Winners and losers from a caution-filled NASCAR Cup race at Phoenix

Sunday’s Cup race at Phoenix featured 12 cautions, matching a record for the series at the Arizona oval. The race featured plenty of drama, cut tires, blown rotors, and an impressive comeback from Ryan Blaney and the #12 Team Penske Ford.

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Reddick still leads the championship standings, even as his win streak comes to an end. Blaney is now second, 60 points adrift of the lead, with Bubba Wallace third.

Here’s a look at the biggest winners and losers from Phoenix Raceway:

WINNER: Blaney comeback completes Penske perfect weekend

Watch: Phoenix spring win ‘hits differently’ for Ryan Blaney

Team Penske won the pole for both the IndyCar and NASCAR Cup races at Phoenix, and went on to win both races as well. Most impressively, they did it with four different drivers. Ryan Blaney completed the sweep, despite having to pas most of the field twice due to multiple loose wheels. Undeterred, he put himself back in contention, and continued Penske’s Phoenix dominance.

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LOSER: Logano at the epicenter of two major wrecks in ‘rough day’

It was a very different outcome for Blaney’s Penske teammate and pole-sitter Joey Logano. He had a car capable of winning the race, but things started to go downhill fast in the final stage. A bad bump on a restart from the #22 sent Ross Chastain spinning up the track, collecting Anthony Alfredo and Logano’s teammate, Austin Cindric. Logano took full responsibility for the incident. Soon after, Logano was battling three-wide on the frontstretch when he came up the track and made contact with AJ Allmendinger, spinning out. The #22 slid back up the track, collecting Daniel Suarez and Penske-allied Josh Berry. All three drivers were unable to continue, and Logano finished 31st. Despondently, he called it a ‘rough day’ outside the infield care center.

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WINNER: 23XI win streak ends, but with a double top ten

Watch: Tyler Reddick reacts to win streak coming to end at Phoenix

Tyler Reddick made history by winning the first three races of the 2026 season, and while he did not accomplish the four-peat, it was still a very impressive day for the team. Bubba Wallace finished sixth, and Reddick was eighth in a double top-ten for the organization. Sunday at Phoenix made it clear that 23XI are real contenders and aren’t going anywhere.

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LOSER: Chase Briscoe awful season start continues at Phoenix

Chase Briscoe, No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Briscoe made it to the Championship 4 in 2025 in the old playoff format, but in the new points-driven format for 2026, he is already in a deep hole. While he finished second at Atlanta, Briscoe’s other three finishes to start the year are all 36th or worse — that’s three different races where he scored only a single point in each one. Briscoe is now 33rd in the championship standings.

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WINNER: Two spins, and still top five in points for SVG

Shane van Gisbergen, Trackhouse Racing

Shane van Gisbergen earned his career-best oval finish at Atlanta, even after spinning twice. Well, he took a similar path to a solid 11th-place finish at Phoenix, improving on his previous best result of 24th at the track. SVG spun twice at Phoenix, but still rebounded to nearly score a top ten finish. He remains fifth in the championship standings, ahead of several big names four races into the year.

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LOSER: A dominant Bell runs out of time

Watch: Christopher Bell feeling ‘sting’ of Phoenix runner-up

Christopher Bell led over half of Sunday’s Cup race, but a decision to take four tires during the final caution proved costly for the #20 car. He gave up the lead, falling back to eighth for the restart. He charged forward, finishing second, and only failed to get Blaney for the win because he didn’t have enough laps. It was a bitter defeat for Bell, who felt like they gave a win away.

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WINNER: Goodyear doesn’t overreact, allows teams to decide their fate

General view

In November, 2025, the championship race at Phoenix was chaotic due to tire failures, and this past weekend was no different. But it’s not a Goodyear issue, it’s a teams being greedy issue. Goodyear posted the following message on social media before Sunday’s race: “Before we go racing, remember: The recommended tire pressures weren’t guesses.” The first stage saw no issues, but teams continued to push the limit as the race progressed. We name Goodyear as one of the ‘winners’ because they didn’t overreact to last November’s race in an effort to protect teams from themselves, and again brought tires that promoted tire wear and passing.

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LOSER: A promising weekend for Suarez unravels

Daniel Suarez, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet

Daniel Suarez was seventh in the points entering Phoenix, led the way in practice, and qualified fourth on the grid. Unfortunately, the race wasn’t as kind. After scoring some points in Stage 1, a mid-race spin left him with some minor damage. Still, he soldiered forward, only to get collected in a Stage 3 crash he had nothing to do with, ending the #7’s day and dropping him ten position in the points.

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WINNER: Ty Gibbs with another strong run, and pointed words

Watch: Ty Gibbs feels he’s with ‘the right guys’ after fourth-place finish

Gibbs now has back-to-back top fives at COTA and Phoenix, and he was the driver Blaney had to pass for the win with ten laps to go. He is winless in 127 career starts, but he continues to knock on the door. Gibbs also appears more confident than we’ve seen him in the past, and had some interesting post-race comments. “…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. Really happy with my team, everybody has done a great job, everybody believes in me, we all believe in each other. Happy with that.” Some have interpreted that as a reference to the ongoing lawsuit against JGR’s former competition director, Chris Gabehart, who was critical of Ty.

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LOSER: Zilisch’s rookie campaign can’t catch a break

Connor Zilisch, Trackhouse Racing

Zilisch will be the ROTY no matter in 2026, but he surely wants to be having better results than he is right now. Crashes at Daytona and Atlanta, two spins at COTA, and multiple tire failures and a blown rotor at Phoenix have plagued his season. He has only finished on the lead lap once this year, and three of four races have seen the #88 finish 29th or worse. We haven’t been able to see what he is truly capable yet because of that, and now he sits 34th in points with a lot of work to do in upcoming races.

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