The 2026 Phoenix race weekend was a doubleheader affair for Team Penske, as they won both the IndyCar Series and the NASCAR Cup Series races. With IndyCar being the first race that Roger Penske’s team won, the pressure to win in NASCAR inevitably fell on them, something Team Penske’s president shed light on recently.

Penske executive’s revelation on IndyCar’s push on NASCAR

In a recent interview with Cup Scene on YouTube, Team Penske Racing South’s President Michael Nelson highlighted how Josef Newgarden’s victory on Saturday and his post-race taunt were behind the push. Speaking about this, he stated that the NASCAR side would have done the same.

“Yeah, no, he put the pressure on us. We had an event last night with our sponsors and all of our drivers,” Nelson said. “He definitely pushed hard on us to try to keep up our end of the bargain. We would have done the same. We’re just glad we were able to get it done and bring it home today. He had a great race yesterday. Really great for Team Penske.”

Echoing Nelson’s comment, Jonathan Hassler, who was sitting with him during the interview, also shared his thoughts. Hassler, who serves as Team Penske’s crew chief, stated that he liked the doubleheader event.

“Yeah, same thing. I echo what Michael said. To see those guys do well, it was a really fun race to watch. I really like this event. There were a lot of the NASCAR guys and crew members that stayed after and watched the race, and got to experience firsthand what we don’t get the opportunity to see. Great weekend for everybody, fans included. So pretty cool,” Hassler commented.

Notably, Ryan Blaney arrived in Phoenix as a favorite, carrying impressive statistics. Having won the 2025 Championship race here last year, Blaney was oozing confidence at this oval.

Besides this, Team Penske came to race here, having secured six wins in the last few races, by far the most by any team. As a result, there were increased expectations—one to keep their stellar run at the Phoenix race going and, secondly, to match Team Penske’s IndyCar driver, Josef Newgarden.

With the victory at Phoenix, Ryan Blaney finished Tyler Reddick’s race-winning streak, which started from Daytona and continued at Atlanta and COTA. Despite Reddick’s sadness at losing the winning streak, his day was not entirely wasted.

Tyler Reddick is happy with Phoenix outing despite Ryan Blaney’s victory

As Tyler Reddick finished the race in eighth place after battling a handling issue, he was content with his performance on Sunday. Despite the broken streak, 23XI Racing noted that his total, which was 39 at the end of the race, provided some relief.

“Yeah, we just kind of found handling a little bit,” Reddick said at the end of the race. “It seemed like our Jordan brand toy Camry had good speed. It was just kind of back and forth on which direction we thought we needed to go with our Camry, and so we kind of just hovered around fifth all day. But looking at the board over here, he scored the fourth most points on the day. That’s kind of what we need to just keep doing all year to keep the lead that we have and try to hang on to it. So yeah, just a solid day.”

Blaney claimed the most points (65) from the race, followed by Christopher Bell (54) and Denny Hamlin (47). Thanks to his eighth place, Reddick was able to take his championship tally to 255 points. Blaney, the winner at Phoenix Raceway, is in second place with 165 points.