Texas Motor Speedway

Texas Motor Speedway

The Great American Speedway
Location	3545 Lone Star Circle, Fort Worth, TX 76177
Time zone	UTC−6 / −5 (DST)
Capacity	181,655[1]
Owner	Speedway Motorsports, Inc.
Operator	Speedway Motorsports, Inc.
Broke ground	April 11, 1995
Opened	February 29, 1996
Construction cost	$250 million USD
Former names	Texas International Raceway (1996)
Major events	Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 AAA Texas 500 NASCAR Xfinity Series My Bariatric Solutions 300 O'Reilly Auto Parts 300 NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series Vankor 350 SpeedyCash.com 400 IndyCar Series DXC Technology 600
Oval
Surface	Asphalt
Length	1.5 mi (2.4 km)
Turns	4
Banking	Turns: 1-2 20° & 3-4 24°
Race lap record	0:22.542 (Paul Tracy, Team Green, 2001, CART FedEx Championship Series)
Website	www.texasmotorspeedway.com

Texas Motor Speedway is a speedway located in the northernmost portion of the U.S. city of Fort Worth, Texas – the portion located in Denton County, Texas. The reconfigured track measures 1.44 miles (2.32 km) with banked 20° in turns 1 and 2 and banked 24° in turns 3 and 4. Texas Motor Speedway is a quad-oval design, where the front straightaway juts outward slightly; the track layout is similar to Atlanta Motor Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway. The track is owned by Speedway Motorsports, Inc., the same company that owns Atlanta and Charlotte Motor Speedways, as well as the short-track Bristol Motor Speedway.

History[edit]

Texas Motor Speedway Club building in Fort Worth, Texas

Aerial view of Texas Motor Speedway

Interior view of Texas Motor Speedway

The speedway has been managed since its inception by racing promoter Eddie Gossage.

Based on qualifying speeds in 2004, 2005, and 2006 (with Brian Vickers shattering the qualifying record at Texas with a speed of 196.235 mph (315.810 km/h) in the 2006 Dickies 500 qualifying), the Texas Motor Speedway was once considered the fastest non-restrictor plate track on the NASCAR circuit, with qualifying speeds in excess of 192 mph (309 km/h) and corner entry speeds over 200 mph (320 km/h). However, as the tracks' respective racing surfaces continue to wear, qualifying speeds at Atlanta have become consistently faster than at Texas (2005 and 2006). Brian Vickers holds the NASCAR qualifying record at TMS. In 2006, he posted a 196.235 mph (315.810 km/h) speed. Elliott Sadler beat the record before Brian, qualifying in the 49/50th spot. Being the last person out on the track, Brian nipped Elliott Sadler's qualifying time;^[2] the NASCAR records still fall short of the all-time TMS qualifying record though. Driving a Lola Ford Champ Car, Kenny Brack took pole for the aborted Firestone Firehawk 600, with an average speed of 233.447 mph in 2001.

Two racetracks formerly on the Winston Cup (now Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series) schedule were closed to make room for Texas Motor Speedway's two race dates, with the North Wilkesboro Speedway being bought by TMS owner Bruton Smith and New Hampshire International Speedway owner Bob Bahre; the track was closed with one of the track's two dates going to both new owners. The North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham, North Carolina was also sold to Smith as a result of the Ferko lawsuit with the track's one remaining date also being handed over to Texas.

Texas Motor Speedway is home to two Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races: the O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 and the AAA Texas 500, as well as two NASCAR Xfinity Series races, the O'Reilly Auto Parts 300 and the O'Reilly Auto Parts Challenge and the IndyCar Series race, the Firestone 600; the track also hosts two NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series races, the Vankor 350 and SpeedyCash.com 400 (which takes place on the same weekend as the IndyCar Firestone 600).

For a short time during construction in September 1996, the track's name was changed to Texas International Raceway. SMI's customary track naming convention had planned to have the "Motor Speedway" as part of the name. However, in August 1996, a small quarter-mile dirt raceway in Alvin, Texas (now known as Texas Thunder Speedway) had filed suit to use the name. On December 2, 1996, a settlement between the two tracks saw the "Texas Motor Speedway" name reinstated to the 1.5-mile (2.4 km) oval, and the small number of Texas International Raceway merchandise instantly became collectible.

