NASCAR at Phoenix: Where to watch, start time, race preview, pick to win for the Shriners Children’s 500

Three weeks into the 2025 season, the grind of the NASCAR Cup Series schedule has begun in earnest and statements have begun to be made as to who’s set to be a contender all season long. And one driver in particular — Christopher Bell — has already shot to the front of the pack.

After earning back-to-back wins at Atlanta and Circuit of the Americas, Bell has become the first driver in NASCAR to win back-to-back Cup races since the summer of 2023, and the first to win back-to-back races in the first three races to start a season since Kevin Harvick did so in 2018. Now, Bell’s next objective is to earn three in a row — something that hasn’t been done since NASCAR’s Next Gen era began in 2022 — in a race that he just so happens to be the defending winner.

The NASCAR Cup Series makes its first trip of the season to Phoenix Raceway for this weekend’s Shriners Children’s 500, an event that serves as an important prelude to what’s to come at season’s end. With Phoenix once again serving as the host of NASCAR’s Championship Race in the fall, getting a handle on Phoenix in March and perhaps earning a trip to Victory Lane could end up going a long way towards becoming one of the four drivers who will race for the series title come the season finale in November.

Where to watch the NASCAR Cup Series at Phoenix

When: Sunday, March 9 at 3:30 p.m. ET
Where: Phoenix Raceway — Avondale, Arizona
TV: FS1
Stream: fubo (try for free)

Storylines to Watch

Continuing with a trend towards adopting softer and variable tire compounds, Phoenix will mark the first race of the season where Goodyear will bring their “option” tire for teams to use on a strategic basis. Teams will be allowed two sets of option tires, which offer superior grip but wear and degrade far faster, to go with seven sets of the standard “prime” tire. This combination of tire compounds was previously used at North Wilkesboro and Richmond a year ago, placing a greater emphasis on strategy and timing as to when to stick with the prime tire’s more stable level of wear or to bank on the greater reward of the option tire’s grip at the start of a run.

This weekend will also see the Cup Series debut of Katherine Legge, who will become the first woman to compete in a NASCAR Cup Series race since Danica Patrick made her final start in the 2018 Daytona 500. Legge, whose extensive racing resumé includes considerable experience in IndyCar and IMSA, will drive the No. 78 Chevrolet for Live Fast Motorsports.

In addition to four starts in the Indianapolis 500 and 12 starts in the 24 Hours of Daytona, the 44-year old from Britain has also dabbled in racing stock cars at lower levels, making five career starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and competing in the ARCA Menards Series season opener at Daytona just a few weeks ago.

NASCAR news of the week

• NASCAR has filed a counterclaim against 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports as well as 23XI co-owner Curtis Polk, claiming that all three parties engaged in conspiracy and agreement in unreasonable restraint of interstate trade and commerce in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act. In court documents, NASCAR singles out Polk — a business manager for 23XI co-owner Michael Jordan — as the ringleader in opposing the NASCAR charter agreement with its race teams reached late last year, claiming that Polk attempted to orchestrate and threaten a boycott of “one of the qualifying races for a major event” while also getting other teams to boycott a meeting of chartered teams.

  In filing an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR, the counterclaim states that 23XI and Front Row Motorsports — the two teams who refused to agree to the charter agreement’s terms — are attempting to “weaponize” antitrust laws to achieve their goals, and that the threats made by Polk are an attempt “to misuse the legal system as a last resort to secure new terms.”

  NASCAR is now asking for an injunction that would eliminate the guaranteed entry provision of the charter agreement if 23XI and Front Row continue their legal actions. In a response statement, team attorney Jeffrey Kessler called NASCAR’s actions a “meritless distraction and a desperate attempt to shift attention away from its own unlawful, monopolistic actions.”

• The National Motorsports Appeals Panel has overturned an L2-level penalty issued to Chase Briscoe’s team, ruling that Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 19 team did not illegally modify the spoiler on their Daytona 500 pole-winning car, but that the elongation of some of the holes on the car’s spoiler base was caused “by the process of attaching that specific spoiler base to the rear deck.”

  All elements of the original penalty to Briscoe have now been overturned, including a 100 championship point and 10 playoff point penalty as well as a $100,000 fine and a four-race suspension for crew chief James Small. The reinstatement of Briscoe’s points now moves him to 15th in the Cup Series standings.

• NASCAR has issued a 50 point penalty and $50,000 fine to Austin Cindric for his actions at Circuit of the Americas, ruling that he intentionally spun out Ty Dillon after Dillon forced him wide and off the exit of turn 20 early in the race. While a one-race suspension for Cindric had been considered due to past precedent concerning intentional wrecks, NASCAR opted for a less severe penalty citing the circumstances and low speeds at which the incident occurred. In addition, NASCAR has also suspended two members of Kyle Larson’s pit crew (Brandon Johnson and Blaine Anderson) after an improperly-installed wheel came off Larson’s car at COTA.

Pick to Win

Ryan Blaney (+550) – Since 2022, no team has been able to figure out Phoenix quite like Team Penske. Their handle on what setup to bring to this track has propelled them to the last three Cup championships in a row, and 2023 Cup champion Ryan Blaney has been at the forefront of that success.

Blaney’s success at Phoenix has been remarkable since the fall of 2021 as he has earned seven top five finishes in a row at this track including finishes of second in four out of his last five starts. The only thing he hasn’t done at Phoenix to date is take the win, something it feels like is bound to happen at any time, and almost happened in the Championship Race last fall where he ran down Joey Logano for the lead but ran out of laps to make the winning pass.