Fonda Speedway is a half-mile (0.8 km) dirt oval track located in

Fonda, New York Fonda is a village in and the county seat of Montgomery County, New York, United States. The population was 795 at the 2010 census. The village is named after Douw Fonda, a Dutch-American settler who was killed and scalped in 1780, during a Mohawk ...

. The track hosted

NASCAR Cup Series The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, and from 1950 to 1970 it was known as the Grand National Division. In 1971, ...

races in 1955 and 1966 to 1968. It is home to the

Fonda 200 The Fonda 200 is a modified motor race that is held at the Fonda Speedway. The race was run in 1955, 1963–1964, 1966–1970, 1983–1995, 1997–2002, 2019, and 2021-2022. The 1955, 1966, 1967, and 1968 races were sanctioned by NASCAR. Notab ...

. The track hosts Saturday night races with Modified, Sportsman, Limited Sportsman, Pro Stock, and 4 Cylinder classes (as of 2021).

History

The track opened in 1953 as a half-mile dirt oval which it remains to this date. The track hosted

races in 1955 and 1966 to 1968, two of which were one by

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

, while David Pearson and

Junior Johnson Robert Glenn Johnson Jr. (June 28, 1931 – December 20, 2019), better known as Junior Johnson, was an American NASCAR driver of the 1950s and 1960s. He won 50 NASCAR races in his career before retiring in 1966. In the 1970s and 1980s, he became ...

won the other two races. The track had an

International Motor Contest Association The International Motor Contest Association (IMCA) was organized in 1915 by J. Alex Sloan, and is currently the oldest active auto racing sanctioning body in the United States. IMCA is currently headquartered in Vinton, Iowa, and features s ...

(IMCA) class between 2000 and 2009. It switched to a

United Midwestern Promoters United Midwestern Promoters (UMP) is a short track motor racing sanctioning body in the United States that sanctions short track racing on dirt race tracks from 1/5 mile (0.3 km) in length to in length. UMP currently sanctions eight diffe ...

(UMP) Modified class for one year in 2010. Brett Deyo took over as track promoter starting in 2019.

Drag Strip

From 1957 til 1968 the track was home to an 1/8 mile drag strip that ran in the middle of the track's infield.

Shirley Muldowney Shirley Muldowney (born June 19, 1940), also known professionally as "Cha Cha" and the "First Lady of Drag Racing", is an American auto racer. She was the first woman to receive a license from the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) to drive a T ...

debuted on the drag strip. Muldowney described the drag strip: "That strip was deadly, deadly. You would go down the center of that dirt oval and when you would sail off that strip onto the oval, all four wheels would leave the ground."

Notable alumni

Stewart Friesen Stewart J. Friesen (born July 25, 1983) is a Canadian-American professional dirt track racing, dirt track and stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, driving the No. 52 Toyota Tundra for his own team, ...

- 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 track Modified champion *

NASCAR Cup Series Results

reference:

References

Motorsport venues in New York (state) 1953 establishments in New York (state) Sports venues completed in 1953

External links

Official website
{{Super DIRTcar Series tracks NASCAR tracks