The Xfinity series race ended with much controversy as No. 19 Aric Almirola put No. 17 Alex Bowman into the wall to win in Phoenix. However, in the Cup Series, the No. 20 Christopher Bell cruised to his third win in a row for the first time since Kyle Larson in 2021.
Let’s start with the Xfinity series where No. 17 Alex Bowman took pole position for the race, while Xfinity phenoms No. 88 Connor Zilisch started in fourth and No. 2 Jessie Love started in fifth. Some other drivers who did well in qualifying were No. 00 Shelden Creed in second and No. 8 Sammy Smith starting in third.
The race started out smoothly with the first 45 laps of the race having no crashes or accidents. Bowman won stage one followed by No. 19 Almirola, No. 7 Justin Allgaier, No. 88 Zilisch, No. 00 Creed, No. 8 Smith, No. 48 Nick Sanchez, No. 20 Brandon Jones, No. 2 Love and in 10th place No. 41 Sam Mayer.
On lap 62, No. 21 Austin Hill clipped the inside wall causing him to fly into the middle of the track, collecting Creed and No. 26 Dean Thompson in the process with all three drivers not being able to continue after the crash.
With the second stage concluding on the 90th lap and no other accidents, Allgaier took the stage win followed by Almirola, Bowman, Jones, Smith, Mayer, Love, No. 54 Taylor Gray, No. 1 Carson Kvapil and No. 39 Ryan Sieg completing the 10 points finishers.
With 146 out of the 200 laps down, the third race caution came out after No. 74 Dawson Cram lost control of the car and hit the outside wall giving him a “Did Not Finish.”
With four laps to go in the race No. 07 Nick Leitz lost the back end of his car and slammed into the outside wall. Leitz would be able to continue even after the big crash and finished in 30th out of the 34 drivers who finished the race.
The Leitz crash would bring out overtime for the third time in the first four races. In overtime, Bowman surged to the lead with two overtime laps to go. Almirola would end up being side by side with Bowman on the final lap when Bowman was forced into the outer wall, slowing him down and gifting Almirola the win.
Bowman would criticize Almirola’s “controversial” win by saying “I’m not going to like it. I got drove straight into the fence on exit. But he won the race. I get you got to do what you got to do.”(Bob Pockrass)
Onto the Cup Series, No. 24 William Byron took pole position with No. 22 Joey Logano, No. 77 Carson Hocevar, No. 21 Josh Berry and No. 43 Erik Jones following close behind.
On lap four, the first caution came out, as No. 78 Katherine Legge in her Cup Series debut spins at the back of the pack and nobody was collected in the spin.
The next caution did not take long as on lap 10, No. 41 Cole Custer hit No. 34 Todd Gilliland, who spun No. 47 Rickey Stenhouse. Gilliland was narrowly able to avoid a major collision with the spinning Stenhouse and Custer and all three drivers continued the race.
The remaining 50 laps of the first stage did not have any more accidents, but Logano was given a pass-through penalty through pit lane for an improper restart on lap 20. Stage one was won by Byron with the remaining points being scooped up by No. 45 Tyler Reddick, No. 60 Ryan Preece, No. 20 Christopher Bell, No. 24 Ryan Blaney, Berry, Hocevar, No. 11 Denny Hamlin, No. 9 Chase Elliott and No. 5 Kyle Larson.
On lap 92, No. 71 Michael McDowell’s rear right tire fell flat which caused him to hit the wall and bring out the third caution of the race. McDowell was able to continue the race once he made it to the pits.
Just seven laps later, No. 54 Ty Gibbs ran up the track on No. 7 Justin Haley, No. 19 Chase Briscoe and Hocevar causing a three-way collision between Haley, Briscoe and Hocevar. The collision also caught No. 35 Riley Herbst, No. 88 Shane Van Ginsberg, No. 6 Brad Keselowski and Custer as well. Haley, Briscoe, Hocevar, Herbst, SVG, Keselowski and Herbst did not continue after the crash.
The remaining 81 laps of stage two did not have a collision or any more penalties as Bell took the stage win with Logano, Byron, Blaney, Reddick, Hamlin, No. 2 Austin Cindric, No. 99 Daniel Suarez, Larson and Berry following behind.
On the 215th lap, Legge was running in 28th place when she drove too far below the yellow line and spun-out. Suarez was also collected in the Legge spin, but he would continue the race. Legge did not continue after the spin out.
With 46 laps to go in the race, No. 23 Bubba Wallace could not continue as his front right brake exploded. 23 laps later, another car had break issues as Blaney’s back right brake exploded, and he was not able to continue. On lap 304, Gibb’s front right break had issues, but he was able to continue where he finished 25th.
With three laps to go, it was a fight to the finish as Bell and Hamlin were side by side for the remainder of the race. In the final corner Bell was able to inch ahead of Hamlin to win his third race in a row with Hamlin finishing second and Larson finished third to round out the top three.
The Cup Series’ next race is at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 16 at 3:30 p.m.