Timeline

• 1878 – Race track is built for horse racing.^[3]
• 1901 – First automobile race staged with 2 cars owned by Well's Manufacturing and Tone's Spices Co.
• 1914 – First race.
• 1917 – Old wooden grandstand was built (2,000 capacity).
• Until late 1930s: Infield is used for Knoxville high school football games.
• 1950–1954 – Stock car racing becomes popular after WWII and a few races per year are sanctioned by Newton Stock Car Association.
• 1954 – Weekly racing begins. Banking, fencing, and lights are added to the track.
• 1955 – Weekly racing sanctioned under the Oskaloosa's Southern Iowa Stock Car Racing Association.
• 1956 – Marion County Fair Board begins sanctioning its own racing and hires Marion Robinson as race promoter.
• 1959 – Wooden bleachers were added to the west of existing grandstand. (5,000)
• 1961 – First Knoxville Nationals held, and won by Roy Robbins.
• 1969 – Wood grandstand was razed.
• 1970 – New steel and aluminum grandstand. (8,139 seats)
• 1974 – Promoter Marion Robinson leaves May 1974.
• 1974 – P. Ray Grimes named promoter, later expands the Nationals to 4 days and creates Nationals scoring point system.
• 1978 – Remainder of wooden bleachers replaced with steel and aluminum.
• 1978 – Ralph Capitani named Race Director and Promoter.
• 1981 – New lighting.
• 1982 – Wings on sprint cars becomes mandated for safety.
• 1983 – 360 sprint cars begin competing.
• 1984 – Grandstands expanded to higher rows in sections A-J.
• 1987 – First year Nationals were on TNN television.
• 1987 – Grandstand expansion completed upper tier in sections K-N (11,584).
• 1990 – Temporary seating added to backstretch for Nationals.
• 1991 – NSCHoF&M built (400 additional seats).
• 1991 – Backstretch permanent grandstand added, Sections P-Z (17,224).
• 1991 – First year of 360 Nationals.
• 1994 – Backstretch grandstand expanded, sections P-ZZ (19,400).
• 1995 – Knoxville Nationals broadcast live for first time on TNN.
• 1996 – Main grandstand upper tier addition, VIP suites, new Musco Lighting. (23,200).
• 2002 – Concrete added to infield pit area.
• 2003 – Main grandstand sections AA & BB refitted, added handicap seating (24,192).
• 2004 – First year of Late Model Knoxville Nationals.
• 2010 – First points season for 305 sprint cars.
• 2011 – Ralph Capitani retires at the end of the 2011 season.
• 2012 – Toby Kruse named GM & Promoter, John McCoy named Race Director.
• 2013 – Brian Stickel named GM & Promoter.
• 2014 – New video boards added by Impact Signs.^[4]
• 2015 – McKenna Haase became the first woman to win a feature Sprint Car race at Knoxville Raceway.^[5]
• 2015 – GM Brian Stickel resigns.
• 2016 – John McCoy given the Promoter and Race Director title. Gary Schumacher named as Business Manager. Spire Sports + Entertainment's Kendra Jacobs, named as Marketing Director.
• 2017 – Additional fencing constructed in turns 1 and 2
• 2018 – Seats were widened during the off season, eliminating 3,320 seats from the main grandstand and lowering the overall seating capacity to 21,135.^[6]
• 2021 – The track hosted a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race on July 9 as part of the Corn Belt 150. This will be the first race at the track to ever be sanctioned by NASCAR.^[7] On September 29, 2021, NASCAR announced that the Truck Series will return for the 2022 season as the full schedule was released for the series.

One-lap track records