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Knoxville Raceway
The Sprint Car Capital of the World
250px
Location Knoxville, Iowa, USA
Time Zone UTC -6/-5 (DST)
Capacity 21,300
Opened 1878 (horse racing)
1914 (motor racing)
Major Events World Stock Car Championship
Round of Iowa (1952 - 1970)
Oval
Surface Dirt
Distance 0.500 mi (0.804 km)
Turns 4
Banking Turns: 7°

Knoxville Raceway is a semi-banked 1/2 mile dirt oval raceway (zook clay) located at the Marion County Fairgrounds in Knoxville, Iowa, United States. Races at the "Sprint Car Capital of the World" are held on Saturday nights from April through September each year. Some special events such as the Knoxville Nationals, 360 Knoxville Nationals and Late Model Knoxville Nationals are multi-day events. Weekly racing events at the track features multiple classes of sprint cars including 410 cubic inch, 360 cubic inch and Pro Sprints (previously 305 cubic inch). Each August, the Raceway holds the paramount sprint car event in the United States, the Knoxville Nationals. The track is governed by the 24-member fair board elected by Marion County residents.

History[edit | edit source]

The track originally opened as a horse racing facility in 1878, but began hosting auto racing as early as 1914. Motorsports would become a weekly feature beginning in 1954, and the track soon became the premier destination for winged sprint car racing in the United States. The first Knoxville Nationals were held in 1961 and today feature a grand prize of over $1 million USD.

Notable Races[edit | edit source]