Texas World Speedway (TWS) was a motorsport venue located in

College Station, Texas College Station is a city in Brazos County, Texas, United States, situated in East-Central Texas in the Brazos Valley, towards the eastern edge of the region known as the Texas Triangle. It is northwest of Houston and east-northeast of Austin, ...

. The track was one of only eight

superspeedway Oval track racing is a form of motorsport that is contested on an oval-shaped race track. An oval track differs from a road course in that the layout resembles an oval with turns in only one direction, and the direction of traffic is almost uni ...

s of or greater in the United States used for racing, the others being

Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

, Daytona, Pocono, Talladega, Ontario (California), Auto Club, and

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, ...

(there are several tracks of similar size used for vehicle testing). The track was located on approximately on State Highway 6 in

. There was a oval, and several road course configurations. The full oval configuration was closely related to that of Michigan and was often considered the latter's sister track, featuring steeper banking, at 22 degrees in the turns, 12 degrees at the start/finish line, and only 2 degrees along the backstretch, compared to Michigan's respective 18, 12, and 5 degrees. The last major race occurred at the track in 1981. The track was used by amateur racing clubs such as the

SCCA The Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) is a non-profit American automobile club and sanctioning body supporting Autocross, Rallycross, High Performance Driver Education, HPDE, Time trial, Time Trial, Road racing, Road Racing, Regularity rally, R ...

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

, Porsche Club of America, World Racing League, Corinthian Vintage Auto Racing, CMRA, various performance driving schools (HPDE) and car clubs, as well as hosting music concerts and other events. The speedway was also a race track location for the video game, '' Need for Speed: Pro Street''.

History

Originally opened as Texas International Speedway, TWS was an almost exact copy of

Michigan International Speedway Michigan International Speedway (formerly named as the Michigan Speedway from 1997 to 2000) is a D-shaped oval superspeedway in Brooklyn, Michigan. It has hosted various major auto racing series throughout its existence, including NASCAR, Cham ...

and was part of Larry LoPatin's American Raceways Inc. and operated a part of

Riverside International Raceway Riverside International Raceway (sometimes known as Riverside, RIR, or Riverside Raceway) was a motorsports race track and road course established in the Edgemont area of Riverside County, California, just east of the city limits of Riversid ...

, Trenton Speedway, and Atlanta International Raceway and in 1971 ARI went bankrupt. Texas World Speedway was the site of the 1974 Willie Nelson's Fourth of July Picnic with

Willie Nelson Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor and activist. He was one of the main figures of the outlaw country subgenre that developed in the late 1960s as a reaction to the conservative restr ...

and his guests

Jimmy Buffett James William Buffett (December 25, 1946 – September 1, 2023) was an American singer-songwriter, author, and businessman. He was known for his tropical rock sound and persona, which often portrayed a lifestyle described as "island escapis ...

Townes Van Zandt John Townes Van Zandt (March 7, 1944 – January 1, 1997) was an American singer-songwriter.

, and Kinky Friedman performing as well. It was also known for a fire that destroyed several cars including one owned by Robert Earl Keen. The cover of Keen' album, ''

Picnic A picnic is a meal taken outdoors (Al fresco dining, ''al fresco'') as part of an excursion, especially in scenic surroundings, such as a park, lakeside, or other place affording an interesting view, or else in conjunction with a public event su ...

'', shows a picture of his car on fire at the picnic. During the 1980s the track fell into a state of disrepair, and both

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...

and the Indy cars chose to drop it from their respective schedules. It continued to operate in a limited role for amateur racing. In 1991 Ishin Speed Sport, Inc. purchased the facility and repaved and modestly refurbished it. It hosted races for ARCA, but after 1993 the company withdrew. The facility did serve as a venue for amateur and club racing, along with private testing. NASCAR teams have used the oval for testing (as it mimics

and Fontana), as a way of skirting the tight restrictions prohibiting testing on active tracks on the schedule. On February 23, 1993, Jeff Andretti set the (then) unofficial closed-course speed record for IndyCars of , the fastest speed ever recorded at Texas World Speedway, while testing for the 1993

Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly shortened to Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indian ...

. This marked his first time back in an IndyCar since the 1992 Indianapolis 500 when he lost a wheel and crashed head-on into the wall, smashing both his legs. Andretti's fast run came at the conclusion of two days of testing where he consistently posted laps in the range. Andretti's

Buick Buick () is a division (business), division of the Automotive industry in the United States, American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Started by automotive pioneer David Dunbar Buick in 1899, it was among the first American automobil ...

