The date was June 11, 1904. A parade was held from downtown Nashville all the way out to Cumberland Park on the corner of 4th Avenue and Craighead, a site which later came to be known as "The Fairgrounds�. �The stars of the parade were something that Nashvillians had never seen before. Automobiles intended for competition in the first-ever organized race in Nashville were on display to both give what would be for some their first glance at the relatively new �horseless carriage� and also to promote the race.

Eleven races were on the schedule for the one and an eighth-mile track. Due to the small number of automobiles that existed at the time, the races alternated between cars and motorcycles. The rules stated in part that the cars must be driven by the vehicle�s owner with �a full compliment of passengers, the car to be driven by the owner�. A crowd of 2,000 attended the event, which was cancelled after a motorcycle competing in the 7th race ran into the rear of one of the cars that had been pushed onto the track to line up for the next race. The rider sustained a broken wrist.

Another meet was held in September of 1904. Among the entries was famous pioneer racer Barney Oldfield. Quite a few cars competed in the event as it was held just after the St. Louis World�s Fair and most competitors came straight to Nashville from St. Louis. Newspapers marveled at average speeds of just over 60 miles per hour. Even in those early days the drivers were looking for an aerodynamic advantage as the paper also reported that drivers �ducked their heads as low as possible to keep the wind from retarding the speed of the car�. The winner of the big 8-mile feature was Herbert H. �Tornado� Lyttle in his Pope-Toledo.

Beginning in 1915, annual events were held at the fairgrounds track during the State Fair in September. Programs and photos exist from events in the 1930�s when the AAA sanctioned events that saw the same cars and drivers that competed at Indianapolis race here in Nashville.

Formalized racing began in 1948 when Claude Lampley and T.I. Albright were persuaded to let a local group run their "hotrods" during intermission of motorcycle races. The two men ran a small dirt track called Cumberland Speedway on 9th Avenue that hosted weekly motorcycle races, so they let the cars run as an experiment. The sport had already caught on in Owensboro, Kentucky, so many of the racers from that area heard about the event and made the trip to Nashville.

Needless to say, that first exhibition was an immediate hit with the fans, although the intruders from Kentucky dominated the racing, with Slim Watkins from Owensboro winning the first race. It didn't take long for the local racers to catch on, and they soon became competitive with the outsiders, and then began beating them at their own game.

Those races produced the first local heroes. Herb Lewis, one of the motorcycle racers, made the transition to cars and became a frequent winner. Jimmy Sawyer, Owen Walker, Pete Eudaily, Wilbur Binkley, and Pete Page were some other early winners.

As the sport quickly became more popular with both fans and participants, it soon outgrew Cumberland Speedway. In 1950, a group led by Benny Goodman took over the lease of a 1/4 mile banked dirt oval on Cowan Street near the foot of the Jefferson Street bridge, and Nashville Speedways (known to the racers as the �Legion Bowl�) began a tradition of hosting races on Saturday night that continues today. Tracks began springing up all over the Middle Tennessee area in the next couple of years. Columbia, Hohenwald, Clarksville, and even Old Hickory near Dupont held races throughout the fifties. During the State Fair from 1954 through 1957, races were again held on the mile-and-an-eighth dirt oval for the cars that ran in the weekly races in the area.

The races at the Legion Bowl established Saturday night racing in the area. Promotions from Hollywood stars to Indianapolis 500 drivers to kangaroo boxing matches during intermission helped pack the stands every week. But starting with the 1955 season, the promoters probably wouldn�t have needed any gimmicks. The first rivalry between two early stars of the sport developed that year. There were a total of 16 races held that year and 13 of them were won by two drivers � Bob Reuther or Frank Reed. Reed would win the season championship by two points over Reuther. Their battles continued into the 1956 season with the two winning 8 of the first 9 races of that season. Reed, the hard-charging driver from Murfreesboro, was tragically killed in a race during the State Fair of 1956.

