It has been 20 years since NASCAR first started running races at Phoenix International Raceway, a one-of-a-kind, one-mile track built in 1964 with the idea of playing host instead to open-wheel races.

Most drivers love the odd, tri-oval configuration of the racetrack. It's not the biggest on the circuit, nor is it the smallest. It is relatively flat, with 11-degree banking between Turns 1 and 2 and nine-degree banking between Turns 3 and 4.

"I like the size of the track," said driver Jeff Burton, who won at PIR back-to-back in 2000 and 2001 -- when only one Cup event per year was run at the facility. "These one-mile tracks, to me, are the best mix of the short tracks and the bigger tracks. It's big enough to have a real race without just complete wreckin', and it's small enough to have a lot of action. You're always close to someone; you're always in the midst of a battle.

"One end of the racetrack is completely different than the other. It requires two different driving styles from one end of the racetrack to the other. There is a lot of variety in what goes on there every lap, and that's what I like about it."

Driver Kurt Busch, who has experienced extraordinary highs and lows out on the fringes of the Arizona desert, also enjoys the unique challenges racing at PIR produces.

"It's unique because the racetrack is different in Turns 1 and 2 than it is in Turns 3 and 4," Busch said. "So you have to compromise on your setup. You aim for the middle. At a lot of racetracks, all four corners are about the same. You come up with your setup and that's it. You stick with it.

"At Phoenix, if you're good going through 3 and 4 when you unload, then that's what you stay with and you just try to muscle it through 1 and 2. Sometimes, it's just the opposite. You're really good in 1 and 2, and you've got to muscle it through 3 and 4. So you're setup is never really dialed in at both ends."

Then again, there is so much more to PIR than the challenging configuration. This is a place with character and characters, even cowboys and real-life Indians. There have been rattlesnake and scorpion sightings (real ones and imagined ones), wrong-way victory laps, flashes of brilliance and, well, breasts. No other NASCAR tracks boasts the view from a track-side hill that PIR does, and fans flock there on race days despite the long-standing rumors that they'll have to share space there with poisonous snakes.

As the Sprint Cup Series prepares to run once again to run at PIR this Sunday, completing a full weekend of racing that also includes events in the Craftsman Truck Series and the Nationwide Series, a look back at some pivotal moments in the facility's NASCAR history is well worth the stroll down memory lane. So with no further ado, here they are:

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Alan Kulwicki's first Cup Series victory came in his 85th start.

Rattlesnakes and wrong-way racin'

In the first Cup race ever at PIR on Nov. 6, 1988, long-shot Alan Kulwicki, a NASCAR outsider from Wisconsin fielding his own single-car team, stalked Ricky Rudd down the stretch to earn his first career victory.

Spotting for Kulwicki that day was Tom Roberts, whose own long career in NASCAR primarily as a top-notch public-relations man was in its infancy. Finding a place to spot from was a problem, as Roberts quickly discovered upon arriving at the track and scouting out the spotters' stand -- or what passed for one.

"They had one little press booth there," Roberts said. "Spotters weren't even all that organized back then, but they did have a spotters' area. It was underneath that booth. But it was not on a riser; it was not on anything. So anytime the fans would stand up, you couldn't see.

"I explained that to Alan and he's like, 'Well, you've gotta move from there. You've got to get to somewhere else.' I had no other option. I ended up going halfway up the hill -- spotting amongst the fans and everyone else up there. I was kind of scared, too, because [mechanic] Barry Dodson had started the rumor that there were rattlesnakes on the side of the hill. I had that in mind and I was like, 'What the hell?'

Current track president Bryan Sperber said the rattlesnakes-on-the-hill rumor is more than rumor. He said it is fact. But he also insisted that by race day -- most times -- they've been run off by all the noise and commotion.

Asked to come clean on some of the urban myths surrounding the track, Sperber attempted to explain.

"A lot of it's true, to be honest," Sperber said. "A lot of the stories you've heard about PIR, most of 'em are probably accurate. We are on the edge of the desert, so a lot of the rattlesnakes and coyotes and all that stuff will be in the stands -- except on race day, when they all get out of here and away from the race fans.

