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  • Byron Punches Title Ticket with Win at Phoenix

    Byron Punches Title Ticket with Win at Phoenix

    Despite a last-minute rag-tag pit crew, due to extraneous circumstances, William Byron took advantage of a late caution to exit pit road ahead of the dominant driver of the race and drove on to win the NASCAR XFINITY Series Ticket Galaxy 200 at Phoenix Raceway.

    The day for JR Motorsports hit a potential speed bump when news broke that the charter plane carrying Hendrick Motorsports’ Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series pit crews, who also pit the JRM cars, made an emergency landing in Little Rock, Arkansas due to electric problems. HMS dispatched a plane from Phoenix to pickup the crew in Arkansas, but the six-hour round trip meant the crew wouldn’t make it in time.

    While the makeshift crews the three JRM Playoff teams used lost some spots on pit road throughout the day, they got Byron, who took just right-side tires and fuel, out first.

    “We grinded all day. Great job by this team to make that pit call by Dave (Elenz). It’s awesome man. We’re ready to go to Homestead.”

    On the final restart with 13 to go, he set sail going into Turn 1 and drove on to his fourth career victory in 32 XFINITY Series starts.

    Ryan Blaney finished second and Erik Jones rounded out the podium.

    Christopher Bell and Daniel Hemric rounded out the top-five.

    Blake Koch, Cole Custer, Alex Bowman, Austin Dillon and Justin Allgaier rounded out the top-10.

    RACE SUMMARY

    Jones led the field to green at 3:47 p.m. and led the first 34 laps, before Blaney drove under him in Turn 4 and edged him out at the line to take the lead on Lap 35. Jones responded the following lap by powering right outside him exiting Turn 4 to retake the lead.

    Blaney took it for good on Lap 39 entering Turn 3 and drove on to win the first and second stages.

    Brendan Gaughan’s wreck with 20 laps to go setup the run to the finish.

    CAUTION SUMMATION

    Caution flew for the first time on the first lap when Gaughan got loose and spun out in Turn 4, as did Corey LaJoie (unrelated). Caution flew for the second time on Lap 24 when Caesar Bacarella made contact Brennan Poole and Poole veered up into the outside wall in Turn 1. The end of the first stage on Lap 60 brought out the third caution. The conclusion of the second stage brought out the fourth caution on Lap 120. The fifth and final caution flew when Guaghan got loose and slammed the outside wall on the exit of Turn 4.

    NUTS & BOLTS

    The race lasted one hour, 54 minutes and 33 seconds, at an average speed of 104.758 mph. There were four lead changes among three drivers and five cautions for 26 laps.

    Byron, Justin Allgaier, Elliott Sadler and Daniel Hemric advance to the Championship 4 round to race for the XFINITY Series championship next week at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

    [pdf-embedder url=”http://www.speedwaymedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/N1732_UNOFFRES.pdf”]

  • Early Wreck at Phoenix Finishes Poole’s Playoff Run

    Early Wreck at Phoenix Finishes Poole’s Playoff Run

    Brennan Poole’s run at a championship in the 2017 NASCAR XFINITY Series season ended in the garage after slamming the wall twice in the Ticket Galaxy 200 at Phoenix Raceway.

    Poole attempted to drive under the lapped car of Caesar Bacarella entering Turn 1 on Lap 23. Sandwiched between Cole Custer and Poole, and not knowing Poole was passing him, Bacarella turned down into the side of Poole.

    The contact cut Poole’s right-front tire and he veered hard into the outside wall.

    “I saw the 8 car go in, and we were going to kind of go to the top to go around him, and he slid up….I didn’t know really what was going to happen there,” Poole said. “So I tried to go underneath him, and we made a little contact and cut the right-front tire down. Bad luck, bad circumstances. I guess I could’ve been a little bit more cautious there. But we were just trying to get up there and get stage points and keep moving forward. Our car was actually pretty good. It’s just a bummer. I don’t know what else to say. Sometimes, lapped cars are in your way. You got to navigate around them and we just didn’t make that happen.”

    Poole’s team fixed up the car enough to send him back out just before time expired on the five-minute repair clock, but he slammed the wall exiting Turn 4, took his car to the garage and retired from the race with a 38th-place finish.

    “You’re just trying to salvage everything that you can, try to hope for the best,” Poole added. “It just cut the right-front tire down again. We put another tire on it and went into the wall again. Our car is pretty torn up and ended our championship hopes.”

    He leaves Phoenix sixth in points.

  • Harvick Fastest in Final Practice at Phoenix

    Harvick Fastest in Final Practice at Phoenix

    Kevin Harvick topped the chart in final Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Phoenix Raceway.

