The 2020 FanShield 500 was a NASCAR Cup Seriesrace held on March 8, 2020, at Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona. Contested over 316 laps—extended from 312 laps due to an overtime finish, on the 1.022 mi (1.645 km) oval, it was the fourth race of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season. This was the last race to run before the season was put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Report
Background
Phoenix Raceway was the site of the fourth race of the season
Ryan Newman made a return to the race track as a visitor for the first time after his crash at the Daytona 500, where he was injured, three weeks earlier.[10]
First practice
William Byron was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 26.747 seconds and a speed of 134.595 mph (216.610 km/h).[11]
Before the race, for the O'Reilly Pre-Race Party, the Arizonian band Harry Luge Band would play a concert in the InField two hours before the race. Wrestler Anthony Robles would try and break the Guinness record for most pull ups with an 80 pound bag, which he succeeded. Country music star Blake Shelton and Pitbull would perform Get Ready and introduce drivers. Skylar Astin, star from "Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist", would sing the national anthem. Four F-35s from Luke Air Force Base would perform the fly over at the end of the national anthem. Hudson Derbyshire, son of the CEO of FanShield, Bryan (who accompanied him, along with his mom) would give out the starting command.[14]
Stage One
The start of the race showed pole sitter Chase Elliott pull out to the lead with Kevin Harvick following behind. Kyle Larson, in what would be his last race with Chip Ganassi Racing passed Harvick on lap 2. While the leaders were pulling away from each other, there were lots of battles for position in the midfield, including Martin Truex Jr. fighting his way up to the front after having to start at the rear. The traction compound poured on the track, PJ1, was a big factor throughout the race as it provided different grooves to run on. With around 40 laps to go in the stage, Denny Hamlin and Matt DiBenedetto were fighting for position. Also, Harvick had caught up to Elliott, and was battling him for the lead, and would keep fighting until lap 57, when Ricky Stenhouse Jr., trying to pass the lapped car of Joey Gase hit Gase's left quarter panel and spun into the wall, damaging the back end of his car.
During pit stops, all the lead lap cars decided to pit. Stenhouse was the leader coming off of pit road, but took no tires. Harvick would finally be able to grab the lead off of Elliott, with his crew having a faster time. Elliott would come up 2nd, then Hamlin in 3rd, DiBenedetto in fourth, and Logano rounding out the top 5.
During the lap 64 restart, Harvick would pull out to the lead; however, this would be short lived, as while Hamlin was battling for position, Hamlin's car got loose and went up the racetrack, collecting the nearby cars of Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney and sending all three into the outside wall. Keselowski would not suffer much damage, contrary to his teammate, Blaney who had to retire from the race. Hamlin would also be plagued with damage.
With a 4 lap dash to the end of the stage, Harvick and Elliott would duke it out, with Logano following closely behind. However, Harvick would pull out the lead and win the stage. Meanwhile, Erik Jones would win the final stage points in a tough battle with Clint Bowyer.
Average speed: 94.407 miles per hour (151.933 km/h)
Media
Television
Fox Sports covered their 16th race at the Phoenix Raceway. Mike Joy and two-time Phoenix winner Jeff Gordon called the race from the broadcast booth, the last time Fox would have commentators in the booth at the track for the season, and the last for either of NASCAR's television partners until the Charlotte road course race. Jamie Little, Regan Smith, Vince Welch and Matt Yocum handled the pit road duties. Larry McReynolds and Jamie McMurray provided insight from the Fox Sports studio in Charlotte.
MRN covered the radio action for the race which was also simulcasted on Sirius XMNASCAR Radio. Alex Hayden, Jeff Striegle, and 1989 NASCAR Winston Cup Champion Rusty Wallace called the race when the field raced past the start/finish line. Kurt Becker called the action from turns 1 & 2 and Dan Hubbard called the action from turns 3 & 4. Pit lane was manned by Kim Coon, Steve Post, and Dillon Welch.
