Busy day — and night
It was a long, busy day at Phoenix International Raceway, where on Sunday the list of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship finalists will be pared from eight to four after the Can-Am 500.
Here are six things we learned on a beautiful fall afternoon and evening in the Sonoran Desert.
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Youth movement
The top three qualifiers for Sunday’s Can-Am 500 —pole-sitter Alex Bowman, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott are 24 years old or younger, and so is Ryan Blaney who qualified eighth.
All four of these guys, plus 26-year-old seventh-qualifier Austin Dillon would love to play the role of spoiler and win on Sunday. Some of these young drivers undoubtedly will go one to be stars, but so far Larson is the only one from this group who has won a race.
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The chrome horn
Would one driver put a bumper to another to win on Sunday? You bet, even if that bumper had to be applied to a teammate. “Absolutely,” said Kyle Busch of Joe Gibbs Racing.
“No I would not,” countered Busch’s teammate Denny Hamlin, smiling. “That’s my answer today.”
Of course, you could argue that Busch is due to give some payback. On the last lap of the spring race at Richmond, Busch was leading the race when he got moved out of the way by another teammate, Carl Edwards, whop shoved Busch aside to win.
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Bad blood
Last week at Texas, Austin Dillon crashed after contact with Kevin Harvick, who used to drive for Dillon’s grandfather and car owner, Richard Childress. Afterward, Harvick apologized, but at Phoenix Dillon was asked if Harvick had to watch his back this weekend. “I don’t really have no comment,” said Dillon. “I’m here to race and win this race.”
“There was nothing intentional there,” said Harvick. “He is mad and he should be mad. They are just starting to perform like they need to perform and he wants to win and he is a competitor and I can’t blame him for that. So yeah, I reached out to him and he didn’t reach back. So, it is what it is.”
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In a hole
Kyle Busch qualified a disappointing 19th, the worst of any of the eight drivers still in the Chase. Busch is one of four drivers separated by just four points from second to fifth place. With track position at a premium here at PIR, Busch may have his hands full trying to advance.
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From bad to worse
When Martin Truex Jr. won two of the first three Chase races, it seemed certain he’d contend for a championship. But when he lost an engine at Talladega, he also lost his shot at a title.
Friday at Phoenix, Truex had a truly dreadful day, crashing his primary Furniture Row Racing Toyota in practice. The team dutifully got out Truex’s backup car, but it never made it through tech inspection, so on Sunday, he’ll start 40th. And at a place where track position is so critical, that’s bad news for him.
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Still truckin'
When he isn’t driving himself, 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski owns a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series team. Next year, one of his full-time trucks will be driven by 18-year-old Austin Cindric, the son of Team Penske President Tim Cindric.
Austin has five career Truck Series starts and earlier this year won one ARCA race and two more in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East. Unfortunately, Cindric spun in his No. 2 truck early in the race after making contact with the truck of Noah Gragson, and then spun again later in the race.
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