Kyle Busch looked to have his second hometown NASCAR Cup victory in hand at Las Vegas last Sunday when a late caution sent the race into overtime. Crew chief Greg Ives made a call for two tires on the yellow flag pit stop, putting driver Alex Bowman on pole for the restart. Bowman went on to win, leading fourth-place finishing Busch to launch into an obscenity-laced rant on the radio, accusing “no talent” Bowman of “backing into” every win. As he did last year when Busch’s teammate Denny Hamlin called him a hack, Bowman responded with a T-shirt. This one features an “All Luck, No Skill” motif on the front and “Backing Into Wins” on the back. You can pre-order them at abrinc.com/shop for $25, with 18% of the proceeds going to local animal shelters. ••• After three races, the score is now Hendrick two, Penske one heading into Phoenix, with the Hendrick, Penske, and Gibbs teams poised to dominate the season again. Seven drivers in the field have won at the flat mile oval in the desert with Kyle Larson taking the win and the championship last fall. Kevin Harvick is the acknowledged Phoenix master with seven wins there including six of 10 from 2012-16. His last Phoenix victory was in the spring of 2018. Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, and Hamlin have two wins each, while Chase Elliott and Martin Truex Jr., join Larson with one apiece. Larson is the favorite to win tomorrow at 4-1 odds with Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Truex and Kyle Busch at 7-1. Elliott and Hamlin are tied at 8-1, Logano is 9-1, and Ryan Blaney comes in at 10-1. Note that only Hendrick, Gibbs, and Penske team drivers are among the favorites. The Cup race will air on FOX at 12:30 p.m. Sunday. Saturday, the Xfinity series practice/qualifying airs at 8:30 a.m., Cup practice/qualifying at 11:30 a.m., and the Xfinity race at 1:30 p.m. All on FS1. ••• In Formula 1 news this week, the only American-owned team in the series, Haas F1, has cut ties with Russian sponsor Uralkali due to the invasion of Ukraine. This will cut the team’s sponsorship dollars by about $10 million or a quarter of their sponsorship total. In addition, the team has cut driver Nikita Mazepin, who had the ride primarily due to the sponsorship from Uralkali, his father’s company. The elder Mazepin is reputed to be a close friend of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. Haas reserve driver Pietro Fittipaldi, former Alfa Romeo pilot Antonio Giovanazzi, and super sub Nico Hulkenberg were all thought to be in the mix to replace Mazepin. But last Wednesday the team announced that Kevin Magnussen would be returning to the team and taking the seat. Magnussen had raced for Haas from 2017 through the 2020 season with prior F1 stints at McLaren (2014-15) and Renault (2016), for a total of 116 starts, 158 points scored, and a best finish of second at the 2014 Australian Grand Prix. The 29-year old Danish driver is a second-generation racer, the son of former F1 and endurance racer Jan Magnussen. ••• The second and final round of pre-season Formula 1 testing is underway at Bahrain with Saturday being the final day. Teams are still developing the new cars, bringing upgrades to this week’s test. Thursday’s biggest surprise was the new Mercedes sidepods, unlike anything seen before, and the team’s race pace was best on Thursday. But as F1 correspondent Lawrence Baretto stated, “As ever, headline lap times are to be ignored – with performance runs expected to be held back until the final day on Saturday.”
