NASCAR made history last weekend with the Truck Series – Indy Car Series double header on the streets of St. Petersburg. Now the Cup Series will join the O’Reilly Series for the “Desert Double” at Phoenix Raceway. The O’Reilly Series and the Indycar Series will race Saturday at Phoenix Raceway and then the Cup Series will race on Sunday. If you love racing, this is the weekend for you. Phoenix Raceway may no longer host the championship race, but this is a pretty good replacement.
PHOENIX SCHEDULE
The Truck Series has the weekend off, so it will be just the Cup Series and the O’Reilly Series in Phoenix. The O’Reilly Series will practice and qualify Friday evening and then their cars will be impounded for their race Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET on CW Channel. The Cup Series will practice and qualify Saturday morning and then they will race Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET on FS1. This is one of the most confusing schedules of the season because the country sets their clocks back for daylight savings time, but Phoenix does not participate. Make sure you have the right times for the races this weekend in Phoenix.
EARLY WEEK DRIVER RANKINGS
We did not learn much about the team’s speed for the 2026 season in the first three races (Daytona, Atlanta and COTA). The race Sunday will finally give us an idea of which drivers made the correct adjustments over the offseason and are ready to compete for the 2026 Cup Series Championship.
The Cup Series competes at Phoenix Raceway twice each year and the races could not be more different. There are a handful of drivers who dominate the races at Phoenix in March. The race in November has always been dominated by the drivers competing for the championship. The other drivers just wanted to stay out of the way. I focused the Driver Rankings this week on the drivers who perform well at Phoenix in March. I expect these drivers to run up front again Sunday.
Here are the early week driver rankings for the Straight Talk Wireless 500…
* These rankings will be updated after all of the practice sessions are completed and the field is set for the race.
FANTASY STATS FOR PHOENIX
The most common tracks on the Cup Series schedule are the short, flat tracks, similar to Phoenix Raceway. We have a lot of data to work with since there are nine short, flat track races on the schedule and the Cup Series competes at Phoenix twice each year. I focused the stats on the last six races at Phoenix Races (2023-2025). This should give use an idea of which drivers are good at this track and good picks for your Fantasy NASCAR lineups.
PHOENIX RACE REWIND
The Championship Race in Phoenix is not a good representation of what we will see this week, because some of the teams already gave up on the season and the ones that didn’t, just wanted to stay out of the way of the four drivers still in the playoffs. For that reason, I used the race last March for the Race Rewind this week.
NASCAR used two different sets of tires in this race last year. They used a softer tire that gave the drivers speed early in the run, but wore out quickly and a harder tire that did not provide much early speed, but was better on the long run. NASCAR decided after the race to use the softer tire at all of the short, flat tracks last year.
William Byron won the pole last year at Phoenix and he and Joey Logano took turns leading the laps in Stage 1. Byron led 83 laps and Logano led 81 laps. Logano was penalized for dropping onto the apron before the start/finish line on the restart, so he had to go to the back. This allowed Byron to win Stage 1.
Christopher Bell took over the race on lap 95. He battled Joey Logano who used pit strategy to go from the back to the front in Stage 2. Bell won Stage 1, Logano finished 2nd and William Byron finished 3rd.
The Toyota’s dominated most of the race (Christopher Bell, Denny Hamlin and Tyler Reddick), but the Team Penske cars (Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney) looked good too. William Byron and Kyle Larson had some speed from Hendrick Motorsports. The cream really rises to the top in this race last year and that is the case in most of the races in Phoenix. In the end Christopher Bell was able to hold off Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson for the closes finish in the history of Phoenix Raceway. It was the second consecutive win for Bell in the March races at Phoenix and his third win a row last year.
You can watch the highlights of last year’s race here: 2025 Phoenix Race Rewind
STRATEGY FOR PHOENIX
SEASON-LONG GAME STRATEGY: This is not the race to save your best drivers. The March races at Phoenix have been dominated by Joe Gibbs Racing, Hendirck Motorsports and Team Penske. You are going to want to use the drivers from these teams in your lineups this weekend. Christopher Bell won the last two spring races at Phoenix, Denny Hamlin led 208 laps in the Championship Race last November, William Byron has the best average starting position (3.3) and the best Driver Rating over the last three years at Phoenix, Kyle Larson has the best finishing position over the last three years (5.2) and Ryan Blaney has finished 1st or 2nd in 5 of the last 7 races at Phoenix. These are the drivers you want to build your lineups around this week.
DFS GAME STRATEGY: The strategy for your DFS Contests is all about the dominators. There are 312 laps in the race Sunday. That means there are 218.4 dominator points up for grabs. We typically see one driver lead 100 laps and the other driver leads 80 laps. We need to pay up for the two drivers we think will lead the most laps. The other four spots in your lineup need to consist of drivers who can score some place differential points and finish in the top-10. I will try to identify those drivers in my DFS article this weekend.
EARLY WEEK BEST BETS FOR PHOENIX
I like to look at the odds early in the week and see if there are any drivers who are mispriced. I like to bet on these drivers before they get on the track for practice or qualifying and then we lose these odds. I am not suggesting that these drivers are the best picks in the field, but they are worth some a few bucks to return a nice profit. The picks hit with Tyler Reddick at 28-1 odds at Daytona and then again with Reddick at 16-1 odds at COTA. I will try to keep the winning trend going this weekend.
TYLER REDDICK 11-1: I won with Reddick twice so far this year, so why not go back to him again this week. Can Reddick win four races in a row? It has never happened in NASCAR, so the odds are stacked against him. There is more to the story than just a fast car. The “Xfinity Speed Center” located inside the 23XI Racing AirSpeed Facility is a state of the art command center that provides real-time data to the pit box from numerous engineers. Some people in the garage thinks 23XI Racing has an unfair advantage. I do not know if they do or not, but something is working. Until Reddick struggles or his odds drop into the single digits, I will continue to bet on the No. 45 car.
CHASE BRISCOE 12-1: Briscoe won the spring race at Phoenix in the Gen-7 car in 2022. He did that while driving for Stewart-Haas Racing. His Joe Gibbs Racing Toytoa should have the speed to run up front and Briscoe has the talent to win the race. I suggest shopping around for longer odds, but 12-1 isn’t too bad for the race Sunday.
JOEY LOGANO 12-1: Logano is a short, flat track master. He won two races in the Gen-7 car at Phoenix, but both races were in Novmeber. Logano hasn’t been too bad in March too. He led 81 laps and was on his way to a win last year when Logano cut the dogleg before the restart. He was sent to the back of the pack and that ruined his day. Logano is just too good on tracks similar to Phoenix to pass up this week.
I will add a one or two drivers to the card that I think are Best Bets after qualifying Saturday.
Follow me on X (Twitter) @MrFantasyNASCAR
If you like Fantasy NASCAR, LIKE my Fantasy NASCAR Tips Page on Facebook