Bristol

The land upon which Bristol Motor Speedway is built used to be a dairy farm.

Larry Carrier and Carl Moore traveled to Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1960 to watch a race and it was then that they decided to build a speedway in Northeast Tennessee. However, they wanted a smaller model of the Charlotte track, something with a more intimate setting and opted to erect a half-mile facility instead of mirroring the 1.5-mile track.

Work began on what was then called Bristol International Speedway in 1960 and it took approximately one year to finish. Officials scratched many ideas for the track on envelopes and brown paper bags.

The land on which BMS now sits, as well as construction of the track, cost approximately $600,000. The entire layout for BMS covered 100 acres and provided parking for more than 12,000 cars. The track itself was a perfect half-mile, measuring 60 feet wide on the straightaways, 75 feet wide in the turns and the turns were banked at 22 degrees.

Seating capacity for the very first NASCAR race at BMS, held on July 30, 1961, was 18,000. Prior to this race, the speedway had hosted weekly races. The first driver on the track for practice on July 27, 1961, was Tiny Lund in his Pontiac. The second driver out was David Pearson. Fred Lorenzen won the pole for the first race at BMS with a speed of 79.225 mph.

Atlanta's Jack Smith won the inaugural event, The Volunteer 500, at BMS on July 30, 1961.

In the fall of 1969 BMS was reshaped and remeasured. The turns were banked at 36 degrees and it became a .533-mile oval.

The speedway was sold after the 1976 season to Lanny Hester and Gary Baker. In the spring of 1978, the track name was changed to Bristol International Raceway. In August of that year, the first night race was held on the oval.

On July 6, 1983, Warner Hodgdon completed 100 percent purchase of Bristol Motor Speedway. Hodgdon named Larry Carrier as the track's general manager. On Jan. 11, 1985, Warner Hodgdon filed for bankruptcy.

Larry Carrier formally took possession of the speedway and covered all outstanding debts.

In August 1992, BMS became the first fully concrete speedway to host a Cup event.

On Jan. 22, 1996, Larry Carrier sold the speedway to Bruton Smith at a purchase price of $26 million. At the time of the sale, the facility seated 71,000.

On May 28, 1996, the track's name was officially changed to Bristol Motor Speedway. By August of that year, 15,000 seats had been added bringing the seating capacity to 86,000.

For the August 1998 Goody's 500 the speedway featured more than 131,000 grandstand seats and 100 skyboxes. On Aug. 26, 2002, work began on the most ambitious construction project since Speedway Motorsports Inc., purchased BMS in 1996. The new backstretch increased the venue's seating capacity to more than 160,000.