The Michigan State Fairgrounds Speedway was a
dirt oval racing track located in
Detroit
Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...
,
Michigan
Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...
. The track was built in 1899 for horse racing, and it was part of the ground purchased to provide a permanent venue for the
Michigan State Fair
The Michigan State Fair is an annual event originally held from 1849 to 2009 in Detroit, the state's largest city. In 2009 the governor declined to fund it because of other priorities.
Because agriculture still has a major place in the Michigan ec ...
.
Joseph Lowthian Hudson donated the land, at
Woodward Avenue
A woodward is a Game warden, warden of a wood. Woodward may also refer to:
Places
;United States
* Woodward, Iowa
* Woodward, Oklahoma
* Woodward, Pennsylvania, a census-designated place
* Woodward Avenue, a street in Tallahassee, Florida, which b ...
and what is now
8 Mile Road, to the Michigan State Agricultural Society.
By 1908, the racetrack, at the east end of the fairground, had a 5,000-seat capacity grandstand. The track originally hosted Thoroughbred flat racing as well as Standardbred harness racing. Later, it was used for
auto racing
Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non ...
, after the growth of that industry.
In 1971 the grandstand was declared unsafe; it was demolished in 2001.
Race winners
AAA/USAC Champ Car race winners
NASCAR Grand National race winners
See also
*
*
References
{{NASCAR Sprint Cup Series racetracks
Defunct motorsport venues in the United States
Dirt oval race tracks in the United States
Motorsport venues in Michigan