Reuther would charge on to become the first media darling of the new sport. He generated headlines either with his race wins or by what he was doing to his car during the week between races. The fans either loved him or hated him, as he received as many boos as cheers when he won. He used his success at Nashville to springboard him to national prominence on the old beach course at Daytona when in 1957 he set a qualifying record of 150.250 mph. That run shattered the old record by 13 mph, and was almost 15 mph faster than the second fastest qualifier. Because the cars only raced on the beach for one more year, Reuther�s record will stand forever. He also went on to become the last season champion at the Legion Bowl. His total of 60 documented career wins accumulated at Old Hickory, the Legion Bowl, and the Fairgrounds ranks him 2nd in all-time wins only to Darrell Waltrip with 67. He probably won twice that many races at area tracks that never were recorded.

Racing had outgrown the Legion Bowl. The promoters wanted to build a paved track at the State Fairgrounds site, but ran into opposition from people in the horse industry. The auto racers appeased the horse racers by building Maryland Farms in Brentwood as a facility for their industry to continue. In 1958, Goodman and partners Bill Donoho and Mark Parrish were granted a 10-year lease with a 20-year extension from the State Fair Board, and they tore out the one and an eighth-mile dirt track and built a half-mile high-banked asphalt track with a quarter-mile oval inside with both tracks using the same front straightaway.

On July 19, 1958, the first race was held at the new speedway. For many drivers it was the first time they had raced on an asphalt surface. Chattanooga driver Charlie Griffin won the opening race. Griffin was driving a car owned by long-time owner Hart Hastings, who ironically owned the car that won the last race on the old Legion Bowl track the year before. Thirteen races were held in that initial season, but only three drivers were able to master the new asphalt surface. Griffin, Reuther, and a new local favorite named Jimmy Griggs took home all the first-place money with Reuther again winning the season championship. Griggs, nicknamed the �Donelson Dandy�, would go on to win the 1962 championship and become one of the most popular drivers in the track�s forty-plus year history.

From 1958 through 1964, the local Saturday night events were held on the quarter-mile track. The "big" track was used for special events that were held on Sunday afternoon, as the track had no lights. Beginning in 1958, the highlight of the season was the appearance of the NASCAR Grand National series (which later became the Nextel Cup Series). They ran at least one race every season through 1984, with a second race added in 1973.

Joe Weatherly, who went on to win back-to-back NASCAR championships in 1962 and 1963, won the first Nextel Cup race on August 10, 1958. A crowd of 13,998 race fans packed the old wooden grandstands to capacity to see stars of the day such as Buck Baker, Lee Petty, Fireball Roberts, and Glen Wood battle for 200 laps. At the time, Nashville was one of only 18 tracks on the Nextel Cup circuit that was paved, with most of the tracks of the era still having a dirt surface.

As the fifties came to a close two new challengers began running at the front of the field and both hailed from Columbia. Malcolm Brady would amass 24 wins and one track championship (1961) in only six seasons of competition at the Fairgrounds. Like Reuther, he would retire when the old �Modified Special� era ended. Coo Coo Marlin would win his first championship in 1959, and add another in 1963. Hartsville mail carrier Bobby Celsor was the other Modified champion, winning the title in 1960.

The first major format change was made before the 1964 season. Since those first races in 1948 race cars had been early 1930-model cars (both coupes and sedans) that came to be called �Modified Specials�. Because the cars were getting old and parts were hard to obtain, that division was discontinued and a new division called �Late Model Modifieds� was established in order to project a more modern image. Those cars were mid-to-late-1950 models that looked similar to the cars the fans drove to the track every week.

A handful of drivers successfully made the transition to the full-bodied cars. Besides Griggs and Marlin, Bill Morton, L.J. Hampton, P.B. Crowell, Charles Stofel, and Herb Lewis were among the drivers to achieve wins in both types of cars. With the advent of the new division, two drivers from the �Hobby car� support division brought their sometimes-bitter rivalry to the new late model cars.

