A St. Louis-area complex that grew from a 1967 drag strip into an oval, road courses and a Cup Series venue.
Gateway Motorsports Park is a Madison, Illinois venue near St. Louis with a 1.250 mi (2.012 km) oval. It hosts NASCAR Cup, NASCAR O'Reilly and IndyCar races, and road-course events cover Trans-Am, SCCA and the Porsche Club. The complex also has a quarter-mile NHRA drag strip and a karting facility, and it reopened in 2011 under its current name.
Gateway Motorsports Park, known to fans today as World Wide Technology Raceway, is a motor racing complex with a 1.250 mi (2.012 km) oval, road courses, a quarter-mile drag strip and a karting facility. Its layout has changed several times since the site was first developed, and it now hosts NASCAR, IndyCar and NHRA events in a single season.
Where is Gateway Motorsports Park and what does it host?
Gateway Motorsports Park is a motor racing facility in Madison, Illinois, just east of St. Louis. Its oval hosts NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series and IndyCar races, while its road courses serve Trans-Am, SCCA and Porsche Club events.
A drag strip built on swampland became a multi-series venue with a Cup Series race, IndyCar and a karting centre.
From St. Louis International Raceway to Gateway
The first version of the site was St. Louis International Raceway, built in 1967 as a drag strip by Wayne and Ruth Meinert on land bought from David Bergfield. The ground had once been swampland buried by the Mississippi River, and the track soon picked up the nickname The Swamp.
The drag strip was extended to 0.250 mi (0.402 km) in 1971. In 1985 owner Jody Trover added a road course that used parts of the dragway. The asphalt circuit had 55 pit boxes, a 30 ft (9.1 m) track width and an official capacity of 52,000 spectators, and its inaugural year brought ARCA, IMSA and Trans-Am to the track.
Chris Pook, promoter of the Grand Prix of Long Beach, bought the facility in 1994 for $21.5 million. The existing tracks were demolished over 1995-1996, and a new oval speedway and drag strip were built at a cost of $25 million.
What happened when Gateway closed in 2010?
Dover Motorsports, which had bought the facility in 1998, closed it on November 3, 2010. Curtis Francois, a local real estate developer and former Indy Lights driver, reopened it on September 8, 2011, days before the site was due to be scrapped, and renamed it Gateway Motorsports Park.
Under Francois the complex grew into a multi-series venue. Its later plans included the Gateway Kartplex, which opened in June 2014, and an off-road venue that held a TORC Series event in May 2015. Francois finalised the purchase on May 1, 2013, making the track locally owned and operated.
Who owns Gateway Motorsports Park today?
Curtis Francois finalised the purchase of the facility on May 1, 2013, which made the track locally owned and operated. He had led the 2011 reopening, and the facility's later additions, including karting and off-road racing, were built under that local ownership.
The sponsor's name was adopted for the track in the spring of 2019, when the naming deal was agreed. The company also bought the adjacent Gateway National Golf Links in December 2019, a 7,178-yard links-style course.
How long are the oval and road courses at Gateway?
The oval measures 1.250 mi (2.012 km). Its road course layouts are 1.600 mi (2.575 km) and 2.000 mi (3.219 km), and the longer 2.000 mi version was completed on June 26, 2019 using turns 1 and 2 of the oval in front of the Wallace Grandstand.
The oval has an egg shape with different banking in each corner. Turns 1 and 2 have a tighter radius than Turns 3 and 4 because the backstretch runs parallel to Illinois Route 203. The first two turns resemble those at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and the last two resemble Phoenix Raceway.
The quarter-mile drag strip is NHRA-sanctioned and hosts the annual NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Midwest Nationals. Trans-Am, SCCA and the Porsche Club of America all use the road courses, alongside the drag strip and karting facility.
When did IndyCar race at Gateway?
The first major event was a CART race held on Saturday May 24, 1997, the day before the Indianapolis 500. It was chosen to avoid a direct clash with the big race. The race moved to the fall in 2000, switched to the Indy Racing League in 2001, and was dropped after 2003 because attendance was mediocre.
IndyCar returned in August 2017 for the Bommarito Automotive Group 500. Teams had reported surface problems during a May 2, 2017 open test, so a multimillion-dollar repaving began on June 19 and was completed in late July. In 2021 the series signed a renewed five-year contract, and former Formula One driver Romain Grosjean made his first oval start there, finishing 14th for Dale Coyne Racing.
When did NASCAR Cup racing come to Gateway?
NASCAR announced the track's first Cup Series date on September 15, 2021, and the race was set for June 5, 2022. Five thousand ticket deposits came in within 24 hours, and the Illinois Office of Tourism became the official sponsor, naming the race the Enjoy Illinois 300. A capacity crowd sold out the 2022 event.
