FOX NASCAR at Phoenix International Raceway Quotes & Programming Schedule

NASCAR 03/10/2015

NASCAR’s “West Coast Swing” continues this weekend at Phoenix International Raceway with the second of three consecutive West Coast races also featuring last week’s stop in Las Vegas and next weekend’s trip to Fontana, Calif. FOX Sports offers 19 hours of live coverage of the NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES and NASCAR XFINITY SERIES from Phoenix, culminating with the NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES race live on FOX on Sunday, March 15 (3:30 PM ET), with pre-race coverage beginning at 3:00 PM ET on FOX NASCAR SUNDAY. For the first time this season, the NASCAR XFINITY SERIES race airs on FOX (Saturday at 4:00 PM ET).

Mike Joy leads the FOX NASCAR booth from the one-mile track with analysis from NASCAR Hall of Famer Darrell Waltrip and former crew chief Larry McReynolds. The trio is joined on pit road by Jamie Little, Chris Neville and Matt Yocum. Chris Myers hosts the network’s coverage alongside analyst Michael Waltrip. Myers also hosts FOX NASCAR SUNDAY from the famed Hollywood Hotel alongside Darrell and Michael Waltrip.

Adam Alexander calls the NASCAR XFINITY SERIES race on FOX alongside Michael Waltrip and 2012 NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES champion Brad Keselowski. Reporting from the pits are Vince Welch, Neville and Yocum. NASCAR RACEDAY – XFINITY, FOX’s pre-race show, airs at 3:30 PM ET, hosted by Danielle Trotta alongside analysts McReynolds and Kenny Wallace. Keselowski is one of five NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES drivers announced as part of a rotation in the FOX and FOX Sports 1 booth for FOX Sports’ coverage of the 2015 NASCAR XFINITY SERIES season. Also scheduled as guest analysts this season are defending NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES champion Kevin Harvick, four-time champion Jeff Gordon, Danica Patrick and Clint Bowyer. This season, FOX Sports adds coverage of the NASCAR XFINITY SERIES for the first 14 races of the year. FOX Sports 1 telecasts 10 of the events while FOX broadcasts the races from Phoenix, Talladega, Charlotte and Dover.

NASCAR RACEDAY kicks off Sunday’s coverage at 12:00 PM ET on FOX Sports 1, and includes: a sit-down interview with Danica Patrick; a look back at Jeff Gordon’s 76^th Cup Series win, which tied him with Dale Earnhardt and came at Phoenix; a feature on Tony Stewart and a Stewart-Haas Racing timeline, beginning with the genesis of the team; a piece on Martin Truex Jr.; an examination of the RCR alliance enjoyed by the Nos. 47, 78 and 13; and interviews with AJ Allmendinger, Kevin Harvick and Ryan Newman.

FOX Sports GO, the critically acclaimed app that provides live streaming video of FOX Sports content at home or on the go, offers live streaming of all NASCAR programming in 2015. Customers of participating video providers may access the live streams of the race through the FOX Sports GO app for iOS devices, as well as on desktops through FOXSportsGO.com. For the latest NASCAR news and information, please visit www.FOXSports.com and follow @NASCARonFOX on Twitter.

Below are quotes from FOX NASCAR analysts Darrell Waltrip and former crew chief Jeff Hammond on the week’s headlines and the race ahead, as well as the full FOX NASCAR programming schedule from Phoenix:

WALTRIP ON WHETHER KEVIN HARVICK AND THE NO. 4 TEAM HAVE ANY WEAKNESSES AFTER WINNING THREE OF LAST SIX RACES AND SCORING SIX CONSECUTIVE TOP-TWO FINISHES:

“Last year when they started the season as a new combination, they were beating themselves with mechanical gremlins and the pit crew wasn’t on its game. But after time, they worked out the bugs, and since they did, they’re basically unbeatable. While Harvick is a great driver, what makes the No. 4 team so tough to beat is that the car is so fast every week. When they unload on Fridays, they’re usually a couple of tenths of a second faster than everyone. That’s a luxury because you can overcome a lot with a very fast car. You can have a slow pit stop or other issues if your car has the speed to compensate. They’re setting the mark.”

WALTRIP ON WHETHER THE NO. 4 TEAM’S SUCCESS IS REMINISCENT OF THE EARLY DAYS OF THE JIMMIE JOHNSON/CHAD KNAUS PAIRING: “We’ve seen this kind of domination before that we’re seeing with Kevin Harvick and the No. 4 team. We witnessed it from the No. 48 team for several years when they were unbeatable. Smart crew chief, fast car and great driver. It’s the same scenario with the No. 4 car now and the same mojo. It’s equally as hard to beat Harvick now as it was to beat Johnson a few years ago.”

