Gateway International Raceway

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Gateway International Raceway

Location	Madison, Illinois
Track length	1.25 miles (2.01 kilometres)
Track shape	Oval
Banking	Turns 1 & 2 - 11° Turns 3 & 4 - 9° Straights - 3°
Major events	NASCAR Busch Series, NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
Capacity	60,000
Address	700 Raceway Blvd, Madison, IL 62060
Owner	Dover Motorsports

Gateway International Raceway is a race track in Madison, Illinois, USA. It hosts a NASCAR Busch Series event and a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race on a 1.25 mile oval, and also has a quarter-mile drag strip that hosts an annual National Hot Rod Association event. The facilities are owned by Dover Motorsports, a group that also owns Memphis Motorsports Park, Dover International Speedway and the Nashville Superspeedway among others.

The first major event held at the facility was a CART series held on Saturday May 24, 1997, the day before the Indy Racing League's Indianapolis 500. Rather than scheduling a race directly opposite the Indy 500 (as they had done in 1996 with the U.S. 500), CART scheduled Gateway the day before to serve as their Memorial Day weekend open-wheel alternative without direct conflict. After a couple years, track management grew increasingly dissatisfied with its apparently use, as seen by some, as a politcal pawn by CART, and its poor attendance as fans generally chose to travel to the Indy 500 for the weekend instead. For 2000, the race was moved to the fall. In 2001, its was dropped from the CART series schedule, and switched to the Indy Racing League. After mediocre attendance, the event was dropped altogether after 2003.

While the track is a fairly short track (1.25 miles) by modern NASCAR standards, it does not compensate for this with high banking. Rather, it is unique in that the turns are banked differently, and are also of different radii.

Gateway has been linked with a Nextel Cup race often in recent years: however, many in the St. Louis area believe that the track must be expanded (it currently seats only about 60,000) for such a race to occur.

[edit] Race history

[edit] CART race history

Season	Date	Winning Driver	Chassis	Engine
1997	May 24	Paul Tracy	Penske	Mercedes-Benz-Ilmor
1998	May 23	Alex Zanardi	Reynard	Honda
1999	May 29	Michael Andretti	Swift	Ford-Cosworth
2000	September 17	Juan Pablo Montoya	Lola	Toyota

[edit] IRL Indycar race history

Season	Date	Winning Driver	Chassis	Engine
2001	August 26	Al Unser Jr.	G-Force	Oldsmobile
2002	August 25	Gil de Ferran	Dallara	Chevrolet
2003	August 10	Helio Castroneves	Dallara	Toyota

[edit] Busch Series race history

• 1997 - Elliott Sadler
• 1998 - Dale Earnhardt Jr.
• 1999 - Dale Earnhardt Jr.
• 2000 - Kevin Harvick
• 2001 - Kevin Harvick
• 2002 - Greg Biffle
• 2003 - Scott Riggs
• 2004 - Martin Truex, Jr.
• 2005 - Reed Sorenson
• 2006 - Carl Edwards

[edit] Craftsman Truck Series race history

• 1998 - Rick Carelli
• 1999 - Greg Biffle
• 2000 - Jack Sprague
• 2001 - Ted Musgrave
• 2002 - Terry Cook
• 2003 - Brendan Gaughan
• 2004 - David Starr
• 2005 - Ted Musgrave
• 2006 - Todd Bodine

[edit] Records

• NASCAR Busch Series Qualifying: Martin Truex, Jr., 33.328 sec. (135.022 mph), 2005
• NASCAR Busch Series Race: Kevin Harvick, 116.595 mph, July 29, 2000
• NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Qualifying: Ted Musgrave, 33.294 sec. (135.159 mph), 2005
• NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Race: Jack Sprague, 113.726 mph, May 7, 2000

[edit] Current Events

• NASCAR Busch Series - Gateway 250 presented by Shop 'n Save
• NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series - Missouri/Illinois Dodge Dealers Ram Tough 200
• ARCA RE/MAX Series - Shop 'n Save 150

[edit] See also

• List of NASCAR race tracks

[edit] External links

• Gateway International Raceway Official Site
• Gateway International Raceway Page on NASCAR.com
• Trackpedia guide to driving this track
• High Resolution image from Google Maps
• Maps and aerial photos Coordinates: 38.65080° -90.13537°
  • WikiSatellite view at WikiMapia
  • Street map from MapQuest or Google Local
  • Topographic map from TopoZone
  • Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA
  • Satellite image from Google Maps or Microsoft Virtual Earth