The 2022 Ruoff Mortgage 500 was the fourth stock car race of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series and the 18th running of the event. The race was held on Sunday, March 13, 2022, in Avondale, Arizona at Phoenix Raceway, a 1 mile (1.6 km) permanent low-banked tri-oval race track. The race took the scheduled 312 laps to complete. At race's end, Chase Briscoe, driving for Stewart-Haas Racing, pulled away on the final restart with three laps to go to capture his first career NASCAR Cup Series win and his first of the season. To fill out the top 3, Ross Chastain of the Trackhouse Racing Team and Tyler Reddick of Richard Childress Racing would finish second and third, respectively.
Report
Background
Phoenix Raceway, is a 1.022 mi (1.645 km), low-banked tri-oval race track located in Avondale, Arizona. The motorsport track opened in 1964 and currently hosts two NASCAR race weekends annually. PIR has also hosted the IndyCar Series, CART, USAC and the Rolex Sports Car Series. The raceway is currently owned and operated by International Speedway Corporation.
The raceway was originally constructed with a 2.5 mi (4.0 km) road course that ran both inside and outside of the main tri-oval. In 1991 the track was reconfigured with the current 1.51 mi (2.43 km) interior layout. PIR has an estimated grandstand seating capacity of around 67,000. Lights were installed around the track in 2004 following the addition of a second annual NASCAR race weekend.
Entry list
- (R) denotes rookie driver.
- (i) denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points.
Practice
Austin Cindric was the fastest in the practice session with a time of 27.462 seconds and a speed of 131.090 mph (210.969 km/h).
Practice results
Qualifying
Ryan Blaney scored the pole for the race with a time of 27.127 seconds and a speed of 132.709 mph (213.574 km/h).
Qualifying results
Race
Stage Results
Stage One Laps: 60
Stage Two Laps: 125
Final Stage Results
Stage Three Laps: 127
Race statistics
- Lead changes: 14 among 6 different drivers
- Cautions/Laps: 8 for 52
- Red flags: 0
- Time of race: 3 hours, 6 minutes and 34 seconds
- Average speed: 100.339 miles per hour (161.480 km/h)
Media
Television
Fox Sports covered their 17th race at the Phoenix Raceway. Mike Joy, Clint Bowyer, and Danica Patrick called the race from the broadcast booth. Jamie Little and Regan Smith handled pit road, while Larry McReynolds provided insight from the Fox Sports studio in Charlotte.
Radio
MRN covered the radio action for the race which was also simulcasted on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio. Alex Hayden and Jeff Striegle called the race when the field raced past the start/finish line. Dan Hubbard called the action from turns 1 & 2, and Kyle Rickey called the action from turns 3 & 4. Pit lane was manned by Steve Post and Jason Toy.
Standings after the race
References
