Back to the Future: INDYCAR Returns to Phoenix for ‘Desert Double’

Gentlemen, start two kinds of engines.

That will be this weekend’s instruction at Phoenix Raceway as the NTT INDYCAR SERIES joins NASCAR’s Cup and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series in a two-day affair described as the “Desert Double.”

SEE: Event Details

Saturday’s Good Ranchers 250 will be the second race of the INDYCAR season following last weekend’s opener on the Streets of St. Petersburg. FOX’s broadcast begins at 3 p.m. with live coverage also on FOX One, the FOX Sports app and INDYCAR Radio, powered by OnlyBulls.

INDYCAR and NASCAR were together for last weekend’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, but the stock car race featured the Craftsman Truck Series. This will be the fourth time the INDYCAR SERIES has shared a weekend on the same layout with the Cup Series, the others came on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course (2021-23).

The INDYCAR SERIES will compete on the historic 1-mile oval for the first time since Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden won the 2018 race. This will be the first of six oval races in the 18-race schedule. Newgarden won the most recent oval race, held last September at Nashville Superspeedway.

A History Lesson

Sixty-four races since 1964. That’s INDYCAR’s rich history at Phoenix Raceway.

A.J. Foyt won the first of those races nearly 62 years ago. Parnelli Jones won the pole that year with a lap of 118.382 mph. In the years that followed, the oval was dominated by the Unser brothers: Six wins for Al Unser, 11 poles for Bobby Unser.

Since 2005, INDYCAR has staged only three races in the Arizona desert: in 2016, 2017 and 2018. This will be the first time the series has used the start/finish line on the west end of the track between what originally was known as Turns 1 and 2.

Five of the 25 drivers in this weekend’s field have competed in series races at the track. Scott Dixon (photo, top), who has six starts, finished second in 2004 and won the 2016 race. Newgarden’s win in 2018 (photo, above) is one of his three top-10 finishes at the track. Will Power has finishes of second and third in three starts. Alexander Rossi earned a third-place finish in the most recent race. Graham Rahal’s best result was fifth in 2016.

Team Penske has won a record eight series races at the track, including the past two.

This Field’s Oval Masters

Statistics can tell all sorts of stories. For example, Dixon leads all active drivers in career oval victories with 25. But over the past four seasons, Newgarden has owned the ovals.

Since the start of the 2022 campaign, there have been 22 such races. Newgarden has won nine of them, including five on tracks less than 1.5 miles in distance, which Phoenix is.

Newgarden’s Team Penske teammates have won three of the other 13 oval races since 2022. Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward also has won three, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou has won two (both last season) and Marcus Ericsson (then with Chip Ganassi Racing), Colton Herta (then with Andretti Global), Dixon, Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood and ECR’s Christian Rasmussen (photo, above) have won one each.

Eleven drivers in this field have won oval races in this series:

• Scott Dixon, 25
• Josef Newgarden, 18
• Will Power, 10
• Pato O’Ward, 4
• Alexander Rossi, 2
• Graham Rahal, 2
• Scott McLaughlin, 2
• Alex Palou, 2
• Marcus Ericsson, 1
• Kyle Kirkwood, 1
• Christian Rasmussen, 1

At last month’s Unser INDYCAR Open Test at Phoenix, Rossi posted the fastest lap with Newgarden second, Palou third and Rasmussen fourth. Rossi and Rasmussen were among the top-four finishers in last year’s race at the Milwaukee Mile. Rasmussen won.

What About Malukas?

If Newgarden has been the face of INDYCAR’s ovals in recent seasons, how should David Malukas (photo, above) be assessed? He hasn’t won a race on any type of circuit in this series, but now with Team Penske, he should be considered one to watch.

After all, Malukas has been quite impressive on ovals, particularly those of the shorter variety.

Malukas has competed in 21 oval races since joining the series as the 2021 INDY NXT by Firestone runner-up. He has five top-four finishes, including second-place finishes in 2022 at World Wide Technology Raceway and last year in the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge. It was in that race at WWTR that he split his current Team Penske teammates – Newgarden and McLaughlin – in the late-race sprint to the finish.

Malukas was particularly strong on the ovals last year. In addition to finishing second in the “500,” he qualified in the top 10 for all six oval races, including front-row starts at Milwaukee and Nashville to end the season. He started third in the second race at Iowa, was fourth at WWTR and seventh at Indy.

Malukas led 95 laps in oval races last year. Now he gets to drive Team Penske’s No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, which Power used to considerable success.

The Rookie Class

Two of the three first-year drivers in this series have oval experience, although this will be their first at this level.

Dale Coyne Racing’s Dennis Hauger had an impressive opening weekend in St. Petersburg, qualifying third and finishing 10th. But Phoenix represents a completely different challenge. Hauger and AJ Foyt Racing’s Caio Collet combined to win nine of 14 INDY NXT by Firestone races last season, but they did not win one of the four oval races.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Mick Schumacher would like to complete some laps this weekend after being collected in a first-lap accident in Turn 4 in St. Petersburg. Schumacher drove over the back of AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci after Ferrucci’s car was struck by Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Sting Ray Robb.

The three series newcomers had similar lap times in last month’s two-day Unser INDYCAR Open Test at Phoenix Raceway. Schumacher led the group with the series’ 18th-best lap.

The Weekend Schedule

Similar to most of the other ovals on the NTT INDYCAR SERIES schedule, this event is a two-day show.

Teams will be particularly busy Friday, with the first practice at 10 a.m. ET (that’s an early-rise 8 a.m. local time). Single-car qualifying for the NTT P1 Award will be at 2 p.m. ET followed by the final practice at 4:30 p.m. ET. All that action will air live on FS2.

Saturday’s FOX broadcast begins at 3 p.m. ET.