{"id":56427,"date":"2026-03-07T22:00:05","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T04:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=56427"},"modified":"2026-03-08T09:16:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T14:16:32","slug":"nascar-saturday-phoenix-raceway-notebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/07\/nascar-saturday-phoenix-raceway-notebook\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Saturday Phoenix Raceway Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

Joey Logano scores the pole for Cup race at Phoenix<\/b><\/p>\n

PHOENIX, Ariz. – Team Penske\u2019s Joey Logano claimed his first pole position of the 2026 season Saturday afternoon at Phoenix Raceway \u2013 setting a fast lap of 135.537 mph around the one-mile oval that will host Sunday\u2019s Straight Talk Wireless 500 (3:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

\"\"

Joey Logano, driver of the #22 Shell Pennzoil Ford, poses for photos after winning the pole award
during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Straight Talk Wireless 500 at Phoenix Raceway on March 07, 2026 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

The fast lap gives the driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford Mustang his 38th career pole position. The three-time NASCAR Cup Series champ will share the front row with two-time and reigning series champion Kyle Larson, who was a slight .017-second slower in his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.<\/p>\n

It was a strong Penske showing for the team, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary racing season. Logano\u2019s teammates Austin Cindric (third) and last November\u2019s Phoenix race winner Ryan Blaney (fifth) also earned top-five starting positions.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll three Penske cars are fast,” said Logano, who reminded that it was a Penske Phoenix pole sweep with IndyCar teammate David Malukus claiming pole position for Saturday\u2019s IndyCar race. In fact, all three Penske IndyCar drivers \u2013 also Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden \u2013 will be on the team\u2019s NASCAR drivers\u2019 pit boxes Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur three cars and the three IndyCars all looked solid in practice yesterday. Now it\u2019s just time to execute the race, which is the hard part.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou never know anymore (if you will win pole position),” Logano added. \u201cWhen you have a longer practice like we used to have and put a fresh set of tires on and make a mock run and see the pace. But these days you don\u2019t know. You just go out there and go as fast as you can and you don\u2019t know if you\u2019ll be 30th or first. It\u2019s hard to say before the run starts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like if I didn\u2019t screw up the speed was in the car and I just had to make sure I got all of it out. The speed is there for the Penske cars right now.”<\/p>\n

Championship points leader Tyler Reddick spun his No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota in practice but didn\u2019t hit anything \u2013 recovering to post a solid eighth-place position in the qualifying session minutes later. Brad Keselowski had a more extreme experience, hitting the wall with his No. 6 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford \u2013 unable to qualify and forced to start from the rear of the 37-car field.<\/p>\n

Defending race winner Christopher Bell qualified 12th in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.<\/p>\n

Anthony Alfredo, who is driving the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet this week for Alex Bowman, qualified 31st. However, he did post the best 10-lap speed average among the four Hendrick drivers in practice.<\/p>\n

Of note, Spire Motorsports teammates Daniel Suarez (No. 7 Chevrolet) and Carson Hocevar (No. 77 Chevrolet) were fastest in practice. They will roll off fourth and seventh, respectively on Sunday.<\/p>\n

REDDICK GOES FOR FOUR IN A ROW<\/b><\/p>\n

23XI Racing\u2019s Tyler Reddick grinned and immediately conceded life is happily hectic these days as the superstar face of NASCAR. Making history by winning the first three races of the 2026 season, Reddick has earned the glory. Now he\u2019s learning to balance the extra demands his excellence has created with the desire to keep the winning rolling on.<\/p>\n

In many ways, the success doesn\u2019t make things easier \u2013 it creates new expectations and attention. But it\u2019s certainly the better option. He holds a 70-point advantage atop the championship standings. A victory in Sunday\u2019s race would mark his first on the one-mile Phoenix oval and with only a pair of top-five finishes (both third place efforts) in 12 previous series races here, it would be a huge sign of achievement. And carrying on with all the good vibes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re excited we\u2019ve won three races but we\u2019re not satisfied, we\u2019re still hungry,” said Reddick, who drives the No. 45 23XI Toyota for the 23XI Racing team co-owned by legendary NBA star Michael Jordan and fellow competitor Denny Hamlin.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t feel like a superhero,” he said laughing at a reporter\u2019s suggestion. \u201cFor me, it\u2019s just like we\u2019re doing the right things. We\u2019re taking a realistic approach to it, there\u2019s thought to it. This is what can happen when we prepare really good race cars and show up to the race track close, qualify good and run good, we really set ourselves up for success.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had that stretch there where we were \u2018right there\u2019 and it didn\u2019t happen last year. But I feel like it\u2019s rewarding for everyone on this 23XI team for it to be happening for the 45 the way it has this year. Everyone has worked hard to get over the hump. We\u2019re definitely not settling in and happy, \u2018we won three races and we\u2019re good now.\u2019 Everyone is very, very eager to carry this on.”<\/p>\n

