The Phoenix Shriners Children’s 500 had 11 lead changes transferring between six drivers and mistakes by many veteran drivers left the win for one of the young bucks in the sport.
-Checkered Flag- Christopher Bell overcame a wheel issue in the pits and was running down Martin Truex Jr. and took the lead when Truex had to pit for fresh tires. Bell built a lead of over 6 seconds and cruised to his first win since Miami in 2023. Bell led twice in the race covering 50 laps and he won for the seventh time in his career.
– Hitting the wall is no fun- Denny Hamlin has never won the NASCAR championship even though he has won just about everything else in the sport. Hamlin has not been good in Phoenix and Fox commentator Kevin Harvick has won nine times at the track said Hamlin has to master this series championship season finale race or he never will win the NASCAR Championship. Denny hit the wall on 215 and his machine was compromised as he fell to 23rd place.
-Bad Day- Joey Logano has had a miserable start to the 2024 season and the start to his Phoenix race was more of the same. Logano languished in the mid 20’s during stage one. For the season, he has one top ten finish, two DNF’s and a caused crash in spite of him being in the front row after spectacular qualifying the first three races. He was wrecked early in stage three by Kraus. Logano is digging himself a hole for the two-time Cup winner.
-Wrong place – Austin Cindric was caught up in the Derek Kraus spinout which ended the day for both his No. 2 and Austin Dillon. Kraus lost his car and Cindric had no chance to avoid the accident. Cindric kept driving the wounded car but it was a marker car for a handful of laps before leaving the race.
– No racing luck-Austin Dillon drove his Morgan and Morgan machine into trouble just laps into the Phoenix 313. Dillon has been caught up in three early wrecks and has had his day altered just five laps or less in each of those races.
Roy Akers 