Skip to content

In the Know – Phoenix

In The Know – Phoenix

We’re ready to bring the heat to Phoenix. Below is everything you need to know about SHR storylines and how to catch all the racing action in the desert this weekend.

The Details

NASCAR Cup Series Overview

●  Event:  Ruoff Mortgage 500k (Round 4 of 36)
●  Time/Date:  3:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, March 13
●  Location:  Phoenix Raceway
●  Layout:  1-mile oval
●  Laps/Miles:  312 laps/312 miles (502 kilometers)
●  Stage Lengths:  Stage 1: 60 laps / Stage 2: 125 laps / Final Stage: 127 laps
●  TV/Radio:  FOX / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

The Broadcast Schedule

Take in all the racing action from Phoenix. From practice and qualifying to the grand finale on Sunday,  there is plenty of racing action to catch.


SHR FAST FACTS

Kevin Harvick:
Who owns Phoenix Raceway? NASCAR or Kevin Harvick? NASCAR owns the facility, at least on paper, but Harvick owns the track. The driver of the No. 4 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) has won a record nine NASCAR Cup Series races at the 1-mile oval. No other active Cup Series driver has won more than three races at Phoenix. Former Cup Series driver Jimmie Johnson is the closest to Harvick with four wins at the track.

Harvick hasn’t finished outside the top-10 in his last 17 starts at Phoenix. The last time he finished outside the top-10 was March 3, 2013 when he finished 13th. That was nearly 10 years ago when the San Francisco Giants were the reigning World Series champions, the Baltimore Ravens were just a month removed from winning Super Bowl XLVII, the Miami Heat were marching toward their second straight NBA championship, and the Chicago Blackhawks were on their way to hoisting the Stanley Cup. Kyle Larson, the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion, still wasn’t old enough to enjoy a Busch Light, and Austin Cindric, winner of this year’s Daytona 500, was in eighth grade.

Of Harvick’s nine NASCAR Cup Series victories at Phoenix, he won four straight between November 2013 and March 2015. The streak ended when Harvick finished second at Phoenix in November 2015, but when the series returned to the track in March 2016, Harvick won again. Harvick is the only driver to win four Cup Series races in a row at Phoenix. Johnson was next best with three straight wins between November 2007 and November 2008. Only five drivers have won consecutive Cup Series races at Phoenix, but Harvick is the only driver to win consecutive races twice, as he also swept both races in 2006.

In 38 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Phoenix, Harvick has earned an average finish of 8.8, the best of any active Cup Series driver. Denny Hamlin is next best with an average finish of 10.5 over 33 Cup Series starts.

Aric Almirola:
Almirola is the only NASCAR Cup Series driver with three consecutive top-10 finishes in the first three races of the season. He finished fifth in the season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, sixth at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, and sixth at Las Vegas Motor Speedway – making it Almirola’s best season through three races in 10 fulltime Cup Series seasons.

Almirola’s average finish of 5.7 through the first three races tops all drivers this season. His average finish is even more impressive in light of the No. 10 team’s average starting position of 29.7, which ranks 34th in the series.

History at Phoenix Raceway: Phoenix is the track where Almirola has arguably been most consistent in recent years. In his last eight starts there, he has earned five top-10 finishes – two of those being top-fours. He’s also led 33 laps at the mile oval. His most recent finish was sixth at the 2021 season finale on Nov. 7.

Chase Briscoe:
Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), makes his third Phoenix start in the NASCAR Cup Series during Sunday’s Ruoff Mortgage 500. In the previous two, Briscoe has a best finish of 22nd earned last March. An accident on lap 153 in the season finale last November brought an early end to the rookie’s day and relegated the No. 14 team to a 35th-place finish.

The 2021 Cup Series Rookie of the Year has one top-five so far this year, a series-best finish earned in the season-opening Daytona 500. Just last weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Briscoe earned his best Cup Series qualifying effort after placing the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford fourth on the grid for Sunday’s race. He ran as high as third and scored three bonus points with his eighth-place finish in the first stage before a series of incidents caused damage that brought his day to an early end.

