March 7, 2026; Avondale, Arizona, USA; Team Penske driver Joey Logano (22) during qualifying at Phoenix Raceway. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Image PHOENIX, Ariz. – Team Penske’s Joey Logano earned his first pole position of the 2026 season Saturday afternoon at Phoenix Raceway. A fast lap of 135.537 mph was recorded around the one-mile oval for Sunday’s Straight Talk Wireless 500 (3:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The fast lap earned the driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford Mustang his 38th career pole position. The three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion will share the front row with two-time series champion Kyle Larson, who is slightly 0.017 seconds slower in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
This was a strong Penske look for a team celebrating its 60th anniversary racing season. Logano’s teammate Austin Cindric (third) and last November’s Phoenix race winner Ryan Blaney (fifth) also earned top five starting positions.
“All three Penske cars are fast,” said Logano, who was reminded of the Penske Phoenix pole sweep with IndyCar teammate David Malukus taking pole position in Saturday’s IndyCar race. In fact, all three Penske IndyCar drivers (as well as Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden) are scheduled to be in the team’s NASCAR driver pit box on Sunday.
“Our three cars and all three IndyCars looked solid in practice yesterday. Now it’s time to run the race, which is the hard part.
“I don’t know anymore (whether I will take pole position),” Logano added. “Like I used to, I would practice long hours, put on new tires, do mock runs and see the speed. But these days, you don’t know. If you go out there and run as fast as you can, you don’t know if you’re going to be 30th or first. It’s hard to tell before the run starts.
“I felt like I was in the car and had to make sure I got everything out without messing up the speed. The Penske cars have speed now.”
Championship points leader Tyler Reddick actually holds his no. 45 23XI Racing I spun the Toyota but didn’t hit anything. He recovered a few minutes later in the qualifying session to secure a solid 8th place. Brad Keselowski has his no. 6 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford had more extreme experiences, including crashing into the wall. He failed to qualify and had to start at the back of the 37-car field.
Defending race winner Christopher Bell finished 12th in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
No. 1 for Alex Bowman this week. Anthony Alfredo, driving the ’48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, finished 31st. But he actually had the best 10-lap average speed of the four Hendrick drivers.
For reference, Spire Motorsports teammates Daniel Suarez (7th Chevrolet) and Carson Joseva (77th Chevrolet) were actually fastest. They’ll be ranked fourth and seventh, respectively, on Sunday.
REDDICK wins 4 times in a row
23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick smiles and is quick to admit that life as the superstar face of NASCAR is happily busy these days. Reddick was honored after making history by winning the first three races of the 2026 season. Now he’s learning how to balance the desire to continue winning with the extra demands that come with his brilliance.
In many ways, success doesn’t just make things easier, it creates new expectations and interests. But it’s definitely a better choice. He holds a 70-point advantage in the championship standings. A win in Sunday’s race would mark his first at the mile-long Phoenix oval, where he had just one pair of top-five finishes (both third-place efforts) in the previous 12 series races. This will be a sign of great achievement. And all the good vibes continue.
No. 23XI Racing team co-owned by legendary NBA star Michael Jordan and fellow competitor Denny Hamlin. “We’re happy to have won three races, but we’re not satisfied and we’re still hungry,” said Reddick, who drives a 45 23XI Toyota.
He laughed at the reporter’s suggestion, saying, “I don’t feel like a superhero.” “For me it’s like we’re doing the right thing. We’re taking a realistic approach to it and we have thoughts about it. This is what can happen if we prepare a really good race car and show up close to the race track and qualify well and run great. We’ve really set ourselves up for success.
“We’ve had that happen where we’ve been ‘right there’ and it didn’t happen last year. But to have something like that happen in 45 like this year, I think it’s rewarding for everyone on this 23XI team. Everyone has worked hard to get over the hump. We’re definitely not complacent and we’re not happy. ‘We’ve won three races and we’re good now.’ “Everyone wants to keep doing this.”
The Return of Hamlin
Denny Hamlin smiled but acknowledged that his return to the veteran Phoenix miler that dominated the NASCAR Cup Series championship race in November is still a little painful. He led 208 of 319 laps here but missed out on the title after a strategy call didn’t pay off on the overtime restart.
The 45-year-old 60-race winner returns to Phoenix 23rd in the standings and will start the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota on the grid for Sunday’s race.
“I’m still a little upset about the track,” said Hamlin, who looked set to finally get his first win of his 20-year career. “But I can’t feel what I feel because the track has no soul.
“We still have to come here and start the whole process over again, do all the right things and see how it turns out this time. We haven’t had many races since we got here for the championships, so it’s just about trying to adapt to where we are and see if we can recreate the magic we had.”
SVG is GTG
During his rookie season in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series, New Zealand racing champion Shane Van Gisbergen won five races, all on road courses, and qualified for the playoffs. But despite all that success, the former Australian Supercars Series champion has always spoken of his desire to improve his oval racing game. He entered his sophomore season with only one top-10 finish on the oval (10th at Kansas).
No. in just three races this season. The 36-year-old driver of the 97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet already had a career-best sixth-place finish at Atlanta Highbank two weeks ago and responded with a strong performance in the DAYTONA 500 season opener. This, combined with a reliably strong run on the Austin road course last Sunday (2nd), gave Van Gisbergen his highest position in the championship standings (5th) at the start of the season.
“Last year we had a completely different result in this race,” Van Gisbergen said with a smile about the change in championship standings. “People enjoy a lot more in the early stages of their skills. It’s amazing to stay here, but there’s a long way to go and we need to keep running well, stay consistent and score points. It’s definitely a very encouraging and great position to be in.
“I think it’s been a great step forward. I think we’re getting better and we’re learning a lot. It’s nice to have two data races on the same track and find the trends we need. It’s been really cool and I hope we continue to see that progress.”
Chevrolet’s Big Weekend
Chevrolet takes the expression “crossover” to new extremes during a quadrupleheader weekend of racing in the desert featuring races from the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, NTT IndyCar Series and ARCA Menards Series.
A total of 75 drivers will participate in the four events. 18 in the NASCAR Cup Series, 30 in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, 12 in the IndyCar Series and 15 in the ARCA Menard Series. Phoenix Raceway is where Chevrolet earned its first oval win in IndyCar in 1969.
“Chevrolet is proud to be the only manufacturer powering this field across all races this weekend,” said Jim Campbell, Vice President, Performance and Motorsports Commercial Operations, General Motors. “Our legacy is built on stock car and open-wheel competition, and Phoenix Raceway is a great example of that legacy.”
–Field level media