Between 2001 and 2002, the track, after the reconfiguration in 1998, was repaved because of a hole in turn three. On August 17, 2010, a press conference was held and it was announced that TMS's spring race will become a Saturday night event in 2011; the Samsung Mobile 500 was held on Saturday April 9, 2011. The same year, the apron of the speedway was repaved.

Jeff Burton (1997) and Dale Earnhardt, Jr (2000) both earned their first Cup win at Texas Motor Speedway. Earnhardt's victory was a then-record for fewest races to notch a victory in the "modern era" on the Cup circuit, winning in just his 12th start, breaking the record held by his father, Dale Earnhardt (16 starts). (The record has since been broken three times, by Kevin Harvick (3 starts), Jamie McMurray (2 starts) and Trevor Bayne (2 starts).

On October 13, 2000, Tony Roper was racing in the Craftsman Truck Series O'Reilly 400 at Texas Motor Speedway when he attempted to pass Steve Grissom. However, another truck veered up the racetrack in the tri-oval, forcing Roper to evade, turning him into Grissom's front bumper; the contact caused Roper's #26 Ford to take a sudden hard-right turn, which then caused the truck to slam head-on into the concrete wall of the tri-oval. Roper died the next day as the result of the injuries he sustained from the crash.

In fall of 2012, Gossage added a carnival outside turn two to promote the track's "Wild Asphalt Circus" theme.^[3] On September 23, 2013, the track announced that by the 2014 spring Cup race, the world's largest video screen will be added; the Panasonic screen, nicknamed "Big Hoss", will be 218 feet (66 m) wide and 94.6 feet (28.8 m) tall.^[4]

In 2014, Texas Motor Speedway did not sell tickets on the backstretch for either of its NASCAR Cup Series races, reducing the seating capacity of the track to 112,552;^[5] the world's largest high-definition video screen at a motor speedway, Big Hoss, was introduced in the Duck Commander 500.

Firestone Firehawk 600[edit]

The Firestone Firehawk 600, a CART race, was to be held on April 29, 2001. During practice and qualifying, however, 21 of 25 drivers^[6] complained of dizziness and disorientation during two days of practice. Drivers experienced sustained G forces over 5 Gs, more than the typical human tolerance. With their powerful 900+ hp turbocharged engines and superspeedway downforce packages, the Champ Cars were averaging speeds well in excess of 230 mph; this was much faster than IRL machinery of the time, and faster still than the speeds seen regularly by NASCAR Cup Series cars.

With the possibility of drivers blacking out on the track, CART cancelled the race two hours before the scheduled start.

Statistics[edit]

Track records[edit]

Note: The NASCAR timing and scoring use a length of 1.50 miles (2.41 km).^[7] This length was used by IRL in their races in 1997 and 1998, too.^[8] Since 1999 the IRL timing and scoring use a remeasured track length of 1.455 miles (2.342 km).^[9] The CART measured for the inaugural and later cancelled race a length of 1.482 miles (2.385 km).^[10] In 2017 IndyCar use a track length of 1.44 miles for timing and scoring.^[11]

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series[edit]

The pace truck leading the field at the 2007 fall race

Records[edit]

(As of 4/9/17)

* from minimum 3 starts.

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series winners[edit]

Notes[edit]

• 2002, 2010 (spring), & 2014 (spring): Race moved from Sunday afternoon to Monday afternoon due to rain.
• 2006 (fall), 2008 (spring), 2012 (spring) and 2014 (both): Race extended due to a NASCAR Overtime finish. 2014 (fall) took two attempts.
• 2011 (spring): First scheduled night event in Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series history at Texas Motor Speedway.
• 2016 (spring): Race was delayed by rain for 2 hours. Race was completed early Sunday morning at 2:45 am CT.
• 2016 (fall): Race shortened due to rain.

