After a ninth-place finish last Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Joey Logano was blunt about what he needed to do at Phoenix to remain competitive in NASCAR’s postseason Chase.
“It’s a must win,” Logano said.
The three-time champion and his Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney backed that sentiment up by being the best in qualifying at Phoenix Raceway. For the Freeway Insurance 500 on Sunday, Oct. 18 — the seventh of 10 races in the Chase — Blaney is the pole-sitter and Logano will start alongside him on the front row.
Phoenix presents a big opportunity for the other contenders in the Chase to make up ground on points leader Kyle Larson. While Larson has finished inside the top 10 in seven of his last eight races at Phoenix, he has only won there once in his Cup Series career and had a poor qualifying effort on Saturday. In his Hendrick Motorsports No. 5 Chevrolet, Larson will start from 22nd on Sunday.
That’s good news especially for Logano and Blaney, who are in fifth and sixth place with four Chase races to go. Blaney trails Larson by 85 points, while Logano is 92 points back. Blaney’s No. 12 Ford has captured the last two checkered flags at Phoenix, while Logano has won three races there since 2020 and has an average finish of 6.7 in his last seven runs in Phoenix’s fall race.
“I think you do kind of have to treat it as a must-win,” Blaney said Saturday. “I would kind of categorize this as a big championship moment weekend for our team. If we can win this weekend, I think we can hopefully keep chipping away at it. If we don’t win this weekend, the job is exponentially harder going into the next three weeks.”
Christopher Bell’s team is looking at Phoenix as a crucial race too. The driver of the No. 20 Toyota — who notched his eighth second-place finish of the season last weekend, losing by inches to teammate Chase Briscoe at Charlotte — is third in the standings right now, 51 points behind Larson. Bell has placed inside the top five in four of his last five races at Phoenix and has two wins in that stretch.
“It's starting to feel like a must-win,” Bell’s crew chief Adam Stevens told USA TODAY Sports last weekend at Charlotte. “We don't know how the rest of the season's going to unfold, but you know, we're not going to close the gap having good days — we need to have great days.”
Bell, 31, and Larson, 34, have long considered each other rivals in NASCAR and dirt racing. Now, they’re battling it out for a championship at the sport’s highest level.
“I think it’s fair to say we’re different people,” Bell said Saturday, sitting next to Larson and Denny Hamlin at the podium. “We’re not friends. But we’re acquaintances who race each other hard.”
Hamlin chimed in: “That’s going to be on every (expletive) headline.”
After a laugh, Larson said, “I would agree with that. Nobody has pushed me more than Christopher to become a better racer.
Briscoe and Hamlin will both start on the second row, while Bell and fellow Toyota driver Tyler Reddick will start on the third row.
Larson isn’t going to let off the gas and give up this championship, though. Someone will have to take it from him. Will that be one of the Joe Gibbs Racing contenders in Hamlin, Bell or Briscoe, or will one of the Team Penske drivers — Blaney or Logano — build momentum by winning at Phoenix?
“You don’t need to throw a Hail Mary until the end of the game,” said Hamlin, the regular-season champion who is 49 points behind Larson. “I have not hit the panic button at all, but I can see it, I’m just not quite there yet.”
Here’s everything you need to know about the Freeway Insurance 500 at Phoenix Raceway:
What time does the NASCAR race at Phoenix start?
The green flag is set to drop on the Freeway Insurance 500 at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday, Oct. 18, at Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona.
What TV channel is the NASCAR race at Phoenix on?
The Freeway Insurance 500 will be broadcast on USA Network. Pre-race coverage will start at 2:30 p.m. ET.
It is the final race of the season on USA Network, but the final three races on NBC will still be produced by the same crew with USA Sports.
Leigh Diffey will have the call alongside analysts Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte, while Dale Jarrett will offer additional analysis from the pit box. Marty Snider will host the pre- and post-race shows, and he, Kim Coon and Dave Burns will report from the pit road.
Will there be a live stream of the NASCAR race at Phoenix?
Subscribers to YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV and Sling TV can watch the Freeway Insurance 500 through those services.
HBO Max will continue to provide live streams of in-car cameras, while MRN will carry the live radio broadcast.
How many laps is the NASCAR race at Phoenix?
