Introduction
Every track, past, present, and future, has a story to tell–a storied history with some legendary moments and legendary winners. Since its inception in 1949, 179 unique speedways and tracks have been featured on the NASCAR circuit across its many distinctive series. Today, only 53 of those still remain on the schedule across all of NASCAR’s divisions, while the others often waste away. Some get sold to real estate developers. They get turned into condos or a Walmart or a parking lot or a shopping mall. Others get left to ruin, a painful reminder of their former glory. And some get torn down in order to build a new short track, but never reach beyond the blueprint and/or good idea phase of planning.
For our second entry in our Forgotten Speedways series, we’re going to take a look at a track that was a cornerstone in the career of one of NASCAR’s most popular drivers, Dale Earnhardt Jr. That track is none other than the famed Myrtle Beach Speedway. Junebug cut his teeth at the facility in the late model ranks in the mid-1990s. It wasn’t uncommon to see Junior’s number 3 Sun Drop or Mom ‘N Pops Chevy sporting around the D-shaped oval. It was also the track in which Dale Jr. made his Xfinity Series (then-Busch Series) debut. So, with no further ado, here is Forgotten Speedways: Myrtle Beach Speedway.
A Brief History
The track that eventually became known as Myrtle Beach Speedway opened in 1958 in Conway, South Carolina as Rambi Raceway. In this embryonic form, the track was a dirt oval that hosted a couple of NASCAR races. During its first year, the track hosted NASCAR’s now-defunct Convertible division. Also racing at the track was the NASCAR Cup Series, which ran races there from 1958 to 1965. In 1968, a man named Nick Lucas purchased the facility and the track underwent a transformation. Keeping essentially the same layout, he paved the track. The name was changed to Myrtle Beach Speedway as Myrtle Beach, only about a 30 minute drive away, was becoming a booming tourist attraction. This was the design that the track kept until it ultimately closed. In 1987, businessman Bill Hardee bought a co-ownership stake in the track.
The following year, the NASCAR Busch Series (currently Xfinity Series) became a mainstay series at the track. Typically, events were held in the summer, either in late June or early July, typically when the Cup Series were in Daytona preparing for the annual Firecracker 400. From 1988 to 1990, the race was a 200-lapper. However, starting in 1991, the distance was increased to 250 laps. The official name of the race was the Myrtle Beach 250. It was a mainstay on the NASCAR Busch Series Schedule before being taken off the circuit for the 2001 season…