Ryan Blaney Rebounds From Pit Road Miscues To Take Phoenix Win

In what was a frustrating day, for the most part, for Ryan Blaney, the driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford Mustang Dark Horse showcased why you can never give up in the NASCAR Cup Series. Blaney kept his head down, and despite two loose wheels on separate pit stops in the race, Blaney was able to find himself up front following a two-tire pit call by crew chief Jonathan Hassler on the final pit stop of the race.

Blaney would make his race-winning pass on Ty Gibbs, and over the last few laps, he was able to hold off a hard-charging Christopher Bell, who was running on four fresh tires, to score the race win.

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When asked how he was able to collect the win in Sunday’s race, Blaney said, by simply not giving up.

“Just perseverance. I mean, everybody on the 12 group persevered all day,” Blaney stated. “We had a couple of mistakes that we learned from, got better, and had to come from the back a couple of times. Obviously, [Bell had] the best car. Jonathan made a great call to take two. We were able to get the lead, and hold them off.”

While it all worked out perfectly for Blaney on a day, where things ironically didn’t work out all race long, the 32-year-old knows if the race was a few laps longer, it may have been a different story as Bell was moving.

“I don’t know how many more laps I could have held them off,” Blaney admitted. “We were able to do that.”

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The victory is the first of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season for Blaney, who also won the opening Stage of the race, and this marks the driver’s 18th career win.

The win capped off a perfect Phoenix race weekend for Team Penske, which scored the pole in the NTT IndyCar Series event with David Malukas, the IndyCar win with Josef Newgarden, and the NASCAR Cup Series pole with Joey Logano, and the Cup race win with Blaney.

“Really proud of everybody at Team Penske,” Blaney said. “We swept the weekend, Newgarden winning yesterday, us winning today. Can’t wait to see Roger.”

Bell narrowly missed out on his third consecutive win in the spring Phoenix Raceway event with a runner-up finish. While it was a nice points day, Bell couldn’t help but feel disappointed after leading a race-high 176 laps.

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“Yeah, I mean, ultimately. If we had more green flag laps, I think we could have made a run at [Blaney],” Bell explained. “I don’t know. You win some, you lose some. This one stings, but on the positive side I’m really proud of our entire team. The pit crew did amazing. [Crew Chief] Adam [Stevens] brought an amazing car. Our mechanics and engineers did really good. It’s something to build on.”

Kyle Larson, who secured his second career championship at this track last November, ended the race with a third-place finish after somehow sneaking into the conversation in the closing laps.

“Yeah, I was not happy to start the race. Really not happy all weekend. Just proud of the team,” Larson said after his third-place finish. “We definitely know how to fight to get a good finish here at Phoenix. We do it every time. We’re never good here. It’s not a surprise that we weren’t great. We still come up with a third like we typically do here. I think that’s three third-place finishes here in a row. Just proud of the team. It took a lot of fight.”

While Gibbs would fade down the stretch, the 23-year-old would hang on for a fourth-place result.

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“Yeah, we were really good today. I don’t know. That’s unfortunate,” Gibbs said of his potential race-winning day turning into a fourth-place finish. “But we’ll keep rolling. I think I could have done some things better there. Yeah, unfortunate there. But very happy with my team. All the guys, I’m with the right guys. That makes a difference. So we’re running good because of that. It shows.”

Denny Hamlin ended the race with a solid fifth-place finish.

Bubba Wallace, William Byron, Tyler Reddick, Michael McDowell, and Erik Jones would round out the top-10 finishers in Sunday’s Straight Talk Wireless 500 at Phoenix Raceway.

For Reddick, the eighth-place finisher, this snapped his three-race winning streak, which was a historic mark he set through the opening three races of the season. Still, another solid result keeps Reddick atop the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings.

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However, Reddick’s point lead was cut from 70 points to 60, and with his win on Sunday, Blaney took over the second position in the standings, while Reddick’s 23XI Racing teammate, Bubba Wallace, dropped to third in the standings, 72 points back.

With 22 races left until the Chase for the Cup begins, Brad Keselowski is the final driver inside the 16-driver cutoff, while Daniel Suarez sits two points outside looking in.

In a substitute role for Alex Bowman, who wasn’t medically cleared to race following a vertigo diagnosis this week, Anthony Alfredo had an up-and-down day behind the wheel of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

After losing a lap to the leaders early in the race, Alfredo was able to fight back onto the lead lap, and in the final Stage, was running inside the top-15. But as things were finally starting to click for the driver and his team, fate intervened on Lap 218.

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Joey Logano would make contact with Ross Chastain heading into the dogleg on a late-race restart, which would send Chastain skidding back across the track, directly into the path of Alfredo and Austin Cindric. Both drivers would pile into Chastain and would see their days end.