Kulwicki's Polish Victory Lap

1988 Checker 500

Nov. 6, 1988, at Phoenix

Finish	Driver	Status
1	Alan Kulwicki	running
2	Terry Labonte	running
3	Davey Allison	running
4	Bill Elliott	running
5	Rusty Wallace	running
6	Geoffrey Bodine	running
7	Bobby Hillin Jr.	running
8	Benny Parsons	running
9	Phil Parsons	running
10	Sterling Marlin	running
11	Dale Earnhardt	running
12	Harry Gant	running
13	Darrell Waltrip	running
14	Ken Schrader	running
15	Lake Speed	running
16	Derrike Cope	running
17	Kyle Petty	running
18	Dave Marcis	running
19	Chad Little	running
20	Trevor Boys	running
21	Neil Bonnett	running
22	Ernie Irvan	running
23	Ken Bouchard	running
24	Jimmy Means	running
25	Brad Noffsinger	running
26	Ricky Rudd	engine
27	Mike Alexander	running
28	Michael Waltrip	running
29	Rick Wilson	running
30	Roy Smith	running
31	Dale Jarrett	engine
32	Jim Sauter	engine
33	Gary Collins	engine
34	Hershel McGriff	engine
35	Richard Petty	oil pan
36	Mark Martin	crash
37	Bill Schmitt	crash
38	Greg Sacks	crash
39	Johnny Rutherford	crash
40	Eddie Bierschwale	engine
41	Joe Ruttman	crash
42	Jim Bown	engine
43	Brett Bodine	engine

"We are out a little bit on the fringes of town here. The county park is to the south and the Indian community to the east. It is the desert. It is not uncommon, especially at non-race time, to have a few critters runnin' around here. When the place comes to life and the people start to arrive, the critters don't really want to be around those people and so they head for the hills."

Of course that can, at times, include the open hillside facing one end of the track -- where Roberts did his spotting for Kulwicki. Asked if track personnel sometimes fuels the legend of rattlesnakes running rampant on the hill, Sperber laughed and added sarcastically, "Yeah, we truck 'em in."

The track does, Sperber will admit, have a reputation and an image to project and protect. And a little intrigue never hurts in that regard when it comes to maintaining a little mystique. Sometimes NASCAR visitors go to great lengths to scare each other in what end up being successful efforts to further the legends that swirl around the place.

"I remember during inspection a couple years ago, some guys from NASCAR got these plastic rattlesnakes that they put in a bag. And they got this one that was really life-like, and it was in a striking position," Sperber said. "As soon as you would walk around the corner and begin to get in that bag for something you needed, they had it sitting there, ready to take a hunk out of your leg. It was funny to see everybody jump back every time they came near that thing. Universally, people thought it was a real snake, ready to strike, so that was really funny."

Sperber said it all comes with the desert territory.

"If you live somewhere else, it's probably going to seem a little odd," he said. "I'm from the East, and when we moved out here, my wife was terrified of the thought of scorpions and that sort of thing. But it's like anything else: if you're not familiar with the local critters, they seem rather exotic and so forth. But anywhere you live here in the Valley, you're likely to have a scorpion in your bathroom at one time or another, or see a rattlesnake, or have coyotes roaming around on the edges of town. It starts to become kind of commonplace. At night, during non-race time, you can hear the coyotes howl and see them run around a little bit with the rabbits and rattlesnakes and scorpions -- and all kinds of crazy stuff. But once people start moving in, they all get outta here pretty quick."

In November of 1988, it was all new -- and a little frightening -- to Roberts as he settled in on the hill to spot for Kulwicki. Prior to the race, reporters arriving at the track for the first time noticed a formidable line of real honest-to-goodness Indians from the neighboring reservation perched on horseback abreast, side-by-side, atop a nearby ridge.

"Now I know what those settlers in the wagon trains must have felt like when they headed west years ago," muttered Tom Higgins of the Charlotte Observer.

Roberts, meanwhile, scanned the hill for snakes as he also settled in with his scanner to spot for Kulwicki.

"Spotting at that time was not like it is today. We didn't have to drive the cars. The visibility was much better [in the older cars]," Roberts said. "But he always wanted someone to have a scanner and listen to NASCAR, so we could always know what was going on in terms of cautions coming out and paying attention to what was in front of him."

Ricky Rudd was in the lead and seemed to be cruising toward the victory when Roberts heard on the radio that Rudd's engine was beginning to overheat. Kulwicki was running second at the time.

