Phoenix Raceway
(Adam Glanzman/ARCA Racing)

Track profile: Phoenix Raceway

The ARCA Menards Series is still relatively new to Phoenix Raceway, as only a few races at the one-mile paved tri-oval in Avondale, Arizona, have run under the ARCA Menards banner.

Yet the West Series, which now operates as the ARCA Menards Series West, has a long history at the D-shaped track in the desert.

PHOTOS: ARCA Menards racing at Phoenix

The General Tire 150 at Phoenix Raceway in March of 2022 awards points to both the ARCA Menards Series and the ARCA Menards Series West for the second time in the track’s history. It is the only ARCA Menards Series-West Series combination race on the 2022 schedule.

ARCA’s return in November is a West Series standalone race, serving as the series’ championship event. But the field figures to be stacked with ARCA Menards Series regulars, anyway.

Tough competition from rival drivers aside, Phoenix Raceway features a layout and configuration seen nowhere else in stock car racing.

Track Profile: Phoenix Raceway

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Track Phoenix Raceway
Location Avondale, Arizona
Opened 1964
Layout Tri-oval
Surface Asphalt
Length One mile
Banking (Variable) 8-9 degrees in Turns 1-2;  0-11 degrees in Frontstretch Dogleg; 10-11 degrees in Turns 3-4; 9 degrees on Frontstretch; 3 degrees on Backstretch

A local builder and amateur sports car racer, Richard Hogue designed Phoenix Raceway to include the traditional one-mile oval as well as a quarter-mile drag strip and a 2.5 mile road course.

Construction of the facility Hogue called the “Indianapolis of the West” was completed in 1964, a month before Davey MacDonald won the first race at Phoenix Raceway, an open sports car race on the track’s road course. A month later, A.J. Foyt won the track’s first oval race, a 100-mile USAC event.

The first race at Phoenix for what’s now the ARCA Menards Series West, then the NASCAR Winston West Series, was won by Cale Yarborough on Nov. 27, 1977. The track would host its first NASCAR Cup Series race almost 11 years later, when Alan Kulwicki won on Nov. 6, 1988 in front of a then-record crowd of 60,000.

The ARCA Menards Series’ first event at Phoenix Raceway came in 2020 after the series merged with NASCAR. Chandler Smith won the General Tire 150 for the ARCA Menards Series in March of that year, and that November, David Gilliland won the first West Series race under the ARCA Menards banner at Phoenix.

That race also served as the ARCA Menards Series West season finale; Jesse Love was crowned champion. He repeated as champion in 2022 after Ty Gibbs won the West Series race at Phoenix to close the ARCA Menards racing season.

Phoenix Raceway has gone through a series of changes over almost six decades. Dennis Wood sold the track to Emmett Jobe in 1985. The venue was reconstructed in 1987 after a lightning strike started a fire that burned most of the structure. A suite building outside what was then Turn 1 was added in 1988. In 1991, the infield road course was reconfigured.

International Speedway Corporation purchased the track from Jobe in 1997. Lights were installed in 2004. The track’s Bobby Allison Grandstand was expanded in 2005, and the track oval’s surface was repaved and reconfigured in 2011.

In 2017, ISC and Phoenix Raceway announced a $178 million modernization plan for the track, and the project that featured more reconfiguration was completed in time for the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series race on Nov. 11, 2018.

More about Phoenix Raceway.

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Phoenix Raceway
A general view of the track before the General Tire 150 for the ARCA Menards Series at Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona, on March 6, 2020. (Adam Glanzman/ARCA Racing)

