As the rays of the setting sun slant across the paved oval track of Madison International Speedway, six brightly painted cars jockey for position around a turn. The announcer is audible in tinny, staccato bursts as the engines rumble and roar in concert. In the stands, fans cheer on their favorite racers, some wearing T-shirts emblazoned with race team logos. Young children stare in open-mouthed awe at the track, noise-blocking headphones clamped over their ears.
It’s full-fledged Americana and sensory overload,” says Gregg McKarns, who co-owns Madison International Speedway, or MIS, with his wife, Angie.
Before buying the track in 2015, McKarns spent many summer nights during his childhood at this same half-mile oval — then called Capital Super Speedway — in Oregon, Wisconsin. His parents were race promoters in the late 1970s and general managers of the track from 1980 to 1982. Like many of the fans now in the stands on Thursday and Friday nights, his love for motorsports is a kind of inheritance — a tradition handed down through generations.
Wisconsin is deeply rooted in motorsports history. It’s renowned for both its historic racing venues (like The Milwaukee Mile Speedway and Road America) and a vibrant short-track racing culture. MIS is just one of more than 30 short tracks — dirt or asphalt ovals between a quarter-mile and a half-mile in length — scattered throughout the state…