Straight Talk Wireless 500: Ryan Blaney overcomes obstacles to win at Phoenix

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Despite many obstacles thrown his way in the Straight Talk Wireless 500, Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney fought to the front repeatedly to win at Phoenix Raceway for the second consecutive time in the NASCAR Cup Series.

After Blaney won Stage 1, he had issues on pit road multiple times, sending him to the rear of the field. However, the 2023 Cup Series champion battled back and held off a hard-charging Christopher Bell to win for the 18th time at the premier level.

“That’s really what it’s all about… perseverance,” Blaney said. “That’s a great word to kind of describe our day. I had a couple mistakes on pit road and learned from them and moved forward, and I didn’t have a mistake the rest of the day. It was unfortunate that they happened back-to-back, but these guys learned from it and rectified it and we were able to stay in the game. Our car was fast enough to be in the game. I thought the 20 (Bell) was the best car on the day for sure, but we stayed in the game enough and Jonathan made a great call for two on the last caution and we were able to get the lead there and then hold the 20 off. I don’t know how many more laps I could have held him off, but it was enough laps to do it. I’m proud of the whole group for sticking with it all day and cool to win here again, just a handful of months later.

“Anytime you can win for Roger [Penske] it means the world, but those IndyCar guys put a lot of pressure on us yesterday. When Josef [Newgarden] won I was like, ‘Alright, one of us has got to do it today.’ It’s a shame that the three others weren’t able to finish, but at least we got Roger back in Victory Lane for the second day in a row and completed the Penske sweep. That’s a cool deal.”

Blaney has now finished in the top two at Phoenix in six of the last eight races, as well as in the top five in nine of the last 10 races, according to NASCAR Insights.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Bell had one of the best cars all race long, leading a race-high 178 of 312 laps before coming home with a second-place finish. On the second-to-last caution, Bell went with four tires, while Blaney took two. Although it did not work out for Bell, he still finished second in Stage 1, won Stage 2 and earned a much-needed 54 points.

“If we had more green flag laps, I think we could have made a run at him,” Bell said. “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. Adam brought an amazing car. Our mechanics, engineers did really good. It’s something to build on. I don’t know. It was a day that we needed. We got a lot of stage points, finished second. Yeah, just bummed whenever they get away like that.”

Hendrick Motorsports is usually one of the main teams to beat when the Cup Series visits the 1-mile Arizona track. Despite starting second, Kyle Larson spent most of the day battling his race car and running outside the top 10. However, the driver of the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet worked his way back to the front for an impressive third-place result.

“It was an awesome finish for how much we struggled today,” Larson said. “All day, I felt like we might not even be a top-15 car. This No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet team just kept fighting. We gained some track position and made our Chevy better throughout the race. We had some good restarts. It just worked out for us there in the final stage. Just proud of this No. 5 team. We just need to be a lot better. Aside from strategy and pit road, we never really have a shot here at Phoenix (Raceway). We’ll just keep working hard on hitting the setup to feel like we can be a contender here from start to finish.”

The results from the 2026 Straight Talk Wireless 500 at Phoenix Raceway are listed below:

Cautions Breed Cautions & Chaos

The most memorable thing from the fourth race of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season was the number of tire issues drivers experienced, as well as the number of cautions. The 12 cautions in the Straight Talk Wireless 500 tied the Phoenix Raceway record, which was set back in the Fall 2014 and then matched in the Spring 2020.

Numerous drivers had tire issues in the race, including Chase Briscoe, Noah Gragson, Connor Zilisch, Kyle Busch and more. Some drivers, such as William Byron and Michael McDowell, battled their way back to the front, finishing in seventh and ninth, respectively

Joey Logano, who was a top-three to five car all race long, was involved in a late-race incident that ended his hopes for another Phoenix win.

Still, Logano earned 23 points after leading 73 of 312 laps and finished 31st after starting on the pole. The driver of the No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford was also involved in an earlier incident that took out contenders Ross Chastain and Austin Cindric.

Anthony Alfredo, who is filling in for Alex Bowman (out with vertigo) in the No. 48 Ally Best Friends Chevrolet, was also involved.

Other Race Facts

Phoenix produced an incredibly strong showing from Toyota, as the Japanese manufacturer had six drivers from three different teams in the top 10.

• Christopher Bell, Joe Gibbs Racing, second,
• Ty Gibbs, Joe Gibbs Racing, fourth,
• Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing, fifth,
• Bubba Wallace, 23XI Racing, sixth,
• Tyler Reddick, 23XI Racing, eighth (won the previous three races),
• Erik Jones, Legacy Motor Club, 10th.

Gibbs, in his No. 54 AMPM Toyota, looked like he had a chance to get his first career Cup Series win before settling for fourth place.

“We were really good today, I don’t know,” Gibbs said when asked about his top five. “That’s unfortunate. 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. Really happy with my team, everybody has done a great job, everybody believes in me, we all believe in each other. Happy with that.

“Thank you to AMPM. Car looks great. It’s so rubbered up you can’t even see the number. Very happy with today and how everything went. Congrats to the 12 (Ryan Blaney), they were really fast. I’ll keep working, see where I can do better. I thought the show was pretty cool. I had a lot of fun. It kind of sucks I didn’t win, but we had a lot of fun racing out there. It probably looked cool. We’ll keep rolling. Thank you to the man above, all my guys that believe in me, I really appreciate that.”

Bell also ran 117 of the fastest laps, which makes him the first driver since 2022 to have more than 100 in a single race, according to Stephen Stumpf. He is also the biggest mover in The Chase standings, gaining 18 spots.

Despite spinning multiple times, Trackhouse Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen had a pretty good showing on an oval, finishing 11th and maintaining his fifth-place spot in the Cup Series standings.

GRID RANKING

The 2026 GRID Ranking is the 10th year of the world’s premier motorsports ranking system and will be released on Sunday, April 5, 2026.

The official ranking includes drivers participating in seven racing series (NASCAR, IndyCar, Formula 1, Formula E, WRC, Supercars, MotoGP). Each driver earns GRID Ratings, which help determine their seeding in the GRID Ranking.

Tyler Reddick currently leads the NASCAR GRID Rating and is still the projected leader of the GRID Ranking.

The next race on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday, March 15. Coverage will begin at 4 p.m. ET on FS1.