ARCA Menards Series results at Phoenix Raceway

Year Date Series Race Winner Complete Results
2022 11/06/21 ARCA Menards Series West Ty Gibbs Results
2021 03/12/21 ARCA Menards Series/ARCA Menards Series West Ty Gibbs Results
2020 11/07/20 ARCA Menards Series West David Gilliland Results
2020 03/06/20 ARCA Menards Series Chandler Smith Results
2019 11/09/19 NASCAR K&N Pro Series West* Ty Gibbs Results
2015 11/12/15 NASCAR K&N Pro Series West* Todd Gilliland Results
2014 11/06/14 NASCAR K&N Pro Series West* Nick Drake Results
2014 02/27/14 NASCAR K&N Pro Series West* Cole Custer Results
2013 11/08/13 NASCAR K&N Pro Series West* Gray Gaulding Results
2013 03/02/13 NASCAR K&N Pro Series West* Greg Pursley Results
2012 11/10/12 NASCAR K&N Pro Series West* Michael Self Results
2012 03/03/12 NASCAR K&N Pro Series West* David Mayhew Results
2011 11/12/11 NASCAR K&N Pro Series West* Ryan Blaney Results
2011 02/24/11 NASCAR K&N Pro Series West* Greg Pursley Results
2010 11/13/10 NASCAR K&N Pro Series West* Greg Pursley Results
2010 04/08/10 NASCAR K&N Pro Series West* Eric Holmes Results
2009 04/16/09 NASCAR Camping World West Series* Jason Bowles Results
2008 04/10/08 NASCAR Camping World West Series* Mike David Results
2007 04/19/07 NASCAR West Series* Joey Logano Results
2006 04/20/06 NASCAR Autozone West Series* Andrew Myers Results
2006 01/22/06 NASCAR Autozone West Series* Ken Schrader Results
2005 04/21/05 NASCAR West Series* Burney Lamar Results
2005 01/30/05 NASCAR West Series* David Gilliland Results
2004 10/03/04 NASCAR West Series* Scott Lynch Results
2004 01/25/04 NASCAR West Series* Ken Schrader Results
2003 10/05/03 NASCAR Winston West Series* Scott Lynch Results
2003 02/02/03 NASCAR Winston West Series* Ken Schrader Results
2002 02/02/02 NASCAR Winston West Series* Austin Cameron Results
2001 02/04/01 NASCAR Winston West Series* Ken Schrader Results
2000 03/18/00 NASCAR Winston West Series* Kevin Richards Results
1999 03/27/99 NASCAR Winston West Series* Mike Wallace Results
1998 04/19/98 NASCAR Winston West Series* Rich Woodland Jr. Results
1996 10/27/96 NASCAR Winston West Series* Bobby Hamilton (Lance Hooper#) Results
1995 10/29/95 NASCAR Winston West Series* Ricky Rudd (Doug George#) Results
1994 10/30/94 NASCAR Winston West Series* Terry Labonte (P.J. Jones#) Results
1993 10/31/93 NASCAR Winston West Series* Mark Martin (Rick Carelli#) Results
1992 11/01/92 NASCAR Winston West Series* Davey Allison (John Krebs#) Results
1991 11/03/91 NASCAR Winston West Series* Davey Allison (Bill Sedgwick#) Results
1990 11/04/90 NASCAR Winston West Series* Dale Earnhardt (Bill Schmitt#) Results
1989 11/05/89 NASCAR Winston West Series* Bill Elliott (Bill Schmitt#) Results
1988 11/06/88 NASCAR Winston West Series* Alan Kulwicki (Chad Little#) Results
1984 11/25/84 NASCAR Winston West Series* Bill Schmitt Results
1983 11/27/83 NASCAR Winston West Series* Ron Eaton Results
1982 11/28/82 NASCAR Winston West Series* Bobby Allison Results
1981 11/29/81 NASCAR Winston West Series* Richard Petty Results
1980 11/23/80 NASCAR Winston West Series* Richard Petty Results
1979 11/25/79 NASCAR Winston West Series* Neil Bonnett Results
1978 11/26/78 NASCAR Winston West Series* Richard Petty Results
1977 11/27/77 NASCAR Winston West Series* Cale Yarborough Results

* – NASCAR K&N Pro Series West / NASCAR Camping World West Series / NASCAR Autozone West Series / NASCSR Winston West Series / NASCAR West Series now the ARCA Menards Series West

# – Highest finishing West Series driver in combination race with NASCAR Cup Series; no West Series winner