"Ricky's temperature gauge kept going up and up. Finally they cooked the engine and he had to pit," Roberts said. "Alan inherited the lead [with 16 laps remaining] and held it from there.

"We had talked about what he was going to do when he won a race -- and the whole time, it was always 'when' and not 'if' with Alan -- and one of our catchphrases that we got was from [long-time track president and promoter] Humpy Wheeler. When Alan was going to move south and give this a shot, he met with Humpy in Charlotte and Humpy told us that to get noticed we were going to have to 'be spectacular.' So that became our deal -- to be spectacular.

"So I said one time, 'OK, what are you gonna do when you win -- I mean, to be spectacular?' He tells me, 'A victory lap in reverse.' When you hear that, what do you think? I thought the idiot meant he was going to put the transmission in reverse and try to back his way all around the track. I told him I thought that was stupid.

"But all along, he knew what he was talking about and what he meant. ... He wanted to do something -- to 'be spectacular' -- that would make people remember his first race victory."

Kulwicki turned his car around after winning and took off on a victory lap in the opposite direction from how he had run during the race. He dubbed it his "Polish Victory Lap."

"He was smart enough to realize that such a lap would not only be different and get him some attention, but that it would get him closer to the fans," Roberts said. "The way drivers usually took their victory laps, most of them couldn't see the driver. The way he planned to do it, with his window net down, he could wave at the fans as he went by."

When he finally reached Victory Lane after doing so, Kulwicki looked like he had just seen a rattlesnake poised to strike in the cockpit of his winning car.

"He was worried," Roberts said. "He was scared [crap]less that NASCAR was going to take his win away because he had celebrated that way."

They didn't, and Kulwicki made history -- finding a way to "be spectacular" in a way that no one would forget.

"To this day, memories of him live on at every dirt track in the country -- because people still do the Polish Victory Lap," Roberts said. "People still remember him for that."

Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

In light of leveling efforts to enhance parking, PIR still has a wonderful view.

Big rocks, cats and spotted owls

Despite popular early victories by the likes of Kulwicki and Davey Allison, who thrilled fans with back-to-back victories in 1991 and 1992, PIR still struggled to find its niche in a crowded sports market that also included Major League Baseball's Arizona Diamondbacks, the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association, the Arizona Cardinals of National Football League, the Phoenix Coyotes of the National Hockey League, as well as popular college teams playing nearby.

That is until International Speedway Corporation, which is led by NASCAR's founding France family, bought the facility from original owner Buddy Jobe in 1997. Bill France Jr., then chairman of NASCAR and de facto CEO of ISC as well, hired Robin Braig away from Anheuser-Busch, where Braig had been in sports marketing, and put him in charge of making a bigger dent in the greater Phoenix market. France also sent Jim Hunter, a former sports writer who works in NASCAR public relations, to the desert to work with Braig.

Right away, Braig saw two things: that he had something he could market, but that it wasn't being noticed much by anyone at the moment.

"In the newspaper, we were buried in the back with horse racing results on a Sunday or a Monday after a NASCAR event -- even the Daytona 500," Braig said.

Hunter added: "Robin's biggest responsibility when he took over the track was that it didn't really have a presence here in Phoenix -- like the Diamondbacks had, and the Cardinals, and the Suns, and the Coyotes. I remember we went to a Diamondbacks game once and we were trying to figure out which corporations were buying their suites, but they didn't have any names on 'em on the outside of the door. So we just walked from door to door and went inside. The security guard would come up and we'd be like, 'We're lookin' for the Budweiser suite.' And he'd say, 'Nah, this is the such-and-such suite.' We'd walk outside and Robin would write it down."

It wasn't necessarily smooth sailing at first. Prior to the first race run there after ISC took over, Hunter took note that Braig asked some pointed questions of the former owner.

"In a staff meeting before our first race, Robin asked Buddy, 'Do you have backup generators?' And he said, 'Nah, we've never had a power problem at the track.' Well, someone ran into a power line and knocked all the power out at the track," Hunter said. "The elevators that took the handicapped up to their seats obviously didn't work, so the medics had to carry the handicapped down the stairs. The local paper took a picture of that and ran it.

