Phoenix International Raceway Tag

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor Heading into this weekend’s trip to the Arizona desert for the running of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Can-Am 500 at Phoenix International Raceway, a visit to the past is in order for this week’s edition of “Throwback Thursday Theater”. This week, we’ll take a look back at the 1996 Dura Lube 500, which saw quite a few interesting storylines coming into the event and most certainly leaving it. Back in 1996, Phoenix hosted just one race on the Cup Series schedule, the penultimate raceRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor The Round of 8 all comes down to this. After last week’s rain delayed race at Texas, the stage is set for the final race of the round to determine which drivers will move onto Homestead and which drivers will see their championship hopes vanish in the Valley of the Sun. Phoenix has resided on the Cup Series schedule since 1988, but the track looks completely different than it did 28 years ago, having undergone a reconfiguration back in 2011. The reconfiguration added progressive bankingRead More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer Entering the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series AAA 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, Jimmie Johnson was the only driver locked into the Championship Round at Homestead-Miami Speedway. One driver that was hoping to earn his own guaranteed shot at a Championship was Denny Hamlin. As the cars were unloaded at the beginning of the race weekend, Hamlin had just a six-point gap over the Chase cut-off. In the first practice, Hamlin was 15th fastest. He was then mired back on the speed charts in the secondRead More

By Brian Eberly, Contributing Writer KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Saturday’s NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Kanas Speedway started with a green flag run of 58 laps before the first caution flew for fluid on the track. The remaining 142 laps featured 10 cautions for 51 laps and changed the complexion of the Chase for several drivers. A Lap 165 accident ignited when Brandon Jones made contact with Justin Allgaier collected six drivers and resulted in heavy damage for Darrell Wallace Jr. as well as Allgaier. Wallace would immediately head toRead More

August 26, 1946 – July 2, 1973 The auto racing history books are filled with stories of unfulfilled potential, with drivers having their lives cut short leaving a lingering series of ‘what if’ scenarios. Young men like Francois Cevert, Adam Petty, Greg Moore and more recently, Jules Bianchi, had yet to demonstrate how far their careers would take them before they were taken from us. None of those stories, perhaps, are as compelling as the story of David Earl “Swede” Savage Jr. who found himself in the lead of theRead More

By Conor Daly, Verizon IndyCar Series Driver Welcome to my blog on Tribute Racing! I look forward to sharing the experience of my first full-time Verizon IndyCar Series season with all of you this year. We’re only two races into the season but it’s been very busy with testing, racing and promotional appearances, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I love what I do and I love every part of it. So far the season has been very much up and down. We struggled in practice and qualifyingRead More

By Adam Tate, Managing Editor IndyCar rookie and F1 reserve Alexander Rossi had his first oval experience this past weekend in IndyCar’s long awaited return to the Desert Mile at Phoenix International Raceway. In the lead up to the race, the newcomer was noticeably surprised at the transition and different skill set required for a fast, short oval. The first 10 laps I drove around an oval I was a little bit timid about it, but I enjoyed the experience. It’s a very unique set of circumstances you have to understandRead More

By Frank Santoroski, Staff Writer The Verizon IndyCar Series ran their second event on the schedule, and the first oval event of the year last night. Target Chip Ganassi driver, Scott Dixon, won the race in a dominating fashion leading the final 155 laps at Phoenix International Raceway. Allow me to share some observations of what we witnessed on Saturday Night. 1 ) The Aero Package isn’t quite right    As a few drivers and team owners predicted, the racing became largely processional with the cars becoming strung out. DriversRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Heading into Saturday night’s Desert Diamond West Valley Phoenix Grand Prix, Mikhail Aleshin appeared to have a top 10 within reach, until mistimed strategy and a spin coming to pit road ended the Russian’s chances and left him with an ill-fated result of 17th. Aleshin, 28, was out to prove early on that his No. 7 SMP Racing Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda could keep up with the daunting pace Chevrolet teams set in qualifying at the Desert Mile. The Russian started 13th and was one ofRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief In his Verizon IndyCar Series oval debut, Max Chilton hung with some of the best in the business en route to a stellar seventh place finish in the Desert Diamond West Valley Phoenix Grand Prix at Phoenix International Raceway on Saturday night. Chilton’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, Scott Dixon, soared to his 39th series win, but it was the former Formula 1 driver that had other drivers, notably Graham Rahal, impressed by his performance. “I was just happy Chilton didn’t get me because, my God, ChiltonRead More