Good Morning, Race Fans.
It’s a bright, sunny day at Phoenix International Raceway for Day One of the penultimate round of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Race To The Chase. The temperature is mild with a gentle breeze. The day will heat up to the mid eighties, before cooling off drastically after sunset.
This weekend has the NASCAR Sprint Cup 25th Annual AdvoCare 500 race, the NASCAR Nationwide Series 15th Annual ServiceMaster 200 race, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Lucas Oil 150 Race, and the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West CasinoArizona 50 Race.
The Cup garage is busy Friday morning as the teams ready themselves for theIR first/only practice. Cup qualifying is late afternoon. Also practicing and qualifying Friday are the other three NASCAR series.
There is a full field of 43 Sprint Cup drivers, so none will go home. Three drivers are Rookies, including the lone female – DANICA PATRICK/No.10 GoDaddy Chevrolet. Thirty-five drivers are entered for the Truck Series race, with five Rookies.
Nationwide drivers number 42, so all will start, including six Rookies. The top five drivers in the Friday’s morning practice werw BRIAN SCOTT/No.1 Whitetail Chevrolet, AUSTIN DILLON/No.3 AdvoCare Chevrolet, REGAN SMITH/No.7 TaxSlayer.com Chevrolet, Rookie KYLE LARSON/No.32 Target Chevrolet, and TREVOR BAYNE/No.6 WFG Ford.
The Truck Series has 35 drivers, with four Rookies. One Truck Rookie is JEB BURTON/No.4 Arrowhead Chevrolet, son of Sprint Cup driver, JEFF BURTON/No.31 Caterpillar Chevrolet. Another Truck Rookie is DARRELL WALLACE JR/No.54 ToyotaCare Toyota, the young African American driver who graduated from the NASCAR Driver Diversity program. Wallace is currently leading the Rookie standings, one point ahead of RYAN BLANEY/No.29 Cooper Standard Ford. Wallace won his first race recently at Martinsville, the first African American driver in fifty years to win in one of the NASCAR Top Tier Series. One challenge this weekend for the young Rookie is that he’s never raced on the one-mile Phoenix oval.
The 16th Annual Lucas Oil 150 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Race airs live Friday night at 8pm ET/6pm MT on FOX Sports 1.
The K&N field is 30 drivers, with twelve Rookies. Three of them were the fastest Friday morning in their final practice – COLE CUSTER/No.00 Haas Automotive Chevrolet, GRAY GAULDING/No.02 Krispy Kreme Toyota, and BRANDON JONES/No.33 Rheem Chevrolet.