Through the first three races of 2022, Briscoe has an average starting position of 12.3 and average finish of 18, compared to an average start of 26th and finish of 23rd in as many races last season. In 2021, he led a total of 18 laps, which he has already bested with a total of 20 laps led following last weekend’s race at Las Vegas. Briscoe sits 14th in the driver standings, 39 points behind the leader.

Cole Custer:
Sunday’s Ruoff Mortgage 500k at Phoenix Raceway marks the 79th NASCAR Cup Series start of Cole Custer’s career and takes him to the track where he scored his first of nine career Cup Series top-10s.

That March 2020 race on the desert mile oval was just the seventh career Cup Series start for the driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) and it resulted in a ninth-place finish from the 38th starting position. He followed it up with another near-top-10 in the 2020 season finale at Phoenix that capped his Cup Series Rookie of the Year season. But that top-10 bid was derailed by an unscheduled pit stop to replace a loose wheel during the final stage. Custer finished 13th at Phoenix in last year’s Cup Series finale.

In six NASCAR Xfinity Series outings at Phoenix from 2017 through 2019, all behind the wheel of the No. 00 SHR Ford, Custer started in the top-four and finished in the top-eight in each of the last five, with a best result of second from the second starting position in the November 2018 race. He finished .810 of a second behind Justin Allgaier in that race after recording four of his six career Xfinity Series laps led at Phoenix.

OUR WEEKLY WRAPS

We’ve got hot schemes headed to Pheonix. Check out our weekly wraps.

What Our Drivers are Saying:

Kevin Harvick, Driver of the No. 4 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

You have nine wins at Phoenix, with the last one coming in March 2018. And even when the track was repaved and the start-finish line was moved to the dogleg, you’ve never finished outside the top-10. How different is the new layout compared to the old layout and what have you done to adapt?
“When they moved the start-finish line, there was nothing really different, other than the restart. The restarts have become much more exciting because of the fact that you can use the apron and everything that happens going into what is now turn one. So, the restarts are the biggest difference since they moved the start-finish line. This configuration of racetrack is much different than what we had in the late ’90s, early 2000s. That track used to be very low on grip, and this one’s become lower on grip and now, with the resin that they add on the racetrack, you have to kind of adapt just because of the fact that you never know what the grip level is going to be. The resin and the start-finish line have added a couple of different elements to it that we didn’t have in the past.”

Aric Almirola, Driver of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

What’s the most important thing to be successful at Phoenix?
“You have to have everything at Phoenix. You have to have downforce, grip in your car and good brakes. You have to make sure your car turns well through the center of turns one and two, which is a sharp, banked corner. And then you have turns three and four, which are really fast and sweeping and flat. You’ve got to have a car that’s versatile and is a good compromise for both corners. We had that at Loudon, where we won, and we had it at Martinsville last fall.”

Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

Are you more comfortable with the NextGen heading into Phoenix since this was one of the tracks where you tested?
“I think so. You just have a little more knowledge of what to expect. I still think there is plenty to learn. A race situation is a lot different than a testing or practice situation, but we’re starting off in a different place than we were the last two weeks at Fontana and Las Vegas. There’s a little bit of a notebook, but we’re still so early in the schedule we’re going to keep adding to it every race.”

Cole Custer, Driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

How much do you think you’ll be able to take from this weekend’s race to this year’s November race?
“You’ll definitely be able to take some things. Obviously, we’ve had a test there already, so we have an idea of what we’re looking for. This car and what we’re thinking about will change a lot by the time November comes around, but you’ll still have that baseline of the first Phoenix race and that’s where the championship happens, so there will still be a lot of emphasis on it.”

cheese or pepperoni pizza?

With Hunt Brothers Pizza on the No. 4 car this weekend, we went around the shop and asked a very important question: cheese or pepperoni? Find out what slice the shop favors in this week’s episode of GEARWRENCH Garage Talk.