The 2005 Checker Auto Parts 500 was a

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...

Nextel Cup Series The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the NASCAR, National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), the most prestigious stock car racing series in the United States. The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, ...

stock car race held on November 13, 2005 at

Phoenix International Raceway Phoenix Raceway (formerly known as ISM Raceway from 2018–2020, Phoenix International Raceway from 1964–1973 and 1976–2017, and FasTrack International Speedway from 1973–1976) is a dogleg oval track in Avondale, Arizona. The track has ...

Avondale, Arizona Avondale is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, adjacent to Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 89,334, up from 76,238 in 2010 and ...

. Contested over 312 laps on the 1-mile (1.609 km) asphalt oval, it was the thirty-fifth race of the 2005 Nextel Cup Series season.

Kyle Busch Kyle Thomas Busch (born May 2, 1985) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 8 Chevrolet Camaro (sixth generation)#ZL1, Chevrolet ZL1 for Richard Childress Racing and par ...

Hendrick Motorsports Hendrick Motorsports is an American professional auto racing organization that competes in the NASCAR Cup Series. The team was founded in 1984 as All-Star Racing by Rick Hendrick. Hendrick Motorsports has won a NASCAR-record 316 Cup Series ra ...

won the race.

Background

Phoenix International Raceway – also known as PIR – is a one-mile, low-banked

tri-oval A tri-oval is a shape which derives its name from the two other shapes it most resembles, a triangle and an Oval (geometry), oval. Rather than meeting at sharp, definable angles as the sides of a triangle do, in a tri-oval these angles are instea ...

race track located in

. It is named after the nearby metropolitan area of Phoenix. The

motorsport Motorsport or motor sport are sporting events, competitions and related activities that primarily involve the use of Car, automobiles, motorcycles, motorboats and Aircraft, powered aircraft. For each of these vehicle types, the more specific term ...

track opened in 1964 and currently hosts two

race weekends annually. PIR has also hosted the

IndyCar Series The IndyCar Series, officially known as the NTT IndyCar Series for sponsorship reasons, is the highest class of American open-wheel car racing in the United States, which has been conducted under the auspices of various sanctioning bodies sinc ...

CART A cart or dray (Australia and New Zealand) is a vehicle designed for transport, using two wheels and normally pulled by draught animals such as horses, donkeys, mules and oxen, or even smaller animals such as goats or large dogs. A handcart ...

, USAC and the

Rolex Sports Car Series The Rolex Sports Car Series was the premier series run by the Grand American Road Racing Association. It was a North American-based sports car series founded in 2000 under the name Grand American Road Racing Championship to replace the failed ...

. The raceway is currently owned and operated by

International Speedway Corporation International Speedway Corporation (ISC) was a corporation whose primary business was the ownership and management of motorsports race tracks. ISC was founded by NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. in 1953 for the construction of Daytona International ...

. The raceway was originally constructed with a

road course Road racing is a North American term to describe motorsport racing held on a paved road surface. The races can be held on a closed circuit—generally, a purpose-built racing facility—or on a street circuit that uses temporarily closed publi ...

that ran both inside and outside of the main tri-oval. In 1991 the track was reconfigured with the current interior layout. Lights were installed around the track in 2004 following the addition of a second annual NASCAR race weekend.

Summary

The

Checker Auto Parts 500 The NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race is a NASCAR Cup Series stock car race held at Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona. Joey Logano is the defending winner of the event. It is one of five NASCAR races run with a length measured in kilometers ...

was held November 13 at

Denny Hamlin James Dennis Alan Hamlin (born November 18, 1980) is an American professional stock car racing driver and team owner. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 11 Toyota Camry XSE for Joe Gibbs Racing. He also co-owns and op ...

, who hadn't competed in a full season in Nextel Cup at the time, won the pole. The race was surrounded by controversy when defending champion

Kurt Busch Kurt Thomas Busch (born August 4, 1978) is an American auto racing driver. He is best known for competing in the NASCAR Cup Series from 2000–2022, last driving the No. 45 Toyota Camry TRD for 23XI Racing. Busch is the 2004 NASCAR Cup Series ch ...

was cited for reckless driving and was reported by a cop to have "had the whiff of alcohol", although he was below the legal limit of .008 in Arizona, when it was discovered Kurt Busch actually had .0018 in alcohol. Due to his actions, he was suspended by

Roush Racing Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing, doing business as RFK Racing, is an American professional stock car organization that currently competes in the NASCAR Cup Series. One of NASCAR's largest racing teams in the 2000s and early 2010s, Roush formerly ...

for the rest of the season, and

Kenny Wallace Kenneth Lee Wallace (born August 23, 1963) is an American race car driver and former reporter for '' Fox NASCAR''. He retired from NASCAR in 2015 after driving in the national series since 1988. In a career spanning 25 years in NASCAR, Wallace had ...

took the wheel of the 97 car. Ironically, his brother Kyle won the race, and in victory lane, he criticized the media for their handling of the case. Jerry Robertson would make his only NASCAR Nextel Cup Series start in this event.Race information
at Race Database

Top 10 results

Race Statistics

* Time of race: 3:02:23 * Average Speed: * Pole Speed: 134.173 * Cautions: 9 for 44 laps * Margin of Victory: 0.609 sec * Lead changes: 10 * Percent of race run under caution: 14.1% * Average green flag run: 26.8 laps

References

{{2005 Nextel Cup

NASCAR races at Phoenix Raceway