Ryan Blaney won Sunday’s (March 8) Straight Talk Wireless 500 at Phoenix Raceway in the NASCAR Cup Series, holding off Christopher Bell despite a tire deficit in the closing laps.
Blaney passed Ty Gibbs for the lead but had to maintain a gap to Bell, who had four tires to Blaney’s two on the final run of the race.
Blaney restarted fourth on the final restart after a crash with 19 laps to go involving Zane Smith and Ty Dillon brought out the final caution flag of the race.
Bell, Kyle Larson, Gibbs and Denny Hamlin completed the top five.
Bubba Wallace, William Byron, Tyler Reddick, Michael McDowell and Erik Jones rounded out the top 10.
“I mean, just perseverance,” Blaney told FOX Sports 1 post-race. “I mean, everybody on the [No.] 12 group persevered all day. We had a couple mistakes that we learned from, got better, had to come from the back a couple times.
“Obviously the [No.] 20 was the best car. Jonathan [Hassler, crew chief] made a great call to take two [tires]. We were able to get the lead. Hold them off. I don’t know how many more laps I could have held them off.”
Gibbs nearly scored his first career win before the final restart.
“That’s unfortunate,” Gibbs said. “But we’ll keep rolling. I think I could have done some things better there. Yeah, unfortunate there. But very happy with my team. All the guys, I’m with the right guys. That makes a difference. So we’re running good because of that. It shows.
“Really happy with my team, everybody has done a great job, everybody believes in me, we all believe in each other. Happy with that.”
Bell led 176 laps, but did not have enough time to catch Blaney.
“Yeah, I mean, ultimately, if we had more green flag laps, I think we could have made a run at him,” Bell said. “I don’t know. You win some, you lose some. This one stings, but on the positive side I’m really proud of our entire team. The pit crew did amazing. Adam [Stevens, crew chief] brought an amazing car. Our mechanics, engineers did really good.
“It’s something to build on. I don’t know. It was a day that we needed. We got a lot of stage points, finished second. Yeah, just bummed whenever they get away like that.”
Austin Dillon blew a tire with 25 laps to go while running inside the top 10, bringing out the caution.
Chase Briscoe suffered a flat tire while running third in stage two and was the first car out of the race, finishing 37th.
The biggest accident of the race saw Joey Logano get into Ross Chastain with 80 laps to go, which led to Chastain hitting Anthony Alfredo and Austin Cindric. All three drivers were knocked out of the race.
With 59 laps to go, Logano spun off the bumper of AJ Allmendinger and slid up the track in turn 3, collecting Daniel Suarez and Josh Berry.
Noah Gragson brought out a caution flag in stage two for a blown brake rotor. The debris from Gragson’s incident caused Connor Zilisch, Byron and McDowell to also suffer flat tires.
Kyle Busch suffered two flat tires, while Shane van Gisbergen spun twice.
Phoenix Cup Results
The Cup Series will head to Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 15. The Pennzoil 400 will begin at 4 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1.
A member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA), Samuel also covers NASCAR for Yardbarker, Field Level Media, and Heavy Sports. He will attend the University of Arkansas in the fall of 2025.
So shouldn’t the racing world be in an uproar after the race today? All the complaining about Hocevar, not a peep today when both Stenhouse and Logano looked like clowns, causing multiple wrecks. And the second time this season Logano has turned directly into someone causing a wreck and then blamed his spotter. I hope his best friend spotter whips his @ss.