2 months agoBrad Keselowski will start 18th in Sunday's Shriners Children's 500 at Phoenix Raceway. Despite still being in the early portion of the NASCAR schedule, this is an important race for the RFK driver-owner as the team has struggled this season. Given that Keselowski is 28th in the playoff
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2 months agoHarrison Burton begins outside the Top 20 for the second consecutive time this season at Phoenix Raceway. The Wood Brothers Racing driver begins 21st on Sunday afternoon. Burton has one Top 20 finish in four appearances on the 1-mile track. Worse, his average finish of 27.3 comes too close to his 26.7 average finish in the early going this year. It is that latter number going in the wrong direction which has Burton on the hot seat. Burton has started 21st or worse at Phoenix in four of five attempts now.. He has negative place differential every single time.
--Chris Wassel - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
2 months agoFollowing a top 10 performance last weekend at Las Vegas, Denny Hamlin backed it up Saturday afternoon by qualifying on the pole for Sunday's Shriners Children's 500 at Phoenix Raceway. Even before practice and qualifying, Hamlin entered the weekend as one of the betting favorites (+900 on DraftKings
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2 months agoAfter struggling to find speed during qualifying, Kaz Grala will start 32nd in Sunday's Shriners Children's 500 at Phoenix Raceway. Heading into this weekend's race, there is little to get excited about when it comes to Grala. With this being his first Cup start at Phoenix, his past performances in the Xfinity Series at this track must be taken into consideration. While he did finish 10th in the Xfinity race here last November, his previous three starts resulted in finishes of 33, 23, and 34. Between his underwhelming start to the season and the limited success he has had at this track, it is best to fade the No. 15 in DFS this weekend.
--Adam Erhardt - RotoBallerSource: Racing-Reference.info
2 months agoTy Gibbs will start second in Sunday's Shriners Children's 500 at Phoenix Raceway. In his previous two Cup starts in Maricopa County, Gibbs has struggled. Not only is his average finish 24.5, but he lost a combined 24 points in place differential in these two contests. While these
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2 months agoOn Saturday afternoon, Chase Elliott qualified third for the Shriners Children's 500 at Phoenix Raceway. In November 2020, Elliott won his only Cup Series championship at this track and then followed it up by finishing fifth in both 2021 races. However, since this impressive run, and more importantly, since the launch of the NextGen car, the Hendrick Motorsports star has failed to crack the top 10 and is averaging just 31.42 points on DraftKings. While Phoenix alone can be tricky to gauge a driver on, he has also been inconsistent at NASCAR's other flat-banked tracks. Since 2022, Elliott's average finish at Richmond, Loudon, and St. Louis is 13.7, results that can best be described as mediocre. While you can never fully fade a driver who is as talented as Elliott is, especially given that his salary on DraftKings is only $8,800, you still need to recognize his recent struggles at this style of track and limit your exposure to the No. 9 in DFS this weekend.
--Adam Erhardt - RotoBallerSource: Racing-Reference.info
2 months agoAfter making contact with the wall during Saturday's qualifying, Josh Berry will start 36th in Sunday's Shriners Children's 500 at Phoenix Raceway. In his only Cup start at "The Jewel of the Desert" (March 2023), Berry finished 10th and scored 42.35 points on DraftKings. Two weeks later, at Richmond, a flat track similar to Phoenix, Berry finished second and scored 90.95 DraftKings points. Besides his personal success, the No. 4 car has also performed well on flat-banked tracks, including this one. Since 2022, this car has averaged 58.81 DraftKings points at Phoenix and 51.28 points on flat-banked tracks in general. If this car can compete anywhere near the level it typically does at this track, Josh Berry will be in the optimal lineup, which makes him a core play in DFS this weekend.
--Adam Erhardt - RotoBallerSource: Racing-Reference.info
2 months agoIn his handful of starts in the NASCAR Cup Series over the last year, Carson Hocevar has seemed to regularly perform better than expected. That is the case once again at Phoenix Raceway this weekend. In practice on Friday, Hocevar went out and posted the 10th-fastest lap after the No. 77 Spire Motorsports team made some adjustments to the Chevrolet during the session. Then, in qualifying on Saturday, Hocevar was one of the five fastest drivers in his group during the first round, advancing to the second and qualifying 10th for this weekend's Shriners Children's 500. Last fall here at Phoenix, Hocevar started 22nd and finished 19th. It looks like he has a good chance at challenging for a teens finish here this weekend--and maybe even a surprise top-10 result if everything goes right.
--Jordan McAbeeSource: Jayski
2 months agoLast season at Phoenix Raceway was a career year for Michael McDowell. In his previous 24 starts at the race track, he hadn't cracked the top 15 once. In the two races during 2023, McDowell finished inside the top 15 both times, including a career-best ninth-place result in the Championship race last November. He's picking up right where he left off, too, because McDowell qualified ninth for this weekend's Shriners Children's 500 race. Now the question is, can McDowell challenge for another top-10 finish in the desert? He certainly can, but it's not a guarantee by any means. The No. 34 Ford was just 18th-fastest in 10-lap average during practice on Friday, but at just $6,700 on DraftKings, that certainly makes McDowell a driver to consider in big tournament and single-entry formats, as he likely won't be very high-owned in DFS contests on Sunday.