"And we didn't have any jet dryers. ... They said, 'Ah, it doesn't rain in the desert.' The first race under Robin, we had a rain delay. So Bill wasn't very happy. And they didn't have lights then, so after waiting for the track to dry, we finished the race in the dark -- or close to it."

“

Bill Jr. obviously would get up early in the morning and read all the papers on a three-hour time difference. My phone rang one morning and Bill Jr. said, 'Did you read about the spotted owl?'

”

-- ROBIN BRAIG

France also took great interest in improving the traffic flow into and out of the facility, and improving parking on site. There were only a couple of two-lane roads leading into the place, one of which ran through the nearby Indian reservation and therefore was, at the time, off-limits.

"Traffic was a huge issue getting in and out of the facility, and sometimes the road would be flooded because they would open the dam up stream and not even call us," Braig said. "The darn roads to the track would get flooded."

France and ISC worked feverishly with local and state governments, even with the chief of the Indian reservation (or at least having Braig attempt to), to improve traffic flow and get a bridge built that would withstand future flash flooding. Meanwhile, Braig kept trying to find new ways to make the place profitable.

"It was so blistering hot in the summer, we would rent the track -- just turn the keys over -- to Volkswagen," Braig said. "And they would run cars around that track, trying to get their engines to overheat and test their air-conditioning units. Later Ford came out and said, 'Can we use your track? We need to go around in circles someplace where it's blistering hot.' That's how we made money on that track. We could make in excess of $1 million renting the track out for the summer to those guys."

One steamy summer day, Braig was making laps with a Ford executive when he happened to glance at a small temperature gauge attached to his outside mirror. It read 118 degrees.

As time progressed and it became easier for fans to get in and out of the facility on cooler race days in the fall, France saw the need to improve parking and add seating to what had been, for years, a facility with a capacity of 68,000.

"There was a big granite mountain in the middle of the parking lot, and Bill Jr. said, 'Level that thing.' " Braig recalled. "It cost us several million dollars to dynamite it and blow it up and really fix our parking lots."

Hunter recalled scouting the rugged terrain behind the backstretch where France wanted to blast away and build better parking. He was not convinced it was possible.

"There were a lot of big rocks around that racetrack, especially on what was the backside. Bill France took Robin and I in a car, and started talking about making parking back there," Hunter said. "We literally were running over rocks, where we were crashing into these boulders and the car was making these terrible sounds. We were bottoming out and Robin and I were looking at each other saying, 'Good luck with that.' We wondered if we were even going to be able to make it back to the racetrack afterward."

But France prevailed. Soon the mountain was gone and the parking lot was paved with fresh asphalt.

"And on the day of the [next] race, we had some confusion and no one parked in that area," Braig said. "I'll never forget Bill Jr. looking at the aerial [photographs] of the place and calling me about a month later. He said, 'Hey, I spent $3 million on leveling that mountain and you didn't even park one car on it.' "

Once expansion began on what would become the Bobby Allison grandstands, increasing seating capacity to 76,812, France kept even closer tabs on Braig's operation.

"Bill Jr. obviously would get up early in the morning and read all the papers on a three-hour time difference," Braig said. "My phone rang one morning and Bill Jr. said, 'Did you read about the spotted owl?' I was like, 'Bill, I don't know what you're talkin' about. I haven't read the paper yet.'

He was like, 'Well, they found a spotted owl somewhere down in Tucson, and it's an endangered species.' "

Environmental officials had drawn a circle around where that spotted owl was found, and anyone who had construction going on within that circled radius had to stop it and see if there was a spotted owl nest on their property. France was concerned because PIR fell within the radius being targeted by the environmentalists.

"You can't build that new grandstand if you got a goddamned spotted owl," France told Braig. "So I'll tell you what I want you to do. You go down to the humane society and get you a bunch of cats.

"Now listen to me. You ain't got a spotted-owl problem; what you've got you is a cat problem."

Asked if he followed through on the request from his boss, Braig laughed and replied: "Oh yeah. And we never found a spotted owl. Our operations guy was a local farmer. I was like, 'Hey, I know this sounds weird but I need to you go get me some cats.' "

The payoff came in November of 2001, when the Cup race sold out on the same day as Game 7 of the World Series between the host Diamondbacks and the famed New York Yankees in the Diamondbacks' stadium a half-hour drive away.