HAMMOND ON HIS PERSPECTIVE ON THE RACING AFTER TWO RACES WITH THE NEW RULES PACKAGE FOR INTERMEDIATE TRACKS: “I have mixed emotions about how it is playing out. Are they really having quality passes and battling one another (for the lead)? Look at how many laps Kevin Harvick led at Las Vegas – more than 140 laps. If it hadn’t been for a lot of green-flag pit stops, I don’t think we would have had as many lead changes as we think we had, which is pretty comparable to 2014.”

WALTRIP ON WHICH TEAMS HAVE SHOWN THE MOST IMPROVEMENT SINCE 2014: “No doubt, the three single-car teams – the 78 (Martin Truex Jr. and Cole Pearn), 47 (AJ Allmendinger and Brian Burns) and 13 (Casey Mears and Bootie Barker) – have shown the most improvement since Homestead. The No. 78 is on cloud nine after going from gloom with nothing right with his car in 2014 or in his personal life with his girlfriend battling cancer, to a guy who seems to have it all together. That team is functioning at a high level. I’m really impressed with the turnaround in the 78 and 47 camps. Those are single-car teams truly capitalizing on their RCR alliance.”

WALTRIP ON JEFF GORDON’S BAD LUCK TO START HIS FINAL FULL SEASON OF COMPETITION AND THE FRUSTRATION THAT COMES WITH IT: “What’s frustrating is he knows it’s his last year and he’s not going back to these tracks, so he wants to leave on a good note. He won’t go back to Atlanta or Las Vegas and had only one shot there. It’s not happening for him and that has to be incredibly frustrating because it’s no fault of his own. For a driver who knows it’s his last time around, it’s extremely disheartening not to leave with a good result.”

HAMMOND ON WHEN THE NO. 24 TEAM NEEDS TO WORRY ABOUT ITS PERFORMANCE IN 2015: “Everyone came down on Aaron Rodgers, the Green Bay Packers’ quarterback, wondering what was going on when they weren’t performing. I’ll tell you the same thing Rodgers told his fans. R-E-L-A-X. This is Jeff Gordon and Hendrick Motorsports. They’re not going to get excited at this point in time. They don’t like starting the season this slowly, but they will rally back. They’ll win races and get back in the top 20 in points and all will be right.”

WALTRIP ON WHAT’S AILING TONY STEWART: “Stewart’s problems on-track are a combination of things. They go back two years to when he broke his leg and missed some races. Then he missed more races last year after the situation with Kevin Ward Jr. In this sport, when you get behind, you can’t get caught back up. Stewart is a great driver, but when you have to work through adversity week in and week out, it wears you down and takes toll on you personally and on your career. I think that’s what he’s been fighting. It’s one issue after another. Distractions that take you away from what you’re good at eventually become insurmountable. But never count him out. He just needs some good things to happen.”

WALTRIP ON WHETHER HE’D MAKE CHANGES AT STEWART-HAAS RACING: “I might. I thought about it Sunday watching those cars at Las Vegas. There is a lot of talent over there but they might not have the right chemistry for each driver. It’s not going well for the 10, 14 or 41 teams, so they might consider shaking things up a bit.”

WALTRIP ON WHETHER RYAN NEWMAN PICKED UP WHERE HE LEFT OFF IN 2014: “It sure looks like Ryan Newman and the No. 31 team didn’t skip a beat in the off-season. They are doing the same thing to start the year they did to end last year. They’re near the front where they can win, but the biggest thing that team does is kill you with consistency and compiling points. While the Chase is all about winning, a team also can be consistent and make the Chase by grabbing points each weekend, which is what they’ve done the past several races.”

NASCAR ON FOX & FOX SPORTS 1 AT PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY PROGRAMMING SCHEDULE

*All times live unless otherwise indicated & subject to change

Friday, March 13

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES PRACTICE (3:00-4:30 PM ET) (FOX Sports 1)

NASCAR XFINITY SERIES PRACTICE (4:30-5:30 PM ET) (FOX Sports 1)

NASCAR XFINITY SERIES FINAL PRACTICE (6:00-7:30 PM ET) (FOX Sports 2)

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES QUALIFYING (7:30-9:00 PM ET) (FOX Sports 2)

Saturday, March 14

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES PRACTICE (11:30 AM-12:30 PM ET) (FOX Sports 1)

NASCAR XFINITY SERIES QUALIFYING (12:30-2:00 PM ET) (FOX Sports 1)

NASCAR RACE HUB WEEKEND EDITION (2:00-2:30 PM ET) (FOX Sports 1)

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES FINAL PRACTICE (2:30-3:30 PM ET) (FOX Sports 1)