineering hits the road. When the real drives hit the road. When the real cars hit the road. And they understand who they are gonna have to compete against this year. At least in the early part of the year.”
Well, if we look at last year’s spring race at Phoenix, The No. 20 Car Christopher Bell took the checkered flag. And Team Penske’s two top dogs, No. 12 car, Ryan Blaney ended in P5 and No. 22 car, Joey Logano got a DNF. If we go by Petty’s logic, Roger Penske’s team should have ideally had a decent season based on that. However, instead, they had a championship-winning season. And Ryan Blaney finished P2 behind his teammate in the final season standings.
How Penske was in the regular season and how they raced in the playoffs was completely different. So we don’t know if Petty’s logic actually works. But what if the Phoenix spring race was all a carefully planned performance by Team Penske? And not just Phoenix, maybe the whole regular season was a bluff.
In 2024, the first race Penske won was when Joey Logano took the checkered flag at the North Wilkesboro All-star race. But that did not count, it being an all-start race. However first points race win was Austin Cindric’s World Wide Technology Raceway. Followed by Blaney’s win at Iowa and then Logano’s first points win came in Nashville.
And team Penske’s final win of the regular season came when Blaney won Pocono. This was still a decent season, all three drivers of Roger Penske got in. But still, going by Petty’s logic, after Phoenix, JGR and HMS seemed like the front runners for the championship and not Penske.
Even 23XI racing looked like they could win since Tyler Reddick won the regular season championship. But everything changed then. Logano and Blaney got wins at the right time in the playoffs. When Logano won Las Vegas and Blaney won Martinsville.
So, the point is that don’t count them out if they have a bad day at Phoenix. And if No.20 car, Bell wins again this year, it doesn’t mean he would make the final 4 in 2025. The only thing that can be accurately judged from teams Phoenix’s performance is their drivers’ race prowess when they navigate that tricky dogleg at the track. The ones who can successfully master that they have what it takes to dominate on ovals.
Anyway, time will tell who’d take the checkered flag at the Shriners Children’s 500. But for now the defending champion of the race is all pumped up.
Can Joey Logano win Phoenix?
The last time the #22 driver was here, he took home a championship. And he looks to still be in the same mood ahead of the race. In the pre-race press conference, Joey Logano said, “Yeah, lots of good memories here. It is cool being back for sure. Even going out there earlier and seeing the wall with the sticker on it, because we won this thing last time. But getting right back on track he said, “You gotta keep moving forward. I mean, it’s still fun to reminisce a little bit, but you gotta stay on the windshield.
Furthermore, Logano has a solid track record at Phoenix, with four career wins at the track. However, like last year, Christopher Bell is a major threat this time too. The #20 is looking to make it 3 out of 3 in his campaign. However, Logano believes it will finally boil down to who did the most work in the off-season.
“You know how racing is, there’s a million different variables out there that are always floating around. What do teams do over the off-season to find just overall gains, right? This will be a good measure to see, did we work hard enough over the off-season or did everyone else catch us?” Logano added.
Also, it will depend on the tire strategy. Like the 2024 Richmond Summer Race, teams will be given 6 sets of primary tires and 2 sets of option tires. The team who nails their usage would win the race. And if you remember the Richmond race, the #22 team did nail it. In fact Joey Logano almost won the race, before Austin Dillon spun him at the very last moment. Maybe this time Logano can finish the job.
What do you think? Can Joey Logano win at Phoenix? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.
The post Roger Penske and His Men Could Potentially Fool the Grid as Veteran Breaks the Reality of Phoenix appeared first on EssentiallySports.
