The first race was May 18, 1949, a Wednesday night. In the early days of NASCAR it was common for races to be held every night of the week. 72 rows  Bowman Gray Stadium is a NASCAR sanctioned 1 ⁄ 4-mile (0.40 km) asphalt flat oval short.

The Madhouse, Home of the ModifiedsLocation1250 S Martin Luther King Jr, 27107:OwnerCity ofOperatorDale Pinilis17,000SurfaceTurfConstructionBroke ground1936Opened1937Tenants (1956–present)(NCAA) (1956–1967)Bowman Gray Stadium is a sanctioned 1⁄ 4-mile (0.40 km) asphalt flat oval and longstanding stadium located in. It is one of stock car racing's most legendary venues, and is referred to as 'NASCAR's longest-running weekly race track'. Bowman Gray Stadium is part of the and is home of the Rams football team.

It was also the home of the football team from 1956 until (later ) opened in 1968. Bowman Gray Stadium was a popular venue for high school football in the 1970s and 1980s. Parkland and R.J. Reynolds High Schools shared Bowman Gray Stadium as their home field for high school football until the two schools built their own facility (Deaton-Thompson Stadium) in 1994.

Contents.History The stadium was built in 1937 as a public works project to provide jobs during the Great Depression. The first event at the new stadium was a football game in the fall of 1938 between. In the beginning, the stadium's sole use was for collegiate football until trotter horse racing was added on the 0.250-mile dirt oval. The first auto racing at Bowman Gray was a type of auto racing on the dirt quarter mile track from 1939–1949. The track was paved in 1947, after a promoter got the City of Winston-Salem to agree to pay to have the track paved in exchange for restitution of payments through a percentage of future income from races.

However, after the track was paved the promoter fled before any payments were made to the city. Stock car racing at Bowman Gray Stadium was started by Bill France Sr. And Alvin Hawkins, two men who were founding fathers of NASCAR. The track was NASCAR's very first weekly track.

The track would run weekly NASCAR sanctioned events during the summer months.The first -sanctioned event took place on May 18, 1949, and was won. The track was opened by founder and Alvin Hawkins, and remains operated by members of the Hawkins family to this day. By the end of the inaugural Bowman Gray season 11 races had been run and five more were rained out.

Won the track championship with a season that included four wins.As the racing had become extremely popular at the track, an additional 7,000 seats were added in 1953, raising the seating capacity from 10,000 to 17,000.The track has hosted numerous series throughout the years including the, Dash Series,and NASCAR K&N Pro Series. The first Grand National event took place in 1958 and it was won.

Other winners include,. Richard Petty won his 100th race at the track. The Grand National Series first raced at the track in 1958 and hosted a total of 29 Grand National races through 1971.Motorcycle races were run on a temporary dirt track at the stadium in 1970 and 1971. The stock car races were run first in the events before construction crews would lay dirt down during an intermission for motorcycles races the same night.Bowman Gray's nickname, the 'Madhouse,' is largely attributed to the racing antics that take place on the tight, quarter mile bull ring. In 2014, Bowman Gray's promoter, Gray Garrison described the events at BGS as part racing, part religion, and part wrestling. While this is partially the reason for the nickname, it actually originated from a qualifying format the track used in the 1950s called the 'mad scramble.' In 2015, Bowman Gray celebrated its 1,000th NASCAR sanctioned raceOn November 14, 2018, it was announced that the Stadium would get a 9 million renovation.

It will begin in 2019, with construction starting in 2020 and ending in 2022. It will include new restrooms, a track resurface, and a new name for the football field titled 'Rams Field At Bowman Gray'.Currently, the track features four divisions: the, sportsman, street stock and stadium stock. The modifieds are the featured division at Bowman Gray, the division started in 1949 and the all-time wins list features some of the best NASCAR drivers including, and.The football history of the stadium is also quite storied. Wake Forest University played home games in the stadium from its move to Winston-Salem in 1956, until the 1968 season when Groves Stadium (now ) opened.

Players such as, the 1964 ACC Player of the Year who led the nation in rushing and scoring, played his home games in Bowman Gray. Piccolo later became famous as the teammate of Gale Sayers with the Chicago Bears, and the subject of the 1971 film. The Winston-Salem high schools of R.J. Reynolds High and Parkland High also played their home games at the stadium in the late 1960s through the 1980s.Today Bowman Gray's weekly racing tradition continues as part of the, with races Saturday evenings from the end of April through August. The track can seat 17,000 people in the stands, with an additional 2,000 standing-room around the wall above the seating areas. The weekly races during the year normally have an average attendance between 12,000 and 15,000 per night. Guitar hero live ios.

Many events are standing room only, as some events have had estimated crowds of more than 23,000 show up.Weekly races include the modified, sportsman, street stock and stadium stock divisions. Bowman Gray is also a part of the special events including classic modified coupes and East Coast Flathead Ford Racing Association (ECFFRA), chain races, skid races and INEX and races. The show was taped at the track during the 2009 season. The showed aired in January 2010 and ran through April 2010. On October 29, 2018, a new show titled 'Race Night At Bowman Gray' aired on. The show will focus on the Modified Division.

After the first few episodes, the show was moved to the Discovery Go App, after fear of cancellation. The show would later go on to be canceled.Spectators listen to the officials during the races on frequencies 461.200 MHz, 463.625 MHz, and 466.600 MHz on a scanner or 'race radio.'

Many, if not all of the drivers also communicate via a two-way radio during the race. Zona, Chris; Trevin Goodwin (2007). Winston-Salem State Athletics. P. 30. Miller, Richard (2013).

Bowman Gray Stadium. Arcadia Publishing. Archived from on 2011-06-06.

Retrieved 2011-05-05. ^ Getty Images for NASCAR (2015-08-14). Archived from on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-09-08. Miller, Richard (2013). Bowman Gray Stadium.

Arcadia Publishing. P. 14. ^ Miller, Richard (2013). Bowman Gray Stadium. Arcadia Publishing. Retrieved 2009-09-01. Posted 10:47 pm, July 23, 2014, by Neill McNeill (2014-07-23).

Retrieved 2016-09-08. CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list. Jay Spivey/Winston-Salem Journal. Retrieved 2016-09-08. Missing or empty title=.' Retrieved on May 22, 2014.External links.

race results at Racing-Reference.