Tyler Reddick’s opening-season heater finally met a track that didn’t care about history books.
Ryan Blaney ran down Ty Gibbs over the final green-flag stretch at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday, taking the lead with 10 laps remaining and winning the Cup Series race to stop Reddick’s bid for a fourth straight victory to start 2026. The win gave Team Penske a full “desert doubleheader” sweep at Phoenix, with Josef Newgarden winning Saturday’s IndyCar race after David Malukas earned the IndyCar pole, Joey Logano taking the Cup pole, and Blaney closing the weekend with the Cup trophy.
Blaney’s path to the front wasn’t clean. He dealt with at least three tire issues that cost him track position, then spent the afternoon passing traffic, 49 cars, by the team’s count, before the late charge finally stuck. Afterward, Blaney described the day in simple terms.
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“Just perseverance,” Blaney said. “We had a couple mistakes that we learned from, got better, had to come from the back a couple times. It’s cool to win, especially after a day like that. Can’t say enough about the [team] for keeping their head down and doing what they do.”
And yes, even the celebration needed a pit crew. As Blaney celebrated on the frontstretch, his Ford began to roll away and he had to chase it down to make sure it was in park.
The result landed in the middle of a weekend built for Penske nostalgia. Team Penske is celebrating its 60th season of competition, and Phoenix was staged as a bundled IndyCar-NASCAR weekend. When the dust settled, the organization left with poles, wins, and a clean sweep. Blaney summed up the weekend and the company line.
“Really proud of everybody at Team Penske,” Blaney said. “We swept the weekend, Newgarden winning yesterday, us winning today. Can’t wait to see Roger.”
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For Reddick, it was the first real “not today” of the season. Driving the No. 45 Toyota for 23XI Racing, Reddick came to Phoenix as the points leader after winning Daytona, Atlanta, and Circuit of the Americas, becoming the first driver to open a Cup season with three straight wins. Phoenix didn’t give him four. He finished eighth, after Toyota cars took six of the top 10 spots.
“It would have been nice to make it four,” Reddick said. “Scored the fourth most amount of points on the day… solid day. If we’re not going to win, these are the kind of days we need to have.”
If anyone had a case for frustration, it was Christopher Bell. Bell led 176 of the 312 laps and looked like the control variable for most of the afternoon, but a late pit decision flipped the math. While Blaney took two tires, Bell and Denny Hamlin took four, and track position decided the rest. Bell finished second and didn’t sugarcoat it.
“You win some, you lose some,” Bell said. “This one stings, but on the positive side, I’m really proud of our entire team. It’s something to build on. It was a day that we needed.”
Hamlin finished fifth, still getting the same kind of Phoenix “what if” conversation he’s carried since last year’s season finale, another day where strategy choices at the end mattered most. Kyle Larson, the reigning Cup champion, finished third, and Gibbs faded from the lead to fourth after Blaney got by late. Bubba Wallace was sixth for 23XI Racing, and William Byron finished seventh for Hendrick Motorsports.
The race itself was chaotic even by Phoenix standards. It was slowed by a record-tying 12 cautions, with many triggered by tire failures. It was the sort of afternoon where teams stop talking about “pace” and start talking about survival.
Next up, the Cup Series heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday. Reddick’s streak is over, but his start to 2026 still counts as one of the fastest in recent memory and Phoenix made sure the rest of the field finally got to exhale.
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