An old friend returns to the NTT INDYCAR SERIES schedule in 2026, and it is one with tremendous familiarity.
Phoenix Raceway opened in 1964 as a 1-mile oval, billed as “the Indianapolis of the West.” The 320 acres purchased by Scottsdale’s Richard Hogue had been a cotton farm at the base of the Estrella Mountains, and the new construction featured a road course and a drag strip. Hogue is said to have been convinced to include an oval track at the urging of J.C. Agajanian, whose cars had won the Indianapolis 500 with Troy Ruttman in 1952 and Parnelli Jones in 1963.
The creation of the paved oval drew significant opposition from officials at the Arizona State Fairgrounds, which for years had been hosting USAC dirt races. But Hogue was undeterred, and open-wheel racing became the beneficiary.
Originally called Phoenix International Raceway, its first event was a February 1964 sports car race on the road course won by Dave MacDonald. The next month, the first oval race was held, with Jones taking the pole at 114.822 mph in a car owned by Agajanian. A.J. Foyt and his Sheraton-Thompson Special led the first lap and the 99 that followed, the first of Foyt’s four wins at the track. In the years that followed, Al Unser became the track’s all-time INDYCAR SERIES winner, making six trips to victory lane, the last in 1985.
Phoenix fans have watched INDYCAR SERIES races of all iterations: USAC, CART, the Champ Car World Series, the Indy Racing League and, since unification in 2008, the NTT INDYCAR SERIES. Winners have ranged from legends (Foyt, Mario Andretti, Bobby and Al Unser, Johnny Rutherford, Gordon Johncock, Rick Mears, Tom Sneva and Arie Luyendyk) to drivers whose only series wins came at this track (George Follmer in 1969, Swede Savage in 1970, Kevin Cogan in 1986 and Jim Guthrie in 1997).
Phoenix hosted the most recent of its 64 INDYCAR SERIES races in 2018. The next chapter is set for Saturday, March 7, 2026, and it will be the second race of next year’s 17-race schedule. The season opens with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on Sunday, March 1.
To understand the significance of the return to the Valley of the Sun, it is important to have perspective.
Additional Phoenix History
Phoenix Raceway has experienced many legendary moments, including the 1970 sports car victory of Hollywood giant Steve McQueen. It’s where Alan Kulwicki won his first NASCAR Cup Series race in 1988 and proceeded to triumphantly circle the track in the opposite direction, a celebration known as a Polish victory lap. It’s where Mario Andretti won for the last time in INDYCAR, a 1993 race that saw Newman/Haas Racing teammate Nigel Mansell break his back in his maiden oval race. In 2001, Sam Hornish Jr. (photo, above) began his run with Panther Racing by winning the first Indy Racing League event featuring Team Penske. It is where NASCAR champion Kyle Larson had his first INDYCAR test in February 2024.
In 1977, Phoenix Raceway debuted the Copper World Classic, a multidivision extravaganza in the spring that became the envy of every motorsports promoter in the West. Over the years, the program featured Formula Fords, late models, sports cars, stock cars, super modifieds and NASCAR Trucks, but the featured attraction became the USAC Midget, Sprint Car and Silver Crown races. The drives of Stan Fox, Ken Schrader, Tony Stewart, J.J. Yeley and Dave Steele were among the finest. The last such event was in 2009.
INDYCAR’s event was long a fixture at the track, too. With only a couple exceptions, two races a year – one in the spring, another in the fall – were held from 1964 through 1984. Single races continued until 2005, when Hornish won for the second time, this time with Team Penske.
The Recent History
NASCAR’s Cup Series first arrived at Phoenix Raceway in 1988, Additional national stock car races gradually were added in the years after International Speedway Corporation, now owned by NASCAR, purchased the track from local entrepreneur Emmett “Buddy” Jobe in 1997. Jeff Gordon won the first Xfinity Series race in 1999.
The track experienced a seismic change some 20 years ago. ISC and NASCAR decided it was time for a second Cup Series race at Phoenix, and 35 days after Hornish won the INDYCAR SERIES race, Kurt Busch won the first Cup Series race held in the spring.
Across motorsports, there aren’t many examples of tracks adding a second NASCAR weekend while continuing to have INDYCAR events. For years, Texas Motor Speedway was a notable exception. With the Copper World Classic and a new NASCAR weekend in the spring of 2006, it was decided there wasn’t a need for an INDYCAR SERIES event at Phoenix.
Phoenix Raceway did not host another INDYCAR SERIES race until 2016. Scott Dixon won that year’s race. Two more races were held – Simon Pagenaud and Josef Newgarden (photo, above) were the winners in 2017 and 2018, respectively – before another pause came. Next year’s race will be INDYCAR’s first in the desert in eight years.
Another Opportunity with NASCAR
In 2021, INDYCAR and NASCAR met at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for an NBC-promoted event on the road course. The pairing of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES with NASCAR’s Xfinity and Cup Series was repeated in 2022. INDYCAR and IMS President J. Douglas Boles said this week that the sanctioning bodies have been looking for similar partnership opportunities ever since, and he said FOX Sports plans to lean heavy with its dual-series promotion of next year’s event.
The NTT INDYCAR SERIES and NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series (new name in 2026 for what is now known as the Xfinity Series) races will take place Saturday, March 7, with the Cup Series race Sunday, March 8.
Phoenix will be part of INDYCAR’s grand start to the 2026 season, a chance to announce the beginning of its season with authority. A series-record four races will be held in March, including three in succession to open the year, all on FOX. One of those events will be a March 15 street race in Arlington, Texas, in partnership with the Dallas Cowboys and Texas Rangers.
Five drivers projected to race full time in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES next season have raced at Phoenix, led by Dixon, a six-time starter with four top-five finishes. Will Power, Graham Rahal, Alexander Rossi and Newgarden each have made three starts at the track, with Power finishing second to Pagenaud in 2017 and third in Newgarden’s 2018 win. Rahal’s best finish is ninth.
Phoenix Raceway has undergone major renovations over the past decade, including a relocation of the start/finish line and a renumbering of the corners since INDYCAR last raced there. But at its core, it’s the same 1-mile oval the sport historically knows so well.