In trendy NASCAR, champions aren’t topped till the final lap of the final race of the season. 4 drivers (from three tremendous groups) arrive on the season finale with one final likelihood on the title — and the best finisher wins all of it. This weekend, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Tyler Reddick, and William Byron will battle to see who comes out a champion. They usually’ll go to battle at Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona.
Phoenix is arguably an important monitor in NASCAR, if solely as a result of it is the place the champion’s been topped since 2020. The 1.0-mile asphalt oval is not with out its quirks and particular methods, both. That is why I referred to as up the winningest Cup Sequence driver ever at Phoenix, Kevin Harvick, who racked up 9 wins throughout 21 years.
So, how do you win Phoenix and the NASCAR Cup Sequence championship, in Harvick’s thoughts?
“Nicely, that is a loaded query,” he mentioned.
Harvick might have not too long ago retired from full-time driving to turn into a commentator on races for FOX Sports activities (and host a podcast host with the community “Kevin Harvick’s Blissful Hour”), however the retired champion kindly defined, in champion-level element, precisely what it takes to go away with the trophy.
A fast Kevin Harvick historical past lesson on Phoenix Raceway
Phoenix Raceway
Photograph by: David Rosenblum / NKP / Motorsport Pictures
NASCAR hosted its season finale on the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway oval in Florida earlier than the grand finale moved to Phoenix in 2020. NASCAR has mentioned it seemingly received’t keep there perpetually, however hasn’t shared any concrete plans about what’s subsequent.
Phoenix is a “enormous half” of Harvick’s profession — from the outdated days to the fashionable ones, after the Cup Sequence launched its new “NextGen” race automobile and basically flipped the monitor format.
“I grew up on the West Coast, and Phoenix was form of our Tremendous Bowl for the touring divisions all through the years,” Harvick mentioned. “However that Phoenix isn’t the identical Phoenix we see right now. [The track] was very uniquely redesigned to have a stadium really feel to it.
“The beginning-finish line was once on what’s now the again straightaway. The entrance straightaway was redesigned so followers may see it from the infield. You’re actually in place to see nice finishes, which we’ve got seen. And what’s now the entrance straightaway was banked so you may elevate and see the automobiles from different locations on the racetrack.”
Harvick categorizes Phoenix in 3 ways: quick, flat, and “recognized for its restarts.” There’s asphalt from the skin wall to pit-road exit, main automobiles to fan out six-wide on restarts. Phoenix additionally isn’t a normal oval. It has 4 turns and a front-straightaway dogleg that’s not labeled as an official nook, which is the place these restarts happen.
Phoenix hasn’t been universally cherished because the season finale — particularly with barn-burners at Homestead — as a result of quick tracks have been a wrestle with the NextGen automobile. However Phoenix has all of the glitz of a season finale on the floor, and all of the challenges of 1 beneath.
These challenges begin, in some methods, on the finish.
Harvick’s Phoenix Tip #1: Keep free
Phoenix is a monitor the place getting the final laps proper is perhaps extra essential than nailing the beginning.
“You’ll want to qualify good, however I do not assume that is the top of the world. In case your automobile’s going to win, it’s essential be good on the long term. It’s important to have a automobile which you could alter on all through the day. The way it begins is not how it is going to want to complete.”
In NASCAR, races have “lengthy runs” and “quick runs.” Cup automobiles can final 95 laps on one tank of gasoline, and the race itself lasts 312. A brief run at Phoenix maxes out at about 30 laps within the Cup automobile owing largely to tire degradation: the rubber breaks down intensely over the primary 30 laps earlier than plateauing and carrying rather more slowly over the subsequent 70 laps or so.
“Kevin discovered velocity by being quickest throughout that plateau space,” defined one race engineer I spoke with. “Since lap occasions degrade little or no throughout that part of the run, it’s all about consistency.”
However the Phoenix finale is about greater than consistency. It’s about anticipation.
William Byron and Kevin Harvick lead the cost in 2023 in Phoenix
Photograph by: Matthew T. Thacker / NKP / Motorsport Pictures
The race begins noon and transitions into nightfall, so the automobile must be arrange for the decrease temps of a desert sundown. The monitor’s floor adjustments with the warmth loss and the rubber buildup from tires, that means groups have to seek out the fitting stability between free (rotates an excessive amount of, prefer it’s on ice skates) and tight (doesn’t flip sharply sufficient).
“We noticed it final yr,” mentioned Harvick. “We noticed the racetrack actually change. Numerous the automobiles that have been tremendous free to start out the race wound up being the actually good automobiles on the finish, as a result of the monitor tightens up because the day goes on. I believe you simply should run the automobile as free as potential, and typically a bit looser than you prefer it, to be able to maintain the flip within the automobile all through the entire day.”
