If fans were expecting Phoenix Raceway to put on a good show, you might have left Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race feeling a little bit up in the air. The race had some interesting moments and proved that the use of an alternate tire certainly makes things interesting.
Still, the racing at Phoenix feels too dry and at times can be stagnant. The only real excitement of Sunday's Shriners Children's 500 was when only a few cars went to the alternate red tires early on and were passing cars like it was a video game.
By the end of the race, no one had a tire advantage, and the race fell into the hands of Christopher Bell, who had the best car regardless of the strategy.
The option tire is not NASCAR's problem
To see someone like Ryan Preece go to the red tires during the opening stage of the race and drive all the way from 33rd to the front was certainly awesome. That's how things should work, especially when tires wear like they are supposed to.
According to Kelly Crandall from RACER.com, Goodyear's NASCAR project manager, Mark Keto, was impressed by the results of the tires on Sunday.
""Everything went according to plan at Phoenix, and the option tire worked very well.""Mark Keto
It's great to hear they were impressed by the tire, and it did deliver, but that isn't the biggest problem that seems to still be plaguing the racing at Phoenix.
Races on shorter tracks and road courses have, generally speaking, been dry or stale in the Next Gen era, at least until a late caution jumbles everyone back up and makes for a close finish, like we saw at Phoenix.
Despite the fun fight between Bell, Denny Hamlin, and Kyle Larson in the final two laps, it proved again that Phoenix has a bigger problem.
Sunday proves Phoenix shouldn't host the NASCAR championship
If you think November's Championship 4 is going to go the same way, you're way too hopeful. It has been a far more interesting race in the spring than it has been in the fall for pretty much every year since the Next Gen car launched in 2022.
Toyota or Chevrolet usually win in March, and a Team Penske Ford shows up eight months later to win the championship. Call it crazy, but Sunday more or less proved that Phoenix isn't a good host for the Championship 4 anymore.
Phoenix simply continues to fail to deliver. It was once considered a short track, but everyone just cuts the corners, so what's the point really? When you think of short tracks, you think about hard racing, like what is produced at Bristol Motor Speedway or Martinsville Speedway; not corner cutting.