NASCAR Rumor: IndyCar to be support race to Phoenix Cup race

In the sun-scorched foothills of Arizona’s Estrella Mountains, where the one-mile dogleg oval of Phoenix Raceway has hosted high-octane drama since 1964, a new rumor has set the motorsport world abuzz.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Whispers began circulating in the late summer of 2025, carried on the desert wind and amplified through the paddock at Milwaukee’s IndyCar event: come March 2026, IndyCar and NASCAR would share the spotlight at Phoenix Raceway for a historic combined race weekend.

The prospect of open-wheel and stock car titans battling on the same bill was enough to ignite the imaginations of fans, drivers, and team owners alike. This is the story of how that rumor took root, the stakes it raised, and the anticipation it sparked.

It was August 2025, and the IndyCar paddock at the Milwaukee Mile was alive with chatter. Teams were packing up after a thrilling race, but the real buzz wasn’t about the checkered flag just waved—it was about what might happen in six months. A report from *RACER* had dropped a bombshell: IndyCar was slated to support NASCAR at Phoenix Raceway for a doubleheader weekend on March 7-8, 2026. The plan, according to multiple sources, was for IndyCar to be the support race on Saturday, with NASCAR’s Cup Series headlining Sunday’s Shriners Children’s 500.

The news spread like wildfire across social media, with posts on X capturing the excitement: “IndyCar and NASCAR at Phoenix? This is gonna be epic!” one fan wrote. Another speculated, “Phoenix is back for IndyCar? With NASCAR? My wallet’s ready!”

For Phoenix Raceway, a track with a storied history of hosting both series, the rumor felt like a homecoming. The venue had been a staple for IndyCar from the 1960s through 2005, with legends like A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, and Dario Franchitti taming its tricky layout. It returned briefly from 2016 to 2018, but poor attendance led to IndyCar’s departure.

NASCAR, meanwhile, had made Phoenix its own, hosting two Cup Series weekends annually, including the championship finale from 2020 to 2025. The idea of uniting the two series for a joint event was bold—a first-time collaboration driven by FOX, the broadcaster for both IndyCar’s full season and NASCAR’s early races. As one X post put it, “FOX is cooking something special with this IndyCar-NASCAR crossover!”

In the IndyCar garage, drivers were cautiously intrigued. Marcus Armstrong, fresh off a contract renewal with Meyer Shank Racing, overheard the rumor while chatting with his engineer. “Phoenix? That track’s a beast,” he said, recalling its tight dogleg and variable banking. “If we’re racing with NASCAR, it’s gonna be a wild weekend.”

Armstrong remembered the track’s challenges from IndyCar’s last stint there, when its reconfigured layout—widened frontstretch, tighter dogleg, and 9-11-degree banking—tested even the best. He wondered aloud how the new Dallara chassis would handle it compared to NASCAR’s Next Gen cars.

Across the country, in NASCAR’s Team Penske shop, Joey Logano, a four-time Phoenix winner, caught wind of the rumor during a strategy session. “IndyCar’s coming to town? Cool,” he grinned. “Maybe they’ll learn a thing or two from us about sliding through that dogleg.”

Logano, the 2024 Cup Series champion, knew Phoenix’s quirks intimately. His 2022 and 2024 titles were clinched there, and he relished the track’s chaos, especially on restarts where drivers could dive five-wide into the reconfigured Turn 2. But he also respected IndyCar’s precision, having watched their 2018 race. “Those guys are fast, but our cars are tanks. It’ll be a hell of a show,” he supposedly said.

The rumor traced back to Phoenix Raceway’s president, Latasha Causey, who was quietly working with NASCAR and IndyCar officials to make the event a reality. Phoenix had a history of open-wheel racing, from USAC’s Governor’s Cup in 1964 to CART’s Jimmy Bryan Memorial through 1996. But the track’s last IndyCar event in 2018 drew sparse crowds, and Causey knew a joint weekend needed to be a spectacle to succeed. “Our fans make Phoenix special,” she told a local reporter, hinting at big plans. “We’re exploring ways to bring more racing to Avondale.”

Behind closed doors, she was negotiating with IndyCar to ensure the track’s surface suited their cars, a concern raised after the 2018 event when drivers struggled with the reconfigured oval.

The *RACER* report suggested Phoenix could also host IndyCar’s pre-season Spring Training, replacing Iowa Speedway after its low turnout in 2025.