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  *Comments on Meyer Speedway:*
  View the most recent comment <#8> | Post a comment <#post>


  1.   Cooper posted:
  03.14.2010 - 6:25 pm
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0.500-mile paved oval. Closed in 1979. 7 Degree Banking.

Reportedly speedway owner Ed Hamilton paid a handsome sum to Big Bill
France to hold a sanctioned event at his half mile paved bull ring,
whether thatā??s a matter of fact or urban legend is debatable, what
isnā??t is on June 23, 1971 the Space City 300 was held at Meyer Speedway.


  2.   Anthony Fasulo posted:
  05.04.2010 - 12:28 pm
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I remember watching that race. If memory serves me right, Bobby Allison
won that race. Richard Petty had a distributor go out fairly early in
the race, and lost about 5 or 6 laps getting it changed. Being the class
guy he is, Petty went back out on the track, drove like a man on a
mission, and made up several of the laps he lost. He stayed at the track
signing autographs for what seemed like hours after the end of the race,
which showed what a "class act" he really was. I heard somebody ask him
what he thought about Meyer Speedway. Referring to how rough the track
was, he answered "they ought to plow it up and plant corn". I remember
young Frank Hill started that race, driving Gary Ausborne's car with
upgraded sheet metal, and how thrilled he was to be out on the track
with all those legendary drivers.


  3.   RaceFanX posted:
  07.01.2010 - 9:38 pm
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To date the last new track added to the Cup schedule that is no longer
on the schedule.


  4.   Bo posted:
  11.05.2014 - 9:50 pm
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I first went to myers speedway in 74 to 76 I remember Fredy Fryer Jimmy
Finger Joe Plowman Terry Labonty Larry Shileds Ed Trahand those guys
were my heros man what memorys . I also rember the Liberty Bell 200 Hue
Richards Doug Nash I will never forget the exsightment hearing those
cars roaring around the track my parents walked to slow I couldn't wait.
I will never forget those days . I have raced myself I've actually won 5
features on dirt and many heats those men gave me the insperation to
live out my dream to race one day how cool is that . Man that was a
simpler time and place what memorys!!!!!!!!!!!


  5.   RaceFanX posted:
  03.22.2019 - 10:25 am
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This track operated from 1959 to 1979 but there's pretty much nothing
left of it today. It's an empty area filled with grass and trees with
just a little infield pavement and the slight angle of the banking in
the turns still visible. All the facilities are long gone. The vacant
track property neighbors the Joe K. Butler Sports Complex.


  6.   RaceFanX posted:
  01.05.2021 - 9:53 am
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@3
Updating my note from a decade ago this remained the newest track added
to the Cup schedule to no longer be on the tour for nearly half a
century. As of 2021 that factoid now belongs to the Kentucky Speedway
which joined the series in 2011 but was dropped amid the 2021 schedule
reshuffling. Granted Kentucky could someday come back, Meyer certainly
will not.


  7.   Mile501 posted:
  01.05.2021 - 10:06 am
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@6 - That is a fascinating bit of information. So for 50 years, every
new track that NASCAR has added to its schedule has stayed there, until
now. Of course, NASCAR's premiere series schedule has also been rather
stagnant for most of that time.


  8.   RaceFanX posted:
  01.05.2021 - 10:51 am
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The Cup Series has had a more consistent schedule than almost any other
major racing series. Meyer got burned by joining the tour in 1971 just
before the series dropped all of the races less than 250 miles when the
schedule was streamlined so it didn't meet the new requirements to keep
hosting races after its first one. Since 1971 the only tracks
deliberately dropped from the Cup schedule have been Trenton (1972*),
Ontario (1980), Texas World (1981), Nashville Fairgrounds (1984),
Riverside (1988), North Wilkesboro (1996), and Rockingham (2004) with
the future still to determine the fate of Chicagoland (2019*), and
Kentucky (2020). Part of that may have to do with the lack of new tracks
available, while the schedule gained several new venues during the
speedway boom of the 1990s-early 2000s there really weren't any new
tracks being built in the USA during the late 1970s or 1980s that were
geared toward NASCAR Cup racing (the only major American track built
during the 1980s was IIRC Heartland Park Topeka right at the end of the
decade and while the organizers wanted a Cup date they never got one
even though the road course would host Truck races in the 1990s).

(*Trenton and Chicagoland were on the schedule for another year but had
races cancelled due to a rainout after qualifying and the Covid-19
pandemic respectfully.)

Indianapolis had a possibly last race on the oval in 2020 but is
switching to its road course in 2021. The Daytona road course is an
interesting caveat on this list since it was never intended to host Cup
points races at all but was added mid-season in 2020 due to the pandemic
shuffle and stayed on for 2021 to pinch hit for Fontana but I don't
think it will become a recurring staple of the tour outside of the
non-points Clash once conditions normalize.


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