The Beltsville Speedway, formerly the Baltimore-Washington Speedway was an asphalt

oval track Oval track racing is a form of closed-circuit motorsport that is contested on an oval-shaped race track. An oval track differs from a road course in that the layout resembles an oval with turns in only one direction, and the direction of traff ...

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Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

; it spanned . Near Beltsville, it was on land now occupied by

Capitol Technology University Capitol Technology University (formerly Capitol College) is a private university in South Laurel, Maryland near Washington, DC. The university was founded in 1927 as the Capitol Radio Engineering Institute by a former US Navy Radioman. CREI c ...

, in the South Laurel

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the count ...

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Summary

The track was specially designed with banked turns for stock car racing. Originally known as the "Baltimore-Washington Speedway", the track received its final name in its 19th month of operation.Complete history of the ''Beltsville Speedway''
at The Vintage Racer The track hosted

modified stock car racing Modified stock car racing, also known as modified racing and modified, is a type of auto racing that involves purpose-built cars simultaneously racing against each other on oval tracks. First established in the United States after World War II, ...

vehicles alongside the other

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and ...

series. Wednesday nights were the original night for racing but the schedule eventually added Friday night racing. Ten

Grand National The Grand National is a National Hunt horse race held annually at Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool, England. First run in 1839, it is a handicap st ...

races were raced there including the popular Beltsville 300 series of races.''Beltsville Speedway'' event history
at Everything Stock Car Strict noise restrictions were given out in its final year of operation and the

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

started monitoring the events. Eventually, a sound wall was built surrounding the speedways. Cars had to begin running

muffler A muffler (North American and Australian English) or silencer (British English) is a device for reducing the noise emitted by the exhaust of an internal combustion engine—especially a noise-deadening device forming part of the exhaust sys ...

s in order to stifle the noise from the increasing RPMs from the vehicles themselves. The track was eventually shut down, demolished, and replaced with a

local university Local colleges and universities (LCUs) are higher educational institutions that are being run by local government units in the Philippines. A local government unit (LGU) maybe a barangay, a municipality, city, or a province that puts up a post-se ...

. Famous race car drivers like Richard Petty,

Tiny Lund DeWayne Louis "Tiny" Lund (November 14, 1929 – August 17, 1975) was an American stock car racer. He was a journeyman racer-for-hire in the top level NASCAR Grand National Series, running partial seasons for a number of years, including a vict ...

, and David Pearson participated in legendary races there. The 1968 Beltsville 300 was an example of some of the classic NASCAR Grand National races that were run on the track.

NASCAR Grand National Results

Reference:

References

{{- Motorsport venues in Maryland 01 Beltsville, Maryland Buildings and structures in Prince George's County, Maryland Defunct speedway venues in the United States Demolished sports venues in Maryland NASCAR tracks Sports venues completed in 1965 Buildings and structures demolished in 1978 1965 establishments in Maryland 1978 disestablishments in Maryland