First Virginia NASCAR Race

NASCAR events have been held at the site of Richmond International Raceway longer than any other venue. On May 16, 1948 a NASCAR Modified race was held at the site of today's Richmond International Raceway - the first NASCAR race in Virginia. The second and third Virginia NASCAR races were soon to follow - at Danville and Martinsville, respectively. Appropriately, Red Byron won that first Virginia NASCAR race at Richmond. No othersite has staged NASCAR races as long as the Richmond track.

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM

A truly remarkable accomplishment considering all the changes the sport has endured. There aren't many that held top level races back then...that have operated continuously since....whether or not they still hold top level NASCAR events.

Richmond

Martinsville

Bowman Gray

Darlington ..look for some Darlington history from RacersReunion((RADIO)) this Tuesday night.

...others...?

Greenville-Pickens since the mid/late 50's

How about some of the northeast tracks?

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Founder/Creator - RacersReunion®

Courtesy of the Virginia Historical Society, here's an aerial view of that beautiful 1/2-mile dirt track at Richmond on the grounds of the Atlantic Rural Exposition at Strawberry Hill that is the site of today's Richmond International Raceway. The front straight from that track approximates today's pit road.The first race of any kind at this site was a AAA Sprint Car race on October 12, 1946, won by Ted Horn of Paterson, NJ driving a 1939 Offenhauser powered car.


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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

Quite frankly,I got sick and tired this weekend ofSpeed Channel and Fox crewssaying the first Richmond NASCAR race was in 1953. Many years I had to get the late Dick Thompson, Martinsville's superb and superniceguy PR chief, to retract a Martinsville press release claiming Martinsville held the first NASCAR race. He was startled to discover they were number 3 behind Richmond and Danville.

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

That is the first Va. NASCAR race I was referring to - sorry.


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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

Billy, that is indeed AWESOME! The State Fairgrounds site of that event depicted in your program is the old fairgrounds on The Boulevard in Richmond, that later became home to Parker Field and The Diamond, homes of the late AAA Richmond Virginians and Richmond Braves baseball clubs and currently home to the AA Richmond Flying Squirrels. On that same property, the old original Arena building used to host high school and college basketball and for many years was home to the Southern Conference Basketball Tournament. What is particularly interesting about this race site is that Big Bill France, Sr. raced here out of Washington, DCin an open wheel car. Don't know if it was that particular Labor Day event, though. In fact, when Big Bill died, Bill France, Jr. discovered in his papers a series of letters from the Richmond promoter to Big Bill negotiating "Deal" money for Bill Sr. to race in Richmond. Bill, Jr. was kind enough to give these letters to the late Richmond promoter, Paul Sawyer as a token of the friendship between France, Sr. and Sawyer. I was working as Media Relations Coordinator at RIR at the time and saw those letters when Paul received them from Bill, Jr. They made fascinating reading. Billy, you have absolutely made my day by posting this program. Many thanks.


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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

This program photo with same sponsor as Billy Biscoe program 15 years later shows racing dating back at least to 1924 at the old Richmond Fairgrounds. Itis posted in the Brian Katen article, Roots of Oval Track Racing . By the way, Big Bill moved to Daytona from DC in Spring 1935.

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

My math is rusty - 11 year time difference between programs... oops, sorry again.


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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"