NASCAR Cup Series: TicketGuardian 500 at Phoenix entry list
By Asher Fair
The TicketGuardian 500 at ISM Raceway is the fourth of 36 races in the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series season. Here is the entry list for Sunday’s race.
This weekend, the drivers of the NASCAR Cup Series are set to take to the 1-mile ISM Raceway dogleg oval in Avondale, Arizona for the TicketGuardian 500 following two races on 1.5-mile ovals in Atlanta and Las Vegas. Kevin Harvick, an eight-time winner at Phoenix, enters the weekend as the favorite to win the race having won two races in a row.
Harvick’s post-race penalty after winning the race at Las Vegas, which included the loss of 20 points in the championship standings, should fire him up and make him hungrier to put the #4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford in Victory Lane for the third consecutive race, especially since it dropped him from 1st place into a 3rd place tie in the standings.
Last year’s March Phoenix race was won by Ryan Newman, the driver of the #31 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing. He started the race in 22nd place and led just six of the race’s 314 laps, but he ended up winning the race anyway. He has not won a race since.
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Matt Kenseth won last year’s November Phoenix race, which was the penultimate race of the 2017 season, as the driver of the #20 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, which is the car now driven by second-year driver Erik Jones, who drove the #77 Toyota for Furniture Row Racing last season as a rookie. Kenseth no longer drives full-time in the Cup Series.
Two of the first three races of the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series season, the two races won by Kevin Harvick, have gone the scheduled distance and no longer. This was the case in last November’s Phoenix race. However, the March Phoenix race has gone past its scheduled 312 laps in each of the last two seasons. It has not lasted its scheduled distance and no longer since 2015. That race was won by Harvick.
Here is the full entry list for the TicketGuardian 500.
| Rank | Driver | Car, Team, Manufacturer |
| 1 | Jeffrey Earnhardt | #00, StarCom Racing, Chevrolet |
| 2 | Jamie McMurray | #1, Chip Ganassi Racing, Chevrolet |
| 3 | Brad Keselowski | #2, Team Penske, Ford |
| 4 | Austin Dillon | #3, Richard Childress Racing, Chevrolet |
| 5 | Kevin Harvick | #4, Stewart-Haas Racing, Ford |
| 6 | Trevor Bayne | #6, Roush Fenway Racing, Ford |
| 7 | Chase Elliott | #9, Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet |
| 8 | Aric Almirola | #10, Stewart-Haas Racing, Ford |
| 9 | Denny Hamlin | #11, Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota |
| 10 | Ryan Blaney | #12, Team Penske, Ford |
| 11 | Ty Dillon | #13, Germain Racing, Chevrolet |
| 12 | Clint Bowyer | #14, Stewart-Haas Racing, Ford |
| 13 | Ross Chastain | #15, Premium Motorsports, Chevrolet |
| 14 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | #17, Roush Fenway Racing, Ford |
| 15 | Kyle Busch | #18, Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota |
| 16 | Daniel Suarez | #19, Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota |
| 17 | Erik Jones | #20, Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota |
| 18 | Paul Menard | #21, Wood Brothers Racing, Ford |
| 19 | Joey Logano | #22, Team Penske, Ford |
| 20 | Gray Gaulding | #23, BK Racing, Toyota |
| 21 | William Byron | #24, Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet |
| 22 | Ryan Newman | #31, Richard Childress Racing, Chevrolet |
| 23 | Matt DiBenedetto | #32, Go Fas Racing, Ford |
| 24 | Michael McDowell | #34, Front Row Motorsports, Ford |
| 25 | Chris Buescher | #37, JTG Daugherty Racing, Chevrolet |
| 26 | David Ragan | #38, Front Row Motorsports, Ford |
| 27 | Kurt Busch | #41, Stewart-Haas Racing, Ford |
| 28 | Kyle Larson | #42, Chip Ganassi Racing, Chevrolet |
| 29 | Darrell Wallace Jr. | #43, Richard Petty Motorsports, Chevrolet |
| 30 | AJ Allmendinger | #47, JTG Daugherty Racing, Chevrolet |
| 31 | Jimmie Johnson | #48, Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet |
| 32 | Timmy Hill | #51, Rick Ware Racing, Chevrolet |
| 33 | Corey Lajoie | #72, TriStar Motorsports, Chevrolet |
| 34 | Martin Truex Jr. | #78, Furniture Row Racing, Toyota |
| 35 | Alex Bowman | #88, Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet |
| 36 | Kasey Kahne | #95, Leavine Family Racing, Chevrolet |
| 37 | D.J. Kennington | #96, Gaunt Brothers Racing, Toyota |
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Be sure not to miss this Sunday’s running of the TicketGuardian 500. The race is set to be broadcast live from ISM Raceway in Avondale, Arizona starting at 3:30 pm ET on Fox. Who will end up winning the fourth race of the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series season?