Championship Contenders Skirt Disaster as Tire Failures Plague Phoenix Final Practice

Phoenix Raceway witnessed a dramatic and unsettling final practice session for the NASCAR Cup Series Championship race, as a cascade of left-side tire failures afflicted multiple competitors, including at least one of the four championship finalists. The session, intended to refine race setups for Sunday’s title decider, devolved into a tense exercise in damage control and tire management, raising significant concerns for the teams heading into the ultimate showdown.

The alarming trend began early in the hour-long session. Chase Briscoe, one of the four drivers vying for the championship, was the first to experience a left-side tire failure. This incident, while concerning, was soon overshadowed by a more severe series of events. A.J. Allmendinger, also a participant in the practice, suffered two consecutive left-side tire failures. The second of these incidents resulted in a crash that will force him to utilize a backup car for the championship race, a significant setback for the Kaulig Racing driver.

The string of tire issues continued to ripple through the field. Christopher Bell encountered a failure, followed by Daniel Suarez, who experienced two consecutive left-side tire blowouts. Riley Herbst also had a tire-related incident that led to a crash, and Kyle Busch, another prominent competitor, experienced a similar fate. The widespread nature of these failures left many drivers and crew chiefs on edge, with Chase Elliott expressing palpable concern about avoiding a similar outcome.

The prevalence of left-side tire failures was particularly perplexing given pre-session expectations. Many crew chiefs had anticipated greater sensitivity on the right-side tires, largely due to the extensive wheel force testing conducted at Phoenix Raceway in March. That test, designed to identify potential stress points on the tires, had focused heavily on the right-side components. However, the reality of Friday’s practice session pointed towards an unexpected vulnerability in the left-side rubber.

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A representative from Goodyear, the sole tire supplier for the NASCAR Cup Series, attributed the issues to the aggressive nature of the teams during the limited one-hour practice window. The statement suggested that crew chiefs were pushing the boundaries of tire performance in their quest for speed and optimal setup, inadvertently leading to these failures.

In the aftermath of the session, several crew chiefs offered their perspectives on the tire drama. James Small, crew chief for Chase Briscoe’s No. 19 team, echoed the sentiment of aggressive exploration. "Too low on air, too much camber. Just too aggressive, I guess," Small commented. "You saw it with a number of cars out there, so, don’t know if it’s been resolved yet. We stopped running there. We had a little bit of a scare at the end. We made a lot of changes through the session, so, yeah, we’ll have to look at it more, break these tires down and see."

Rudy Fugle, crew chief for William Byron’s No. 24 team, highlighted the unique demands of Phoenix Raceway on the tire compound. "There’s definitely some things to learn," Fugle stated. "At the test, I think there were some right side failures. I think we were more concerned about those and what would happen in the left rears were kind of a surprise. But yeah, this is a track that’s tough on tires for what we’re trying to do to them, what we’re trying to do with our situation to make the cars go faster." Fugle noted that the tire construction had been used at Richmond and New Hampshire previously, tracks that typically impose less lateral load than Phoenix.

Chris Gayle, crew chief for Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 team, concurred with the assessment of track-specific loads. "Definitely the load is the thing, right," Gayle said. "He’s right, I don’t think there were any left side failures at the wheel force test. I was a little concerned about left side failures, knowing where we’ve been at other tracks. Started on the cautious side because I didn’t want to have a left rear failure, go the other way, make sure I have a chance to tear down three tires, Goodyear look at them, know it’s going to be okay, get closer to that edge in the race rather than practice."

Beyond the tire concerns, Denny Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing team also grappled with a persistent clutch issue that manifested during the practice session. This represents the latest concern in a season-long trend that has cast a shadow over the team’s championship aspirations. At the time of the post-session press conference, Gayle had no immediate resolution for the clutch problem. "I don’t know much about it now other than the throw is a little off, and he’s having a hard time with it disengaging just because the throw gets so long it won’t disengage," Gayle explained. "We’re looking into it now. I don’t know any more at this point."

From a pure speed perspective, Ty Gibbs posted the fastest lap of the session. Among the four championship finalists, Denny Hamlin recorded the fifth-fastest overall lap, followed by William Byron in ninth, Kyle Larson in eleventh, and Chase Briscoe in sixteenth.

In terms of sustained performance over multiple laps, Ryan Blaney demonstrated strong pace, leading the five-lap average charts ahead of Hamlin and Elliott. Blaney also topped the ten-lap average rankings, with Larson and Byron close behind. Larson further solidified his long-run speed by leading the fifteen-lap average, with Blaney, Tyler Reddick, and William Byron rounding out the top four in that category.

Notably, Kyle Larson’s crew chief, Cliff Daniels, opted to forgo a mandatory NASCAR press conference following the session, instead engaging in an extended debrief with his team. This decision, coupled with the widespread tire issues, underscored the high-stakes atmosphere and the critical adjustments required as teams prepare for Sunday’s championship-deciding race at Phoenix Raceway. The tire failures and the clutch concern for Hamlin’s team add layers of uncertainty to an already pressure-filled weekend, where every decision and every component could prove pivotal in determining the next NASCAR Cup Series champion.