In fashionable 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 probability on the title — and the 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 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?
“Properly, that is a loaded query,” he stated.
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 Glad Hour”), however the retired champion kindly defined, in champion-level element, precisely what it takes to go away 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 stated it probably received’t keep there without end, however hasn’t shared any concrete plans about what’s subsequent.
Phoenix is a “large half” of Harvick’s profession — from the outdated days to the fashionable ones, after the Cup Sequence launched its new “NextGen” race automobile and basically flipped the observe format.
“I grew up on the West Coast, and Phoenix was type of our Tremendous Bowl for the touring divisions all through the years,” Harvick stated. “However that Phoenix shouldn’t be the identical Phoenix we see in the present day. [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 have now seen. And what’s now the entrance straightaway was banked so you may elevate and see the automobiles 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 automobiles to fan out six-wide on restarts. Phoenix additionally isn’t a typical 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 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 possibly extra essential than nailing the beginning.
“You have to qualify good, however I do not suppose that is the top of the world. In case your automobile’s going to win, it’s essential be good on the long term. It’s important to have a automobile that you could modify on all through the day. The way it begins is not how it will want to complete.”
In NASCAR, races have “lengthy runs” and “quick runs.” Cup automobiles 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 automobile owing principally to tire degradation: the rubber breaks down intensely over the primary 30 laps earlier than plateauing and sporting way more slowly over the subsequent 70 laps or so.
“Kevin discovered velocity by being quickest throughout that plateau space,” defined one race engineer I spoke with. “Since lap occasions 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 automobile must be arrange for the decrease temps of a desert sundown. The observe’s floor adjustments with the warmth loss and the rubber buildup from tires, which means groups have to search out the best steadiness between free (rotates an excessive amount of, prefer it’s on ice skates) and tight (doesn’t flip sharply sufficient).
“We noticed it final 12 months,” stated Harvick. “We noticed the racetrack actually change. Lots of the automobiles that have been tremendous free to start out the race wound up being the actually good automobiles on the finish, as a result of the observe tightens up because the day goes on. I believe you simply should run the automobile as free as doable, and typically slightly looser than you prefer it, in an effort 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
Photograph by: Russell LaBounty / NKP / Motorsport Pictures
Phoenix restarts are one-of-a-kind. NASCAR’s rolling-start restarts deliver automobiles two-wide towards the inexperienced flag. However in Phoenix, automobiles instantly dive left to drive the shortest distance doable by means 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 wish to go.
“The toughest half concerning the restart shouldn’t be mistiming it, as a result of you may’t go under the yellow line till you get to the start-finish line,” Harvick stated. “The very first thing everyone 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 in an effort to not get a penalty.
“However you may’t be conservative. It’s important to go as little as you may go, as a result of should you do not, anyone’s going to go decrease. We do not see a ton of wrecks, however the ones that do occur are often from anyone being gradual to react or not going all the best way to the underside. Someone shoves their nostril within them, and subsequent factor , anyone hits the within wall.”
A driver’s place within the discipline also can make or break their restart in Phoenix. NASCAR restarts sometimes have about 40 automobiles in two traces of 20, and the lead automobile accelerates in a “restart zone” earlier than the inexperienced flag. However with the Phoenix reconfiguration, a whole lot of the sphere continues to be within the closing nook when the chief accelerates.
“Having the ability to speed up within the nook shouldn’t be simple,” Harvick stated.
Then, there’s the bodily toll these left-hooks take. Drivers slam onto the flatter apron from the banked racing floor, they usually don’t have soft suspension to guard them.
“After I drove the NextGen automobile, the very last thing I needed to do was go on the apron,” Harvick stated. “It is probably the most uncomfortable experience you may presumably think about, as a result of the automobile bottoms out. It is a jarring blow each time.”
Harvick’s Phoenix Tip #3: Brake arduous, drive tougher
Restart or not, drivers should settle right into a rhythm round Phoenix. Which means carrying as a lot velocity into and out of the corners as doable.
“The very first thing that I at all times attempt to inform individuals is: It’s important to get the braking,” stated Harvick. “I believe with the ability to nonetheless get a pleasant form into the nook, however drive the automobile into the nook as arduous as you may, is the place we at all times made up a whole lot of time.”
Harvick additionally stated drivers “cannot be locked into one line.”
“If everyone’s on the underside of the racetrack, you are by no means going to move them,” Harvick stated. “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 a whole lot 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 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 stated. “The second cue was: How arduous might I put the throttle down on the exit of the nook?”
As a result of Phoenix is a special form on every finish of the observe, the approach is totally different in Turns 1 and a pair of than it’s in Turns 3 and 4. (And sometimes, Harvick stated, should you do properly in Turns 1 and a pair of, you’ll overdrive 3 and 4. It’s arduous to get an ideal lap in.)
“I at all times discovered that Phoenix was a spot the place, in Flip 1, you may flip the steering wheel so much tougher than most locations,” Harvick stated. “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 means 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 needed to have the ability to drive the automobile in straight,” Harvick stated. “I needed to have my eyes in the direction of the within wall to choose up that yellow line, as a result of I felt prefer it was type 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 may raise 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 believe you are going to win the race on the underside in 3 and 4.”
