Phoenix Raceway (Avondale, Ariz.) — The bosses are always happy with a victory, but Ryan Blaney certainly thrilled the Team Penske brass with his victory Sunday in the NASCAR Cup Series race.
Blaney didn’t just pick up the first Penske victory of the NASCAR season, but he also made it an INDYCAR-Cup sweep for the organization, which is the only one with both a NASCAR and INDYCAR operation under one roof in North Carolina. Blaney watched Saturday’s INDYCAR race in a suite with team owner Roger Penske.
“Anytime you can win for Roger, it means the world, but those INDYCAR guys put a lot of pressure on us,” Blaney, driver of the No. 12 car, said in his broadcast interview.
Ryan Blaney celebrates after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Straight Talk Wireless 500.
[DESERT DOUBLE: 4 Takeaways From Josef Newgarden’s INDYCAR Win]
With his buddy Josef Newgarden, the winner of the INDYCAR race the day before in the opener of the Desert Double, wearing a Ryan Blaney t-shirt, Blaney triumphed on the 1-mile track where he had won the season finale in November.
Here are my takeaways from Sunday’s Cup race:
1: Blaney Shows Perseverance
The 2023 Cup champion, Blaney overcame two bad pit stops where he had loose wheels. He rallied a two-tire stop that helped with track position and was able to hold off Christopher Bell.
“I’m proud of the whole group for sticking with it all day and cool to win here again, just a handful of months later,” Blaney said.
Not only did Blaney complete the INDYCAR-Cup sweep of wins in the races, Penske driver David Malukas won the pole for the INDYCAR race and Blaney teammate Joey Logano won the pole for the Cup race.
2: Gibbs Showing Promise Amid Criticism
Ty Gibbs earned his second consecutive fourth-place finish. The 2022 O’Reilly Series champion seeks his first Cup win as he competes in his fourth full season.
Gibbs, the grandson of Joe Gibbs, has been the subject of criticism and questioning of his commitment in documents that are part of Joe Gibbs Racing’s lawsuit against former competition director Chris Gabehart, who indicated that Gibbs gets preferential treatment.
Ty Gibbs earned his second consecutive fourth-place finish
Gibbs told me the day before the race: “I certainly work as hard as anybody else no matter what anybody says and can say. … I’ll let my performance on track handle it and we’ll go from there.”
Gibbs doubled down after the race in talking to me and other reporters: “It was great. I’m finally working with people that believe in me and are supportive and are really loyal. It makes a difference, and I think that’s what it’s showing. And I have a great bunch of guys that are on my team.”
3. Bell Comes Up Short … Again
For the third consecutive week, Bell was running amid the leaders late in the race. And for the third consecutive week, Bell came up empty.
Bell finished second behind Blaney, who noted that he probably couldn’t have held off Bell (who had four fresh tires) for much longer. Last year at this time, Bell was winning his third consecutive race. So far in 2026, he seeks his first win as Tyler Reddick has captured each of the first three races.
Christopher Bell fell just short of his first 2026 victory.
“You win some, you lose some,” Bell said in his FS1 interview after the race. “This one stings, but on the positive side I’m really proud of our entire team. … Just bummed whenever they get away like that.”
4. Team Hendrick Still Scratching Head
Kyle Larson finished third but he also didn’t feel it was a potential race-winning day for him and Hendrick Motorsports, which traditionally has struggled at Phoenix.
William Byron was seventh. Chase Elliott was involved in a wreck and finished 23rd and Anthony Alfredo was knocked out of a race in an accident. Alfredo was subbing for Alex Bowman (vertigo).
It was the first oval with the additional horsepower (from 670 horsepower to 750 horsepower), which will be for all tracks under 1.3 miles in length.
Chase Elliott finished a disappointing 23rd at Phoenix.
“It’s concerning, but we’re always really bad here at Phoenix, at least me,” Larson told me and other reporters after the race. “William has had his moments of being pretty strong, but I feel like the rest of us three, have always been really bad.
“We just were worse today — maybe a combination of us needing to learn the [new Chevrolet] body a little bit more and then the horsepower or whatever.”
4 ½: What’s Next
The Cup Series and INDYCAR head in different directions as NASCAR heads to Las Vegas and INDYCAR goes to Arlington (Texas) for races next weekend.
Chase Briscoe, who was in championship contention through the season finale last year, will be the championship-caliber driver looking to get out of a hole the most as a wreck at Phoenix now leaves him 33rd in the standings, 53 points behind the current playoff cutoff.
“Realistically, you maybe get two mulligans on the year,” Briscoe told me and other reporters after exiting the medical center. “And we’ve used three now in the first four weeks.”
