Qualla: Richmond Raceway

Richmond Raceway: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown, Public domain. In October 1946, the inaugural Atlantic Rural Exposition opened on a former Strawberry Hill farm just north of Richmond, with a brand-new dirt oval included in the budget for the agreeable sum of $10,000. The first race went to a horse named Empire Grattan. The first automobile race, run the next day, went to Ted Horn. Almost eighty years later, that same patch of Henrico County dirt - now paved, banked, lit, and shaped into a D - has been called by drivers some of the best short-track racing in NASCAR. The track has been three names, four configurations, and the property of three different ownership groups. It has been expanded to seat 112,000 fans, then deliberately shrunk back below 50,000. Most of that story is the story of one man.

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Image: Unknown | Public domain

Richmond Raceway: The Promoter Who Would Not Leave

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mike Kalasnik from Jersey City, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0. Paul Sawyer started promoting races at Richmond's fairgrounds track in 1955, working alongside the driver Joe Weatherly. A year later he bought out Weatherly's promotion share for $5,000. From that moment until he sold the track to International Speedway Corporation in 1999, Sawy...

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Image: Mike Kalasnik from Jersey City, USA | CC BY-SA 2.0

Richmond Raceway: The 1988 Reinvention

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Annsalster (talk) (Uploads), Public domain. The remodeling was radical. Sawyer converted the true half-mile oval into a D-shaped 0.75-mile track, with 14 degrees of banking in the turns, 8 on the frontstretch, and 2 on the backstretch. The dirt was long gone - the track had been paved in 1968 - but everything else changed....

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Image: Annsalster (talk) (Uploads) | Public domain

Richmond Raceway: The Expansion Years

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Cmedinger (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. From 1988 through the early 2000s, Richmond grew almost continuously. Permanent lights arrived in 1995, making it one of the early Cup Series night-race venues. Capacity climbed past 70,000, then 83,000, then 96,000. In 1999 Sawyer sold the property to ISC, the France-family-owne...

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Image: Cmedinger (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Richmond Raceway: The Quiet Shrinking

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dough4872, CC BY-SA 3.0. After 2011, Richmond began removing seats. First the capacity slid to 94,000. Then 75,000 when the third-turn grandstands came down. Then 69,000 after a seat-widening project. Then 60,000 in 2016 when the entire backstretch was demolished. A $30 million renovation in 2017 added a...

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Image: Dough4872 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Richmond Raceway: What Still Runs

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dough4872, CC BY-SA 3.0. Richmond Raceway hosts one NASCAR weekend a year now, headlined by the Cup Series Cook Out 400. The spring date - last known as the Toyota Owners 400 - ran from 1959 through 2024 before being moved off the calendar. The IndyCar Series ran here from 2001 to 2009 and was announced ...

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Image: Dough4872 | CC BY-SA 3.0