Editor's note: Phoenix International Raceway, which hosted Indy car races from 1964-2005, is celebrating its 50th anniversary season. Below, Arie Luyendyk -- a two-time winner on the one-mile oval and still the record-holder with a qualifying lap of 183.599 mph -- recounts a few adventures.

Arie Luyendyk traveled to Phoenix for an Indy car race and liked it so much he stayed.

“In 1980, the first time I stepped foot in the United States was in Phoenix to go to that race,” he said. “I thought it was amazing how it was so far out in the desert and the grandstands were wooden and there were cactus in the infield. It was a dinky one-mile track.

“We tested a lot there in the offseason and that was one of the reasons I moved there. If you look at it now it’s amazing the improvements made to the facility and the area has grown up so much.”

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The racetrack, where he won Indy car races in 1991 and ’96, is among Luyendyk’s all-time favorites.

“It was so quick for a one-mile oval because it had enough banking in Turn 1 where you could go into 2 really hard,” he said. “A good lap was taking Turns 3 and 4 flat. In the race the speeds would drop with race setup and there was a lot of good racing. It had its own character. I did a lot of testing there with the G Force chassis. I remember in ’87 I went out to shake down a brand new car and as I went down the backstraight -- just before I entered Turn 3 -- the rear wing fell off. I wasn’t even going fast; I was just warming up and all of a sudden the car just went crazy and I hit the wall.

“I was OK but screamed on the radio what had just happened. There was silence for what seemed an eternity and then someone said, ‘Uh, the wing fell off.’ ‘Yes, I know that,’ I said.

Another incident stands out.

On Lap 59 of the Dura-Lube 200 in 1998, Eliseo Salazar spun and collected the cars of David Steele and Robbie Buhl. In trying to avoid them, Luyendyk touched wheels with Salazar, which sent Luyendyk’s car up and over.

“That was the only time I’ve been upside down in an Indy car,” Luyendyk recalled. “I clipped Salazar’s car and I slid all the way down the backstraight on my lid. Literally on my lid because the rollbar had caved in and my helmet was shaved off to the point where my hair was getting really hot because of the friction.

“While I was sliding down the track I was taking to the crew telling them I was OK. I was really lucky I didn’t get hit by anybody. I had a hand burn from scraping the asphalt, but other than that I was fine. I couldn’t say the same for the car.