F1 and NASCAR

NASCAR Goes Dancing in the Desert

Published

March 10, 2023

Logan Riely / Getty Images

After a dominant run by William Byron in Las Vegas, NASCAR is set to wrap up their West Coast swing with a visit to Phoenix Raceway.

However, the biggest storyline from last week at Vegas did not come from the race track. It was announced that 2020 Cup Series Champ Chase Elliott will miss time after suffering an injury in a snowboarding accident.

Chase Elliott has won NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver Award for five consecutive season so his presence will surely be missed while Josh Berry and Jordan Taylor serve as substitute drivers.

With the driver change in mind – let’s look at the entry list for Sunday’s race.

1	Ross Chastain	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet
2	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford
3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet
4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart Haas Racing	Ford
5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet
6	Brad Keselowski	RFK Racing	Ford
7	Corey Lajoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet
8	Kyle Busch	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet
9	Josh Berry	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet
10	Aric Almirola	Stewart Haas Racing	Ford
11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota
12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford
14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart Haas Racing	Ford
15	Todd Gilliland	Rick Ware Racing	Ford
16	AJ Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet
17	Chris Buescher	RFK Racing	Ford
19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota
20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota
21	Harrison Burton	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford
22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford
23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota
24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet
31	Justin Haley	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet
34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford
38	Zane Smith	Front Row Motorsports	Ford
41	Ryan Preece	Stewart Haas Racing	Ford
42	Noah Gragson	Petty GMS Motorsports	Chevrolet
43	Erik Jones	Petty GMS Motorsports	Chevrolet
45	Tyler Reddick	23XI Racing	Toyota
47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet
48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet
51	Cody Ware	Rick Ware Racing	Ford
54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota
77	Ty Dillon	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet
78	BJ McLeod	Live Fast Motorsports	Ford
99	Daniel Suarez	Trackhouse Racing Team

The Spring race at Phoenix takes on a bit of added significance given the fact that NASCAR’s championship race is run here come November.

In addition to those stakes, this is also NASCAR’s first race with a new lower downforce package that the series will use on short tracks and road courses – meaning this weekend’s results could have major lasting on the rest of the season. Check out the below thread from Bozi Tatarevic (an absolute must follow for racing fans) for more about how this package change could impact the drivers:

NASCAR released a new aero package for short tracks and road courses. Let's do a thread on what that looks like and what it means.

This new package will see changes to:

-spoiler
-diffuser strakes
-diffuser skirts
-engine panel strakes

This is where those pieces are located: pic.twitter.com/TmSsOIWZZQ
— Bozi Tatarevic (@BoziTatarevic) March 1, 2023

With that change in mind, it’s tough to predict who will run well in the desert. The one constant in the past ten years at Phoenix raceway has been the performance of Kevin Harvick. Harvick has not finished outside of the top ten at the track since 2013 and boasts nine victories. If I absolutely have to pick a winner for Sunday’s race, it has to be “Happy” Harvick.

Check out the schedule below to make sure you don’t miss any action from race week.