The Freeway Insurance 500 is 312 laps around the mile-long dogleg asphalt oval for a total of 312 miles. The race will have three segments (laps per stage) — Stage 1: 60 laps; Stage 2: 125 laps; Stage 3: 127 laps.
What is the weather for the NASCAR race at Phoenix?
The track at Phoenix Raceway should be dry and the Freeway Insurance 500 should start on time.
The National Weather Service is projecting a 30% chance of showers, mainly before 7 a.m. local time. Skies will be mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming more sunny, with a high temperature near 83 degrees. Wind gusts could be as high as 20 miles per hour.
Into the evening, projections say it will be partly cloudy, with a low temperature around 67 degrees with a wind from the northeast around 5 miles per hour.
Who won the last NASCAR race at Phoenix?
Ryan Blaney has won the last two races at Phoenix, winning the spring race on March 8 and last season’s finale in November.
In the old playoff format, Phoenix had been the championship race for the past six years. After a late restart last fall, Kyle Larson won his second championship by placing third, three spots ahead of fellow contender Denny Hamlin who had led 208 laps and was leading before the final caution came out.
Among active drivers in the Cup Series, Joey Logano has the most wins at Phoenix with four. Hall of Famer Kevin Harvick is the all-time wins leader there with nine victories.
What are the current standings for the NASCAR Chase?
- Kyle Larson
- Denny Hamlin -49
- Christopher Bell -51
- Chase Briscoe -65
- Ryan Blaney -85
- Joey Logano -92
- Tyler Reddick -114
- Austin Cindric -145
- Ty Gibbs -156
- Carson Hocevar -180
- Bubba Wallace -185
- Chase Elliott -185
- William Byron -208
- Daniel Suarez -215
- Chris Buescher -216
- Ryan Preece -227
What is the lineup for the NASCAR race at Phoenix?
(Car number in parentheses, Chase drivers designated with asterisk)
- Ryan Blaney (12) — Ford, Team Penske*
- Joey Logano (22) — Ford, Team Penske*
- Chase Briscoe (19) — Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing*
- Denny Hamlin (11) — Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing*
- Christopher Bell (20) — Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing*
- Tyler Reddick (45) — Toyota, 23XI Racing*
- Ty Gibbs (54) — Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing*
- Michael McDowell (71) — Chevrolet, Spire Motorsports
- Josh Berry (21) — Ford, Wood Brothers
- William Byron (24) — Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports*
- Ross Chastain (1) — Chevrolet, Trackhouse Racing
- Connor Zilisch (88) — Chevrolet, Trackhouse Racing
- Todd Gilliland (34) — Ford, Front Row Motorsports
- Daniel Suarez (7) — Chevrolet, Spire Motorsports*
- Austin Cindric (2) — Ford, Team Penske*
- Chase Elliott (9) — Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports*
- Chris Buescher (17) — Ford, RFK Racing*
- Brad Keselowski (6) — Ford, RFK Racing
- Riley Herbst (35) — Toyota, 23XI Racing
- Zane Smith (38) — Ford, Front Row Motorsports
- AJ Allmendinger (16) — Chevrolet, Kaulig Racing
- Kyle Larson (5) — Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports*
- Bubba Wallace (23) — Toyota, 23XI Racing*
- Austin Dillon (3) — Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing
- Shane van Gisbergen (97) — Chevrolet, Trackhouse Racing
- Ryan Preece (60) — Ford, RFK Racing*
- Cole Custer (41) — Chevrolet, Haas Factory Team
- Carson Hocevar (77) — Chevrolet, Spire Motorsports*
- Erik Jones (43) — Toyota, Legacy Motor Club
- Noah Gragson (4) — Ford, Front Row Motorsports
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (47) — Chevrolet, HYAK Motorsports
- John Hunter Nemechek (42) — Toyota, Legacy Motor Club
- Ty Dillon (10) — Chevrolet, Kaulig Racing
- Alex Bowman (48) — Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports
- Austin Hill (33) — Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing
- Corey Heim (67) — Toyota, 23XI Racing
- Cody Ware (51) — Chevrolet, Rick Ware Racing
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NASCAR race at Phoenix: Start time, TV, streaming, lineup, weather