The Inspiration

• Carl Moore and Larry Carrier visited Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1960 and were inspired to build a speedway in northern Tennessee. Both men decided to built a half-mile track instead of a 1.5-mile track they saw in Charlotte, North Carolina.
  
  

Piney Flats or Bristol

• Moore, Carrier and R. G. Pope wanted to build a speedway in Piney Flats, Tennessee, but local opposition stopped the idea. A local dairy farmer, located eight miles down the road in Bristol, sold Moore, Carrier and Pope the land in 1960.
  
  

Bristol Motor Speedway

• Bristol Motor Speedway opened July 31, 1961. Atlanta driver Jack Smith won inaugural event.
  
  

Track Changes

• The original track was a perfect half mile, 60 feet wide on the straightaways, 75 feet wide in the turns, and the turns were banked at 22 degrees. In 1969, the banked turns were changed to 36 degrees and the track size was increased to .533 miles.
  
  

Bristol Sold

• In August 1976, Bristol Speedway was sold to Larry Hester and Gary Baker, and in spring 1978, Bristol Motor Speedway changed its name to Bristol International Raceway. Hester sold his share to Warner Hodgedon on April 1, 1982, and named Carrier the speedway's general manager.
  
  

Bankruptcy

• By 1983, Hodgedon, had acquired 100 percent of the raceway, but in 1985, he filed for bankruptcy. Carrier took control of the speedway and paid all the speedway's debts the same year. Carrier sold the speedway to Burton Smith on Jan. 22, 1996, for $26 million. Smith changed the name of the raceway to its current name, Bristol Motor Speedway.