NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Phoenix for Subway Fresh Fit 500

After a dramatic season-opening Daytona 500, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to the desert for what many view as the start of stock car racing’s “regular season.”

The Daytona 500, won in an upset by 20-year-old Trevor Bayne in only his second Cup series start, is an unusual race in that NASCAR requires the cars be equipped with carburetor-restrictor plates to cap speeds on the high-banked, 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway.

But it’s back to normal, with unrestricted horsepower Sunday at the relatively flat, one-mile Phoenix International Raceway west of downtown Phoenix for the Subway Fresh Fit 500.

Bayne mainly drives in NASCAR’s second-tier Nationwide Series, and he’s scheduled to compete in Saturday’s Nationwide race here. But he’s also entered in Sunday’s Cup race as part of a limited Cup schedule this season with the legendary Wood Brothers team.

Carl Edwards, who finished a close second to Bayne in the Daytona 500, won the most recent race at Phoenix in November. (The track holds two Cup races a year.) Because Bayne is mainly a Nationwide driver, he wasn’t eligible for Cup series championship points at Daytona, so Edwards arrives in Arizona as the early leader in this season’s Cup standings.

Jimmie Johnson, who has won the Cup title for five consecutive years, finished 27th at Daytona after his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was damaged in an early crash. But Johnson could turn things around at Phoenix, where he holds the record for most Cup wins with four.

Phoenix’s early-season race formerly was held in April but was moved to the second race of this year’s 36-race calendar as part of a shuffling of NASCAR’s schedule. Qualifying to set the 43-car field is Saturday.

james.peltz@latimes.com