"So in that three-year period, we went from struggling against some pretty successful sports franchises in that market to selling out on the same day as Game 7 of the World Series and having a great show," Braig said. "That really opened some eyes. Since then, they've obviously added lights and added a second date and then that community has grown out there and is now surrounded by subdivisions. Back when we first came there, it basically was just a mile-oval out in the middle of the desert."

Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has enjoyed the spoils of victory from Victory Lane and from the media center.

Flash(ed) by a fan

Dale Earnhardt Jr. won consecutive Cup races at PIR in 2003 and 2004, much to the delight of his many fans. That led to an unusual incident during Earnhardt's post-race interview session in the media center, according to Sperber.

"Dale Earnhardt Jr. had just won the race. It was pretty much pandemonium in the grandstands and throughout the racetrack, because the fans were pretty much dying for him to win," Sperber recalled. "After he captured the trophy and did all the Victory Lane things, he went into the media center -- and on one side there are some windows where fans out on the cold pit can look in.

"Dale Jr. was at the table, giving his post-race interview, when there came this knock at the window. And this young lady revealed her top to him. That's the best way I can phrase that. Like the rock star that he is, she flashed him -- and of course the media center just broke apart at that point. It was tough to keep any semblance of decorum after that. I don't think I had ever seen that before."

The second of Earnhardt's back-to-back victories was memorable for actual racing reasons -- and for another chance encounter with a woman.

"We've had really good fortune, in terms of the track producing great racing. That particular race was really a great event," Sperber said. "As I recall, I believe Junior passed Jeff Gordon with a lap or two to go. I was joking with Jim Hunter earlier, telling him my dream scenario would be for Junior to pass Gordon with half a lap to go. So NASCAR did a good job of delivering a great race, and of course Junior and Gordon get all the credit.

"But when Junior did take the checkered flag and get to Victory Lane, I remember I was up on stage presenting the trophy along with Miss Arizona. She was a lovely young gal, and came very well dressed, with her Miss Arizona sash on -- her crown and so forth. I've been doing this a long time, so I warned everybody that once you hear the pop of champagne or the snap of a beer can [opening], it's time to get out of there.

"Junior was just finishing up his [radio] interview and was just coming up to get the trophy -- and of course, he was driving for Budweiser at the time and they had passed out 16-ounce cans of Budweiser to all the team members. We got up on stage, and within the blink of an eye, all those cans were opened and there was just this shower of Budweiser raining down on us. I remember leaning over to Miss Arizona and saying, 'I am so sorry.' Here this poor gal was just dressed to the nines -- and she was being doused by the King of Beers. There is nothing you can do but sit back and treasure the moment.

"That's what I did," Sperber said. "The thing was, you could tell by the enthusiasm of the team and the enthusiasm of Dale Jr., it was a meaningful win. Not all Victory Lanes are meaningful to the driver. They appreciate a win, but a lot of times it's almost workmanlike -- especially when they've been winning a lot and they're kind of on a roll. I've had the privilege of being in Victory Lane a couple of times in my career where it was highly emotional. That was one of them that I will always remember."

Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images

Kyle Busch was defiant in Victory Lane on Nov. 13, 2005.

Busch boys will be boys

Having Earnhardt win those back-to-back races helped PIR win a second race date beginning in 2005. Of course, it always helps a ISC-owned facility when it comes to soliciting a second race date from NASCAR, which is run by the same France family that runs ISC.

That led to an interesting scenario in November of '05, when Kurt Busch, who had won the first PIR event of the season in the spring, encountered some, um, trouble prior to the second event, and then had to sit out on the sidelines as his younger brother Kyle won the second event of the year.

For Kurt, competing at PIR always has had special meaning. He remembers going there as a teenager to see his first NASCAR race.

"To me, as a kid, going to your first Cup race is the best experience of a lifetime," he said. "We bought pit passes to go down on pit road before the race. I was just a kid. I was like, 'Ah, I don't need earplugs.' Well, by about 50 [laps] I realized that I did need earplugs. I was going deaf."

That was in 1992. Kurt was 14 years old. He returned a scant five years later to race at the track in NASCAR's Southwest Series.

"I was with the big boys now, and the place intimidated the heck out of me," he said.

In 2006, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Aripio swears in Kurt Busch as an honorary deptuty.

