Three big questions ahead of the Freeway Insurance 500

There's only four races left in the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, and for the first time since 2019, the fall race at Phoenix Raceway is not the season finale. 

The one-mile oval in Avondale, Arizona, will play host to the 33rd race of the season on Sunday. Here are three big questions ahead of the Freeway Insurance 500. 

Can Denny Hamlin get his revenge?

Hamlin led 208 of 319 laps in the 2025 championship race at Phoenix, only to lose both the race and the championship on the final pit stop of the afternoon. Needless to say, revenge will be on the veteran's mind this weekend. 

Hamlin, who is second in the standings and 49 points back of leader and defending champion Kyle Larson, almost needs a win to feel good about where he is in points going into what will certainly be a chaotic Talladega race on Oct. 25. If Larson wins on Sunday or Hamlin has bad days at both Phoenix and Talladega, he may have to wait yet another year to win that elusive Cup Series championship. 

Can Ryan Blaney win third straight at Phoenix?

Lost of the chaos of Larson and Hamlin's battle for the championship last November was the fact that Blaney edged out Brad Keselowski for the race win at Phoenix. He backed up that victory with a far more assertive one on March 8, when he led 28 laps and scored his first win of the season. 

Blaney, too, is in must-win mode this weekend even more than Hamlin. He's 85 points behind Larson but has an excellent string of tracks in Phoenix, Talladega and Martinsville upcoming before the season finale at Homestead. 

If Blaney is the favorite, Christopher Bell has to be considered one as well. He led the most laps at Phoenix in March (176) and should be hungry for a victory, given his dejection after he came up 0.029 seconds shy of beating Chase Briscoe to the line at Charlotte.

Can Chase Briscoe stay hot?

Speaking of Briscoe, it was at Phoenix where he scored his first career win in 2022 with Stewart-Haas Racing. Over four years later, another win in the desert would keep his title hopes alive. 

Consecutive wins at Las Vegas and Charlotte have vaulted Briscoe to fourth in the standings, 65 points behind Larson. That's still a steep hill to climb, but the No. 19 has arguably been the fastest car throughout the Chase and could've had three straight wins, had Larson not beat him at Kansas. 

Given that Briscoe is the defending fall winner at Talladega, four straight wins isn't completely out of the realm of possibility. Another for the Mitchell, Indiana, driver at Phoenix on Sunday would start to make Larson sweat.