Birmingham International Raceway — Ghost Tracks

Racing started at the Alabama State Fairgrounds in 1906, on a one-mile dirt oval built for horses, and kept going on and off for a hundred and two years. Eight Cup races ran there between 1958 and 1968, on the five-eighths-mile pavement they called Birmingham International Raceway, and the Alabama Gang treated it as home ground, though Fireball Roberts, Richard Petty and Ned Jarrett all won there too. NASCAR took the date away in 1969 and gave it to a new 2.66-mile track at Talladega, Birmingham never got another one, and the grandstand came down in 2009.

Note: Known over the years as Fairgrounds Raceway, Birmingham Super Speedway, Birmingham Super Raceway and Birmingham International Speedway; the Five Points West site held a one-mile dirt oval, then a half-mile from 1932, a quarter-mile from 1958, and the five-eighths-mile configuration from June 1962. Last race October 26, 2008; grandstand demolition began January 30, 2009..