Bowman Gray Stadium

Bowman Gray Stadium is a NASCAR sanctioned 1/4-mile asphalt flat oval short track located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It is one of stock car racing's most legendary venues, and is referred to as "NASCAR's longest running weekly race track". Bowman Gray Stadium is part of Winston-Salem’s Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum Complex and is home of the Winston-Salem State University Rams football team.

The first NASCAR sanctioned event took place on May 18, 1949 and was won by Fonty Flock. The NASCAR Grand National Series (now the Sprint Cup) first raced at the track in 1958 and hosted a total of 29 Grand National races through 1971.

Bowman Gray’s weekly racing tradition continues to this day as part of the Dodge Weekly Series. Weekly races include the Modified, Sportsman, Street Stock, and Stadium Stock divisions. Bowman Gray is also a part of the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour and hosts other special events including classic modified coupes, monster trucks, demolition derbies, chain races, and mini-cup races.

History
Bowman Gray Stadium is NASCAR's very first weekly track, a famed quarter-mile where the sound of roaring engines and cheering fans has been heard since 1949. Racing at Bowman Gray Stadium was started by Bill France Sr. and Alvin Hawkins, two men who were founding fathers of NASCAR itself. It's the track where Richard Petty won his 100th race. It's the track where a young Richard Childress fell in love with racing, hawking peanuts in the stands and then later taking the wheel himself.

It's the track where Junior Johnson, Glen Wood, David Pearson, Richie Evans, and Jerry Cook competed. It's the track that has been part of such racing dynasties as the Pettys, the Allisons, the Myerses, and the Earnhardts. It's the track with drivers whose fathers and grandfathers used to race at Bowman Gray, where fans come to see the racing action just like their great-grandparents did so long ago.

Today, a new generation of legends races at Bowman Gray. This season, future Hall-of-Famers may be taking the checkered flag, giants of racing whetting their appetites at the longest running weekly track in all of NASCAR.

The stadium was built in 1937 as a public works project to provide jobs during the Great Depression. The first event at the new stadium was a football game in the fall of 1938 between and. In the beginning, the stadium's sole use was for collegiate football until trotter horse racing was added on the 0.250-mile dirt oval. The first auto racing at Bowman Gray was a type of midget auto racing on the dirt quarter mile track from 1939–1949. The track was paved in 1947, after a promoter got the City of Winston-Salem to agree to pay to have the track paved in exchange for restitution of payments through a percentage of future income from races. However, after the track was paved the promoter fled before any payments were made to the city. Stock car racing at Bowman Gray Stadium was started by Bill France Sr. and Alvin Hawkins, two men who were founding fathers of NASCAR. The track was NASCAR's very first weekly track. The track would run weekly NASCAR sanctioned events during the summer months.

In 2015, Bowman Gray celebrated its 1,000th NASCAR sanctioned race In 2015, Bowman Gray celebrated its 1,000th NASCAR sanctioned race

Bowman Gray's nickname, the "Madhouse," is largely attributed to the racing antics that take place on the tight, quarter mile bull ring. In 2014, Bowman Gray's promoter, Gray Garrison described the events at BGS as part racing, part religion, and part wrestling. While this is partially the reason for the nickname, it actually originated from a qualifying format the track used in the 1950s called the "mad scramble."

Past NASCAR Cup Series winners

 * In 1971, the Grand National Division allowed drivers to choose a smaller car from the Late-model Sportsman Division, which ran smaller pony cars, like the Ford Mustang which Bobby Allison chose for the race, alongside cars like the Chevrolet Camaro and AMC Javelin. Allison's usual car was the Ford Galaxie, but for this race at the shortest paved track on the schedule, he chose a shorter-wheelbase car with a much smaller engine, 302cui, 5.0ltr. V8 versus the Galaxie's 400cui, 7.5ltr V8. The shorter wheelbase allowed much better handling on slow, narrow short tracks like Bowman-Gray, but gave Allison an advantage that was seen as unfair by his competitors, such as second-place runner Richard Petty, whom filed an official complaint with NASCAR officials at the close of the race. NASCAR officials agreed, and stripped Allison of his win and prize money. However, instead of declaring Petty the winner, NASCAR left the race without an official winner. To this day, Allison reports his win count as 85, despite his official win total being 84.

Track Champions
Modified and sportsman car counts were thin during the latter part of the 1950s and the track combined the two and let the V6s run with the V8s and named it the "Modified-Sportsman Division". Leading into the 1968 season, the track dropped the sportsman cars and title, hence officially named the featured division as the modifieds.

The Amateur Division was the support division to the modified-sportsman and ran from 1950 to mid-1958, where the division dissolved and the track picked up the Hobby Division.

The Claiming Division was tabbed as a third weekly division in 1964. It was a division that cost only $99 to run, it was so popular that the track had to cut the fields down to two races with ten cars apiece. The division ran from 1964 to 1972. The track changed the name to what is now the Sportsman Division.

The Hobby Division, which was the predecessor of the Street Stock Division, ran from mid-1958 to 1974. Then the following year, the division was renamed to the street stock.

Bowman Gray ran Blunderbust races as a fourth division from 1977-1989 until they replaced that division with the Buzzbomber Division in 1990. The following season, the track kept the cars, but changed the division to what is now the Stadium Stock Division.