Speedway Motorsports history

The company-sponsored 4x sedan, built by "Speedy" Bill and driven by Lloyd Beckman, won a record 16 features in a row at Lincoln's Capitol Beach Speedway and took home the Nebraska Modified Racing Association championships in 1960 and '61.

By 1961, CMS was exhausted of funds and had entered reorganization proceedings dictated by the United States bankruptcy code.

Our 10-page catalog and ongoing racing involvement attracted enough business to us to expand into a larger facility in 1962, adding an engine and muffler shop.

In 1968, Bill met a young racer from California named Jan Opperman who was looking to race sprint cars.

In 1969, NASCAR's Grand National (now Sprint Cup) division returned to the "Big T". The 1969 rendition saw David Pearson in victory lane.

The 1970 race was won by Bobby Issac.

1975: Smith regains control of Charlotte Motor Speedway and is named chief executive officer.

The same year Smith gained executive control over the racetrack, H.A. 'Humpy' Wheeler joined CMS. A year later, in 1976, Wheeler was named general manager of CMS; together, Smith and Wheeler would develop the North Carolina speedway company into stock car racing's largest racetrack operator.

A couple years later, Doug Wolfgang earned 26 feature wins and won the 1978 Knoxville Nationals—the Indy 500 of sprint cars—driving Bill's 4x car.

In 1979, network television broadcasters began airing NASCAR races live, providing many throughout the country with their first glimpse of the sport.

Bill also teamed up with General Motors Engineer Ed Mosher in 1988 to create the "Coors Extra Gold Draft" $1 million '32 Ford Roadster, a high-tech showpiece powered by a jet helicopter turbine engine.

In 1989, Carson and his youngest brother, Jason, fielded a Lola-Chevrolet in the American Indycar Series championship.

Sales of NASCAR-licensed products hurtled toward $900 million, drastically more than the $80 million collected from merchandise sales in 1990.

Also in 1992, the company developed the Legends Car Racing Circuit, giving aficionados of stock car racing the chance to compete in 5/8-scale versions of the cars driven by early NASCAR drivers.

Although Speedway Motorsports did not exist until 1994, the legacy of the organization stretches back 35 years earlier, back to the early career of the company's founder, O. Bruton Smith.

1995 IPO, Further Expansion

One other company began life as a publicly traded concern in 1996: Daytona Beach, Florida's International Speedway Corporation, Smith's closest rival.

The Winston Cup Series races drew more than 6.1 million spectators in 1997, excluding the 123 million viewers who watched the races on television.

In March 1999, International Speedway looked on in surprise again when Smith's company announced a first in stock car racing's history.

In 2001, the NASCAR Weekly Racing Series National Champion, Ted Christopher, gained his title from Thompson.

Recently in 2012 the famed Richie Evans, who still to this day is something of legend at Thompson, was inducted into the NASCAR hall of fame.

These two powerhouses helped form our Muscle market-specific catalog, first mailed in 2016.

Then a couple of weeks later, on April 22-24, Bristol Motor Speedway will close out its 2021 dirt-track schedule with the return of the World of Outlaws sprint cars for the Bristol Throwdown.