In fashionable NASCAR, champions aren’t topped till the final lap of the final race of the season. 4 drivers (from three super teams) 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 crucial observe 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 Collection driver ever at Phoenix, Kevin Harvick, who racked up 9 wins throughout 21 years.
So, how do you win Phoenix and the NASCAR Cup Collection championship, in Harvick’s thoughts?
“Effectively, that is a loaded query,” he mentioned.
Harvick might have lately retired from full-time driving to change into a commentator on races for FOX Sports activities (and host a podcast host with the community “Kevin Harvick’s Happy 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
Picture by: David Rosenblum / NKP / Motorsport Photos
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 seemingly received’t keep there ceaselessly, 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Phoenix is a “enormous half” of Harvick’s profession — from the outdated days to the fashionable ones, after the Cup Collection launched its new “NextGen” race automobile and basically flipped the observe structure.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 just isn’t the identical Phoenix we see at present. [The track] was very uniquely redesigned to have a stadium really feel to it.
“The beginning-finish line was once 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’ve got seen. And what’s now the entrance straightaway was banked so you possibly can elevate and see the vehicles from different locations on the racetrack.”
Harvick categorizes Phoenix in 3 ways: quick, flat, and “identified for its restarts.” There’s asphalt from the skin wall to pit-road exit, main vehicles to fan out six-wide on restarts. Phoenix additionally isn’t a normal 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 liked because the season finale — particularly with barn-burners at Homestead — as a result of quick tracks have been a battle with the NextGen automobile. 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 free
Phoenix is a observe the place getting the final laps proper is perhaps extra essential than nailing the beginning.
“It is advisable qualify good, however I do not suppose that is the tip of the world. In case your automobile’s going to win, you want to be good on the long term. You need to have a automobile that you may alter on all through the day. The way it begins is not how it may want to complete.”
In NASCAR, races have “lengthy runs” and “quick runs.” Cup vehicles can final 95 laps on one tank of gas, and the race itself lasts 312. A brief run at Phoenix maxes out at about 30 laps within the Cup automobile owing principally to tire degradation: the rubber breaks down intensely over the primary 30 laps earlier than plateauing and carrying far more slowly over the subsequent 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
Picture by: Matthew T. Thacker / NKP / Motorsport Photos
The race begins noon and transitions into nightfall, so the automobile must be arrange for the decrease temps of a desert sundown. The observe’s floor modifications with the warmth loss and the rubber buildup from tires, that means groups have to seek out the fitting stability between free (rotates an excessive amount of, prefer it’s on ice skates) and tight (doesn’t flip sharply sufficient).
“We noticed it final yr,” mentioned Harvick. “We noticed the racetrack actually change. Plenty of the vehicles that had been tremendous free to start out the race wound up being the actually good vehicles on the finish, as a result of the observe tightens up because the day goes on. I feel you simply must run the automobile as free as attainable, and typically a little bit looser than you prefer it, as a way to maintain the flip within the automobile all through the entire day.”
Harvick’s Phoenix Tip #2: Grasp the restarts
A patented Phoenix restart in 2019
Picture by: Russell LaBounty / NKP / Motorsport Photos
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 attainable by way of the dogleg, fanning out five- and six-wide.
There’s only one downside: the yellow line marking the “backside” of the observe, the place it transitions from banked nook to flat apron, means not everybody will get to the place they need to go.
“The toughest half in regards to the restart just isn’t mistiming it, as a result of you’ll be able to’t go beneath the yellow line till you get to the start-finish line,” Harvick mentioned. “The very first thing everyone needs 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 as a way to not get a penalty.
“However you’ll be able to’t be conservative. You need to go as little as you’ll be able to go, as a result of if you happen to 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 sluggish to react or not going all the best way to the underside. Any individual shoves their nostril inside them, and subsequent factor , any person hits the within wall.”
A driver’s place within the area can even make or break their restart in Phoenix. NASCAR restarts usually have about 40 vehicles in two traces of 20, and the lead automobile accelerates in a “restart zone” earlier than the inexperienced flag. However with the Phoenix reconfiguration, lots of the sphere continues to be within the last nook when the chief accelerates.
“With the ability to speed up within the nook just isn’t 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 soft suspension to guard them.
“After I drove the NextGen automobile, the very last thing I wished to do was go on the apron,” Harvick mentioned. “It is essentially the most uncomfortable experience you possibly can probably think about, as a result of the automobile bottoms out. It is a jarring blow each time.”
Harvick’s Phoenix Tip #3: Brake laborious, drive tougher
Restart or not, drivers must settle right into a rhythm round Phoenix. Which means carrying as a lot pace into and out of the corners as attainable.
“The very first thing that I at all times attempt to inform folks is: You need to get the braking,” mentioned Harvick. “I feel with the ability to nonetheless get a pleasant form into the nook, however drive the automobile into the nook as laborious as you’ll be able to, is the place we at all times made up lots of time.”
Harvick additionally mentioned drivers “cannot be locked into one line.”
“If everyone’s on the underside of the racetrack, you are by no means going to cross them,” Harvick mentioned. “That was one factor that at all times made us good with this model 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 lots of out-of-the-throttle roll time.” It suited his driving model, and if he nailed the transition from brake to throttle, he knew it was a superb lap.
“The primary cue, for me, was once 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 course,” 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 observe, the method is totally different in Turns 1 and a pair of than it’s in Turns 3 and 4. (And infrequently, Harvick mentioned, if you happen to do effectively in Turns 1 and a pair 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 possibly can flip the steering wheel lots tougher than most locations,” Harvick mentioned. “That second tug on the wheel was one thing I felt like was a bonus for us, with the ability to nonetheless have your automobile flip by way of the center of 1 and two — and as quickly because it did flip, with 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 automobile 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.
“In case you might hit it proper together with your left-front, then you possibly 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.”
