Everything We Know So Far About NASCAR Silly Season: Denny Hamlin, Zane Smith, and More

The Biggest Losers from NASCAR’s Phoenix Race Weekend

by Cody Williams

What’s Happening?

Another race weekend in the books. While Ryan Blaney battled back from several pit road setbacks to win his second straight race at Phoenix, other drivers were much to be desired. It was a big win for Penske but for several others, they leave the first “real” race of the season scratching their head with a lot that they need to figure out. Here are the biggest losers of NASCAR’s Spring 2026 Phoenix race weekend.

Kyle Busch

I’m afraid that this is starting to be habitual. Another race weekend at RCR for Kyle Busch, another terrible result. Well, the finish wasn’t exactly awful. While 17th is hardly up to Kyle’s standards, it’s about as good as it gets anymore for the two-time champion who hasn’t won a race in nearly a hundred starts.

To start things off, there was a reason to be cautiously optimistic about the future of that RCR No. 8 Chevy. New crew chief. Personnel changes. A new Chevy body. He even scored the pole for the 68th running of the Daytona 500 last month. But, since then, it has been a sharp slope downward. He was mostly a non-factor in the first three races. And, today, it seemed like the No. 8 Chevy was out to lunch. They unloaded slow. They qualified in the back of the pack. And, before Stage 1 even ended, Kyle was running 34th with no apparent issues and went a lap down to leader Ryan Blaney. To add insult to injury, Kyle Bush had a tire go down on him three times today. More than any other driver. It appears to be back to the drawing board for team No. 8.

The Hendrick No. 48 Team

You could say that the Hendrick No. 48 team had a rough weekend in general. But I think it would be more accurate to say that the entire start to 2026 has been catastrophic. Heading into today’s race, even with Bowman starting the first three races of the season, the No. 48 team was 36th in points, last among all full-time drivers. Even Cody Ware was ahead of him. If that’s not bad, I don’t know what is.

To rub salt in the wound, their driver missed today at Phoenix due to showing symptoms of vertigo. So, Anthony Alfredo was into sub and…it went about as well as you’d expect. He went a lap down early and never recovered. He got caught up in the incident involving Joey Logano and DNF’d. Officially, they scored a 33rd finishing position. This is the worst start Bowman could ever imagine, considering that he’s in a contract year.

Team Penske

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that I’ve lost my marbles. “Come on, dude! Penske just swept the weekend! How can they be losers?” Hear me out. Let’s start first with the two other Penske drivers, shall we? Joey Logano caused not one, but two multi-car pileups, one involving his Penske teammate, Austin Cindric. Cars were utterly destroyed. Before that, both Cindric and Logano were running solidly in the top 10.

So, it’s not for a lack of speed that they make our Biggest Losers list. The reason they’re listed here is that a lot of their problems today, if not all of them, were self-inflicted. Logano was driving sloppily and that took out Cindric. And even race winner Ryan Blaney almost lost this race on pit road numerous times. Rookie mistakes by the pit crew constantly had him charging from behind. Pit road penalties. He was like a yo-yo going back and forth throughout the field. What saved him in the end was that, on that last restart, Blaney took two tires and Christopher Bell took 4. If that had not happened, it is extremely possible that Blaney ultimately would have lost the race and it would have been because of their numerous mistakes in the pits.

They got lucky this week. They probably won’t get that lucky again. They need to clean up those nagging, senseless mistakes.

Daniel Suarez

Ole, Danny boy. If Alex Bowman’s seat is the hottest in the series, Daniel Suarez has to be the second hottest in the garage. That No. 7 car has been a revolving door of drivers for the last several years and it looks like Suarez is shaping up to be Spire’s latest victim. It’s the same old story with the team: they show impressive speed in qualifying and even early on in the race. But rarely do they ever put a full race together. That criticism isn’t just for Suarez, it applies to the team across the board.

But Carson Hocevar is the team’s golden child. He’s not going anywhere. And the team seems pretty high on Michael McDowell at the moment. That leaves Suarez looking like the odd man out, a seat-warmer, if you will. He needs to perform. And, he’s done well to start, admittedly. But he qualified 5th for today’s race. He even earned a few stage points in the opening stage. Then, he faltered and left the race with an unceremonious whimper. Ultimately, after he was no longer a factor, he was caught up in a mid-race wreck. He finished 30th. That’s a tough pill to swallow for the Mexican-born driver. If he wants to keep his ride next year, he needs to show stark improvement in the coming weeks. I have a strong feeling that that ride is about to be a highly sought-after commodity once silly season rolls around.

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Cup: Penske Sweeps Phoenix; Ryan Blaney Wins

by Cody Williams

What’s Happening?

The first checkered flag of the 2026 rendition of the NASCAR West Coast Swing (as abbreviated as it is) has officially flown. It was an exciting race, full of close, tight-cornered racing, a plethora of tire issues littered throughout, and a couple of heartbreaking, hard hits. Surviving it all was Ryan Blaney, who captured the flag in the Straight Talk 500 at Phoenix Raceway. He survived pit road mishaps and passed a total of 49 cars to win the race today. It marks his 18th career victory, sweeping the weekend for Team Penske. So, for Blaney and Team Penske, the race was the highest of highs. Not everyone escaped unscathed, though. Here are the key takeaways from NASCAR’s spring date at Phoenix.