    The driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford was the fastest with a time of 26.672 and a speed of 134.973 mph. Kyle Busch was second in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with a time of 26.799 and a speed of 134.333 mph. Kasey Kahne was third in his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet with a time of 28.800 and a speed of 134.328 mph. Martin Truex Jr. was fourth in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota with a time of 26.803 and a speed of 134.313 mph. Clint Bowyer rounded out the top-five in his No. 14 SHR Ford with a time of 26.813 and a speed of 134.263 mph.

    Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney rounded out the top-10.

    Chase Elliott rounded out the Playoff drivers in 17th.

    Johnson posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 133.549 mph.

    Second Practice Results

    First Practice Results

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  • Harvick Fastest at Phoenix in Second Practice

    Harvick Fastest at Phoenix in Second Practice

    Kevin Harvick topped the chart in second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Phoenix Raceway.

    The driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford was the fastest with a time of 26.800 and a speed of 134.328 mph. Chase Elliott was second in his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet with a time of 26.833 and a speed of 134.163 mph. Kasey Kahne was third in his No. 5 Hendrick Chevrolet with a time of 26.849 and a speed of 134.083 mph. Martin Truex Jr. was fourth in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota with a time of 26.854 and a speed of 134.058 mph. Denny Hamlin rounded out the top-five in his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with a time of 26.879 and a speed of 133.934 mph.

    Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Clint Bowyer, Kurt Busch and Kyle Larson rounded out the top-five.

    Jimmie Johnson was 14th, Ryan Blaney was 20th and Brad Keselowski rounded out the Playoff drivers in 21st.

    Erik Jones, who posted the 13th-fastest single-lap, posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 133.060 mph.

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  • Late Wreck Ends Rhodes’ Title Run

    Late Wreck Ends Rhodes’ Title Run

    Ben Rhodes’ Playoff run came to an end late Friday night when he got turned into the wall, and a teammate, in the closing laps of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Lucas Oil 150 at Phoenix Raceway.

    Restarting with 20 laps to go, Austin Cindric, who lined up behind Rhodes on the restart, dove under Rhodes to get the — while shallow, less than ideal entry — preferred groove through Turn 1. Rhodes moved down to block, came across Cindric’s nose and turned head-on into the inside wall. The impact lifted the right-side of his truck off the ground for a second, before landing on all four’s.

    Rhodes’ lifeless truck spun up towards the track and into the path of teammate Matt Crafton, sending them both head-on into the outside wall in Turn 1.

    The trucks rolls a few more yards, before coming to a stop in the middle of Turn 1.

    This brought out the fourth caution of the night, as well as a 17-minute, seven-second red flag for cleanup.

    “He put me in a bad place and (I was) trying to do everything I could to keep the spot, but once you file into Turn 1, we were all going to wreck. I’m not sure that was the right move on his part. I did everything I could to just make sure we were having a good day. We were in front of him all day long. We were going to be into the final four. I don’t know. It looked like a desperation move to me, because there’s so much racing left to do. I guess if I was in his position, I mean can’t blame him. But it’s definitely not the move I would’ve liked to see this early in the race. There’s so much to go on. The line in front of me started checking up. I could’ve done the same thing, but you have to be smart on the restarts, especially when you have, what, 70 laps to go, still?”

    Cindric, after the race, said the incident was merely “two guys racing for the same amount of real estate.”

    The wreck relegated Rhodes to a 20th-place finish. He leaves Phoenix fifth in points.

  • NASCAR Racing Schedule for Phoenix

    NASCAR Racing Schedule for Phoenix

  • Blaney Takes Pole Position at Phoenix

    Blaney Takes Pole Position at Phoenix

    Ryan Blaney will lead the field to the green flag on Sunday after winning the pole for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Can-Am 500 at Phoenix Raceway.

    The driver of the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford posted the fastest time in the final round of qualifying with a time of 26.098 and a speed of 137.942 mph.

    “It was a good run for us. We got better each round. Honestly, I didn’t think it was going to be enough. I didn’t think I got the best lap out there. I tried to get more the second lap and I messed up. Really cool, we started second here in the spring race. It’s nice to be on the pole here. This is cool. Sitting on the pole at a short track. I never would’ve thought I’d be doing that. Can’t thank SKF and Quicklane enough. Motorcraft for what they do. A good start to the weekend. Hopefully, we can just keep it going.”

    It’s his second pole in 89-career starts.

    Denny Hamlin will start second with a time of 26.099 and a speed of 137.936 mph. Kyle Larson will start third with a time of 26.101 and a speed of 137.926 mph. Chase Elliott will start fourth with a time of 26.155 and a speed of 137.641 mph. Martin Truex Jr. will round out the top-five starters with a time of 26.166 and a speed of 137.583 mph.

    Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano and Daniel Suarez will round out the top-10 starters.

    Erik Jones and Jimmie Johnson will round out the 12 drivers that made the final round of qualifying.

    With 40 drivers entered, none failed to make the race.

