The Circle K/Fiesta Bowl 200 was the final name of a PPG IndyCar World Series race held annually at

Phoenix International Raceway Phoenix Raceway is a 1-mile, low-banked tri-oval race track located in Avondale, Arizona, near Phoenix. The motorsport track opened in 1964 and currently hosts two NASCAR race weekends annually including the final championship race since 2020. P ...

Avondale, Arizona Avondale is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, adjacent to Phoenix. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 89,334, up from 76,238 in 2010 and 35,883 in 2000. Avondale, incorporated in 1946, has experienced rapid ...

, from 1979 though 1986; it was known as the Miller High Life 150 for five editions during that period. The race was known by multiple other names, operated under other sanctioning bodies, and was run at other distances during a much longer history before IndyCar.

Race history

Open wheel racing An open-wheel single-seater (often known as formula car) is a car with the wheels outside the car's main body, and usually having only one seat. Open-wheel cars contrast with street cars, sports cars, stock cars, and touring cars, which have thei ...

in the

Phoenix area The Phoenix Metropolitan Area – also the Valley of the Sun, the Salt River Valley, or Metro Phoenix (known by most locals simply as “the Valley”) – is the largest metropolitan area in the Southwestern United States, centered on the city ...

dates back to

1915 Events Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix. January * January – British physicist Sir Joseph Larmor publishes his observations on "The Influence of Local Atmospheric Cooling on Astronomical Refraction". *January 1 ...

on a dirt oval at the

Arizona State Fairgrounds The Arizona State Fairgrounds is a permanent fairgrounds on McDowell Road, Encanto Village, within the city of Phoenix, Arizona, United States. It is currently used yearly to host the Arizona State Fair and the Maricopa County Fair, as well as f ...

. Earl Cooper, who competed in the Indianapolis 500 seven times, won the inaugural race—scheduled for 150 laps of the one-mile track, it was ended after 109 miles due to darkness. The race was revived in 1950 by the AAA, and then passed to the United States Auto Club (USAC) in 1956. USAC moved the race to the newly built

in 1964. The race became a

CART A cart or dray (Australia and New Zealand) is a vehicle designed for transport, using two wheels and normally pulled by one or a pair of draught animals. A handcart is pulled or pushed by one or more people. It is different from the flatbed tr ...

event in 1979. During the CART years, two races were scheduled through the mid-1980s, but the track dropped down to one race per year starting in 1987. Starting in 1954, the race was named for driver Bobby Ball, who died in February 1954 following a racing accident in Los Angeles in January 1953. The race was renamed in 1972 due to sponsorship from Best Western. Bobby Ball naming returned for the 1976–1978 editions, the last of which was title sponsored by Miller High Life. Miller's sponsorship continued through the 1983 edition. The race then had three different title sponsors for its final three editions:

Stroh's The Stroh Brewery Company was a beer brewery in Detroit, Michigan. In addition to its own Stroh's brand, the company produced or bought the rights to several other brands including Goebel, Schaefer, Schlitz, Augsburger, Erlanger, Old Style, L ...

, Dana, and Circle K. Over the entire history of the race, A. J. Foyt and Al Unser each won four times, the most of any driver. Foyt's wins came in 1960 at the Fairgrounds and then in 1965, 1971, and 1975 at the Raceway. Unser's wins all came at the Raceway, in 1969, 1976, 1979, and 1985. The most consecutive wins was three, by

Tom Sneva Thomas E. Sneva (born June 1, 1948) is a retired American race car driver who won the Indianapolis 500 in 1983. He primarily raced in Indy cars, and was named to the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2005. A former math teacher from Spokane ...

in 1980, 1981, and 1982. Sneva's three wins were the most by any driver during the IndyCar era of the race (1979–1986).

Arizona State Fairgrounds

*1954: Final 65 laps completed on November 8 due to heavy dust and the rough condition of the track. *1955: Race shortened due to rough track conditions. Driver Jack McGrath was killed in an accident during this race. *1961: Race shortened due to darkness. *1962: Race shortened due to crash. *Bolded driver indicates this was their first USAC Championship Car win

Phoenix International Raceway

* = Firestone * = Goodyear * Bolded driver indicates this was the drivers first IndyCar win.

Support races

Selected race summaries

*1980: Johnny Rutherford led the first 37 laps, then on lap 71 was chasing leader

. Dicing through slower traffic, Rutherford slipped by Sneva in turn three to take the lead. He then suffered a spectacular crash. Coming out of turn four, he touched wheels with

Dennis Firestone Dennis Firestone (born 22 July 1944 in Townsville, Australia) is a former CART driver from 1979 to 1987. He was the Rookie of the year in CART 1980 season finishing in 12th in season points, his best season. His best finish in a CART race was ...

and spun into the outside wall. Then the car flipped up in the air and landed upside-down on its roll bar. Rutherford escaped with a concussion and only minor cuts and lacerations. *1985: In the second-to-last race of the season at Phoenix, Al Unser Sr. and Al Unser Jr. finished first-second, and ended the day within three points of each other going into the season finale. The father and son battle for the 1985 championship is famous in Indy car lore.

References

External links

* Champ Car Stats
Fairgrounds archive
* Ultimate Racing History
Fairgrounds archivePhoenix archive
{{Champ Car Races Champ Car races Motorsport in Arizona Sports in Phoenix, Arizona Recurring sporting events established in 1964 Recurring sporting events disestablished in 1986 1964 establishments in Arizona 1986 disestablishments in Arizona