Ryan Newman found himself in the right place at the right time to capture the NASCAR Cup Series win at Phoenix Raceway Sunday in the Camping World 500.
The day was hot in the desert of Arizona as Joey Logano started the race from the pole position and dominated the first 75 laps to win the first segment of the race.
Joey lost the lead at the start of the second segment and his day would continue to get worse from there.
Chase Elliott began looking like the car to beat as he spent most of segment two out front winning the bonus points for being in the lead at the end of that segment.
Not long into the third and final segment Kyle Busch was able to take the lead and began his domination of the last segment of the race leading 114 laps of the 162 lap segment. That laps led total was also the most for the entire race that was scheduled for 312 laps around the one-mile track.
There were just a handful of laps remaining with Kyle Busch leading by a comfortable margin when Joey Logano’s day would go from bad to worse. His tire blew sending the #22 Ford into the wall and bringing out the eighth and final caution flag. By the time the track was cleaned up from the crash, the race would go into NASCAR’s overtime of a green-white-checkered finish.
During the caution laps all the lead lap cars would pit and take two tires except three. Ryan Newman, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Martin Truex Jr. remained on the track to gain position instead of pitting to get new tires.
When the race was re-started Ryan Newman had the lead position and Kyle Larson dropped down to try for a pass. The #42 Chevrolet mad slight contact with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in the process. While both drivers were able to hand on to their cars and not crash, they slowed the field just enough that Ryan was able to race out to enough of a lead that he could hold on to with old tires and capture the win.
Ryan’s win broke a 127 race winless streak for himself and gave Richard Childress Racing (RCR) its first win in 112 races.
Kyle Larson was able to recover from the slight contact and race to a second place finish with Kyle Busch grabbing the third place finish. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. held on to finish fourth with Brad Keselowski rounding out the top five. See the complete race results for the Camping World 500 at Phoenix Raceway here.
While Kyle Larson might have been able to challenge for the win in the race had he and Stenhouse Jr. not made contact on the re-start, his second place finish was enough to make him the leader in the point standings. Brad Keselowski falls a spot to second place with Chase Elliott holding steady in third place. Martin Truex Jr. and Joey Logano also hold even at fourth and fifth paces respectively. See the complete Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series point standings here.
NASCAR’s west coast swing will come to and end this weekend with the Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway in California Sunday afternoon, March 26th.
By: Buck Stevens
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