TEXAS  WORLD  SPEEDWAY   -   COLLEGE  STATION  TX

Texas World Speedway (TWS) was a motorsport venue located in College Station, Texas.  Originally opened as Texas International Speedway, TWS was an almost exact copy of Michigan International Speedway.  Texas World Speedway broke ground in 1967.  It consisted of a 2 mile oval and several road course configurations.  The full oval configuration is closely related to that of Michigan and is often considered the latter's sister track, featuring steeper banking, at 22 degrees in the turns.  It is one of only seven superspeedways of two miles or greater in the United States.  NASCAR had their first race here in 1969 at a distance of 250 laps.  Buddy Baker had the dominate car leading 150 laps.  While under yellow he was trying to read his pit board while leading, and crashed just 21 laps from 

the end.  Bobby Isaac would go on to take the win.  Richard Petty would win three of the next four events.  In 1979 the race distance was cut to 400 miles and Darrell Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt would wage a major battle.  From lap 40 to the end of the race, the two swapped the lead back and forth.  Earnhardt crashed 11 laps from the end and Waltrip took the checkers.  The final NASCAR race held here was in 1981.  This would be another classic battle including Dale Earnhardt, as he would lead 96 of the 200 laps.  However, the second half of the race was a war between Earnhardt and Benny Parsons.  The duo swapped the lead 16 times in the final 100 laps; and Parsons would make the final pass with just four laps to go and visit victory lane.  During the 1980s the track fell into a state of disrepair, and both NASCAR and the Indy cars chose to 

drop it from their respective schedules.  It continued to operate in a limited role for amateur racing.  On February 23, 1993, Jeff Andretti set the (then) unofficial closed-course speed record for IndyCars of 234.5 mph (377.4 km/h), the fastest speed ever recorded at Texas World Speedway.  During a January 2009 test, Greg Biffle managed to reach a top speed of 218 mph in a test for Roush Fenway Racing.  This became the fastest speed ever achieved on this track by a stock car.  The track closed in June of 2015.  The entire 600 acre facility is currently leased to Copart Inc as a Catastrophe storage facility for vehicles damaged by hurricane Harvey.  

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