Kansas Speedway (formerly known as Kansas International Speedway in initial planning and construction stages) is a 1.500-mile (2.414 km) tri-oval intermediate speedway in Kansas City, Kansas. The track, since its inaugural season of racing in 2001, has hosted a variety of racing series, including NASCAR, IndyCar, and the IMSA SportsCar Championship. The track has been owned by NASCAR since 2019, with Patrick Warren serving as the track’s president. The track is served by the concurrent Interstate 70, U.S. Route 24, and U.S. Route 40, along with Interstate 435.
As of 2019, the track has a stated capacity of 48,000, down from its peak of 82,000 in the mid-2000s. The track is adjacent to the Hollywood Casino, which opened in 2012 and is a joint venture by Penn Entertainment and the track, along with a retail outlet complex that was built during the track’s construction. Within the track also exists an infield road course that is used with the oval to make a “roval“.
As part of the construction boom of oval tracks in the 1990s, the International Speedway Corporation (ISC) sought to build a track in the Midwest. In 1997, ISC announced plans to build a track in the Kansas City metropolitan area, eventually building it in Wyandotte County, Kansas. Although the track was scheduled to open in 2000, the track faced multiple lawsuits by homeowners who lived in the area, pushing its construction back by months and delaying its opening to 2001. Since 2001, the track has remained in some form within the NASCAR calendar.
