Tire talk takes over NASCAR Cup practice at Phoenix
AVONDALE, Ariz. — Ty Gibbs mostly avoided trouble and posted the fastest time in practice for the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway.
Gibbs’ fastest time saw him averaging 131.868 mph around the 1-mile D-shaped oval in the desert that proved to be a little too hot for the new tire compound when bolted to some drivers’ cars.
Tire issues take over NASCAR Cup practice at Phoenix
The biggest issue happened early on as championship hopeful Chase Briscoe blew a left-rear tire just a couple of minutes into the 50-minute session. He spent a fair amount of time in the garage, assessing damage and working on it.
“Too little air, too much camber. We were a little too aggressive, as we saw with a few other drivers,” said James Small, crew chief for Chase Briscoe.
Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell and Toyota teammate Riley Herbst all had issues within minutes of Briscoe.
Herbst’s issues put him in the garage for the rest of practice with A.J. Allmendinger. When Briscoe was having issues, Allmendinger spun with a tire issue. Then, he crashed hard in the middle of turns three and four.
Two other Chevrolet drivers also had issues in the session. Kyle Busch hit the outside wall but didn’t sustain much damage. Kyle Larson also hit the wall but the contact with the wall wasn’t too extensive for the championship hopeful.
Meanwhile, Daniel Suarez also blew a left-rear tire at the very end of his final Cup practice session with Trackhouse Racing.
While William Byron had a mostly scot-free practice session, Denny Hamlin wasn’t immune. Hamlin experienced a vibration near the end of the session that caused concern that is going to take a good night’s rest to quell.
“I don’t know much about it but the throw is a little long and wouldn’t disengage. We are looking into it,” crew chief Chris Gayle said.
Will tire issues pop up in the NASCAR Cup race at Phoenix?
“It was a little abnormal but to see it as widespread as it was. You thought it would get better as the session went on… It should be interesting Sunday,” Small said. “I don’t think it has been cleaned up yet. We made a lot of changes at the end of the session so we’ll have to break these tires down and see.”
This weekend’s tire compound has had varying results. Richmond saw teams splitting the stages because of the massive tire wear while New Hampshire and Martinsville were transformed into races of old at the track with the tire.
According to the crew chiefs, Phoenix is different with the higher loads — caused by the higher average speeds and the banking in turns three and four and the dogleg. However, practice netted different results than they expected.
“This place is really tough when you’ve learned on it a lot. It’s hot and there’s more load here than the other places. In the wheelforce test, there was more right-side failures so the left-side failures were a surprise,” Fugle said.
“The load is the thing. I don’t think there was any left-side failures on the wheelforce test,” crew chief Chris Gayle said.
Gayle said he relied on history with the NextGen car to anticipate possible left-side tire issues. He was more focused on a vibration Denny Hamlin felt in practice.
How may the NASCAR Cup race at Phoenix play out?
Even the crew chiefs don’t know until the race begins.
“Really early on that. You gotta look through it more. The final stage is learned through stage one and stage two. It’s always a learning game because every session is different. We’re trying to get long runs to get that data and we got that,” Fugle said.
“You look at Martinsville and they were going to split every stage and then we were going 90, 100 laps. You expect something different when you get into the race and drivers are laying down rubber,” Gayle said.
The mood in the garage is crew chiefs will take the night to rest and look over what they gathered to be ready for qualifying Saturday and Sunday’s race.
Qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race is Saturday at 5 p.m. ET on truTV. Chase Briscoe leads the series in poles while William Byron won the pole for the spring race.
MORE: NASCAR TV schedule this weekend: Phoenix Championship Weekend 2025
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Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com