By November of 2005, Busch was the defending Cup points champion and one of the big boys. He played it like that when he was stopped by a Maricopa County sheriff's deputy on suspicion of drunk driving as he attempted to leave the track two days prior to the Cup race. Busch argued that he had not been drinking and fired off a few not-so-flattering remarks toward the deputy, who attempted to arrest him on DUI charges that proved unfounded and reckless driving, which stuck.

The next day, team owner Jack Roush said he was benching Busch for the final two races of the season. So the elder Busch didn't even get to participate in the race won by young Kyle.

"It was a very unusual Victory Lane. I talked about the positive of Victory Lane with Dale Jr. The opposite end of that, really kind of a strange Victory Lane, was that one [in fall of 2005] when Jack Roush pulled Kurt out of the car and replaced him," Sperber said. "He basically sat Kurt down for the last two races of the year, which I know was devastating to Kurt at the time. His brother, Kyle, went on to win that race. Here the biggest topic of discussion that race weekend was the whole Kurt Busch situation. That was the backdrop. And then Kyle wins the race.

"Kyle was an even younger guy at the time. And here at this moment where he should be celebrating, all these questions are swirling around about his brother. ... It was kind of a surreal Victory Lane, but the Hendrick [Motorsports] people surrounding him at the time and Kyle himself handled it with class. That was just a very unusual set of circumstances.

Meanwhile, Kurt Busch eventually would turn his misfortune in the desert into a positive. A year later, he later met with Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Aripio to clear the air and was named an honorary deputy.

"It was fun to meet Sheriff Joe -- to see his initial reaction and then to be able to receive a badge from him as an honorary deputy," Kurt said. "Only in America could something come full circle like that."

Sperber took notice and added: "I'm really proud of Kurt. That's a situation that could have gone either way. He might have chosen to be resentful and withdrawn. Kurt really used that as an opportunity to grow and mature. As a former Cup champ and race winner here, I'm really proud of how I think Kurt has become a tremendous ambassador of the sport.

Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images

On April 21, 2007, Jeff Gordon's 76th Cup Series victory tied Dale Earnhardt for sixth on the all-time list.

Tying a legend

Finally, there was the race in spring of 2007 -- when Jeff Gordon won at PIR to tie the late Dale Earnhardt on the career wins list. Sperber said that he was thrilled Gordon was able to do so at the track he now runs.

"Obviously Dale Sr. meant so much to the sport. I was a fan of Dale Sr., and had the chance to meet him and work with him earlier in my career. And that night was very special," Sperber said. "I've mentioned that I've been in many Victory Lanes where there wasn't that much emotion. That one was.

"You have someone like Jeff Gordon who was very accomplished in his own right, and at the top of his game. And tying Dale Sr., I could tell, meant a lot to him. I've been in a lot of Victory Lanes with Jeff Gordon. He's won a lot of races at tracks where I've worked at, and there was something different about that night. I could tell it touched Jeff, I think it touched the whole Hendrick organization. It was a magical night. In many ways, I felt like Dale Sr. was probably looking down and grinning."

It's very likely that others such as Kulwicki and Allison -- who, like the senior Earnhardt passed before they had completed their prime -- were looking over Victory Lane as well. In 20 years, it seems all the big names have had their moments at PIR -- with the victors of the race including not only all those aforementioned stars but also the likes of Bill Elliott, Mark Martin, Terry Labonte, Ricky Rudd, Dale Jarrett, Rusty Wallace, Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth, Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson.

"It's been a real Who's Who," Sperber said of the list of winners at PIR. "I wonder if the challenge of this racetrack, because it's so different, causes the cream to rise, so to speak. The best step up when it's a little more challenging. Whatever the reason, we've truly been blessed with the level of competition we've had -- we've had amazing races -- and the caliber of the winners. The drama we've had has been great, too. We've helped shape the championship almost every year, particularly in the Chase.

"I don't think this year will be any different. I think coming into this event, it may not be decided in Phoenix -- but it's certainly going to shape whether Carl [Edwards] is going to be able to complete the comeback, or whether Jimmie [Johnson] closes the door on him. It's going to be decided here in many ways, I think. Somehow, some way, Phoenix will have its hand in deciding the championship. So that's kind of neat."

You have been alerted: There could be a new PIR memory in the making.