If you’re looking for a historic NASCAR track, look no further than Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

The popular quarter-mile bullring is NASCAR’s longest running weekly racing track. Hosting racing on most Saturday evenings from late April through mid-August, the grandstands are typically packed with patrons who are there to watch the ground pounding modifieds battle for supremacy and the occasional fisticuffs that result from the intense on-track action.

The track first opened for racing in 1949 under the tutelage of Bill France Sr. and Alvin Hawkins, with NASCAR Hall of Famer Tim Flock claiming the first track championship later that year.

In the years since, a number of legendary names have captured track titles at the facility, including Glen Wood, brothers Bobby and Billy Myers, Pee Wee Jones, Ralph Brinkley, Philip Smith, Junior Miller, Burt Myers and Tim Brown.

Brown is the most recent track champion, capturing his 11th crown in 2021 to give him more track championships than any other driver.

Below is everything you need to know about Bowman Gray Stadium.

BOWMAN GRAY STADIUM

TRACK PROFILE

Bowman Gray Stadium didn’t start off life as a race track.

On the contrary, it actually started life as a football field, a role the facility continues to fulfill to this very day.

The stadium was built in 1937 as a public works project to provide jobs during the Great Depression. It is owned by the City of Winston-Salem. A portion of the money to build the stadium was donated by Nathalie Gray in memory of her husband, Bowman. Mr. Gray, a philanthropist and president and chairman of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, passed away in 1935. His wife Nathalie donated $30,000 toward the stadium’s original $100,000 construction cost.

In the beginning, the stadium’s sole use was for collegiate football. Later, trotter horse racing was added on the .250-mile dirt oval surrounding the football field.

Automobile racing came to the stadium in 1947, but initially France and Hawkins weren’t involved.

“The story goes that a guy promoting the Midget races on the dirt track in 1947 asked the city to pave the track,” current manager and promoter Gray Garrison told NASCAR.com in 2011. “He said he’d pay for the paving from what he made in 1948. Apparently, he left town without paying the bill.”

That’s when France and Hawkins stepped in, with the pair reaching a deal with the city to promote the track. In doing so, they pledged to earn enough money to pay back the city for the paving of the track.

They followed through with their promise, paying back the city the money it was owed and in doing so created a piece of NASCAR history that continues to operate today.

The track hosted 29 NASCAR Cup Series races from 1958-71, with 1960 NASCAR Cup Series champion Rex White scoring the most wins during that time with six triumphs. That included four straight victories in 1961 and ’62. Junior Johnson, Richard Petty and Glen Wood are tied for second with four each.

The series now known as the ARCA Menards Series East visited Bowman Gray five times from 2011-15, with current NASCAR stars Matt DiBenedetto, Corey LaJoie and Ben Rhodes among the winners. Ben Kennedy, the great-grandson of France and current senior vice president, racing development and strategy for NASCAR, also earned an East Series win at the track in 2013.

From 2005-16, the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour was a staple at Bowman Gray, with 10-time track champion Burt Myers earning three Tour victories at his home track to lead all series competitors. He scored wins in the first Southern Modified Tour race at the track in 2005 and the final race in 2016.

NASCAR Cup Series races at Bowman Gray

East Series races at Bowman Gray

NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour races at Bowman Gray