Old Hickory Speedway Drag Strip (Nashville)

This quarter-mile clay oval opened for stock car racing in 1952 in the Old Hickory section of Nashville near the Cumberland River, on the right side of Old Hickory Boulevard just past the bridge into Old Hickory. The site is now a light industrial park. Starting on Friday night, June 14, 1957, promoter Charlie Bennett ran 100-yard drag races on the oval before the features. Marvin Caylor won the first in his hopped-up 1948 Chevy. The drags went over well enough that Bennett bought land next to the oval and built a drag strip, which opened on Sunday, August 4, 1957. The eighth-mile strip had a concrete starting pad and hard dirt the rest of the way, with an eighth-mile of shutdown. There were ten classes at first. A few days after the opener, Bennett started a drag racing club called the Dragons. The second week drew 140 racers, so many that classifying had to start earlier in the day. In 1958 there were sixteen classes, with trophies for winners and prize money, usually $50, for eliminator winners. Regular winners included Howard Trout, Richard Pate, Otis Deck, Clyde Felts, Bonnie Kemp, Harold Patton and Bobby Walker. In July 1958 another 100 feet of concrete brought the starting pad to 300 feet. Kemp drove one of the quicker cars, the High Lift club’s Corvette-powered 1932 Ford called the “Bumble Bee,” which regularly ran in the mid-90s. The strip apparently didn’t run in 1959, the last year of racing on the oval.