Ruoff Mortgage 500
The Ruoff Mortgage 500 is a NASCAR Cup Series stock car race held annually at Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona since 2005. It is one of two Cup Series races at the track, the other being the Season Finale 500. Chase Briscoe is the defending race winner. Race history. As part of the 2005 NASCAR Realignment, a second date was awarded to Phoenix with Subway sponsorship. As there was already a race sponsored by Subway on the schedule (the now Goody's Headache Relief Shot 500 at Martinsville), the name "Subway Fresh 500" was devised to reduce  confusion. Subway later added the word "Fit" to the sponsorship to promote its Fresh Fit combo choices. This event swapped dates with the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway due to the three-race west coast swing, this event used to be race 2 preceding Daytona and Las Vegas before Atlanta took Phoenix's former spot, the Food City 500 at Bristol used to be race 4 before the Food City 500 moved up four weeks due to bad weather, on April 19, 2015. With the new 2010 NASCAR start time rule change that starts races only at 1:00  pm, 3:00 pm, and 7:30 pm Eastern Time, track officials were concerned that the new start time (45 minutes earlier than in the past) would put the majority of the race in the day instead of the planned night. At that time of year in Phoenix, sunset takes place at roughly 7:00 pm MST (because Arizona does not observe daylight saving time, this is the same as Pacific Daylight Time). As a result, the race was stretched to so that the extra would take place during the day, and most of the race would still take place at night as  planned. However, in 2011, the race moved one week after the Daytona 500 in February. The race returned to 312 laps  and was run on Sunday in the daytime for the first time. In 2015, Phoenix moved from the second to the fourth race of the season in mid-March.