What makes Phoenix Raceway tough? Rudy Fugle, Cliff Daniels talk track specifics ahead of NASCAR Championship 4

CONCORD, N.C. - Every circuit on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule presents a unique test for drivers and crew chiefs. 

But when it comes to being a champion, none of those tests are as important to pass as the one presented by Phoenix Raceway. 

Sunday will mark the sixth straight year the premier series' Championship Race will be held at Phoenix with the season finale set to go back to Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2026. But for one more go-ground, the 1-mile doglegged oval nestled into the desert hills will serve as the decider in terms of which Championship 4 driver achieves the ultimate goal. 

That includes two Hendrick Motorsports contenders - Kyle Larson and William Byron - both of whom, have a prior victory at Phoenix with current crew chiefs, Cliff Daniels and Rudy Fugle, respectively, having been atop the box for both. For Larson and Daniels, that win, which came back in 2021, also delivered a championship. 

But in terms of the fall race at Phoenix, after Larson's championship run and prior to this season, Team Penske has combined to win all three. That will change this year with no Penske cars in the Championship 4, but regardless, Hendrick Motorsports teams have been in relentless pursuit and hope this year will present a breakthrough. 

"They've set such a standard at Phoenix for how they've competed and won and every year, we thought we were bringing more to the table on the setup development side, on the car side," Daniels explained. "So, in a way, it's been a great challenge to push us in areas we didn't expect."

From a broader point of view, the work on Phoenix setups has been part of a larger initiative to improve at flat, short tracks that prior to the last few months, had been an area for organization improvement. However, late returns have been incredibly positive with Byron winning at Iowa Speedway and then again last week at Martinsville Speedway in addition to improved speed being shown by the entire company at tracks such as Richmond Raceway, WWT Raceway and New Hampshire Motor Speedway, among others. 

WWT Raceway, in particular, was the site of a turning point according to Daniels, though it happened long before the Sept. 7 race. Larson led 52 laps in that race and like Phoenix, WWT Raceway is a track one mile in length and with relatively flat corners. But Daniels said the work was turned in long before race day and that a test in the summer was majorly beneficial to the uptick in performance at such tracks as 2025 has steadily come to a close. 

"It was incredibly hot, a slick day, it was a really tough test," Daniels said. "Just tough from the sense of trying to execute the test and understand changes in track conditions. It was a challenge for the team in a lot of ways and what we were able to execute as the 5 team on the ground at that test. Coupled with globally at Hendrick (Motorsports), the effort a lot of different departments put into having us be prepared to have that test, that put us on a new page. We went to (New Hampshire) certainly more competitive than what we've been. We were very competitive at (WWT Raceway), the race strategy didn't quite work out for us, but I think those were the first competitive laps we've led there as a 5 car in the Next Gen era." 

And yet, though there are similarities to WWT Raceway and likely even more so to Richmond, Phoenix is certainly different enough to make the lives of Daniels and Fugle that much more difficult his week. 

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Phoenix Raceway track info

In preparation for last week's race at Martinsville, Fugle was asked about those obstacles. 

"It's a tough track just because of the high speeds and the really flat corners, especially turns one and two, and then three and four is a very unique corner," Fugle said. "So, you struggle to get your car to do everything you need it to do. You need a lot of short-track grip, mechanical grip and then the speeds are high, so aerodynamics are super important as well. So, it's a track your car has to be super balanced through the corner, meaning, it's easy to be loose in - to turn the center good enough. You're going to be on the edge of loose in - so, you and your driver have got to get that dialed in. And then, the exit is easy to be disconnected as well, tight in the middle generally means loose off.

"It's one of the more difficult tracks, especially as the track ages, to get a hold of." 

Though both men and their teams will assuredly be hard at work this week in terms of fine tuning and tweaking, like this year's event at WWT Raceway, the bulk of the work has long been done. In fact, Daniels said it's been underway for even longer this season than most. 

But with the recent improvements and better showings at similar tracks, Daniels believes optimism is even higher and well warranted. 

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"There's been a lot of optimism with what the construction of that has looked like and then improving moving forward," Daniels said. "And still, for the first time in the Next Gen era, we've been as far in prep for Phoenix as we've been. I would argue six-to-eight weeks out where sometimes it's been three-to-four weeks of really getting your mind wrapped around it. 

"I'm really proud of our team and our company for what it took to make the (WWT Raceway) test happen. To take that and run with it and have good results at (WWT Raceway) and Richmond and (New Hampshire) and places like that, and we're going to keep building on that."