Charlie Binkley and Walter Wallace between them won all but 5 Hobby races during the 1962 and �63 seasons. They took advantage of the fact that everyone was starting the new division on equal ground as Wallace won the first feature and Binkley the second. Wallace went on to win championships in 1967 and 1975. Binkley was probably the most popular driver in the history of the track to never win a championship, although he does stand in the record book as the all-time track record holder with a lap of 123.550 mph set in June of 1972.

A weekly feature in the sixties was likely to find more than just local drivers competing. On any given Saturday night you might find any or all of the �Alabama Gang� towing up from Hueytown. Bobby Allison won the first two features of the 1962 season. Brother Donnie and Nashville-born Red Farmer were frequent visitors. Often making the trip from the Chattanooga area were Friday Hassler, Bob Burcham, and Freddy Fryar. Fryar raced here often enough in 1964 to win the track championship.

Lights were added to the half-mile for the 1965 season and the Saturday night races moved up to the big track, with support divisions continuing to run the smaller oval. During the State Fair in September of 1965, the majestic old grandstand burned to the ground, and temporary seating was constructed during the off season. The sport had become so popular that a second night of racing was added in the mid-sixties. Tuesday night races provided a good training ground for a driver wanting to move up to the Saturday night program. The most popular race of the Tuesday night show was the Figure-8 division. Crowds gasped as the cars barely missed each other time and again at the intersection of the �8�.

Coo Coo Marlin became the first driver to win back-to-back championships at the Fairgrounds in 1965 and again in 1966. He also became the first and only driver to win four championships, with two coming in the old coupes and two in the Late Models. Before moving up to the Nextel Cup series, Marlin set the standard for wins and titles that would be the goals for all who followed. After Wallace�s �67 championship, P.B. Crowell and David Sisco won the final two championships of the sixties.

Following the 1969 season, new permanent stands were built and the track was enlarged to 5/8ths mile with 35 degree banking. A kid from Owensboro, Kentucky, had been competing here off and on since 1965. Crowell, the 1968 champion, had decided to cut back on his driving and concentrate on becoming a car owner. He recognized a raw talent and hired the young driver. Darrell Waltrip moved to Franklin, Tennessee, from Owensboro and proceeded to win two track championships and 55 feature races over the next nine years. Counting Nextel Cup, USAC, and ASA races, Waltrip as mentioned earlier easily holds the record for all-time wins at the Fairgrounds with 67. Sandwiched between Waltrip�s two titles, another Franklin resident became only the second driver in the track�s history to win back-to-back season championships. Flookie Buford mastered the ultra-fast high banks in both �71 and �72 driving for car owner R.C. Alexander. The high-banked configuration proved too dangerous for the weekly racers, so after the 1972 season the banks were reduced to 18 degrees and the facility took on the basic appearance that remains today.

Proving again that the competition at the Fairgrounds was among the toughest in the nation, drivers from Alabama won track championships in 1974 and 1976. Huntsville�s Jimmy Means won the �74 title before moving on to Nextel Cup, and Pleasant Grove resident Alton Jones took the �76 trophy south to Alabama.

The middle seventies saw the second generation of racers begin to infiltrate the sport. Sterling Marlin (son of Coo Coo), Mike Alexander (son of long-time car owner R.C.), P.B. Crowell III (son of the �68 champ), and Dennis Wiser (son of another long-time owner Kenneth) comprised the �Kiddie Corps�, a fuzzy-faced group of teenagers who began to stake their claim to victory lane. Wiser, Alexander, and Crowell all earned their first win in �76 and Marlin followed in �77. Steve Spencer beat the youngsters for the �77 championship, but Alexander took the crown in 1978.

The one constant from the early �50�s through 1978 was Bill Donoho. Bennie Goodman sold his interest to Donoho in 1967 and Donoho had many different partners through the years. After the 1978 season, Donoho decided to retire and sold the lease to Lanny Hester and Gary Baker. The new owners chose not to hold weekly events in 1979. A total of ten races were held in �79, including two Nextel Cup races, two NASCAR Baby Grand races, an ARCA race, and five Late Model Sportsman races. Thus 1979 became the only year from 1949 to the present that weekly racing wasn�t held in Nashville.

