Where: Phoenix International Raceway, Avondale, AZ
When: November 13, 2005
Laps: 312
Track Length: 1. miles
Phoenix International Raceway has a brief 16 year history ofNASCAR Cup racing, but its impact has been huge. So much so asto merit a second Nextel Cup date in the spring of 2005.
There are a few other notables at the start of this race: BobbyLabonte has 400 career starts if he starts this Sunday. Mark Martinis starting his 600th race and Ricky Rudd will have his 750th(record) consecutive career start.
In 2004, the uniquely configured one-mile oval is the perfectsetting for Sunday's Checker Auto Parts 500, the 34th of 36 eventson the season and the eighth stop in NASCAR's first 10-race "playoff"for the title of its premier division; the Chase for the NextelCup.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. is the defending race winner, while RyanNewman, for the second consecutive weekend carries a significantBud Pole winning streak into the weekend.
To date no driver has ever won from the pole position althoughsix drivers in the last sixteen years have won being in the topten pole positions.
Phoenix Intl Raceway is an oval track that has 11 degree banksin the 1st and 2nd turns and 9 degree banks in the 3rd and 4thturns.
The last three times that they have raced here they have had3 different winners which include:Jeff Burton, Matt Kenseth andDale Earnhardt Jr.