-powered Lola was prepared by Pagan Racing of Corpus Christi, Texas. During a January 2009 test,

Greg Biffle Gregory Jack Biffle (born December 23, 1969), nicknamed "the Biff", is an American semi-retired professional stock car racing driver. After racing in the NASCAR Winter Heat Series in the mid-1990s, he was recommended to Jack Roush by former race ...

managed to reach a top speed of in a test for Roush Fenway Racing as part of evading NASCAR's testing ban. This became the fastest speed ever achieved on this track by a stock car (amateur or professional). The average speed for the full lap was . From 2012 to its closure in 2017 Texas World Speedway experienced a resurgence in use spurred by the growing popularity of road racing and the Speedway's 15-turn, road course which was very popular with drivers worldwide, who recognized the fast, wide and rhythmic road course as a "racer's track". During this period the track was completely booked with racing events, HPDE programs including the Speedway's popular Performance Driving School, professional team tests, motorcycle schools, "street drags" and non-racing events. During this time the track hosted its first 24-hour racing event by entry-level racing series ChumpCar World Series and later by the semi-professional racing series World Racing League. On September 18, 2017 a '' Jalopnik'' article confirmed the closure of Texas World Speedway, which was being used as a dumping ground for vehicles flooded out by

Hurricane Harvey Hurricane Harvey was a devastating tropical cyclone that made landfall in Texas and Louisiana in August 2017, causing catastrophic flooding and more than 100 deaths. It is tied with 2005's Hurricane Katrina as the costliest tropical cy ...

. The entire facility was being leased to Copart as a catastrophe storage facility for vehicles damaged by

. The vehicles were to be stored while the numerous contracted insurance providers processed the vehicles for disposition via auction, where the mass majority would be sold with a certificate of destruction title, ''i.e.'' parts only from dismantling companies. As of July 19, 2018, developers broke ground to begin construction of the Southern Pointe master-planned community. Southern Pointe is going to be 550 acres with 73 acres of green space and water retention systems. They expect 1400 single-family home lots. The old TWS frontage road billboard was covered with a Southern Pointe banner at the beginning of December 2018. Video footage of the speedway site taken by drone in February 2019 shows much of the asphalt banking in turns 1 and 2 has been removed, as well as a portion of turn 4. Over the course of February 27 and 28, 2020 the press box above the grandstands was demolished. As of June 2024, the outline of the track remains, but most, if not all, of the original asphalt has been torn out as housing developments have been constructed in what were turns 1 and 2.

Lap records

The all-time unofficial track record set during a race weekend on the 2-mile Oval is 0:33.620, set by

Mario Andretti Mario Gabriele Andretti (born February 28, 1940) is an American former racing driver and businessman, who competed in Formula One from to , and American open-wheel racing, IndyCar from 1964 USAC Championship Car season, 1964 to 1994 IndyCar se ...

in a Parnelli VPJ2, during qualifying for the 1973 Texas 200. The unofficial fastest lap for

stock cars Stock car racing is a form of Auto racing, automobile racing run on oval track racing, oval tracks and road courses. It originally used Production vehicle, production-model cars, hence the name "stock car", but is now run using cars specifical ...

around the 2-mile Oval is 0:38.904, set by Page Jones in a

Ford Thunderbird The Ford Thunderbird is a personal luxury car manufactured and marketed by Ford Motor Company for model years 1955 to 2005, with a hiatus from 1998 to 2001. Ultimately gaining a broadly used colloquial nickname, the ''T-Bird'', Ford Introduce ...

, during qualifying for the 1993 Western Auto Texas World Shootout II. The fastest official race lap records at Texas World Speedway are listed as:

Race history

USAC winners

NASCAR race winners

* Bobby Isaac's 1969 win was his first in a long-distance superspeedway race. *

Richard Petty Richard Lee Petty (born July 2, 1937), nicknamed "the King", is an American former stock car racing driver who competed from 1958 to 1992 in the former NASCAR Grand National and Winston Cup Series (now called the NASCAR Cup Series), most nota ...

's 1972 win was his first in a Dodge. His 1971 win was the only time he won the season finale in his illustrious career which saw 200 wins (most of all-time) and 7 Championships (tied for most all-time with

Dale Earnhardt Ralph Dale Earnhardt (; April 29, 1951February 18, 2001) was an American professional Stock car racing, stock car driver and racing team owner, who raced from 1975 to 2001 in the former NASCAR Winston Cup Series (now called the NASCAR Cup Serie ...

and

Jimmie Johnson Jimmie Kenneth Johnson (born September 17, 1975) is an American professional auto racing driver. He currently competes part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 84 Toyota Camry XSE for Legacy Motor Club. Johnson has won seven Cup ch ...

). * The 1979 400 was NASCAR's first race at Texas after it shut down for the 1974-1975 seasons; USAC stock cars and Indycars returned to Texas in 1976.

USAC Stock Cars

*1973 (April 7) Gordon Johncock *1973 (October 6) Roger McCluskey *1976 (June 6) A. J. Foyt *1976 (August 1) A. J. Foyt *1976 (October 31)

Bobby Allison Robert Arthur Allison (December 3, 1937 – November 9, 2024) was an American professional stock car racing driver and owner. Allison was the founder of the Alabama Gang, a group of drivers based in Hueytown, Alabama, where there were abundant ...

*1977 (June 5) Bay Darnell *1978 (March 12) A. J. Foyt *1978 (June 4) Keith Davis *1978 (November 12) A. J. Foyt *1979 (March 11) A. J. Foyt *1979 (November 11)

*1980 (March 9) Terry Ryan

SCCA Can-Am winners

IMSA winners

References

External links

* *
Texas World Speedway at Racing-Reference
{{Authority control NASCAR tracks Sports venues in College Station, Texas NASCAR races at Texas World Speedway Motorsport venues in Texas IMSA GT Championship circuits Defunct motorsport venues in the United States Sports venues completed in 1969 1969 establishments in Texas 2017 disestablishments in Texas