IndyCar Series winners[edit]

Season	Date	Driver	Team	Chassis	Engine	Race Distance		Race Time	Average Speed (mph)	Report
						Laps	Miles (km)
1996-97	June 7, 1997	Arie Luyendyk*	Treadway Racing	G-Force	Oldsmobile	208	312 (502.115)	2:19:48	133.903	Report
1998	June 6	Billy Boat	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	Dallara	Oldsmobile	208	312 (502.115)	2:08:46	145.388	Report
	September 20	John Paul, Jr.	Byrd/Cunningham Racing	G-Force	Oldsmobile	208	312 (502.115)	2:21:53	131.931	Report
1999	June 12	Scott Goodyear	Panther Racing	G-Force	Oldsmobile	208	312 (502.115)	2:00:06	150.069	Report
	October 17	Mark Dismore	Kelley Racing	Dallara	Oldsmobile	208	312 (502.115)	2:14:16	135.246	Report
2000	June 11*	Scott Sharp	Kelley Racing	Dallara	Oldsmobile	208	312 (502.115)	1:47:20	169.182	Report
	October 15	Scott Goodyear	Panther Racing	Dallara	Oldsmobile	208	312 (502.115)	1:43:36	175.276	Report
2001	June 9	Scott Sharp	Kelley Racing	Dallara	Oldsmobile	200	300 (482.803)	1:55:44	150.873	Report
	October 6*	Sam Hornish, Jr.	Panther Racing	Dallara	Oldsmobile	200	300 (482.803)	1:43:36	168.523	Report
2002	June 8	Jeff Ward	Chip Ganassi Racing	G-Force	Chevrolet	200	300 (482.803)	1:45:50	164.984	Report
	September 15	Sam Hornish, Jr.	Panther Racing	Dallara	Chevrolet	200	300 (482.803)	1:46:29	163.981	Report
2003	June 7	Al Unser, Jr.	Kelley Racing	Dallara	Toyota	200	300 (482.803)	1:43:48	168.213	Report
	October 13	Gil de Ferran	Team Penske	Dallara	Toyota	195*	292.5 (470.733)	1:48:56	156.268	Report
2004	June 12	Tony Kanaan	Andretti Green Racing	Dallara	Honda	200	300 (482.803)	1:53:24	153.965	Report
	October 17	Hélio Castroneves	Team Penske	Dallara	Toyota	200	300 (482.803)	1:49:32	159.397	Report
2005	June 11	Tomas Scheckter	Panther Racing	Dallara	Chevrolet	200	300 (482.803)	1:45:47	165.047	Report
2006	June 10	Hélio Castroneves	Team Penske	Dallara	Honda	200	300 (482.803)	1:34:01	185.71	Report
2007	June 9	Sam Hornish, Jr.	Team Penske	Dallara	Honda	228	342 (550.395)	1:52:15	177.314	Report
2008	June 7	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	Dallara	Honda	228	342 (550.395)	2:04:36	159.74	Report
2009	June 6	Hélio Castroneves	Team Penske	Dallara	Honda	228	342 (550.395)	1:55:16	172.677	Report
2010	June 5	Ryan Briscoe	Team Penske	Dallara	Honda	228	342 (550.395)	2:04:47	159.508	Report
2011	June 11	Dario Franchitti	Chip Ganassi Racing	Dallara	Honda	114	171 (275.197)	0:54:47	181.649	Report
		Will Power	Team Penske	Dallara	Honda	114	171 (275.197)	0:48:09	206.693
2012	June 9	Justin Wilson	Dale Coyne Racing	Dallara	Honda	228	342 (550.395)	1:59:02	167.217	Report
2013	June 8	Hélio Castroneves	Team Penske	Dallara	Chevrolet	228	342 (550.395)	1:52:17	177.257	Report
2014	June 7	Ed Carpenter	Ed Carpenter Racing	Dallara	Chevrolet	248	372 (595.2)	2:01:25	178.301	Report
2015	June 6	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	Dallara	Chevrolet	248	372 (598.676)	1:52:48	191.94	Report
2016	June 12 /August 27*	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Dallara	Honda	248	372 (598.676)	2:29:25	144.901	Report
2017	June 10	Will Power	Team Penske	Dallara	Chevrolet	248	372 (598.676)	2:32:31	140.491	Report
2018	June 9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	Dallara	Honda	248	372 (598.676)	2:00:53	177.250	Report

• 1997: Billy Boat took checkered flag as the winner due to scoring error; Luyendyk declared official winner the following day.
• 2000 and 2016: Postponed from Saturday night to Sunday afternoon due to rain. 2016 race further postponed due to more rain/logistical issues.
• 2001: Postponed from September 16 due to 9/11.
• 2003: Race shortened due to crash involving Kenny Bräck.

