Joey Logano returns to Phoenix Raceway after winning Cup Series title a year ago
AVONDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Joey Logano already had an affinity for Phoenix Raceway.
The Team Penske driver had won on the mile oval three times, including the 2022 Cup Series title, and had 15 top-10 finishes in 31 races since 2009.
Logano’s love affair for Phoenix took an even deeper turn last November, when he held off teammate Ryan Blaney over the final 20 laps to win his third Cup Series title.
“It’s a lot of special moments, but I’ve been saying it’s in the past, right?” Logano said this week. “You’ve got to keep moving forward. It’s still fun to reminisce a little bit, but you’ve got to stay on the windshield.”
Logano’s next look will be Sunday’s 312-mile race, the fourth of the 2025 NASCAR season.
Logano was in the mix at the season-opening Daytona 500 but ended up finishing 35th in a late-race crash that had Kyle Busch fuming. He finished fourth at Atlanta but struggled on the road course at Circuit of Americas in Austin, Texas, last week to finish 24th.
Logano will start on the front row on Sunday.
“There’s a million different variables out there that are always floating around,” he said. “What do teams do over the offseason to find just overall gains, right? This will be a good measure to see, did we work hard enough over the offseason or did everyone else catch us?”
Tire options
Sunday’s race will mark the return of Goodyear’s option tires.
Each Cup Series team will have six primary sets of tires and two option tires, the same setup as the summer race at Richmond Raceway last year. The option tires have more grip but wear off faster, adding a layer of strategy to the race.
Phoenix Raceway has had a lot of pack racing the past few years and the hope is the option tires will create more passing opportunities.
“One of the reasons it was a lot of fun to watch was because you had different people running different races and different agendas,” Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suarez said. “It just creates more opportunities and more tools to do different things.”
Byron on the pole
Daytona 500 winner William Byron will start on the pole after posting the fastest lap late in qualifying.
Logano had the fastest lap of 27.028 seconds (133.1 mph) before Bryon clipped him by .098 seconds for his 14th career pole.
“I don’t like William Byron anymore,” Logano joked.
Carson Hocevar and Josh Berry will start on the second row.
Blaney in Phoenix
Logano isn’t the only driver who likes racing in Phoenix.
Ryan Blaney has finished in the top 10 in his last nine races at Phoenix Raceway, including top five the last season. His top-five streak is the second longest in Phoenix history, behind Jimmie Johnson (10), and the longest at any track since Martin Truex Jr. at Richmond from 2018-2022.
Blaney has finished runner-up four of the past five years, yet he still hasn’t taken the checkers in 18 races since 2016. He finished second in the Cup Series championship race last year when he couldn’t track down Logano.
Odds and ends
Katherine Legge will become the eighth female driver to run a NASCAR race in the modern era (1972-2025) and the first since Danica Patrick made her final start at the Daytona 500 seven years ago. … Christopher Bell is attempting to become the first Cup Series driver to win three straight races with the NextGen car and the first overall since Kyle Larson in 2021. The driver for Joe Gibbs Racing won at Atlanta and Circuit of America this season, and he won the spring race at Phoenix last year. Bell will start 11th on Sunday. … Team Penske’s Austin Cindric will start 14th after avoiding a suspension for intentionally spinning Ty Dillon at Circuit of the Americas. Cindric was penalized 50 points and fined $50,000 after retaliating against Dillon for moving him up the track earlier in the race.
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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
By JOHN MARSHALL
AP Sports Writer
