The NASCAR Cup Series heads west for a date in the desert on Sunday at Phoenix Raceway (3:30 p.m.) as Shane van Gisbergen makes his third NASCAR Cup Series start at the oval. The 1-mile Avondale, Arizona, facility will be the first non-superspeedway or road course event on the 2026 regular-season schedule. In November, van Gisbergen started 31st and rallied to a 24th-place finish, his best at the one-mile desert oval.
“There are a couple of tracks I really struggle at for some reason, Phoenix is one of them,” commented SVG. “It’s a type of track I need to improve myself. I know my car can do it, but the racing is so much more tough with not a lot of practice. It’s hard, but that is where I need to get better and then, just continue to keep growing at the bigger tracks. I felt like we’ve made some real progress there, so we need to keep it going.”
Van Gisbergen enters this weekend’s race fifth in the Cup Series driver standings, a career best. He is 10 points behind fourth place and three ahead of seventh place.
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