{"id":642693,"date":"2026-03-09T07:26:47","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T07:26:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/642693\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T07:26:47","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T07:26:47","slug":"nascar-goodyear-and-ryan-blaney-get-a-win-in-phoenix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/642693\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR, Goodyear and Ryan Blaney get a win in Phoenix"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ryan Blaney<\/a> won the Straight Talk Wireless 500 at Phoenix Raceway<\/a> but it was also a victory for the NASCAR industry at large.<\/p>\n

That was inarguably the best race in the five-year, nine-event history of the seventh-generation car at the one-mile track in Avondale, Arizona. Goodyear\u2019s continued efforts combined with NASCAR\u2019s first race using the 750-horsepower package with this car on an oval gave everyone reasons to believe in this facility again.<\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

Blaney won this race because his Team Penske<\/a> No. 12 was the class of the field but two issues on pit road forced him to have to drive from the back and he did so surgically. Again, that is a testament to the driver but also this rules package as this simply would not have been possible at Phoenix in the first two or three years of the NextGen.<\/p>\n

The car did not have enough power and made too much grip when combined with its aerodynamic tendencies. NASCAR has methodically worked on the short track package and what Blaney accomplished was a byproduct of those efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a great tire,\u201d Blaney said. \u201cThe added horsepower was good. We’re creeping up on it. Hopefully we get a little bit more going forward. I always think that’s good. You have comers and goers and stuff like that. \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it wore really good. You could make it angry and pay a penalty for it at the end of the run. I thought that added horsepower stepped that up, too. You could really buzz the right rear if you weren’t careful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

That meant cars ended up all over the racing surface in the pursuit of making speed and taking care of their tires. There was dirty air, because these are moving objects, but it wasn\u2019t insurmountable.<\/p>\n

All of this gave crew chiefs the option to take four tires or two at the end, and two ultimately won over four, but Christopher Bell<\/a> arguably gets Blaney if he had one more lap or disposed of Kyle Larson<\/a> one lap sooner.<\/p>\n

Regardless, that so many options were viable at the end is a testament to the industry\u2019s efforts, and even a disappointed Bell conceded it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought the racing was great,\u201d Bell said. \u201cThe horsepower was really, really necessary and I would love to keep bumping it up. This really put it in the drivers\u2019 hands and the teams\u2019 hands. You saw Blaney be able to work his way back a couple of times. I ended up in the back once and the cream was able to rise to the top.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore horsepower is a lot better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sure, there were some tire failures over the course of the race and that caused a handful of cautions but that was also the byproduct of teams trying to find every tenth of a second with one of the few variables they control in this spec car era.<\/p>\n

Denny Hamlin<\/a> credited Goodyear after the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis tire is great,\u201d Hamlin said. \u201cIt really allows the drivers and teams to be in control of their destiny. It\u2019s always going to be a battle of how far can you push it. I thought the racing was great and overall, a lot of cautions because restarts, and people getting into each other. That\u2019s part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blaney echoed the sentiment that Goodyear did nothing wrong here too.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as the tire failures go, that’s just people pushing air pressure,\u201d Blaney said. \u201cWhen tires wear out a lot, people are going to push air pressure. How low can we get? You’re going to see blowouts. What’s the basement without having a problem?\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s racing.<\/p>\n

Inside NASCourt :<\/p>\n

So the end was the convergence of all these different storylines. Blaney and Ty Gibbs<\/a> took two tires at the end in the hopes of retaining clean air. Blaney won that battle with Gibbs and it worked. Bell took four and had he gotten Larson one lap sooner or the race lasted one lap longer, that arguably works.<\/p>\n

That nearly 10 teams had a chance to pull a lever that works, is a good day for a car that struggles to give you a win from anywhere but the front row. That Blaney had to drive through the field twice allowed both an elite driver and team to shine.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s also the 2023\u2019s champion\u2019s first win as a father.<\/p>\n

Obviously it would have been cool to have Gianna and Charley here, just to be with them, have a photo.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking forward to getting home tonight and seeing them,\u201d Blaney said. \u201cIt just changes your perspective. Whenever I get home Sunday nights and see her and him, it just completely changes everything.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor days like today, it’s just the cherry on top. Really, really lucky to have a healthy son and a healthy wife. Hopefully we can do it at some point where they’re here. Yeah, pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photos from Phoenix – Race<\/p>\n

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We want your opinion!<\/p>\n

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Take our 5 minute survey.<\/a><\/p>\n

– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ryan Blaney won the Straight Talk Wireless 500 at Phoenix Raceway but it was also a victory for…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":642694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,273400,170876,1406,1420,1589,20534,9653,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-642693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-phoenix","tag-america","tag-arizona","tag-az","tag-goodyear-and-ryan-blaney-get-a-win-in-phoenix","tag-ism-raceway","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-cup","tag-phoenix","tag-ryan-blaney","tag-team-penske","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116198035942107355","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}