On Sunday, the celebs of the NASCAR Cup Collection will traverse the one-mile Phoenix Raceway within the fourth race of the 2025 season. Forward of Sunday’s showdown, here is a favourite, an underdog and the storylines you need to observe.
Favourite: Christopher Bell (+500, per DraftKings)
Bell has received the final two Cup Collection races at Atlanta and COTA and is the defending winner of the spring Phoenix race. He enters the week because the clear favourite to win his third race in a row, and if he continues at his present tempo, he’ll be contending for a championship when the circuit revisits Phoenix in November.
Underdog: Ty Gibbs (+2800, per DraftKings)
Gibbs put collectively one of the crucial spectacular performances of his younger Cup Collection profession at Phoenix final spring. Gibbs led 57 laps en path to a third-place end within the desert final yr, and after a tough stretch to finish 2024 and start 2025, he might use one other robust efficiency at Phoenix on Sunday.
Bell seeking to proceed white-hot begin
Bell’s sizzling streak to start out 2025 can proceed over the subsequent a number of weeks. Journeys to Phoenix, Las Vegas and Miami supply the 30-year-old driver the chance to make historical past. Ought to Bell win on Sunday, he’ll be the primary driver to win three consecutive races because the creation of the Subsequent-Gen automotive in 2022.
Will Penske dominance bloom?
Group Penske has risen to the event within the final three championship races at Phoenix, however that dominance hasn’t translated to the spring races at Phoenix. Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney completed 1-2 at Phoenix within the 2024 championship race, and Roger Penske’s trio of drivers possible current the most important menace to Toyota on Sunday.
Penalties have flip-flopped factors standings
Two drivers have seen their scenario drastically change over the previous two days when coming into this weekend’s race. Chase Briscoe’s 100-point post-Daytona penalty was revoked by NASCAR, bumping him again as much as fifteenth within the standings. However, Austin Cindric was penalized 50 factors after hooking Ty Dillon at COTA, dropping him to thirty fifth within the factors going into Sunday’s desert conflict. Each drivers could have totally different approaches to Sunday’s race and each different race this yr till the common season ends at Daytona.