More changes were in store for the 1980 season. Hester and Baker decided to again hold weekly races, but this time it would be with the smaller, shorter, and lighter Camaro-type cars, called �Grand American� cars. Those cars would be the headline division for four years. In 1981, the first annual �All-American 400� was held using those cars, and that race continues as one of the major events on the speedway schedule. Sterling Marlin dominated the Grand American division, becoming the first driver to win three championships in a row. He also joined his father Coo Coo as the first father-son duo to win championships. Sterling would post a total of 51 wins while moving on to a successful Nextel Cup career. In 1983 Jerry Sisco joined brother David as the first brothers to both win season titles.

Before the 1984 season, track management again changed hands and new General Manager Joe Carver instituted a new division called �Late Model Stock Cars�. That is the division that still exists today. Unfortunately, 1984 would be the last year Nextel Cup racing would be held at the Fairgrounds. Due to political wrangling, NASCAR pulled the Nextel Cup dates early in 1985, and again Gary Baker gained control of the lease and saved local racing from what looked to be an eminent demise. Geoffrey Bodine would go down in the record books as the last Nextel Cup race winner, earning only his second career win in a stirring duel with Darrell Waltrip.

Area drivers were slow to embrace the new division, with only 13 cars competing in the first race. Harold Ferguson was the first Late Model champion, followed by Zillon Felts and policeman Ricky Cruz. By 1987 the division had caught on with both fans and drivers. Among drivers competing in the weekly events in 1987 and 1988 were Nextel Cup stars Bobby Allison, Sterling Marlin, Mike Alexander, Darrell Waltrip, Bill Elliott, and the late Dale Earnhardt. Third generation racer Bobby Hamilton became the third driver to win consecutive track championships in �87 and �88 before moving to the Busch Grand National Series and ultimately a Nextel Cup career. Hamilton�s grandfather had built the car Bob Reuther drove to the first title in �58 and his father and uncle were regular competitors in the sixties.

At the end of 1987, the original lease expired and the Fair Board put a new lease up for bid. Six different groups bid on the new lease with former drivers Boyd Adams and Jimmy Allen being awarded the new lease. The new promoters made many improvements to the facility, including repaving the quarter-mile track, enlarging and paving the paddock areas, replacing the old wooden bleachers with aluminum seating from the former Ontario Motor Speedway, and building a new extended pit road that would allow the NASCAR touring series to return to Nashville.

Nicky Formosa won the last championship of the eighties. Nicky�s father, Tony, was another car owner who owned cars from well back into the fifties. One of the most dominating performances in the history of the track was turned in during the 1990 season. Jeff Green, another Owensboro resident, won 15 of 22 races and had 21 finishes of 3rd or better. Mike Reynolds was the �91 champion, with Mike Alexander making a determined comeback from injuries sustained in a 1988 racing accident to win the 1992 season crown.

After thirty-plus years of tremendous competition, little did anyone realize that only three drivers would account for the next eight championships. Chad Chaffin would win titles in 1993 and �95 before embarking on a Busch Series career that eventually led to a successful Craftsman Truck Series career. Andy Kirby split Chaffin to win in �94 and then again back-to-back in �96 and �97. Kirby was fatally injured in a motorcycle accident in July of 2002. And proving the apple doesn�t fall far from the tree, Joe Buford, son of two-time champ Flookie, became only the second driver in history to win three championships in a row in �98 thru 2000.

Following the 1994 season the Fair Board again put the lease up for bid and this time it was awarded to Bob Harmon, a promoter of racing for over 40 years from Prattville, Alabama. Using his close ties with NASCAR, Harmon was able to receive a date for the NASCAR Busch Series in 1995 and for the new Craftsman Truck Series the following year. The track was repaved for the first time since its 1973 reconfiguration following the 1995 season. In November of 1997, Dover Downs Entertainment Company purchased the lease from Harmon, and they continued the tradition of weekly racing that began over 50 years ago.