--Jordan McAbeeSource: Speedway Digest
2 months agoOne name that was a surprise in the second round of qualifying at Phoenix Raceway on Saturday afternoon was Noah Gragson. Fresh off of his sixth-place run at Las Vegas last weekend, Gragson went out and qualified 7th for this weekend's Shriners Children's 500 at Phoenix. It was especially surprising considering Gragson was just 26th-fastest in practice on Friday here at Phoenix. As far as experience at this track, Noah finished 29th in the No. 42 Chevrolet for Legacy Motor Club in this race one year ago, and he finished 1st and 2nd in the two Xfinity races here back during the 2022 season. While there is upside this weekend with Gragson being in a Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, and this track type being the one that they excel at as an organization, a top-20 finish would still be quite a good run for Gragson on Sunday.
--Jordan McAbeeSource: ifantasyrace
2 months agoJustin Haley is one of the fun underdog stories this season, as he joins Rick Ware Racing in an attempt to bring that organization up from the depths of lower tier race team. However, don't expect much from Haley and this No. 51 Ford this weekend at Phoenix Raceway. In practice on Friday, Haley was just 32nd--fastest out of 36 cars, and he ended up qualifying 33rd for this weekend's Shriners Children's 500. In his last three starts at this race track, Haley has finished 29th, 27th, and 27th--and those in Kaulig Racing equipment, a step up from his current situation. It will likely be a long day full of struggles for Justin Haley and his Rick Ware Racing team on Sunday.
--Jordan McAbeeSource: Driver Averages
2 months agoOn Sunday evening, Ross Chastain finished fourth in the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Sunday's victory marks the Watermelon Man's fourth top-five finish in the last five trips to the Nevada desert, which will make him a driver to keep an eye on when the Cup Series returns here in the fall. Despite the strong finish, fans of Trackhouse Racing have to be a bit frustrated with this result given that Chastain was issued two penalties in the race. The first penalty, which was issued before the race started, required Chastain to start from the back of the field for unapproved adjustments. After rebounding from this penalty, The No. 1 car was penalized for speeding on pit road on lap 121, erasing the deficit he had previously overcome. While it is unlikely anyone would have caught Kyle Larson yesterday, the fact that Chastain was able to bounce back from two setbacks suggests he may have been the one driver who could have contended for the win at the Diamond in the Desert.
--Adam Erhardt - RotoBallerSource: Racing-Reference.info
2 months agoMartin Truex Jr. ends Las Vegas with another solid top-10 finish. After starting seventh, Truex remained in the Top 10 most of the day and finished in the Top 5 at the end of the first two stages. Truex would lead four laps, have a day with no mistakes on pit road, and steadily run in the Top 5 before returning to seventh, his eventual finishing position. The seventh-place result was the 16th top-10 finish of his Cup career at Las Vegas, his seventh in a row, and he now becomes the sole leader of most Vegas top-10 finishes of active drivers. After a decent start to the season with three consecutive top-15 finishes, Truex heads to Phoenix, where he struggled recently with only one top-10 finish in the last four Cup events at the track.
--Sean Engel - RotoBallerSource: NASCAR.com
2 months agoDuring Sunday's race at Las Vegas, Tyler Reddick arguably had the fastest car in the field but fell just short of victory. Despite starting 18th, Reddick would make his way through the field methodically multiple times in the race towards the front but failed to pass Kyle Larson several times for the lead and, eventually, for the race win. Reddick placed second at the end of each stage, but pit road miscues and slow stops during the race caused Reddick to lead one lap and finish second. The second-place finish is Reddick's best career Cup finish at Las Vegas and his fifth top-10 finish in the last six races at the site. As the Cup Series heads to Phoenix, Reddick will look to use the momentum from his best finish of the year so far to capitalize on another solid run.
--Sean Engel - RotoBallerSource: NASCAR.com
2 months agoWilliam Byron finished 10th in Sunday's Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. While a 10th place finish for a guy who was considered among the favorites to win the race may not seem noteworthy, in Byron's case it is. After a piece of debris (reported to be a trash bag) covered the nose of his No. 24 Chevy Camaro, the temperature in the engine skyrocketed to over 300 degrees, requiring the Daytona 500 champion to pit on lap 49. This unexpected pit stop put the 26-year-old down in laps, causing him to have to work his way back up through the field. The fact that he was able to end the race on such a strong run, after rebounding from such a bizarre incident, should give fans of Hendrick Motorsports tremendous optimism moving forward.
--Adam Erhardt - RotoBallerSource: Jayski.com
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