Disney Speedway

Walt Disney World
 Broke ground
 Opened
 Capacity
 Major events
 Surface
 Length
 Turns

**Walt Disney World Speedway** is a 1-mile auto racing track located on the grounds of the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida near Orlando.

The original track was built in 1995 by IMS Events, Inc., a subsidiary of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corporation, and was designed primarily for the Indy 200 at Walt Disney World, an Indy Racing League event. It also received extensive use a venue for the Richard Petty Driving Experience, and the Indy Racing Experience, programs that allow fans to drive or ride in real race cars. After the 2000 racing season, it was no longer used as a track for major motorsports racing series, but was used by many racing teams from IndyCar to NASCAR as a test venue due to the warmer climate than other tracks around the United States during the off season for racing. The track closed permanently on August 9, 2015.

In mid-2020 as a response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Walt Disney World announced their intentions to reopen the facility due to dwindling park numbers. The new speedway was built over the site of the original with new permanent amenities including a main grandstand and infield garages.

## History

The track was a three-turn tri-oval, designed by Indianapolis Motor Speedway chief engineer Kevin Forbes, and the location was chosen in September 1994 by Greg Ruse of Buena Vista Construction. The track was situated on a triangular plot of land adjacent to the Magic Kingdom's parking lot near Disney's Polynesian Resort. Plans for the track were first announced on January 23, 1995. The track was designed to fit within the boundaries of the existing infrastructure, requiring minimal rerouting of existing roads.

On June 27, 1995, Indianapolis Motor Speedway Chairman of the Board Mari Hulman George took part in a groundbreaking ceremony. She presented the track with one of the original paving bricks from the famous "Brickyard." In a rather compact schedule, the one-mile (1.6 km) track was completed with ten miles (16 km) of safety restraint cabling, 2 acres (8,100 m2) of fencing, 1,800 yards (1,600 m) of concrete for outside walls, 2,300 feet (700 m) of concrete for pit walls and 5,200 tons of asphalt for the track surface. Despite 1995 having the wettest June–July in Orlando on record (75 inches of rain), including Hurricane Erin, the construction was completed on-time, with final paving completed October 18, 1995.

The track was dedicated on November 28, 1995. Indy Racing League drivers Arie Luyendyk, Eddie Cheever, Eliseo Salazar, Lyn St. James and Davey Hamilton drove a five-car "Flying V" formation amongst fireworks. Initial testing at the facility for the Indy Racing League took place November 27–December 9, 1995.
The race track hosted its first car race, a Formula Ford 2000 support race on January 26, 1996 followed the next day with the Indy Racing League's Indy 200 car race. On February 7, 1997, the first racing experience program, the Richard Petty Driving Experience, opened at the Speedway.

### Closure and revival

On March 27, 2015, it was announced that the speedway would close on August 9, 2015 and be razed. Demolition began late August to make way for "transportation improvements", namely expanding and reconfiguring the Magic Kingdom parking lot and parking entrance.

In June 2020, Disney announced their intentions to reopen the facility in the near-future with their eye on a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race. Construction on the facility began in September 2020 and was completed by October 2021 in time for the February 2022 debut of the Magic Kingdom 200 Truck Series race and the Magic of Disney 100 Touring Series race.