Harvick’s Phoenix Tip #2: Grasp the restarts
A patented Phoenix restart in 2019
Photograph by: Russell LaBounty / NKP / Motorsport Pictures
Phoenix restarts are one-of-a-kind. NASCAR’s rolling-start restarts convey automobiles two-wide towards the inexperienced flag. However in Phoenix, automobiles instantly dive left to drive the shortest distance potential by the dogleg, fanning out five- and six-wide.
There’s only one drawback: the yellow line marking the “backside” of the monitor, the place it transitions from banked nook to flat apron, means not everybody will get to the place they wish to go.
“The toughest half concerning the restart isn’t mistiming it, as a result of you possibly can’t go under the yellow line till you get to the start-finish line,” Harvick mentioned. “The very first thing everyone desires to do is go left, so from a driver’s standpoint, you simply have to concentrate on the place that start-finish line is to be able to not get a penalty.
“However you possibly can’t be conservative. It’s important to go as little as you possibly can go, as a result of in the event you do not, someone’s going to go decrease. We do not see a ton of wrecks, however the ones that do occur are often from someone being sluggish to react or not going all the best way to the underside. Any individual shoves their nostril inside them, and subsequent factor you realize, someone hits the within wall.”
A driver’s place within the area may make or break their restart in Phoenix. NASCAR restarts usually have about 40 automobiles in two strains of 20, and the lead automobile accelerates in a “restart zone” earlier than the inexperienced flag. However with the Phoenix reconfiguration, loads of the sphere continues to be within the ultimate nook when the chief accelerates.
“With the ability to speed up within the nook isn’t straightforward,” Harvick mentioned.
Then, there’s the bodily toll these left-hooks take. Drivers slam onto the flatter apron from the banked racing floor, and so they don’t have soft suspension to guard them.
“Once I drove the NextGen automobile, the very last thing I needed to do was go on the apron,” Harvick mentioned. “It is probably the most uncomfortable trip you may probably think about, as a result of the automobile bottoms out. It is a jarring blow each time.”
Harvick’s Phoenix Tip #3: Brake onerous, drive more durable
Restart or not, drivers should settle right into a rhythm round Phoenix. Meaning carrying as a lot velocity into and out of the corners as potential.
“The very first thing that I all the time attempt to inform individuals is: It’s important to get the braking,” mentioned Harvick. “I believe having the ability to nonetheless get a pleasant form into the nook, however drive the automobile into the nook as onerous as you possibly can, is the place we all the time made up loads of time.”
Harvick additionally mentioned drivers “cannot be locked into one line.”
“If everyone’s on the underside of the racetrack, you are by no means going to go them,” Harvick mentioned. “That was one factor that all the time made us good with this fashion of racetrack: the truth that you had to search around round for what you wanted to be doing.”
Harvick was additionally good at Phoenix as a result of “you path off the brake and go proper again to the throttle, and there was not loads of out-of-the-throttle roll time.” It suited his driving fashion, and if he nailed the transition from brake to throttle, he knew it was a very good lap.
“The primary cue, for me, was after I would let off the brake: what the entrance tires would do, and the way lengthy it took for these entrance tires to seize and go the opposite path,” Harvick mentioned. “The second cue was: How onerous may I put the throttle down on the exit of the nook?”
As a result of Phoenix is a unique form on every finish of the monitor, the method is completely different in Turns 1 and a pair of than it’s in Turns 3 and 4. (And infrequently, Harvick mentioned, in the event you do properly in Turns 1 and a pair of, you’ll overdrive 3 and 4. It’s onerous to get an ideal lap in.)
“I all the time discovered that Phoenix was a spot the place, in Flip 1, you may flip the steering wheel loads more durable than most locations,” Harvick mentioned. “That second tug on the wheel was one thing I felt like was a bonus for us, having the ability to nonetheless have your automobile flip by the center of 1 and two — and as quickly because it did flip, having the ability to return to the throttle and drive up off the nook.”
In Turns 3 and 4, Harvick had his eyes on one factor: the yellow line.
“For me, Flip 3 was a nook that I needed to have the ability to drive the automobile in straight,” Harvick mentioned. “I needed to have my eyes in direction of the within wall to choose up that yellow line, as a result of I felt prefer it was form of like a trough. The left-front tire loves that little line within the trough.
“For those who may hit it proper together with your left-front, then you may raise off the brake and begin to apply some partial throttle. Then [you could] have your eyes up and drive straight [toward] the start-finish line. I believe you are going to win the race on the underside in 3 and 4.”
