Connor Zilisch says a sensor built into his mouthpiece recorded repeated 10G hits every time he drove through Phoenix Raceway’s dogleg, putting fresh numbers behind a debate that has hovered over the track for years. He said the data came from a custom device made with the Wake Forest University Biomedical Lab and discussed the findings on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
The timing matters because NASCAR is already weighing possible changes ahead of the 2027 season, and the dogleg remains one of Phoenix’s defining features. It lets drivers use the flat apron along the frontstretch, creates wide restarts, and opens passing lanes that do not exist elsewhere on the circuit. Zilisch’s data now gives that conversation a hard edge.
He did not present the dogleg as a simple problem to solve. Zilisch said he struggles to want NASCAR to change it because the section adds something to the racetrack and makes Phoenix unique. At the same time, he said safety has to come first and called it a difficult choice, a view sharpened by the repeated impacts he said show up in the sensor readings.
Those readings are not abstract. Zilisch said that basically every time a driver goes down there, it is a 10G hit, and he recalled a qualifying session earlier in the year when an impact shifted his helmet. The device measures linear and rotational G-forces and head movement, so the numbers are aimed at showing not just contact, but how hard the body and helmet are being thrown around in the transition.
That transition is where the trouble sits. Phoenix Raceway’s dogleg has long been used because it can make a race more open and more aggressive on restarts, but the sharp move from banking to apron can send cars into the wall. NASCAR has considered restoring turf to parts of the apron, making the change less abrupt, or restricting access with double-yellow lines, and the focus now is on the transition rather than a full redesign of the dogleg.
For Zilisch, the issue is less about whether the dogleg matters and more about how much punishment drivers should keep taking to preserve it. If officials move ahead before the 2027 season, the next version of Phoenix’s most distinctive corner will have to keep the racing value he likes while reducing the kind of repeated 10G hits he says the data has already captured.