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  • Phoenix is Do or Die for Johnson

    Phoenix is Do or Die for Johnson

    While Jimmie Johnson can mathematically point his way into the championship round, this weekend’s Can-Am 500 at Phoenix Raceway is realistically a must-win scenario.

    He currently sits 49-points behind Brad Keselowski for the final spot in the Championship 4 round in next week’s Ford Ecoboost 400. He books his ticket with a win or if Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr. or a non-Playoff driver wins, and gets help.

    “It’s a pretty easy approach for us. We’re in a must-win-situation,” he said. “We wish we were in a better points scenario, but that’s not the case. This team thrives on pressure and adversity and we’re certainly in the position right now.”

    Johnson, who’s famously made the Playoffs his sandbox over the last 14 years, has been mediocre through the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.

    He started out with two top-10 finishes in the Round of 16, and posted his first top-five since his win at Dover International Speedway back in June. But in the five races since, he’s scored only one top-10 finish.

    “At the end of the day chasing speed is really the culprit,” he said. “And I feel that next year we’ll be in a much better position with the Camaro body on the race car. So, you start making decisions late spring and early summer, trying to extract speed out of the cars. And that doesn’t always make them comfortable to drive. So, it’s hard to say it’s just one thing, but the start of the process is just trying to make our cars faster. And, at times we’ve not made the best decisions and have made them very hard to drive. I think Texas was an example of that and also Kansas. We spun twice there. So, it’s just trying to make the cars faster.”

    Johnson’s run through the Round of 8 has been a microcosm of his season. To quote Motor Racing Network turn announcer Dave Moody, “I can’t remember a time at Martinsville when Jimmie Johnson had absolutely no problems whatsoever, and still ran around 18th.”

    He was an absolute non-factor, despite no problems all day. The following week at Texas, he made an unscheduled stop for a vibration and they never recovered, finishing 27th.

    So what does Johnson and his team do now, throw out the notebook and try something new?

    “Everything has been tried at this point,” he said. “I think we have to make decisions once we get on track this morning and see where that set-up leads us and if we’re ahead on speed, then we stay tight to that set-up. If we’re not where we need to be, we throw it all out. We can’t leave any questions on the table going into Saturday night. We need to try all variations of set-ups and try anything and everything we can today and tomorrow to get that car right.”

    With the Sun setting on the 2017 season, the championship hopes of Mr. Seven-Time might see an early curtain call.

  • Elliott Fastest in First Practice at Phoenix

    Elliott Fastest in First Practice at Phoenix

    Chase Elliott posted the fastest time in first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Phoenix Raceway.

    The driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was the fastest with a time of 26.207 and a speed of 137.368 mph. Martin Truex Jr. was second in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota with a time of 26.231 and a speed of 137.242 mph. Denny Hamlin was third in his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with a time of 26.288 and a speed of 136.945 mph. Kyle Busch was fourth in his No. 18 Gibbs Toyota with a time of 26.301 and a speed of 136.877 mph. Ryan Blaney rounded out the top-five in his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford with a time of 26.303 and a speed of 136.867 mph.

    Matt Kenseth, Jamie McMurray, Jimmie Johnson, Joey Logano and Kyle Larson rounded out the top-10.

    Kevin Harvick was 11th and Brad Keselowski rounded out the Playoff drivers in 17th.

    Hamlin posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 132.831 mph.

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  • Joey Logano Nabs Coors Light Pole at Phoenix

    Joey Logano Nabs Coors Light Pole at Phoenix

    By Staff report | NASCAR.com

    Joey Logano launched his way to the top of the heap in Coors Light Pole Qualifying on Friday at Phoenix Raceway, claiming the first starting spot for Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series event.

    Logano drove the Team Penske No. 22 Ford to a best lap of 137.321 mph in the last of three rounds of qualifying on the 1-mile track. The pole award was Logano’s first of the season, first at the Arizona oval and the 18th of his Monster Energy Series career. Joey Logano is the most recent winner at the 1-mile track, prevailing in the desert last November.

    Ryan Blaney will share the front row for Sunday’s Camping World 500 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM), the second event in the three-race NASCAR Goes West swing. He powered the Wood Brothers Racing No. 21 Ford to the second-fastest lap of the final qualifying session at 136.877 mph.

    Dale Earnhardt Jr. will start third in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet after a lap of 136.783 mph. Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Kyle Larson (136.654 mph) and Jamie McMurray (136.302) completed the top five.

    Kyle Busch, who won the pole for Phoenix’s March date last year, landed the ninth-fastest lap in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota.

    Kevin Harvick, the defending race winner with eight Phoenix victories in his career, was just 23rd-fastest in the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Ford. Martin Truex Jr., last week’s winner at Las Vegas, was 16th-fastest in the Furniture Row Racing No. 78 Toyota. Both drivers were unable to make the 12-driver cut for the final round of qualifying.

    A pair of practice sessions are on tap for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series on Saturday, the final prep for Sunday’s 312-mile main event.

    Qualifying results