The Cup race has since moved from June to September, and it now falls in the Round of 16 of the playoffs, a change announced on August 29, 2024. Michael McDowell set a new Cup qualifying record in the first round of the 2024 weekend, at 32.318 seconds (139.241 mph) on June 1.
Which records stand at Gateway?
Michael McDowell holds the Cup qualifying record at 32.318 seconds (139.241 mph), while Austin Cindric holds the Cup race record at 2 h 48 min 3 s. Will Power's IndyCar single-lap record is 189.709 mph, set on August 25, 2017, and Carl Edwards' Nationwide race record stands at 2 h 5 min 54 s.
Scott Dixon won the 2023 Bommarito Automotive Group 500 by a margin of 22.2256 seconds, shattering the earlier mark of 11.804 seconds that Juan Pablo Montoya set in 2000.
What is the Gateway calendar and layout of facilities?
June brings the IndyCar Bommarito Automotive Group 500, Indy NXT and USAC Silver Crown racing. July belongs to Formula Drift, September to the Cup, O'Reilly and NHRA Midwest Nationals, and October to the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series. Those dates keep the venue busy from early summer through autumn.
The Confluence Music Festival runs during Cup race weekend, and in winter the oval infield becomes the WonderLights drive-through Christmas light display. The layouts are summarised in the table below.
| Layout | Length | Used by |
|---|---|---|
| Oval | 1.250 mi (2.012 km) | NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series, IndyCar |
| Road course | 1.600 mi (2.575 km) | Trans-Am Series, SCCA, Porsche Club of America |
| Infield road course | 2.000 mi (3.219 km) | Formula Drift and SpeedTour TransAm, from 2019 |
| Drag strip | Quarter-mile | NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series |
How did the drag strip and karting develop?
The drag strip dates to 1967, when St. Louis International Raceway was built as a drag facility. Its quarter-mile strip hosts the annual NHRA Midwest Nationals, and the event brought a notable milestone in 2008, when John Force won his 1,000th competitive round on his 59th birthday by defeating Ron Capps in the first round.
The Gateway Kartplex opened in June 2014 as one of the early projects in the site's revival. It was announced in 2013 as a world-class karting facility, a plan that set the tone for the revival. Brittany Force set the fastest Top Fuel speed recorded at the track, 340.47 mph, on September 26, 2025.
Which NASCAR series have raced there?
The Truck Series raced at Gateway as the Toyota 200 from 1998 to 2010 and again from 2014 to 2024. In 2008 the race was sponsored by Camping World, and defending champion Ron Hornaday Jr won it in the No. 33 truck for Kevin Harvick Inc.
In 2010 Gateway received a second Nationwide Series date after Memphis Motorsports Park closed. That July Carl Edwards took the checkered flag after contact with Brad Keselowski coming out of Turn 4, and NASCAR penalised Edwards 60 points and fined him $25,000. In 2014 Bubba Wallace won the first NASCAR race under the track's new ownership.
What facilities were built after the 2011 reopening?
Soon after the Cup date was awarded, the track announced another $40 million of upgrades. Among the first changes, SAFER barriers were extended down a long stretch of the backstretch wall, and a bump-out fence was replaced with a swing gate so that the wall ran continuously, at NASCAR's request.
Other work included a modernised tower roof and suites, infield camping sites, rejuvenated team areas and remodelled concession and midway spaces, with completion scheduled for early 2025. On April 20, 2023 the Gateway Garage Experience was announced as an infield feature between pit road and the garage area.
Concerts, heat and grandstands
The facility has also hosted music and special events. Metallica's Summer Sanitarium Tour stopped there on July 3, 2000, with Korn, Kid Rock, Powerman 5000 and System of a Down also performing.
In 1995 the AMA Superbike round was held in extreme heat. Miguel Duhamel won the class in blistering conditions, and the near triple-digit heat wave triggered local heat advisories that hurt attendance.
The Wallace Grandstand takes its name from the Wallace family's three racing brothers, Rusty, Mike and Kenny, who were born and raised in the St. Louis region. It was added before the 1999 season to increase seating in turns 1 and 2.
Who were the standout winners of the recent era?
In 2022 Will Power earned his 67th IndyCar pole position, which tied him with Mario Andretti for the most all-time. Josef Newgarden won the main event that year for a third time in a row, which was his fourth win overall at the track.
Scott Dixon's 2023 victory and the 2024 Cup qualifying record set by Michael McDowell showed how the track's records shifted as the facility grew into a multi-series venue.
