“Phoenix is the grind race”: Kyle Petty shares his insight on NASCAR’s next stop on the calendar

Kyle Petty, the son of seven-time Cup Series champion Richard Petty, has opened up about the challenges of racing at the Phoenix Raceway. He stated that drivers and teams need to dig deep and “grind” to secure the win.

Kyle Petty, born in Randleman, North Carolina, is a former driver for Wood Brothers Racing and his father, Richard Petty’s team Petty Enterprises. Over his 30-year-long career in the Cup Series (1979 - 2008), the North Carolina native achieved eight victories. After retiring from full-time racing in 2008, Kyle became a NASCAR analyst for NBC Sports.

While speaking to Performance Racing Network, the North Carolina native spoke with experience over the fundamental challenges drivers and teams face at the Phoenix Raceway.

"Phoenix is the grind race. It's that race you got to get back to doing your nuts and bolts, your fundamental, you got to make it a turn, you got to make it come up off the corner, you got to do things, you got to do the basic things that you have to do at the other 28 or 27 races, whatever it is, that are like these," said Kyle Petty.

Kyle described Phoenix as a track where engineering has to be top-notch. Teams need to rely on precise strategies to compete for the highest spots in the standings.

"And I think this is for the teams when the real engineering hits the road, when the real drivers hit the road, when the real cars hit the road, and they understand who they're going to have to compete against this year, or at least in the early part of the year," he added.

Part of the NASCAR Spring Weekend, Phoenix Raceway is shaping to be an exciting event. The raceway is a one-mile tri-oval track that has been a part of motorsports history since its inception in 1964 and has hosted races for CART, IndyCar and NASCAR.

Favorites among the ones to cross the checkered flag first are Christopher Bell (the defending winner of the race and on the verge of winning three consecutive races in a row this season), Ryan Blaney, Kyle Larson, and William Byron.

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Kyle Petty dropped a hot take on Jimmie Johnson’s herculean NASCAR achievement

Kyle Petty recently expressed his views on Jimmie Johnson's remarkable career in NASCAR, labeling it as one of the most underrated records in sports history.

"I said this a million times on a million different occasions, Jimmie Johnson's five in a row is the most underrated record in all of sports. It gets very little attention. We talk about Tiger Woods winning all these majors, we talk about Michael Jordan and LeBron James. You talk about everything that Richard Petty has done, everything Dale Earnhardt Sr. has done. Five in a row? That nobody's done," he said on the Performance Racing Network.

Jimmie Johnson, who is often referred to as "Superman," boasts an impressive 22-year career that includes 83 Cup Series victories and a single Xfinity win. His most notable achievement is his unprecedented streak of five consecutive Cup Series championships from 2006 to 2010, a record that remains unmatched in modern NASCAR.