Fast Notes:

• Stage 1 belonged to Ryan Blaney. The Team Penske drivers were fast across the board in that opening stage, all three of their cars finishing inside the top 10, earning valuable stage points. Some mistakes in Stage 2 had them fall a little bit behind the JGR Toyotas but they were, for the most part, resilient and fought back valiantly. Stage points earners in the first stage include Blaney (10), Bell (9), Logano (8), Reddick (7), Hamlin (6), Cindric (5), Suarez (4), Gibbs (3), Byron (2), and Chastain (1).
• As referenced earlier, Team Penske made some mistakes in the second stage that put them just a smidge behind the JGR Toyotas. One of those costly mistakes was made by Ryan Blaney, who was clocked speeding in the second stage. To add insult to injury, by the halfway point of the final stage, he had lost a net of 24 positions on pit road today.
• Christopher Bell went on to win Stage 2. Stage points earners include Bell (10), Hamlin (9), Logano (8), Buescher (7), Wallace (6), Cindric (5), Hocevar (4), Reddick (3), Larson (2), and Gilliland (1).
• Tires were an issue today as many drivers suffered tire failures. Many of them even had multiple tire failures. Drivers who had tire issues include Kyle Busch, Shane van Gisbergen, Chase Briscoe, Kyle Larson, Daniel Suarez, William Byron, and Ryan Preece. The tire compound that Goodyear brought was the same as last fall, which showed significant wear even then. Mix that with the new 750 horsepower package, and the average life span of the tires was about 20 laps, making for an interesting race
• There were a number of on-track incidents that took out some heavy hitters. The first major incident came on Lap 216 when Joey Logano triggered an incident that turned Ross Chastain in front of the field. Logano himself, Anthony Alfredo (subbing for Alex Bowman), Bubba Wallace, and Austin Cindric were taken out in that one. Then, Logano was involved in another wreck when he was turned by A. J. Allmendinger and spun up in front of the leaders. Drivers involved in that debacle include Chase Elliott, Shane van Gisbergen, Joey Logano, and Josh Berry.
• Aside from all the chaos, there were a number of drivers who were just off the pace from the drop of the green flag. One of those drivers was Anthony Alfredo, who was subbing for an injured Alex Bowman. It has been an abysmal start to the year for Bowman, who is in a contract year, and now he will earn zero points. With or without him, that NO. 48 car just looked out to lunch today. Meanwhile, Kyle Busch was also awful from the jump. His car was not handling, and he went a lap down even before the conclusion of the first stage. Add in a couple of spins from tire failures, and it’s clear that the No. 8 RCR team is back to their old standard of less than mediocrity.
• A series of late race cautions set up for what was sure to be a thrilling finish. A restart with 12 to go saw Ty Gibbs lead the field around with Larson, Blaney, and Byron behind him. As they got through the first couple of turns, Blaney, on two tires, found himself battling it out with Ty Gibbs for the race lead. Not far behind, though, was Christopher Bell, who took four fresh tires on the pit stop. With 10 to go, Blaney made his move and cleared Ty Gibbs for the race lead. Larson ran third, Christopher Bell fourth. With six to go, Bell cleared Larson for 2nd. He put his sights on Blaney. He wasn’t able to get it done in time. Ryan Blaney did it again, winning at Phoenix for Roger Penske.

Caution Tracker

• Lap 61: End of Stage 1
• Lap 93: Kyle Bush Into the Wall
• Lap 107: Debris
• Lap 132: Chase Briscoe Blows a Tire
• Lap 157: Noah Gragson Tire Failure
• Lap 185: End of Stage 2
• Lap 210: Ryan Preece Spins
• Lap 216: Logano Spins Chastain
• Lap 247: Debris
• Lap 254: Logano Spins, Collecting Berry and Elliott
• Lap 288: Austin Dillon, Tire Failure
• Lap 294: Zane Smith, Ty Dillon, and John Hunter Nemechek Crash

Race Results

Points Standings (4 of 26)

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Cup: Logano Triggers Big Crash that Takes Out Favorites

by Cody Williams

What’s Happening?

Following a relatively clean first stage, Stage number 2 and beyond was littered with cautions. Most of these cautions were a result of tires going down after only about 20 laps or so of use. But the caution on Lao 216 was purely driver error. Joey Logano, who was running 7th at the time, made a move down on the apron approaching the finish line. Chaos ensued. Here’s what happened.

• As you can see in the footage above, Joey Logano drove his No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford deep into the dogleg. He gives Ross Chastain a poorly timed push that gets him out of shape, sending them both up the track.
• As Logano and Chastain shot up the track, there was nowhere to go for a plethora of drivers. Caught up in the incident were Anthony Alfredo (subbing for an injured Alex Bowman), Bubba Wallace (who just narrowly escaped without major damage), and Austin Cindric.
• This is a particularly heartbreaking set of circumstances for Cindric, who was having a stellar day. He was comfortably battling inside the top 10 all race long only for his day to be ended prematurely by his teammate.
• Logano was resourceful over the radio after the incident. He stated “I didn’t mean to do that, obviously”. Intentional or not, it still ended the day for a lot of great cars.

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