Phoenix Weekend Recap

Phoenix Weekend Recap:

It seems that Phoenix has recently been the place to break winless droughts. Two years ago, both Ryan Newman and Carl Edwards ended winless streaks of over a year and Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne did the same last year. That trend continued this weekend in both the Sprint and Nationwide races, with Denny Hamlin winning for the first time in 22 races and Elliott Sadler winning his first Nationwide race since 1998.

Sadler has started off the 2012 Nationwide season with a 3rd place finish at the crash-fest that was Daytona and now a big win at Phoenix in the Bashas Supermarkets 200, taking an early 10 point lead in the standings over Nationwide rookie Austin Dillon. Sprint Cup series regulars Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, and Kevin Harvick dominated most of the day and it appeared the dominance of Sprint drivers in Nationwide would pick up where it has left off for the last 10 or so years. But after two races, its been the non-Sprint drivers taking the victories in Sadler and James Buescher. Sadler took two tires on the last pit stop and led the final 26 laps and held of a quick Keselowski.

On the Sprint Cup side, it looks like Hamlin is going to be a contender for the title again this year. Interesting enough, Hamlin spent 7 weeks in Phoenix in the offseason to get away from all the NASCAR talk in Charlotte, where most of the drivers live. It's fitting enough that Hamlin won the Subway Fresh Fit 500 and got back to what he did in 2010, where he won 8 races. Not to mention, new crew chief Darian Grubb (Tony Stewart's crew chief last year) stayed on his hot streak dating back to last year where he has now won 6 of the last 12 races. Hamlin was able to save enough gas in the fuel milage race and held of Kevin Harvick who ran out of gas on the last lap. Harvick was able to hold on to 2nd though, while the rest of the top 10 ended up with Greg Biffle in 3rd, then Jimmie Johnson, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin and Joey Logano.

Hamlin now is the points leader after two races with the win complementing his 4th place finish at Daytona. Greg Biffle is now in 2nd place after back-to-back 3rd place finishes. It looked like this race might have been won by Stewart or Johnson early on, but both ran into issues. Johnson had to take several pit stops to correct a loose wheel and Stewart stalled his car and couldn't get it re-fired after he ran out of gas with less than 100 laps to go. Hamlin will now lead the series into the third race of the year, the Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas.

Check back tomorrow for Twitter Tuesday with Power Rankings to come on Wednesdays now!