Nascar races on all sorts of tracks, from short to long, oval to road course, concrete to asphalt. Here’s a bi-weekly look at all the tracks of Nascar’s National Touring Series.
WORLD WIDE TECHNOLOGY RACEWAY
1.25 mile asphalt egg-shaped oval (well, sorta)
Opened 1967 (Current oval debuted in 1996)
Lights? Yes
Series: Cup, Xfinity
Nicknames: The Swamp, Gateway Motorsports Park, The Pride of East St. Louis
THREE FUN FACTS:
1. The facility started in the 1960’s as a drag strip. This was a number of motorsports parks that went through the five stages of development: Drag Strip, Road Course, Oval, Abandoned Oval, Rejuvenated Oval.
2. The oval track is loosely based on Darlington Raceway, combining its shape and proximity to a major body of water. But that’s about it—if anyone is running a throwback at WWT, its likely because they don’t have the money to update their paint scheme.
3. During Dover Motorsports’ ownership of the track, the official logo of the facility was “Gateway!”. No idea if track employees had to emphasize the exclamation point when they answered the phone.
www.spaderacing.com updated four times weekly
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