Current races hosted[edit]

A glimpse of the Texas Motor Speedway stadium before the crowds arrive.

Victory lane in 2019

• IndyCar Series – DXC Technology 600
• Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series – O'Reilly Auto Parts 500
• Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series – AAA Texas 500
• NASCAR Xfinity Series – My Bariatric Solutions 300
• NASCAR Xfinity Series – O'Reilly Auto Parts 300
• NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series – Vankor 400
• NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series – JAG Metals 350
• ARCA Racing Series – Rattlesnake 150
• Global RallyCross Championship
• Stadium Super Trucks^[14]

Other races such as the Lone Star Legends^[15] series take place during the summer; the dirt track facility hosts the occasional Monster Truck show as well as motocross and short course racing.^[16]

Other events[edit]

On June 14, 1997 Texas Motor Speedway hosted the Fruit of the Loom CountryFest for an estimated 185,000 spectators. Featured performers were Jo Dee Messina, Bryan White, Wynonna Judd, Vince Gill, The Charlie Daniels Band, Hank Williams Jr., LeAnn Rimes, Travis Tritt, and Randy Travis.

On June 21, 1997 Texas Motor Speedway hosted the Blockbuster Rock Fest where an estimated 385,000 fans bought tickets and attended; the 15 hour plus and 16 band concert featured the likes of Bush, No Doubt, Collective Soul, Matchbox Twenty, Jewel, the Wallflowers, the Counting Crows, Third Eye Blind, Sugar Ray, Paula Cole as well as many others. Because fans started arriving the night before, VH1 organized a kickoff concert on that Friday night; the concert remains one of the top attended concerts ever.

Ongoing classes and events are held regularly at the facility, such as the Texas Driving Experience^[17] and Team Texas.^[18] Eighty-seven-year-old Don Krusemark was killed in an accident during an event at the speedway hosted by the Texas Driving Experience.^[19]

The Traxxas TORC Series held the series' first off-road racing event in 2009 at Texas Motor Speedway;^[20] the 0.4 mile clay oval at the facility was transformed by adding jumps and whoops.^[20] Winners in the two-race weekend were: Pro-4 winner Rick Huseman won twice; Pro-2 events were claimed by Ricky Johnson and Scott Taylor; and for Pro Lite class winners were Marty Hart and Casey Currie,^[21] it was the only TORC event held at the track as of 2013.

In June 2017, the track hosted the Stadium Super Trucks as a support event for IndyCar; the series raced on a dirt track consisting of the infield, pit road, and the frontstretch. To promote the event, the speedway's turn two featured an off-road expo nicknamed the "Off-Road Ruckus", allowing visitors to drive their off-road vehicles along an obstacle course and observe exhibits.^[22]

The first annual Christian alt-rock festival FortyFest was held at the Texas Motor Speedway "Little Texas" facility in August 2010.

Texas Motor Speedway made an unsuccessful overture to move the annual Texas-Oklahoma rivalry football game from the Cotton Bowl to the infield of the modern racing facility in 2004.^[23]

See also[edit]

• List of NASCAR race tracks
• Sports in Texas

References[edit]

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Texas Motor Speedway.

• Texas Motor Speedway Official Site
• RacingCircuits.info's history of Texas Motor Speedway
• Texas Motor Speedway race results at Racing-Reference
• Trackpedia guide to driving Texas Motor Speedway
• Texas Motor Speedway Page on NASCAR.com
• GNEXTINC.com: Texas Motor Speedway Page – Local area information, track specs, mapping, news and more.
• Jayski's Texas Motor Speedway Page – Current and Past Texas Motor Speedway News
• Texas Motor Speedway Fan Page – Photographs and articles on past speedway events.
• Dale Jarrett Racing Experience at Texas Motor Speedway
• High Resolution image from Google Maps

Coordinates: 33°02′13″N 97°16′59″W / 33.03689°N 97.28309°W / 33.03689; -97.28309