1. The Desert Double Should Be an Ongoing Thing
“Who says no?”
That sentiment is often presented on social media in sarcastic fashion, like when someone jokingly proposes a lopsided sports trade. But it was the first thing on my mind by the end of the weekend when thinking about whether NASCAR and IndyCar should run it back for a shared Phoenix Raceway weekend next season.
From the perspective of this viewer, everything about the Desert Double, as smartly marketed by FOX, turned out nicely. All three races — the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and NASCAR Cup Series for NASCAR, plus the NTT IndyCar Series event — were entertaining. The stands looked very full throughout the weekend, and drivers from both series were seen mingling in the other’s pits.
At the most basic level, NASCAR and IndyCar are competitors, vying for time, attention and money from spectators who have an ever-increasing number of options to spend all of those resources elsewhere. That’s true even for broadcast partner FOX, which carries the entire IndyCar season but actually goes up against Cup Series events later in the year.
What Phoenix proved is that even despite those realities, the U.S. racing scene doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game. Maybe it is as simple as ensuring that NASCAR and IndyCar are scheduled to run the same track on the same weekend if they’re going to be there anyway, because doing so is good for the fans and the teams.
The early buzz is that interest is there in making the Phoenix stop a shared weekend again in 2027. So again, who says no? It’s hard to imagine anyone would in the afterglow of this success.
2. Chase Briscoe Picked the Wrong Year to Have the Worst Luck
Chase Briscoe authored one of the most feel-good stories in NASCAR last season, taking an opportunity with Joe Gibbs Racing and immediately leveling up to win three times and make it all the way to the Championship 4. The assumption was that he’d be a contender again in 2026, and he definitely has the speed to back it up, currently sitting fifth in the Cup Series in laps led after four races.
As for the results … well, that’s an entirely different story. Briscoe came home second at EchoPark Speedway but has an average finish of 36.7 in the other three races, which is close to literally as bad as possible. Whether it’s tire or transaxle failures or getting swept up in wrecks, very little has gone right for the No. 19 team.
It’s perhaps cruel, then, that their horrible luck is potentially going to be compounded by terrible timing. If the NASCAR playoffs were still in effect, Briscoe could simply grab a win or two and leave the early season scaries behind him.
That’s not so simple with The Chase’s rebirth. Briscoe is currently 33rd in points, incredibly trailing the likes of Cody Ware. The system now in place means he’ll have to climb his way out of this hole week by week. Even though he’s got the car and team to do it, he’d be forgiven for silently wishing the playoffs never went away.
3. Of Course, It Could Be Even Worse for Briscoe — He Could Be Driving a Chevy
On one hand, things haven’t been that bad for the Chevrolet camp through the first four weeks of the 2026 season. Carson Hocevar has looked racy, Michael McDowell has been one of the early pleasant surprises and Shane van Gisbergen appears to have upped his oval game. Chase Elliott is fourth in points, and Kyle Larson did what he always does at Phoenix and turned a not-so-great car into a top-five result.
Look a little closer and you’ll see a bit more weakness. One number in particular stands out: At Phoenix, a race widely seen as the start of the “real” NASCAR season following two drafting tracks and a road course, Chevrolet drivers combined to lead one lap. That’s right, one.
As long as we’re talking about the loneliest number, we should also remember that one race is the smallest of sample sizes. Larson even mentioned during his post-race Phoenix comments that he couldn’t wait to get to Las Vegas Motor Speedway and see what they had on a mile-and-a-half track.
Which is all well and good, unless the Chevy gang looks a step off the pace there too. Maybe we should mark the Texas Motor Speedway race on May 3 for another check-in, because we’ll have several intermediates to review by then and thus, a much better idea of whether one manufacturer really is behind the others this season.
4. Where Are We on the Kyle Busch Watch Now?
A total of 25 drivers have at least one top-10 finish in the Cup Series this season. Kyle Busch is not one of them.
That’s significant because Busch and his No. 8 team passed the vibe check ahead of the Daytona 500, where they sat on the pole and created a definite feeling that maybe they’d break a long winless streak sometime soon. Instead, Busch has now gone 94 starts without visiting victory lane, and his performances would lead one to expect that number may make it to triple digits this spring.
Because he’ll turn 41 in a few months, Busch can’t completely escape the theory that maybe the fork has just found his back. But it didn’t look that way a few weeks ago at Atlanta, where he made a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series start and did what he’s done more often than anyone ever, claiming another victory.
What’s fair to question is Busch’s future. Richard Childress Racing said it signed him to a contract extension that runs only through the 2026 season. The organization has two very viable Cup candidates in Jesse Love and Austin Hill, and might end up losing them if it doesn’t make a seat available.
Considering Busch has to be beyond frustrated, maybe he won’t even mind if the vacant one is his. There aren’t many legitimately mutual partings in NASCAR, but if nothing turns around for Busch soon, the ingredients will all be there for one between him and RCR this fall.
5. The Glass-Half-Full Way of Looking at Cleetus McFarland and Squirrel McNutt
Move over Cleetus McFarland, and make way for Squirrel McNutt.
McFarland (real name: Garrett Mitchell) actually doesn’t have to move because he knows the incoming driver very well. McNutt (real name: George Siciliano) will make his ARCA Menards Series East debut in a few weeks, potentially paving the way for ARCA Menards Series starts at Kansas Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway. That’s if NASCAR approves him, but given the way it’s treated McFarland so far, that feels likely if not quite inevitable.
If you could visit the Frontstretch Slack channels, you would find that there are plenty of takes about whether McFarland and McNutt should be allowed to drive in NASCAR races yet or if they are being fast-tracked because of their online fame. That debate is understandable.
There’s also a lot of hand-wringing among NASCAR fans (and yes, some of my colleagues) about each driver using a nom de plume instead of their real name. The NFL would never, after all.
(The O.G. XFL most certainly would.)
The place I’ve landed recently, though, is that maybe that’s the point. NASCAR has cast a longing glance at other sports for far too long, trying to model its season after its stick-and-ball brethren. That finally got corrected with The Chase, and the overall theme for 2026 is stock car racing embracing what makes it unique.
Allowing drivers to compete under stage names might not be everyone’s first choice for self-expression, but it’s not hurting anyone, and it does help NASCAR stand out. Until Disney sponsors a car and asks that the driver be officially referred to as Lightning McQueen, consider me on board.
I can’t help but feel that Briscoe will climb his way back. He’s too fast to be mired down there. His luck has to turn.
As for the boys with “cute” names, I think they are novelties that will fade away.
Yeah. Briscoe has been the most snakebitten driver so far. His luck will turn around soon. The #19 team is too good to have this awful luck keep them down.
I’d say it was Alex Bowman.
I remember NASCAR not letting Brenden “Butterbean” Queen use his nickname in the truck series. I wonder what changed.