Nothing was going to keep Ryan Blaney down in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Phoenix. Despite two pit road miscues, the driver of the No. 12 continued to find his way to the front in the desert.
In the end, the 2023 Cup Series champion powered by Ty Gibbs with 10 laps left and never looked back on his way to victory in the Straight Talk Wireless 500. It was Blaney’s second straight Phoenix Cup win and his first victory of the 2026 season.
On the heels of Team Penske IndyCar driver Josef Newgarden winning the day before, Blaney completed the Team Penske IndyCar/NASCAR weekend sweep at Phoenix.
Ryan Blaney overcomes loose wheel issues to win at Phoenix
The day started out promising for Blaney as he won the opening stage.
Things got difficult midway through stage two, as the North Carolina native got mired back in traffic after having to come to pit road a second time due to a loose wheel. Less than 40 laps later, Blaney had another encounter with a loose wheel.
In both instances, Blaney had to come from deep in the field and mount a charge back to the front. The 32-year-old made it look easy at times as he overtook 49 cars total throughout the 312-lap race.
The final car Blaney passed was Ty Gibbs’ No. 54 Toyota with 10 laps remaining in a battle for the race lead.
“Everybody on the 12 group persevered all day. We had a couple of mistakes that we learned from and got better and had to come from the back a couple of times. Honestly, the 20 [Christopher Bell] was the best car. [Crew chief Jonathan Hassler] made a great call to take two [tires] and we were able to get the lead and hold them off,” Blaney said.
Christopher Bell finished second, followed by Kyle Larson in third, Gibbs in fourth, and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five.
Tire issues, multi-car incidents plagued Cup drivers at Phoenix
For the second straight Phoenix NASCAR Cup race, tires were a topic of conversation. With a few multi-car pileups added in, Sunday’s race saw 12 caution periods, tied for the most in the track’s history.
On lap 93, Kyle Busch slapped the wall after a right front tire failure. The race stayed green until the following lap when Shane van Gisbergen had a tire issue of his own, bringing out the first caution for an incident.
Daniel Suarez and Chase Elliott tangled in a two-car spin-out, but stayed in the race. Meanwhile, Chase Briscoe and Noah Gragson had separate single-car accidents that took both of them out of the race, both caused by tire blowouts.
As the field took the green flag on lap 210 restart, contact between Logano and Ross Chastain triggered a massive pileup. Chastain, Anthony Alfredo, and Austin Cindric all suffered major damage to their race cars, taking them out of the race.
Another multi-car accident occurred on lap 254 as Logano spun after contact with A.J. Allmendinger, sending him into the path of Berry, Suarez, Elliott, and others.
Austin Dillon was another victim of tire issues. The driver of the No. 3 suffered a right front blowout while running in the ninth position with 26 laps to go.
The 12th and final caution came out with 19 laps remaining as Zane Smith, Ty Dillon, and John Hunter Nemechek all tangled on the backstretch in a three-car crash.
Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell win stages at Phoenix
Pole sitter Logano led the field to the green flag on Sunday and paced the opening 46 laps. His Penske teammate Blaney snagged the top spot on lap 47 and led the charge until the stage checkered flag.
In the round of pit stops following the end of stage one, Bell took over the lead to begin stage two. Bell, Logano, and Denny Hamlin all led laps in stage two, but it was Bell securing first place.
The driver of the No. 20 led a race-high 176 laps, but was shuffled back to eighth after taking four tires on the final pit stop. Bell navigated his way through to second in the waning laps, but ran out of time to catch Blaney for the win.
“You win some, you lose some. This one stings, but on a positive side, I’m really proud of our entire team. … It’s something to build on. It was a day that we needed. We got a lot of stage points, finished second. … Just bummed whenever they get away like that,” Bell said.
After winning the first three races of the season, Tyler Reddick maintains the points lead. Blaney jumped to second in the standings (-60), followed by Bubba Wallace in third (-72), Elliott in fourth (-97), and van Gisbergen in fifth (-109).
The NASCAR Cup Series circuit heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the Pennzoil 400 next Sunday. The green flag is scheduled to drop at 4 p.m. Eastern time and can be watched on FS1 or listened to on the Performance Racing Network.
Ryan Blaney Battles Back to Win NASCAR Cup Race at Phoenix