Michigan International Speedway, Oval

Michigan International Speedway sits amid the Irish Hills of Brooklyn, in the southeast of the state and roughly an hour west of Detroit. Developer Lawrence LoPatin broke ground on the 1,400-acre site in September 1967, and Daytona designer Charles Moneypenny laid out a two-mile, D-shaped oval that opened in 1968 with an IndyCar race won by Ronnie Bucknam. The course carries medium banking of 18 degrees in the turns, 12 degrees through its sweeping frontstretch and just 5 degrees on the backstretch, a profile that produces some of the fastest speeds in American oval racing. After LoPatin's ambitious racing empire collapsed into bankruptcy, Roger Penske bought the track at auction in 1973 for two million dollars and spent more than two decades expanding grandstands and facilities. Ownership passed to International Speedway Corporation in 1999 and, following NASCAR's acquisition of ISC in 2019, the speedway is now wholly owned by NASCAR. Today it hosts a Cup Series race, an Xfinity Series outing and an ARCA Menards Series event, typically clustered around August. Wide, gently arcing corners and long straights let cars run flat out without restrictor plates, with qualifying speeds frequently topping 200 mph. A set of infield and outfield road courses originally laid out with input from Stirling Moss survives, though they are now used mainly for vehicle testing rather than competition. The combination of raw speed and pack racing has kept Michigan among the country's premier ovals since its earliest events.

Operated by: NASCAR (International Speedway Corporation)