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 very 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 a very powerful 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 victories throughout greater than 20 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 could have just lately retired from full-time driving to develop 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 depart 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 probably received’t keep there eternally, 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Phoenix is a “enormous half” of Harvick’s profession — from the outdated days to the fashionable ones, after the Cup Sequence launched its new “NextGen” race automotive and primarily flipped the monitor structure.
“I grew up on the West Coast, and Phoenix was sort of our Tremendous Bowl for the touring divisions all through the years,” Harvick mentioned. “However that Phoenix shouldn’t be the identical Phoenix we see right this moment. [The track] was very uniquely redesigned to have a stadium really feel to it.
“The beginning-finish line was on what’s now the again straightaway. The entrance straightaway was redesigned so followers might see it from the infield. You’re actually in place to see nice finishes, which we now have seen. And what’s now the entrance straightaway was banked so you can elevate and see the vehicles from different locations on the racetrack.”
Harvick categorizes Phoenix in 3 ways: brief, flat, and “identified for its restarts.” There’s asphalt from the surface wall to pit-road exit, main vehicles to fan out six-wide on restarts. Phoenix additionally isn’t a regular 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 brief tracks have been a battle with the NextGen automotive. 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 unfastened
Phoenix is a monitor the place getting the final laps proper is perhaps extra essential than nailing the beginning.
“It’s worthwhile to qualify good, however I do not assume that is the tip of the world. In case your automotive’s going to win, you have to be good on the long term. It’s a must to have a automotive you can modify on all through the day. The way it begins is not how it should want to complete.”
In NASCAR, races have “lengthy runs” and “brief runs.” Cup vehicles 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 automotive owing principally to tire degradation: the rubber breaks down intensely over the primary 30 laps earlier than plateauing and carrying rather more slowly over the following 70 laps or so.
“Kevin discovered pace by being quickest throughout that plateau space,” defined one race engineer I spoke with. “Since lap instances 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 automotive 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, which means groups have to seek out the suitable stability between unfastened (rotates an excessive amount of, prefer it’s on ice skates) and tight (doesn’t flip sharply sufficient).
“We noticed it final 12 months,” mentioned Harvick. “We noticed the racetrack actually change. A number of the vehicles that have been tremendous unfastened to begin the race wound up being the actually good vehicles on the finish, as a result of the monitor tightens up because the day goes on. I feel you simply need to run the automotive as unfastened as doable, and typically a little bit looser than you prefer it, with a purpose to maintain the flip within the automotive 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 carry vehicles two-wide towards the inexperienced flag. However in Phoenix, vehicles instantly dive left to drive the shortest distance doable by means of 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 shouldn’t be 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 all people desires to do is go left, so from a driver’s standpoint, you simply have to pay attention to the place that start-finish line is with a purpose to not get a penalty.
“However you possibly can’t be conservative. It’s a must to go as little as you possibly can go, as a result of should you do not, any person’s going to go decrease. We do not see a ton of wrecks, however the ones that do occur are normally from any person being gradual to react or not going all the way in which to the underside. Someone shoves their nostril within them, and subsequent factor , any person hits the within wall.”
A driver’s place within the discipline may also make or break their restart in Phoenix. NASCAR restarts sometimes have about 40 vehicles in two traces of 20, and the lead automotive accelerates in a “restart zone” earlier than the inexperienced flag. However with the Phoenix reconfiguration, plenty of the sphere remains to be within the ultimate nook when the chief accelerates.
“Having the ability to speed up within the nook shouldn’t be 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 comfortable suspension to guard them.
“Once I drove the NextGen automotive, the very last thing I wished to do was go on the apron,” Harvick mentioned. “It is essentially the most uncomfortable trip you can probably think about, as a result of the automotive bottoms out. It is a jarring blow each time.”
Harvick’s Phoenix Tip #3: Brake laborious, drive more durable
Restart or not, drivers need to settle right into a rhythm round Phoenix. Meaning carrying as a lot pace into and out of the corners as doable.
“The very first thing that I at all times attempt to inform individuals is: It’s a must to get the braking,” mentioned Harvick. “I feel having the ability to nonetheless get a pleasant form into the nook, however drive the automotive into the nook as laborious as you possibly can, is the place we at all times made up plenty of time.”
Harvick additionally mentioned drivers “cannot be locked into one line.”
“If all people’s on the underside of the racetrack, you are by no means going to move them,” Harvick mentioned. “That was one factor that at all times made us good with this type 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 plenty of out-of-the-throttle roll time.” It suited his driving type, 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 laborious might 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 approach is completely different in Turns 1 and a couple of than it’s in Turns 3 and 4. (And infrequently, Harvick mentioned, should you do effectively in Turns 1 and a couple of, you’ll overdrive 3 and 4. It’s laborious to get an ideal lap in.)
“I at all times discovered that Phoenix was a spot the place, in Flip 1, you can flip the steering wheel rather a lot 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 automotive flip by means of 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 wished to have the ability to drive the automotive in straight,” Harvick mentioned. “I wished 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 sort of like a trough. The left-front tire loves that little line within the trough.
“If you happen to might hit it proper along with your left-front, then you can elevate 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 feel you are going to win the race on the underside in 3 and 4.”
