Bubba Wallace was devastated after the Freeway Insurance 500 at Phoenix Raceway, and not even crew chief Charles Denike’s consoling talk could help as the 23XI Racing driver sat on the pit wall, his head in his hands.
Wallace’s strong Toyota was leading when Kyle Larson’s Chevrolet hit the first-turn wall on lap 284. He pitted for four tires, but then his victory hopes evaporated when he was assessed a pit road speeding penalty on lap 285. Instead of restarting up front, Wallace, who led 52 laps in the 312-lap event, had to restart 24th with 18 laps remaining.
“Our team is so good at finding all the gray areas to operate in and find our limits, and I think I exposed it a little bit too much around the corner (on pit road),
a dejected Wallace said. “Corner pitting is really, really tough to see with just the lack of visibility that you have. You’re trying… not to run through too many boxes, but also not give up too much time because you can if you do speed up through those sections. You’ve got to remember when you speed up, you can’t cut too much distance. When you cut too much distance and speed up, it adds to a speeding penalty.
“I hate it for our team. This 23 group has worked so hard all year long and no results to show for it, or we come up just short. It’s frustrating. … I just can’t seem to close the deal.”
Blaney Falls Short of Third Straight Phoenix Victory
Ryan Blaney fell 0.801-second short of his third straight victory at Phoenix Raceway, saying he needed maybe seven more laps to catch winner Tyler Reddick.
“I wish I would have found the top of (turns) three and four a little earlier,” said Blaney, who started from the pole. “That seemed to be working pretty good, but he (Reddick) just got away a little bit there. It took me a second to get to second, but then we kind of stabilized for a long time and at the very end I started to make a little ground, but it was just a little bit too late.”
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Ryan Blaney leading a pack.
Blaney noted there were “a lot of different strategies” in the 312-lap race.
“My guys did a good job of staying on top of it and just trying to work it out and figure a way to get better,” Blaney said. “It was definitely a tough race.
Bell Closes Within 5 Points
A week after Christopher Bell said he would have to win to contend for the NASCAR Cup championship, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver finds himself within five points of taking the standings lead with three races remaining in the season.
Bell was the Freeway Insurance 500’s top lap leader, setting the pace on two occasions for 85 laps in the 312-lap event, before settling for a fourth-place finish to winner Tyler Reddick. He also recorded the second-most Stage points in the event on the one-mile track.
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Christopher Bell leaving the pits.
“It’s going to be a battle, that’s for sure,” Bell said about the title Chase. “We’re right there in it. We’ve been able to qualify well and run up front in Stages.
“I felt like our performance probably tapered off a little bit as the day went on.”
Bell now has five top-10 finishes, including four top-fives and a victory, in the Chase’s first seven races.
A Good and Bad Day for Logano
Joey Logano salvaged a sixth-place finish in the 312-lap Phoenix race that the Team Penske driver described as good and bad.
On the good side, Logano led five times for 84 laps, just one circuit less than top lap-leader Christopher Bell, and won the first two Stages, but then Logano’s Ford developed an alternator problem with 56 laps remaining.
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Joey Logano in the pits.
“The bad part is we gave away a win,” Logano said. “That part hurts a little bit, but I guess we made up close to 50 points to the leader, so you can’t be too mad about it. We’re more optimistic than we were coming in.”
Hamlin Gains Points Despite Dismal Finish
Denny Hamlin entered Phoenix Raceway’s Freeway Insurance 500 second in the standings, 49 points behind leader Kyle Larson. His 28th-place finish dropped him to fourth in the standings, but now he’s 31 points out of the lead due to Larson’s 34th-place finish.
Hamlin acquired Stage points, finishing second in Stage one and eighth in Stage two. He was fifth when the final Stage started, but then with 92 laps remaining in the 312-lap event, his race soured. Hamlin had a right-rear tire go flat on his Toyota. Even though he made it to pit road without hitting the wall, he was assessed a pit road speeding penalty.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver said he didn’t have any warning that his tire was going down.
“Just a corner before I felt the car bottom out,” Hamlin said. “I knew at that point (I) definitely had a tire (down). At that point, trying to hang on and somehow try to get to pit road. Obviously, had no idea where I was on speed with the right-rear tire on it.”
Hamlin was dueling teammate Chase Briscoe for third when he had the tire issue.
“Definitely not ideal, but what can you do?” a dejected Hamlin asked.
Elliott Secures First Top 5 Since August
Chase Elliott has experienced a dismal Chase this season, but at Phoenix he secured a third-place finish, his first top five since August at Richmond.
Elliott restarted second at the end of the final caution period and lost only one position before the checkered flag waved, a finish that surprised him because he received two scuffed tires on his final stop.
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“That didn’t really do a whole lot for me in my head at that point in time,” Elliott said about crew chief Alan Gustafson’s call. “I thought that maybe if we could get a couple rows of a buffer we’d by OK. But I’m really proud of this… team for putting together a solid day. It’s been a while since we’ve had one, so that was nice. We made some legitimate improvements, I thought, which was encouraging.
“The No. 45 (Tyler Reddick) got me there through (turns) one and two on the restart, but to settle in and be able to hold the rest of those guys off, I thought it was solid.”
A North Carolina native, Deb Williams is an award-winning motorsports journalist who is in her fourth decade covering auto racing. In addition to covering the sport for United Press International, she has written motorsports articles for several newspapers, magazines and websites including espnW.com, USA Today, and The Charlotte Observer. Her awards include the American Motorsports Media Award of Excellence, two-time National Motorsports Press Association writer of the year, and two-time recipient of the Russ Catlin award. She also has won an award in the North Carolina Press Association’s sports feature category. During her career, Deb has been managing editor of GT Motorsports magazine and was with Winston Cup Scene and NASCAR Winston Cup Scene for 18 years, serving as the publication’s editor for 10 years. In 2024 she was inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame.