South Boston Speedway

South Boston Speedway or "SoBo" is a short track located just outside South Boston, Virginia, U.S.A.. SoBo is located approximately east of another area familiar to most NASCAR fans, Martinsville. It is owned by Mattco, Inc., the Mattioli family trust that owns Pocono Raceway, with longtime general manager Cathy Rice operating the track. NASCAR's Cup Series has not raced at the track since 1971; however, NASCAR's Xfinity Series (then Busch Series) last raced here in 2000. After the NASCAR Xfinity Series left the schedule, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series(then Craftsman Truck Series) competed at SoBo for a few years between 2001 and 2003.
The ARCA Menards Series East (then NASCAR K&N Pro Series East) and Whelen Modified Tour often hold events at the track. SoBo is a storied member of the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series, hosting Late Model Stock Car races throughout the summer. The CARS Super Late Model Tour and CARS Late Model Stock Tour also host events at the speedway, typically holding their end-of-season championship races there.
Some of the better known graduates of South Boston's Saturday night weekly events include Jeff Burton, Ward Burton, Elliott Sadler, Stacy Compton, and the Bodine brothers (Todd, Geoff and Brett). Danville, Virginia driver Wendell Scott, the first African-American driver to compete at NASCAR's highest level, also raced in Modified Division events there.
The ARCA Menards Series had 3 races at SoBo from 2002 until 2004. The facility also hosted 11 NASCAR Southeast Series races from 1992 to 2006. NASCAR's Whelen Southern Modified Tour also had 11 events until 2016, when the series was folded into its norther counterpart, the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour.
CARS X1-R Pro Cup Series had 21 events at the speedway from 1997 until 2011 and the ASA National Tour hosted 2 races at SoBo—one in 2001 and the other in 2002.
The track also played host to the Denny Hamlin Short Track Showdown in 2014 and 2015.
Full History.
SOUTH BOSTON SPEEDWAY: A Spur-Of-The-Moment Project That Turned Into A Long-Term Success Story
From what was described as a spur-of-the-moment project undertaken by three Halifax County men more than six decades ago, South Boston Speedway has become one of the most popular, well-known and successful short tracks in NASCAR.
The late E.B. “Buck” Wilkins, a Halifax County-based contractor and builder, the late Dave Blount, and the late Louis Spencer purchased the 500-acre John S. McRae farm located northeast of South Boston on what was then known as Route 304, and in 1957, built a quarter-mile dirt racetrack in a natural bowl that, at that time, was concealed from view from the highway.
Today's modern four-tenths-of-a-mile oval is situated along the side of U.S. Route 360 on the original site that was the former McRae Farm.
"We didn't buy the farm with that (building a racetrack) in mind," Wilkins pointed out in a feature story written about him that was published in The Gazette-Virginian newspaper on Wednesday, March 26, 1997.
Wilkins noted in the story that it took about a year to plan and build the quarter-mile dirt oval that was the original South Boston Speedway. Spencer was a partner in the venture for a brief period before Wilkins and Blount bought him out. "We ended up changing it (the track) two or three times," Wilkins said in the story.
For Wilkins and Blount, getting into stock car racing was something of a blind project. "The first race that we saw were the first laps that they raced on our own track," Wilkins recalled in the Gazette-Virginian story.
When the track held its first race on August 10, 1957, there were bleacher seats for 1,000 fans, and the track was lighted by banks of lights perched atop 16 poles erected at various points around the track.
A Halifax County resident, Jimmy Holland of Republican Grove, won the track's first Sportsman Division race in a car owned by Halifax County residents Buddy Ferrell, Harvey Anderson, and Paul Tingen. Dick Hawthorne of Lynchburg, Virginia won the track's first Amateur Race with LaFell Elliott of South Boston and Garland Newton of Halifax rounding out the top three finishers.
South Boston Speedway has reached a number of milestones in its 63-year history. One of the biggest occurred a little more than two years after Wilkins and Blount opened the quarter mile dirt track, when they, with the help of late Martinsville Speedway owner and president H. Clay Earles, took the steps to bring South Boston Speedway into the NASCAR fold prior to the start of the 1960 season.
South Boston Speedway held its first NASCAR sanctioned race on April 16, 1960. Johnny Roberts of Baltimore, Md. won the track's first NASCAR race, a 50-lap race for the Modified division. He collected $500 for his effort.
Eddie Crouse of Richmond went on to win the track's NASCAR Modified Division title that year to become the track's first NASCAR champion.
That year of 1960 also brought the track's first ever NASCAR Grand National (now known as the NASCAR Cup Series) race. The legendary Junior Johnson won that race held on July 8, 1960 after surviving a hard-fought side by side battle with Ned Jarrett that lasted for 108 laps before Jarrett's engine blew.
Richard Petty, the heralded king of NASCAR Cup Series racing, has five trophies from the South Boston Speedway tucked away in his trophy cases.
Many other NASCAR racing legends including Joe Weatherly, Rex White, David Pearson, Buddy Baker, Charlie Glotzbach, Buck Baker, and Wendell Scott competed at the South Boston Speedway in NASCAR Grand National (now known as NASCAR Cup Series) races.
Scott, the first African-American driver to compete at the South Boston Speedway on a regular basis, also raced in Modified Division events at the historic facility.
While Wilkins and Blount were responsible for the start of racing at South Boston Speedway, others have played key roles as well. During one brief period in the track's history, Wilkins and Blount stepped aside from promoting races at the speedway in the early 1970's and leased the facility to South Boston native, the late C.C. "Clem" Chandler.
After the 1972 season, South Boston Speedway dropped out of the NASCAR fold, and in 1973, began to run NASCAR-type Late Model Sportsman races utilizing NASCAR rules. While the track ran as an independent through the 1976 season, many of the nation’s top NASCAR drivers continued to come to the South Boston Speedway to compete in special events.
Wilkins and Blount returned to the helm at South Boston Speedway in 1977. and it was in the spring of that year that South Boston Speedway rejoined NASCAR and signed to become a part of the Winston Racing Series program created that year by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. A nine-race schedule featuring NASCAR Late Model Sportsman races was held that year.
After Blount's death on October 31, 1982, Wilkins and Tommy Blount, the son of the track's late co-founder, took over the reins of the speedway’s operation.
Along with the change in management, there was a change in the racing as the NASCAR Late Model Stock Cars emerged as the featured racing division in 1982.
Wilkins and Tommy Blount continued to operate South Boston Speedway through 1984. During the off-season prior to the start of the 1985 season, Mason C. Day Sr. of South Boston and his son, Mike Day, purchased the South Boston Speedway.
Prior to the start of the 1990 season, the elder Day took over ownership of the speedway. And, in 1993, Mason C. Day Jr. took over at the helm of the speedway, continuing the involvement of the Day family.
Joe Mattioli acquired the speedway in 2000, and in 2004, the late Dr. Joseph Mattioli (then the CEO of Pocono Raceway) purchased the track. The Mattioli Family has owned and operated the speedway since that time. Nick Igdalsky, the track’s CEO, oversees its operation along with general manager Cathy Rice.
Since Pocono Raceway purchased the track in 2004, the speedway has seen numerous capital improvements, including a two-year, $1 million dollar renovation project in 2016-2017. That project included all-new aluminum grandstands and a complete repave of the racing surface and pit road.
In 2020, like many venues, South Boston Speedway sat virtually dormant because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Venue Where NASCAR’s Greatest Stars Raced And New Stars Are Born
Throughout the years South Boston Speedway has been a popular venue where a number of NASCAR’s greatest stars visited and raced, and new stars were born.
Dale Earnhardt Sr., Dale Earnhardt Jr., Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip, Terry Labonte, Geoff Bodine, Bobby Allison, Tony Stewart, Ken Schrader and Benny Parsons are among the many stars that have competed at South Boston Speedway over the years. Parsons scored his first career NASCAR Grand National (NASCAR Cup Series) win at South Boston Speedway when the track hosted its last NASCAR Grand National (NASCAR Cup Series) race in 1971.
Waltrip was a winner at South Boston Speedway while competing in NASCAR Late Model Sportsman races. Bodine cut his teeth in racing full bodied stock cars when he came South off of the NASCAR Modified circuit in 1981 to drive for Emanuel Zervakis of Richmond. The former NASCAR Modified driver won nine of 11 NASCAR Late Model Sportsman events and went on to win the South Boston Speedway title that season. He used that experience to vault his way onto the NASCAR Winston Cup Series tour.
In the early 1970's when the NASCAR Grand American Series was popular, drivers such as the late Dwayne "Tiny" Lund, Pete Hamilton, Jim Paschal, Frank Sessoms, and T.C. Hunt competed on the South Boston Speedway oval.
While those drivers have carved their names deep into the record scrolls of the South Boston Speedway and the NASCAR record books, perhaps there is no name that is more familiar to South Boston Speedway fans than that of the late Ray Hendrick.
Hendrick, a legendary driver known for his hard charging driving style, recorded hundreds of wins at the South Boston Speedway during his storied career, many of them coming when he was piloting the famous winged number 11 Modified coupe that was fielded by Jack Tant and Clayton Mitchell.
The Richmond, Virginia resident won five track championships at the South Boston Speedway, four of them while competing in the NASCAR Modified division, and one in the NASCAR Late Model Sportsman division.
Over the years, South Boston Speedway has been a breeding ground for a number of NASCAR stars. South Boston natives Jeff Burton and Ward Burton cut their racing teeth competing in the NASCAR Late Model Stock Car Division at South Boston Speedway. In their early years, the Burtons became the only brothers to win the South Boston Speedway Most Popular Driver Award. Ward Burton became the first Virginian to win the Daytona 500 when he won “The Great American Race” in 2002.
South Boston Speedway’s 1994 champion, Stacy Compton, went on to a successful career, competing in the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Busch Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
Hermie Sadler and Elliott Sadler of Emporia, Virginia competed in Late Models at South Boston Speedway, with Elliott Sadler winning the track championship as a 20-year-old rising star. NASCAR Cup Series star Denny Hamlin also competed and won multiple times in the Late Model Stock Car Division at South Boston Speedway.
When it comes to winning South Boston Speedway NASCAR track championships, the leader is David Blankenship of Moseley, Virginia. Blankenship made his mark in the South Boston Speedway record book in 1998 by winning an unprecedented seventh career South Boston Speedway NASCAR Late Model Stock Car Division title.
Hendrick’s mark of five South Boston Speedway championships is second to Blankenship’s seven titles. In 2019, Peyton Sellers of Danville, Virginia won his fifth career South Boston Speedway NASCAR Late Model Stock Car Division title to move into a tie with Hendrick for second place.