Phoenix Review, Atlanta Preview, and More | Chasing The Cup S2:E6

William Byron wins back-to-back races at Phoenix. The race was an improvement from last year, with more slipping and sliding and passing. However, Phoenix remains a mediocre racetrack with little excitement. Mike Joy made a comment about Keyboard Warriors that some viewers found insulting. Xfinity saw Sammy Smith win his first career race. The racing was good, but still not exciting due to the track. Jimmy Johnson will compete in the Cup race at Circuit of the Americas. NASCAR confiscated hood louvers from Hendrick cars, possibly resulting in penalties. NASCAR launched a Roblox game called NASCAR Speed Hub. Xfinity signed an endorsement deal with Dale Earnhardt Jr. NASCAR will implement the choose rule at all races. IndyCar veteran Ed Jones will make his NASCAR debut at Kota. Jensen Button will compete in three Cup races. Las Vegas TV ratings were down. Previewing upcoming races at Atlanta, with Christian Ekus predicted to win the truck race, Ryan Sieg for the Xfinity race, and Joey Lo Hello everyone, welcome back to another episode of Chasing the Cup, I'm your host Will Englund and in this episode, I'm going to be reviewing the races from Phoenix. I'll also go over the news that I'm going to preview this weekend's races at Atlanta. But first, let's take a look at the results from Phoenix. William Byron wins back-to-back races by winning at Phoenix, and he's followed by Ryan Blaney in 2nd, Tyler Reddick in 3rd, Kyle Burson in 4th, Kevin Harwick in 5th, Christopher Bell in 6th, Chase Prisco in 7th, Kyle Busch in 8th, Alex Bowman in 9th, and Josh Berry in his 2nd start for Hendrick rounds out the top 10. And in my opinion, this race was definitely an improvement from last year, thanks to this new package. There was definitely more slipping and sliding, and more passing going on. But those changes didn't really matter for this race because Phoenix is pretty mediocre. Cars get easily spurred out, and there's not much racing going on under green, and there's not many cautions. And it was like that before the Gen 7 came out. This has been a thing since probably the track was reconfigured for the Fall 2011 race. So it's basically been like this for over a decade now, and it's just a Phoenix thing. It really does not matter which car or package was used. It's just a pretty mediocre racetrack. But the race was definitely better from last year, and Fox definitely improved their coverage for this race, except for the fact that the graphical glitches came back for this race. Even though there were very few graphical glitches in the past couple weeks, they came back for this week. And Vekka and Clint were better this week, but we gotta talk about the obvious, and that is Mike Joy, when he called out the Keyboard Warriors right before the last fullscreen commercial. It's funny, but it's kind of insulting to the viewer that doesn't like Fox Sports because of all the commercials. But the commercials weren't very invasive this time, probably because Phoenix is a pretty boring racetrack, so it wasn't as invasive because there was not much going on. I wouldn't be surprised if Mike got a butt-chewing over that comment, if he was not allowed to do it. Maybe he was allowed to do it. Maybe the producer said in Mike's ear, call out the Keyboard Warriors, but I guess we'll never know. But anyway, the racing was pretty solid for this weekend, and although Phoenix is a boring racetrack, I'd like to see what this package has in store for tracks like Kota and Martinsville coming up later this spring. Next up for Xfinity, Sammy Smith, the rookie, gets his first career win at Phoenix, and he's followed by Ryan Truent, who comes up short, in second, once again. Sheldon Creed finishes third, Riley Herbst finishes fourth, Chandler Smith finishes fifth, John Hodonimichik finishes sixth, Austin Hill finishes seventh, Josh Berry finishes eighth, Kyle Busch finishes ninth, and Daniel Hemrick rounds out the top ten. The racing was also pretty good, probably on the same level as Cup, but slightly better in my opinion, because there was some more action going on, but in my opinion, both races were pretty good this weekend, but Phoenix is a pretty mediocre racetrack, and in my opinion, this was not the first big test, because Phoenix is just naturally pretty boring. And so with that out of the way, let's get to the news. Starting off with some breaking news today, Jimmy Johnson will be competing in the Cup race at Circuit of the Americas next weekend. Phoenix Raceway had a sellout for yesterday's race. NASCAR has confiscated the hood louvers from all four Hendrick cars, as well as the 31 of Justin Haley, so it is possible that we see a penalty for those five cars, and maybe some of the cars that are heading to the R&D center. NASCAR has launched a Roblox game called NASCAR Speed Hub, which continues a partnership with the creators of the popular Roblox game, Jailbreak. Xfinity has signed an endorsement deal with Dale Earnhardt Jr. NASCAR will be influencing the choose rule at all races, starting with the first road course race at Kota. IndyCar veteran Ed Jones will make his NASCAR debut at Kota, driving for Young's Motorsports in the truck race. Jensen Button will compete in three Cup races this year, starting at Kota, with Rick Rare Racing, with a partnership with Stuart Haas Racing. Hendrick Motorsports will be running four Xfinity races this year, with Kyle Larson, William Byron, and Alex Boonman. Tyler Carpenter will be running with Neese Motorsports for the Bristol Dirt race. William Byron will be returning to Kyle Busch Motorsports for a three race truck series schedule at Bristol Dirt, Darlington, and North Wilkesboro. Kimi Raikkonen will be returning to Trick House Racing for the Project 91 ride at Kota. Spire Motorsports will field an Xfinity series entry for Carson Hosovart, and they will run six races this year. Josh Berry will drive for all the upcoming Oval races in the number 9, 7 for Chase Elliott, but for Kota, Jordan Taylor will drive the 9 for Hendrick Motorsports. And finally, we have the Las Vegas TV ratings. Fox got 3.991 million viewers for the Las Vegas race, which is down quite a bit from 4.544 million viewers last year. But NASCAR was not the only motorsport that was down, F1's season opener was down slightly, and IndyCar was noticeably down for its season opener, so I guess it was just a bad weekend for motorsports in general. And so that's it for this week's news, now it's time to preview this weekend's races at Atlanta. Starting off with the truck race, we have the Freight 208. The race will be 135 laps and 208 miles, and the race will be on March 18th at 2 p.m. Eastern Time. And so for my pick, I'm going to go with Christian Ekus. He finished third at Daytona, and he's looking for another win, and so I think this weekend he's going to get his second career win by winning at Atlanta. Next for the Xfinity race, we have the Raptor 250. The race will be 163 laps and 251 miles, and the race will be on March 18th at 5 p.m. Eastern Time. And so for my pick, I'm going to go with Ryan Sieg. Ryan Sieg was so close to winning last year, but he was passed by Ty Gibbs on the final lap, and he ended up getting up the victory, and Ryan also finished top ten at Daytona, so I think this time, Ryan Sieg is going to get his chance, and I think he'll win at Atlanta. And finally, for the cup race, we have the Ambetter Health 400. The race will be 260 laps and 400 miles, and the race will be on March 18th at 3 p.m. Eastern Time. And so for my pick, I'm going to go with Joey Logano. Joey finished second in the Daytona 500, just short of the win, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. got that win, but I think Joey Logano, because he's a good plate racer, will get his first win of the season by winning at Atlanta. And so that's it for this week's episode, if you enjoyed it, please like and subscribe for more. And if you're going out to Atlanta this weekend, I hope you have a good time, and if you're not, have a good time wherever you are, and I'll see you next week.