Ryan Blaney Wins at Phoenix to Complete Penske’s Weekend Sweep

Ryan Blaney won the Straight Talk Wireless 500 at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday, clinching his first victory of the 2026 NASCAR season. With the No. 12 Team Penske Ford finding Victory Lane, Tyler Reddick’s historic three-race win streak to open the season is finally at an end.

“Everybody on the No. 12 group persevered all day,” Blaney said. “We had a couple of mistakes that we learned from and got better. I had to come from the back a couple of times.”

By winning Sunday, Blaney is now an 18-time winner in the NASCAR Cup Series. He’s won two Phoenix races in a row dating back to November 2025 when he triumphed in the season finale. In the fourth race of the year, Blaney is now a winner sooner in any Cup Series season than he’s been in his career.

The win was particularly special because it gave Team Penske a weekend sweep between the NASCAR Cup Series and NTT IndyCar Series races. After Josef Newgarden won with a late pass at Phoenix on Saturday, Ryan Blaney endured late-race restarts to make Roger Penske’s 60th anniversary of team ownership a special one.

Joe Gibbs Racing Falls Short

Finishing second was Christopher Bell, who led a race-high 176 laps. Bell’s No. 20 Toyota received four fresh tires on the penultimate caution, dropping him from the lead to eighth place. After Tyler Reddick was slow ahead of Bell on the first of the two ensuing restarts, the No. 20 was only able to navigate to second.

“If we had more green flag laps, I think we could have made a run [at Blaney],” Bell said. “But I don’t know. You win some, you lose some. This one stings, but on a postiive side, I’m really proud of our entire team. The pit crew did amazing.”

Ty Gibbs was also painfully close to his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory on Sunday. His No. 54 Toyota sailed out to the lead on the final restart, before Blaney’s Ford reeled him in and made the pass shortly thereafter. Gibbs then relinquished spots to Bell and Kyle Larson, leaving him with his second straight fourth-place finish.

“We were really good today, I don’t know,” Gibbs said. “That’s unfortunate, but we’ll keep rolling. I think I could have done some things better. Just unfortunate. But I’m very happy with my team.”

Denny Hamlin finished fifth, giving Joe Gibbs Racing three out of the top five finishers. That result was sorely needed for JGR, who started the season with a rash of bad luck. Bell made the biggest gain in the Cup standings out of the whole field Sunday, vaulting from 24th to sixth.

Treacherous Restarts

Contact on the restart!@RossChastain and @AustinCindric are among those involved. pic.twitter.com/eEDee507K8

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) March 8, 2026

Several cars were taken out in a major incident on a restart in the race’s final stage. Joey Logano made contact with Ross Chastain from behind, turning Chastain’s No. 1 car up the track into Anthony Alfredo and Austin Cindric. The latter two cars suffered hard impacts with the wall, and all three were taken out of contention.

Another wreck came on the Lap 254 restart, when Joey Logano spun in front of traffic. Most of the field got around safely, before Josh Berry and Daniel Suárez were collected. The accident started when Logano appeared to pull down in front of AJ Allmendinger, turning his No. 22 Ford sideways. Chase Elliott also sustained damage after colliding with Suárez.

The field stacked up once again on a restart with 18 laps to go. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. made contact with John Hunter Nemechek, knocking him into Zane Smith and later Ty Dillon.

Tire Woes to Go Around

Tires played a major role in Sunday’s race, with numerous drivers experiencing blowouts that marred their race strategy. Most were fortunate enough to continue onward after these incidents. Others, such as Front Row Motorsports’ Noah Gragson, were never able to work their way back up through the field after their tires issues.

Finishing 37th and last on Sunday was Chase Briscoe, whose No. 19 Toyota slammed the wall after blowing a right front tire on Lap 132. Three of the first four weeks of the 2026 season have now been catastrophic for Briscoe. In the Daytona 500 the JGR driver finished 36th, followed by a second-place run at EchoPark Speedway and a 37th at Circuit of the Americas. He entered Phoenix 27th in the standings and leaves the track 33rd.

“When I had my vibration, I told them that I thought it was in the front end,” Briscoe said. “Just par for the course for how this year started. It was another car that was extremely fast, felt like we were certainly going to be in contention for the win and just another failure for us. Definitely frustrating, we’ll go on to next week and see if we can turn it around.”

Other drivers who had tires fail during Sunday’s race included Shane van Gisbergen, Connor Zilisch, William Byron, Michael McDowell, Austin Dillon, and Austin Hill.

Race Results