Kansas Speedway

About Kansas Speedway

Kansas Speedway is a 1.5 mile paved tri oval at 400 Speedway Boulevard in Kansas City, Kansas, and it is the largest motorsports facility in the state by a wide margin. It seats roughly 48,000, it hosts three national NASCAR series every year, and it has quietly become one of the best racing venues on the Cup schedule. If you only see one race in Kansas, this is the one that puts national television cameras and forty thousand people in the same place.

Built by a City That Wanted a Speedway

Ground broke on May 25, 1999, and the track opened on June 2, 2001 at a construction cost of about $287 million. It was developed by International Speedway Corporation, which operated it until 2018. NASCAR has owned and run the facility since 2019.

The speedway anchors the Village West district on the western edge of the metro, which also includes an outlet shopping center, a soccer stadium and the Hollywood Casino, whose name appears on the fall Cup race. That clustering is deliberate. A race weekend here is built as a full destination rather than just a gate and a grandstand.

Progressive Banking Changed Everything

For its first decade Kansas was written off as another cookie cutter intermediate, the kind of 1.5 mile oval that produced single file racing. A roughly $9 million repave project in the summer of 2012 changed that. The turns were rebuilt with progressive banking running from 17 to 20 degrees, meaning the banking increases as a car moves toward the outside wall. The frontstretch sits at about 10 degrees and the backstretch at 5.

The effect is that the racing surface has multiple usable grooves, and drivers can genuinely search for speed up and down the track as it takes rubber. Kansas has gone from a race fans skipped to one they circle.

The proof came in May 2024. Kyle Larson beat Chris Buescher to the line in the AdventHealth 400 by 0.001 seconds, the closest finish in the 75 year history of the NASCAR Cup Series. The two cars traded contact coming off the final corner, Buescher held the advantage a foot from the stripe, and Larson got there first by roughly an inch. Four cars crossed the line within 0.074 seconds of each other.

What Races Here

The track runs two NASCAR Cup Series points races each year, the AdventHealth 400 in the spring and the Hollywood Casino 400 in the fall, the latter of which is a playoff race. The NASCAR Xfinity Series runs the Kansas Lottery 300, and the Craftsman Truck Series and ARCA Menards Series appear on the schedule as well.

The facility also has a 2.37 mile, nine turn road course built in 2012, laid out using the oval and an infield section. The IMSA SportsCar Championship ran the Grand Prix of Kansas here in 2013 and 2014.

Open wheel history runs deeper than people remember. The IndyCar Series raced at Kansas from 2001 through 2010. Tomas Scheckter set the outright track record in 2002 at 24.8742 seconds, a number no stock car has approached.

Getting There and What to Know

The speedway sits just off I-70 at the Kansas Speedway and 110th Street exits on the west side of the Kansas City metro, roughly fifteen minutes from downtown Kansas City. Traffic management on Cup weekend is extensive and well signed, but arriving early is still the right call.

Tickets are sold through the speedway at 866-460-7223 and on its website. Camping is available on site for race weekends, and the surrounding Village West area has hotels, restaurants and the casino within walking distance of some lots.

Note that Kansas Speedway is a very different experience from the dirt tracks elsewhere in the state. This is a large scale professional facility with reserved seating, permanent concessions and full accessibility infrastructure, not a fairgrounds bullring.

Frequently Asked Questions

How big is Kansas Speedway?

It is a 1.5 mile tri oval with seating for about 48,000, plus a 2.37 mile infield road course.

What is the banking?

Progressive banking of 17 to 20 degrees in the turns, about 10 degrees on the frontstretch and 5 on the backstretch. The turns were rebuilt to that configuration in 2012.

What races are held there?

Two NASCAR Cup Series races a year, the AdventHealth 400 in spring and the Hollywood Casino 400 in the fall playoffs, plus the Xfinity Series Kansas Lottery 300, Craftsman Truck Series and ARCA events.

When did it open?

June 2, 2001. It has been owned and operated by NASCAR since 2019.

What was the closest finish in NASCAR history?

It happened here. Kyle Larson beat Chris Buescher by 0.001 seconds in the 2024 AdventHealth 400, the narrowest margin ever recorded in the Cup Series.

Is it a dirt track?

No. Kansas Speedway is asphalt. The dirt ovals in the Kansas City area include Lakeside Speedway on Wolcott Drive.

More information on Kansas Speedway; Click here https://www.kansasspeedway.com/

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