Yahoo Autos NASCAR Acquires Lease to Historic Bowman Gray Stadium
Built in 1937, NASCAR founders Bill France Sr. and Alvin Hawkins brought motorsports to the quarter-mile facility in 1949.
Bowman Gray was the first weekly race track and first paved track where NASCAR-sanctioned an event.
Richard Petty recorded his 100th career victory in the 1969 Myers Brothers 250 at Bowman Gray.
Bowman Gray Stadium, the subject of the 2010 History Channel TV series MadHouse and the longest-running weekly race track in NASCAR, will now have its races overseen directly by the sanctioning body.
NASCAR announced Thursday it had acquired Winston-Salem Speedway Inc., the lessee of the historic facility, and would manage racing operations under the lease with the City of Winston-Salem through December 2050.
Built in 1937, NASCAR founders Bill France Sr. and Alvin Hawkins brought motorsports to the quarter-mile facility in 1949, making it the first weekly race track and first paved track where NASCAR-sanctioned an event. The Hawkins family’s management of the weekly races at the facility has been multi-generational.
Ben Kennedy, NASCAR’s vice president of racing development and strategy, said NASCAR began talking to Gray Garrison who held the racing season lease on Bowman Gray Stadium a little more than two years ago.
“We started having a few conversations and kind of over time, one thing led to another and here we are announcing that we’ll be the lease holder of Bowman Gray Stadium for the summer months,” Kennedy told Speedway host Dave Moody on SIRIUS XM NASCAR Radio Thursday afternoon. “We know this comes with a great deal of responsibility. There’s a lot of things that make Bowman Gray really unique. We want to continue to celebrate that history, continue to protect what makes it really tick at the end of the day.”
Kennedy admitted there had been discussions about having either a non-points or a points race for its other series at Bowman Gray, but that wasn’t its current focus. However, the possibility always exists for the track to host a national racing series feature.
“It’s something that we’ll talk about internally if there’s something that might make sense there,” Kennedy says.
Kennedy says NASCAR’s goal is to keep racing as is on Saturday nights.
“I’d say a big reason that we’ve asked to keep Gray and the family involved over the next couple of years is they know the ins-and-outs of that facility, how it operates and relationships that they’ve had in that market for decades,” Kennedy told Moody. “Those are a lot of things that are invaluable, and we’ve got to make sure that we’re just stewards of that track as we take it on.”
Austin Shuford, a Western Carolina University graduate, has been named the general manager of racing operations for Bowman Gray Stadium. Shuford has worked with Track Enterprises’ Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, where he promoted and managed 25 events annually at more than 15 race tracks throughout the South and Midwest since 2020.
Kennedy noted Bowman Gray had always had a “special place in NASCAR’s heart and the family’s heart” dating back to the 1940s and 1950s when the France family and NASCAR co-promoted races with the Hawkins family. Kennedy and his great uncle Jim France, NASCAR’s CEO, chairman and executive vice president, traveled to Winston-Salem, N.C., on Wednesday to meet with city officials and the Garrison family.
“He was telling stories about growing up there in the ‘40s and ‘50s with the Hawkins family,” Kennedy said about France. “It’s so cool because it’s a little bit of a homecoming for him to be able to go to Winston-Salem and see a lot of the people he, frankly, grew up with or were around.”
Kennedy’s grandfather, Bill France Jr., met his future wife at Bowman Gray Stadium when Winston-Salem native Betty Jane Zachary was Miss Bowman Gray in 1957. France invited Zachary to an event in Daytona Beach, Fla., and they were later married.
Bowman Gray Stadium, which serves as Winston-Salem State University’s football stadium, was where NASCAR tested its current Cup car prior to conducting the Busch Clash at the Los Angeles Coliseum.
Historically, the stadium hosted 29 NASCAR Grand National (now Cup) races from 1958-1971. Richard Petty started his streak of 10-consecutive victories at the stadium in 1967 and recorded his 100th career victory in its 1969 Myers Brothers 250.
It also hosted a combined Cup and Grand American race in 1971. That event was won by Bobby Allison in a Mustang. The victory remains a bone of contention with Allison, who maintains it should have counted in his Cup victory totals, giving him 85 instead of 84 wins. Ironically, the Cup and Grand American combination races won by Tiny Lund in 1971 at the North Carolina Hickory and North Wilkesboro tracks were counted in his Cup victory total.
Team owner Richard Childress started his racing career at Bowman Gray Stadium. He sold concessions in the grandstand before acquiring a car to race on the flat short track.
Danny “Chocolate” Myers, Dale Earnhardt’s gasman, grew up within earshot of Bowman Gray Stadium, and his cousins currently race Modifieds at the track.
Glen Wood raced at the track. Now, decades later when his family attends one of the weekly races they sit in the same area they did when their father raced.
Recently, it hosted several East Series races 2011-2015. Kennedy, the great grandson of Bill France Sr., won an East Series race at the track in 2013. Other winners at the facility who are racing in NASCAR’s national touring series include two-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion Ben Rhodes and NASCAR Cup Series driver Corey LaJoie.
Bowman Gray’s 2024 season is scheduled to begin April 20.
