The NASCAR drivers that race in the Sprint Cup Series who are not name Kevin Harvick will be doing all they can to beat him this Sunday (3/13) at Phoenix International Raceway in the Good Sam 500.
The reason I say that is that in recent years Kevin has dominated at Phoenix. In fact, he has won five of the last seven races the Sprint Cup Series has run at the track. That means over the past three and a half years there have only been two other drivers claim a win at Phoenix International Raceway in NASCAR’s top division other than Kevin. Carl Edwards won the first Sprint Cup race at the track in 2013 and Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the second race of last season there. Otherwise, to steal the promotional phrase off the back of his car recently, when it comes to Sprint Cup action at Phoenix Kevin has been too “Freaky Fast” to beat.
So far this season the Sprint Cup drivers have raced on the Superspeedway of Daytona and two intermediate mile and a half tracks (Atlanta and Las Vegas) with the new low down force package. Now they will get to experience the new package on a one-mile track that races a lot like a short track. Phoenix International Raceway has enough length to get some pretty high speeds going. However, with low banking through the turns a car better have good handling or it will slide a lot and possibly out of control very easily.
The track has plenty of room to pass and race side-by-side. If you add to that the new low down force package that the drivers wanted to put more control of who wins the race in their own hands driving the car and this race could be filled with excitement from green flag to checkered flag for the fans.
Let’s take a look at which active drivers have performed the best at Phoenix International Raceway in their careers (other than, but including, Kevin Harvick).
Top 10 Driver Ratings at Phoenix
Jimmie Johnson – 112.6
Kevin Harvick – 109.9
Carl Edwards – 99.2
Kurt Busch – 98.4
Kyle Busch – 97.3
Denny Hamlin – 95.1
Brad Keselowski – 93.8
Joey Logano – 89.9
Ryan Newman – 88.6
Kyle Larson – 88.3
(NOTE: Driver Ratings compiled from 2005-2015 races {22 total} among active drivers at Phoenix International Raceway.)
There are 11 active Sprint Cup drivers that have won at least one race at Phoenix. Kevin Harvick leads that list with a total of seven career Sprint Cup wins at the track (including five or the last seven as mentioned earlier) and is the defending winner of this race from last year.
Jimmie Johnson is next on the list of winners with four followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr. with three and Carl Edwards who has two wins at Phoenix.
The seven other active drivers that have a single win each st Phoenix in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series are Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Ryan Newman, Kasey Kahne and Denny Hamlin.
Will one of the three drivers that have already won this season (Denny, Jimmie and Brad Keselowski) become the first driver to score multiple wins in the 2016 NASCAR Season?
Will there be a fourth driver that adds their name to the all but guaranteed a spot on the Chase Grid list of name?
Will Kevin or another previous Phoenix winner add to their number of wins at the track?
Will a driver get their first Sprint Cup career win at Phoenix International Speedway?
All of these questions will be answered after 312 laps (312 miles, 500 kilometers) of NASCAR racing Sunday, March 13th in the Good Sam 500 starting at 2:30 PM central time (3:30 PM eastern time) at Phoenix International Raceway.
Just another note to remind you that Saturday night is time to “Spring Forward” one hour. Make sure you do or you could miss the first hour of racing action.
By: Buck Stevens
