New Smyrna, Florida
New Smyrna Speedway Track Facts
- Opening Date:
1964 - Current Sanction:
NASCAR Home Tracks / NASCAR Whelen All-American Series - Track Length:
1/2 Mile Oval (600ft straights / 720ft turns) - Track Surface:
Asphalt (Repaved in 2007) - Track Width:
Turns 70ft / Straights 60ft - Banking:
23 degrees ( TURNS) - Pit Area:
Located inside the track and outside turns three and four
Lighted concrete slabs. Fuel, Tires, Concessions - Divisions:
NASCAR Whelen All-American Series: Super Late Models / Pro Late Models / Modifieds / Mod Minis / Sportsman / Pro-Trucks / Bombers / Super Stocks / Strictly Stocks - Special Events:
Red Eye 100 – Super Late Models (Jan)
Orange Blossom 100 – Super Late Models (Jan)
Annual World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing (Feb)
Clyde Hart Memorial 100 – Super Late Models (July)
Marion Edwards Memorial 100 – Super Late Models (Sept)
Hart to Heart Breast Cancer Foundation 100 – Super Late Models (Oct)
Florida Governor’s Cup 200 – Super Late Models (Nov)
History of New Smyrna Speedway
In 1964 the Hart family, headed by Clyde Hart, found a piece of land about 10 miles from Daytona Beach and decided it would be a perfect place for a racetrack. The 55-acre piece of property was once a breeding ground for armadillos and, at the time, inhabited quite a few rattlers and a couple of gophers. There is nothing like the roar of a racing car to clear out the undesirables.
Clyde Hart’s vision included a banked half-mile dirt track that went by the name Daytona Raceway. Just six months later, Hart realized his dirt track didn’t provide the best racing due to the consistency of the dirt. The track was then paved over and eventually the name changed to New Smyrna Speedway. Back then NSS played host to Late Models, Sportsman and even a car known as an Early Model. Today, the track hosts Late Models and Sportsman and is still under the direction of the Hart family; Clyde’s son Robert runs the track.
NSS spent its first six months as a dirt track. Due to the consistency of the dirt, the surface was not conducive to racing and the Hart family paved the high banks.
Two years after the opening of the track in 1966, NSS held the first World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing. This was originally a four-night event filled with racing.
“A lot of famous names have raced here,” says Roberts. “Richie Evans, who was known as ‘Mr. Modified,’ the Allisons-Bobby, Donnie and Davey, Rusty Wallace, Mark Martin, Dick Anderson, Dick Trickle, Neil Bonnett, Harry Gant. This was the home track for Dan Pardus. He was a Mini Stock champion here some years ago. Tony Stewart has raced Modifieds here. The list is phenomenal. Each year we see a lot of our old friends.”
Credit to Meghan Fraizer
New Smyrna Speedway Racing Divisions
