Richmond International Raceway

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Facility statistics
Richmond International Raceway


Location	Henrico County, Virginia
Broke ground	1948
Opened	1951
Owner	International Speedway Corp. (ISC)
Operator	International Speedway Corp.
Construction cost
Architect
Former names
Richmond Fairgrounds Raceway 1969-1988 Virginia State Fairgrounds 1964-1968 Atlantic Rural Fairgrounds 1959-1963 Atlantic Rural Exposition Fairgrounds 1955-1958
Major events
NASCAR Nextel Cup Crown Royal Presents The Jim Stewart 400 Chevy Rock & Roll 400 NASCAR Busch Series Circuit City 250 presented by FUNAI Emerson Radio 250 Indy Racing League SunTrust Indy Challenge
Seating capacity
112,029
Current dimensions
Track shape	Tri-oval
Track length	0.75 miles
Track banking

Richmond International Raceway (RIR) is a A 3/4-mile (1.2 km), D-shaped, asphalt race track located just outside Richmond, Virginia in Henrico County. It hosts the NASCAR Nextel Cup and Busch Series. "America's Premier Short Track" also hosts the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series, and the United States Auto Club Silver Crown and National Sprint Car Series.

Richmond International Raceway is one of a few race tracks to host all of its events "under the lights," and features some of the best racing on both NASCAR's and the IndyCar Series' schedules. The track has sold out the last 30 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series races and features some of the best racing in all of motorsports.

Richmond International Raceway is located at the Richmond Raceway Complex, which is an 800-acre (3.2 km²), multi-purpose facility.

Richmond Raceway Complex also hosts the Virginia Golf Show, Bassarama, Richmond Home and Garden Show, RV and Camping Expo, Richmond Boat Show, Richmond Classic Sports Card Show, East Coast Sawmill and Logging Equipment Expo, Craftsmen Classic Spring and Christmas Shows, Bizarre Bazaar Spring and Christmas Shows and other various arts and craft events.

Outdoor festivals hosted by Richmond Raceway Complex in 2004 included the Virginia State Fair, Richmond Highland Games & Celtic Festival, March of Dimes Bikers for Babies, K95 Country Music Festival, [1] 102.1 The X], ACCA Temple Pork Festival, the VA Food Festival and concerts featuring local and national recording artists.

The former name for RIR was Strawberry Hill until RIR bought out the Virginia State Fairgounds in 1999. The Strawberry Hill Races were formerly held the third Saturday of April at the Richmond Raceway Complex. In 2000, the Races were moved to Colonial Downs in New Kent County, Virginia's first Thoroughbred racetrack.

Richmond hosts the final race leading up to the start of the Chase for the Nextel Cup.

1 Trivia
2 Current Races
3 Records
4 External links

[edit] Trivia

The track first opened in 1953 as a dirt track (won by Lee Petty)
March 10, 1964 race run under temporary lights
The track operated as a 0.5 mile oval through the spring race of 1988. During the spring and summer of 1988, the track was reconfigured to its current layout of 0.75 miles. The first race under the new configuration was in September 1988. Lights were added for the fall 1991 race.
The track was previously called Virginia State Fairgrounds and Richmond Fairgrounds Speedway, the annual fair made the track a popular venue.
Richard Petty holds the record of most wins at Richmond with 13 victories, Darrell Waltrip and Rusty Wallace are tied with six.
Richmond is the site of the famous battle between Dale Earnhardt and Darrell Waltrip in 1986. Earnhardt tapped Waltrip in turn 4 and both drivers hit the wall, handing the win to Kyle Petty who avoided the crash and won.
In 2001 to 2002, the fall event was sponsored the Chevrolet Monte Carlo 400 presented by the Looney Tunes and in 2003, the event was renamed the Chevy Rock and Roll 400.
Until 2005, RIR was home to a fall Craftsman Truck Series race. Starting with the 2006 schedule, that date was transferred to Talladega Superspeedway.
Site of Kasey Kahne's first career Cup Series win in 2005

[edit] Current Races

[edit] Records

NASCAR Nextel Cup Qualifying: Brian Vickers, 20.772 sec. (129.983 mph), 2004
NASCAR Nextel Cup Race: Dale Jarrett, 2 hrs. 45 min. 4 sec. (109.047 mph), 1997
NASCAR Busch Series Qualifying: Kyle Busch, 20.874 sec. (129.348 mph), 2004
NASCAR Busch Series Race: Dale Jarrett, 1 hr. 47 min. 13 sec. (104.928 mph), 1995

[edit] External links

Richmond International Raceway Official Site
Richmond International Raceway Page on NASCAR.com
RIR visitor's guide
Richmond Raceway Complex website
richmond.com article on Strawbery hill
Winston-Salem Journal Op-ed piece on the history of RIR
Super High Resolution image from Windows Live Local
Maps and aerial photos Coordinates: 37.59169° -77.42091°
- Street map from Google Maps or MapQuest
- Satellite image from Google Maps, Microsoft Virtual Earth, or WikiMapia
- Topographic map from TopoZone
- Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA

Photos from the 2006 IRL Suntrust 250 in Richmond, Virginia

Current NASCAR Nextel Cup Series racetracks
Atlanta - Bristol - Brooklyn, Michigan - Charlotte - Darlington - Daytona - Dover - Fontana, California - Fort Worth - Indianapolis - Joliet, Illinois - Kansas City - Las Vegas - Loudon - Martinsville - Miami - Pocono - Phoenix - Richmond - Sonoma, California - Talladega - Watkins Glen

Current NASCAR Busch Series racetracks
Atlanta, Bristol, Brooklyn, Michigan, Charlotte, Darlington, Daytona, Dover, Fontana, California, Fort Worth, Indianapolis, Joliet, Illinois, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Loudon, Madison, Illinois, Martinsville (1982–1994, 2006), Memphis, Mexico City, Miami, Milwaukee, Montreal (2007), Nashville, Phoenix, Richmond, Sparta, Kentucky, Talladega, Watkins Glen