Phoenix Raceway never disappoints. Whether it was Joey Logano crashing out of the race on lap 204 after getting hit by  John Hunter Nemechek from behind and then collecting 4 cars with him as he crashed into the wall last year. Or when Anthony Alfredo intentionally wrecked Stefan Parsons during the Xfinity championship race.

And just when you think you have seen it all, Phoenix sends a curveball your way, with something you never expect to see in a race. Pace car crashing into the sand barriers when leading the pack after the first stage break, and leading to a red flag in last year’s championship race. Like every year, this year too, Phoenix was buzzing with excitement for the race weekend as Justin Allgaier was dominating the GovX 200 NASCAR Xfinity Series race.

The victory almost seemed to be in the bag of the No. 7 JRM team, but with 3 laps to go there came the dreadful untimely caution. This opened the door for veteran JGR driver Aric Almirola to draw level with the race leader on the restart. And what happened next became a topic of discussion, especially after last Sunday’s clean race at COTA.

With an overtime restart, the lead of Allgaier was neutralized as the pack bunched up, with Alex Bowman and Joe Gibbs Racing drivers, Brandon Jones and Aric Almirola in hot pursuit of the race leader. Allgaier was fighting for the win and almost pushed Almirola’s No. 19 Toyota Camry in the wall coming off the Turns 1 and 2. Bowman drove the No. 17 HMS Chevy threading the needle, snatching the lead and white flag. All he needed was to keep the No. 19 car in his rearview mirror.

Coming on the final lap of the race, Almirola knew he would need to get his hands dirty if he were to grab the win. He was right on the rear bumper of Bowman coming off Turn 3 and used the same tactics Allgaier deployed against him. The HMS driver did take the high line exiting the final corner but Almirola ran Bowman’s car up into the wall and grabbed the checkered flag in a three-wide photo finish.

“I would’ve hoped that he would’ve given me a lane on exit, but he just exited like I wasn’t there,” said Bowman on Almirola’s move to win the race. Well, this was a perfect example of Rubbin is Racing but the Chevy camp certainly didn’t like Almirola using Bowman up on the final corner.

In complete contrast with the Phoenix race, we had the COTA weekend, where Christopher Bell decided not to shove Kyle Busch out of the way like Almirola did to Bowman and win the race. Instead, he decided to race him hard but fair, also not wanting to have a repeat of last year’s race at COTA. This led to ‘Rowdy’ also admitting later, and praising Bell for his respect and fair racing, “I’ll give Christopher credit. He ran really hard, and I was a complete b—head. He did a great job working me over and just doing it the right way. So congrats to him, congrats to the 20 bunch.”

During the media scrum, Rick Hendrick’s driver, William Byron, who put his number 24 Chevrolet on the pole for the race tomorrow, agreed with Busch when asked about the race between Bell and Busch last week and the importance of having a clean finish of a race, said “I think it’s very situational but I think that, yeah there needs to be a greater level of respect in general throughout the field and still race hard you know because this car requires you to to race hard and there is contact, so yeah it’s just to me it’s all about who you’re racing.”

Byron seemed to be siding with Hendrick Motorsports driver in this controversy between Bowman and Almirola. Remember Byron also drove for Rick Hendrick back in his Xfinity series career. The incident in the Xfinity race with drivers choosing their sides has given rise to a new controversy about the fine line between foul play and hard racing. But, given that both Almirola and Bowman are running partial schedules in the Xfinity Series, all bets were off on the final restart. And let’s be honest, the JGR driver didn’t right hook the No. 17 car like Chase Elliott at Charlotte in 2023. So, one event isn’t going to set a precedent for drivers across all series on how they should race in clutch moments.

Is There a New Rivalry Brewing?

The intense finish of the race at Phoenix, although exciting, has raised some questions of its own. Can this be the catalyst for a new rivalry to be born in the world of NASCAR? Both drivers racing part-time in the Xfinity Series seem to support different racing styles, Almirola, on the one hand, is ready to shunt someone into the wall to win a race, Bowman, on the other hand, or in this race at least, is an advocate of clean and fair racing.

“I would’ve hoped that he would’ve given me a lane on exit but he just exited like I wasn’t there. Which, he was better than us for sure. But just tried to capitalize on that restart, trying to win the race and got shoved in the fence and the race car’s destroyed. Bummer for that but hats off to the HendrickCars.com crew, everybody did a really good job…Wish Mr. Hendrick got a win there,” said after the race when asked about the incident.

Almirola, however, when asked about the incident, said “I knew I was going to use him up a little bit, but we’re trying to win the race…I feel like it was warranted. I didn’t think I did anything overly egregious; I just throttled up, and I knew it was going to be a drag race to the start finish line,” admitting it was acceptable, nothing but just good old hard racing.

This gives us an insight into the contrasting driving styles of the two drivers, and as the season progresses, this can cause more fireworks between the two drivers. And don’t be surprised if you see Bowman return the favor to Almirola next time he races in the Xfinity Series.