November 23, 1980 - Petty Pockets Phoenix

From 1977 through 1984, NASCAR's Winston West series ran an annual 250-kilometer, 156-lap race at Phoenix. The races were always scheduled the week following the season-ending Winston Cup races at Ontario Motor Speedway and later Riverside International Raceway. Several Cup regulars raced in Phoenix's Winston West event before heading back home to the south.

Richard Petty made himself at home over a multi-year stretch at Phoenix. He won three of four races between 1978 and 1981 - including the Arizona Winston 250 on November 23, 1980.

King Richard won the pole for the 1980 event, and another Cup ringer Bobby Allison qualified second in a car borrowed from Cup journeyman D.K. Ulrich. Bill Schmitt, a Winston West regular, timed third. Joe Ruttman lined up fourth in an Oldsmobile fielded by Jim Stacy. Coincidentally, Ruttman got the nod to take the seat of Stacy's #2 Cup car about nine months later when Dale Earnhardt left Stacy's team after it had been purchased from Rod Osterlund.

A couple of next-generation young drivers also made the Phoenix event. Davey Allison qualified 11th in his father's hand-me-down AMC Matador, and Kyle Petty qualified 7th in an STP Chevy Caprice.

As the race headed for its conclusion, R. Petty and Allison battled for the lead though Richard led all but one lap down the stretch to capture the win. Allison finished where he started - second, and Kyle stayed competitive all day to come home third as the final car to finish on the lead lap. Davey crashed early in the event and ended up 29th in the 30-car field.

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Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.
updated by @tmc-chase: 11/23/17 11:21:34AM

Chase, that's a nice writeup with good photo clips you've got posted on your Bench Racing blog link.

Although the physical location of this Phoenix track hasn't changed since it opened in 1964, it's always interesting to see what dateline city/town is used in news stories about the events. Occasionally you'll see a Phoenix dateline and for many years Goodyear, AZ datelines were used. Currently, most news stories use an Avondale, AZ dateline, but I note the news clip in your blog has a Cashion, AZ dateline. Everybody has gotten a piece of the Phoenix track news credit at one time or another!

I also see by the results that Mel Larson , proprietor of the Circus-Circus in Las Vegas was still indulging in his love of racing into the 9th decade of the twentieth century.

Some years back, when Phoenix got it's Cup date, an old problem that used to haunt previous promoter, Dennis Wood was solved by the highway department. The old Salt River bed which was dry most of the year, sometimes flooded over the only access road to P.I.R. during heavy spring and fall rains. In the past, some Phoenix events were postponed due to flooding from the Salt River.

Below is just one news clip of many (this from March 1978's Evening Independent) documenting problems suffered by Dennis Wood through the years because of Salt River flooding. I guess new owner, Buddy Jobe had more political clout and was able to sway the highway department to fix the issue.

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"