Kevin Harvick is NASCAR’s resident master of Phoenix, having won seven races including five of the past seven at the 1-mile track. Harvick finished second in a rain-shortened race at PIR last fall. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is a three-time winner at Phoenix, his most recent victory at the desert oval coming in a rain-shortened race last November. Junior’s two other wins here came in his days with Dale Earnhardt Inc. Matt Kenseth has been in contention to win each of the three races run so far in 2016 but has fallen well short each time. No one comes to Phoenix hungrier than…

By Jared Turner NASCAR’s visit to Phoenix International Raceway for Sunday’s Good Sam 500 marks the second of three stops on the appropriately named West Coast Swing. Now in its second year of existence, the West Coast Swing features consecutive Sprint Cup Series races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, PIR and Auto Club Speedway in California, which all come in the month of March. NASCAR’s impetus for implementing a West Coast Swing was two-fold: To save teams and drivers precious travel time by allowing them to remain out west for two weeks rather than having to go back and forth between coasts.…

By Jerry Bonkowski Can someone figure out what’s going on with Matt Kenseth? Whatever it is, it’s all been wrong, wrong, wrong thus far in the 2016 Sprint Cup season. Kenseth led 40 laps in the season-opening Daytona 500, only to fade on the last lap and finish a disappointing 14th. At Atlanta, after leading 47 laps, Kenseth was black-flagged for an inadvertent pit crew mistake, failed to see the flag in time (or potentially ignored it) and wound up losing two laps due to penalty, resulting in yet another disappointing outing, this time 19th. But nothing could have been more disappointing…

Derek Kneeland, spotter for Chip Ganassi Racing and driver Kyle Larson, was introduced to NASCAR through a trip to New Hampshire Motor Speedway in 1994 when he was only 7 years old. He was part of a contingent of family and friends that raced go-karts with him on tracks near his home in Windham, Maine. “Going to that first race kept my itch for racing going,” Kneeland said. “That never stopped. I just kept pursuing every dream I had.” When he turned 15, Kneeland began driving Late Models and still does a couple of times a year during off weekends. His small family team…

By Joseph Wolkin Coming off a season that saw a mere three top 5s, Kasey Kahne is determined to make the Chase in 2016. Going winless since Atlanta in 2014, he is looking to rekindle the fire with Hendrick Motorsports. After leading a career-low 66 laps in 2015, Kahne is set to compete for victories once again. What are your thoughts on the new aero package, even though there are still complaints that the low-downforce package isn’t enough? “It is definitely lower, and because of that, there is less drag. The cars – in the summer time – will definitely move around.…