HAMLIN\u2019S RETURN<\/b><\/p>\n

Denny Hamlin managed a smile but conceded returning to the Phoenix miler still stung a bit for the veteran, who dominated the November NASCAR Cup Series championship race here \u2013 leading 208 of the 319 laps \u2013 only to miss out on the title after a strategy call didn\u2019t pan out on an overtime restart.<\/p>\n

The 45-year-old 60-race winner returns to Phoenix ranked 23rd in the standings and will start his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 11th on the grid for Sunday\u2019s race.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m still angry at the track a little bit,” said Hamlin, who had looked to have finally claimed the first championship of his highly-decorated two-decade career. \u201cBut the track doesn\u2019t have a soul so it can\u2019t feel the things I feel.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve still got to come in here and start the whole process over again and do all the right things and see where the result pans out this time. Haven\u2019t had a whole lot of races since we were here for the championship, so just trying to get acclimated with where we are at this point and seeing if we can we replicate some of the magic we had.”<\/p>\n

SVG IS GTG<\/b><\/p>\n

During his 2025 NASCAR Cup Series rookie season New Zealand racing champion Shane Van Gisbergen won five races \u2013 all on road courses – and qualified for the Playoffs. But even throughout all that success the former Australian Supercars Series champion always spoke about his desire to up his oval-racing game. He came into his sophomore season having scored only one top-10 on an ovals (10th-place at Kansas).<\/p>\n

In only three races this season the 36-year-old driver of the No. 97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet has already answered that with a career best sixth-place showing on the Atlanta high-banks two weeks ago and strong work at the DAYTONA 500 season opener. That combined with a reliable strong run on the Austin road course last Sunday (runner-up) has Van Gisbergen the highest in the championship standings (fifth place) he\u2019s ever been this early in the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis race last year we were at a completely different end of the garage,” Van Gisbergen said with a smile, noting the change in championship order. \u201cThe guys enjoy it much more being early in tech and it would be amazing to stay up here. But there\u2019s a long way to go and we really need to just keep having good run, be consistent and score points. Certainly, very encouraging and a cool spot to be in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s been an awesome progression and I feel like we are getting better and learning a lot. It\u2019s good going through two races of data from the same track and coming up with a trend of what we need. That\u2019s been awesome and hopefully we keep showing that progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

CHEVROLET\u2019S BIG WEEKEND<\/b><\/p>\n

Chevrolet has taken the expression \u201ccross-over\u201d to a new extreme in this racing quadruple-header weekend in the desert featuring races in the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series, the NTT IndyCar Series and the ARCA Menards Series.<\/p>\n

There are a combined 75 drivers entered in the four events \u2013 18 in the NASCAR Cup Series, 30 in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, 12 in the IndyCar Series and 15 in the ARCA Menard Series race. Phoenix Raceway is the site of Chevrolet\u2019s first oval win in IndyCar in 1969.<\/p>\n

\u201cChevrolet is proud to be the only manufacturer powering the field across all races this weekend,\u201d said Jim Campbell, Vice President, Performance and Motorsports Commercial Operations, General Motors. \u201cOur heritage has been built on both stock car and open-wheel competition, and Phoenix Raceway is a great example of that legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Joey Logano scores the pole for Cup race at Phoenix PHOENIX, Ariz. – Team Penske\u2019s Joey Logano claimed his first pole position of the 2026 season Saturday afternoon at Phoenix Raceway \u2013 setting a fast lap of 135.537 mph around the one-mile oval that will host Sunday\u2019s Straight Talk […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56438,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[154,16,395],"class_list":["post-56427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-joey-logano","tag-nascar","tag-phoenix-raceway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2265292701-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1827&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-eG7","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56427"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56439,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56427\/revisions\/56439"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}