Phoenix Spring Race: Cautions

All eyes are on Phoenix this week, not only for the spring race, but also to glean clues as to what we should expect in terms of cautions and lead changes when we return in November for what is now the championship race.

Phoenix is a relatively consistent track. Today, we’ll look at cautions.

• The most cautions in a Phoenix spring race is 10 (2015)
• Three races had nine cautions: 2005, 2010 and 2019 – see the note below about why 2010 was an unusual race.
• The lowest number of cautions in a Phoenix spring race is 5 (2016)
• The average number of cautions for a Spring race at Phoenix International Raceway is 7.6. The introduction of stage racing in 2017 hasn’t changed that number.
• In addition to the two stage cautions, expect between three and seven additional cautions, with four to six additional cautions most likely.

Caution Laps

• The most caution laps run is 59 — but that was in an extra-long race of 378 laps in 2010. That’s 15.6% of the race run under yellow
• Phoenix races are almost always 312 laps. The largest percentage of the race run under yellow was last year (2019) when there were 57 laps run under caution, or 18.3%
• The lowest number of caution laps run in a Phoenix spring race is 29, which happened twice: in 2006 and in 2009