AVONDALE, Ariz. — Back-to-back wins have vaulted Chase Briscoe into contention for the NASCAR Cup Series championship.
Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell, two of his teammates with Joe Gibbs Racing, are still lurking, too.
But it remains to be seen if anyone can catch up to the steady excellence of reigning champion Kyle Larson in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 5 Chevrolet with the Chase at Phoenix Raceway this weekend.
Larson, who is looking for his third championship overall, leads regular-season champion Hamlin by 49 points with four races remaining. His average finish of 2.83 is the best pace over the first six postseason races since the Chase was introduced in 2004, and he already has two postseason victories and two second-place finishes this year.
Now he heads to a track where he has had consistent success — even though he views Phoenix Raceway with more trepidation than one might expect. He won on the one-mile tri-oval back in 2021, has 12 top-five finishes over 24 starts and finished third there in March.
Larson had a disappointing qualifying run Saturday and will start 22nd in Sunday’s Cup Series race. Ryan Blaney won the pole and Joey Logano was second to put a pair of Team Penske Fords on the front row, with Briscoe third, Hamlin fourth and Bell fifth.
“It’s just not been a historically good track for us from start to finish,” Larson said. “We’re able to finish well, but I think that has a lot to do with team execution. We’ve done that time and time again here. I feel like our average (speed) ranking, we’re probably an eighth to 13th-place car most times. We’ve had a couple decent ones, but we never come here and we’re like the fastest.”
Still, Larson’s recent run of dominance overall is reminiscent of seven-time Cup Series champ Jimmie Johnson’s peak in the 2000s while driving for Hendrick. Larson finished sixth last weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway, which was his worst finish of the postseason.
Bell is currently in third place in the standings, 51 points behind Larson. Briscoe’s two consecutive wins at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Charlotte have pushed him into fourth place, 65 points back. Blaney (85 points back), Logano (92) and 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick (114) are in spots five through seven.
Hamlin and his JGR team are still trying to regain the form that allowed him to dominate during the regular season. The No. 11 Toyota finished fifth last week at Charlotte, which was his second-best performance of the postseason.
“No desperation, but the gap needs to close, starting now,” Hamlin said. “I think that’s probably pretty accurate with our position. Just to get back on our front foot. You’ve got to start with winning the day and then go from there.
“But ultimately, with the races winding down, we’ve got to start chopping into this.”
After this weekend, races remain at Alabama’s Talladega Superspeedway, Virginia’s Martinsville Speedway and Florida’s Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Logano and Blaney are among the drivers hoping past success in the desert can help spark a rally.
Three-time Cup Series champ Logano is a four-time race winner at Phoenix, while 2023 season champ Blaney has won the past two races there. He can become the third driver to win three consecutive races in Phoenix, joining Kevin Harvick, who won four straight from 2013 to 2015, and Johnson, who won three in a row in 2007-08.
Blaney said past success doesn’t predict the future and he’s always trying to grow, even at a track where he’s been so good.
“You’re always having to get better — from a car side and a driver side,” Blaney said. “There’s things you do poorly even if you win the race. At least I look at it like, ‘I could have done better here. I could have done a better job with my approach or my mindset.'”
Blaney clocked a lap in 26.250 seconds, edging Logano by 0.032, and his No. 12 Ford the only car to top 137 mph.
“It’s big to start the race up towards the front and try to get some stage points and stuff like that,” Blaney said. “Good pit stall. It’s really, really important. Job number one done today, so I’m proud of everybody for doing a good job and taking that first step and then a whole new challenge tomorrow.”
Briscoe streaked into Phoenix, but it hasn’t been his best track in recent years.
He did get his first career win at the track in 2022, but he has struggled there lately, with four straight finishes of 18th or worse and an average of 30th. Most of the problems have been related to blown tires, but Briscoe believes his team has figured out some answers.
“I know that we’ve brought a different approach, at least that’s the plan,” Briscoe said. “So we’ll find out here in a little bit if that plan worked out.”
Phoenix is known for its dogleg section that features a widely used shortcut option, particularly during restarts and late-race situations.
That has produced several memorable finishes: Both of last year’s races had a last-lap pass for the win, and 11 races have ended in overtime, which is third most among all Cup Series tracks, behind 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway and 2.66-mile Talladega.