Nazareth Speedway was located in Lower Nazareth Township, Northampton County in the Lehigh Valley region. The track opened in 1910 with two dirt oval race tracks, one was a 1/2 mile oval and the other was a 1 1/8 mile oval.
Nazareth Speedway was purchased in 1986 by Roger Penske, a Lehigh University graduate, who built a new track on top of the 1 1/8 mile dirt oval and sold the 1/2 mile oval track to Laneco which was later converted into a grocery store. Penske opened the track back up in 1987 as Pennsylvania International Speedway but changed it back to Nazareth Speedway in 1993.
Rick Mears also helped design the race track by adding warm-up lanes and pit road entrance and exit lanes. Penske would later go on to merge with International Speedway Corporation in 1997 making IMS the new owner of Nazareth Speedway.
Nazareth Speedway underwent a renovation in 1997 to add new grandstands, catch fences, and a new retaining wall. The track hosted races like the Indycar Series and the NASCAR Busch Series. Drivers like Kevin Harvick, Scott Dixon, Dan Wheldon, Paul Tracy, Juan Pablo Montoya, Mario Andretti, Al Unser, Matt Kenseth, and more raced on this track.
The 2004 season marked the final year of racing at Nazareth Speedway for NASCAR with Martin Truex Jr. winning the final NASCAR Busch Series race and Dan Wheldon winning the final Indycar race before Nazareth Speedway officially closed in late 2004.
Since then, the grandstands were moved to both Watkins Glen and Michigan International Speedway. The signs have been removed and the track is fenced off. Trees and grass have now covered parts of the Speedway. Nazareth Speedway may be gone but it won’t be forgotten.
What was your favorite Nazareth Speedway race? Leave a comment below.
