Story By: JUSTIN ST. LOUIS / DEVIL’S BOWL SPEEDWAY – DAYTONA BEACH, FL – Vermont’s Devil’s Bowl Speedway already has its first “win” in the 2017 stock car racing season. An announcement was made on Saturday, February 18, during a conference at The Plaza Hotel in Daytona Beach, Fla., that the Rutland County facility has been awarded a $10,000 grant from NASCAR for capital improvements and facility upgrades.
Devil’s Bowl Speedway enters its 51st season of stock car racing in 2017 and its seventh consecutive year under NASCAR sanction. Located on Route 22A in pastoral West Haven, Vt., the venue has the unique distinction as the only facility in North America with two weekly short tracks – a 1/2-mile Asphalt Track and a 3/10-mile Dirt Track – competing in the grassroots NASCAR Whelen All-American Series program.
The $10,000 grant has been earmarked to help complete two projects at Devil’s Bowl Speedway. Once finished, a technical inspection building – the shell of which was erected in 2015 – will provide officials and race teams with a pit area garage to perform pre-race and post-race work. In addition, a large section of pavement in the pit area that has been damaged by weather and erosion will be excavated and replaced.
Devil’s Bowl Speedway was one of 10 tracks in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series selected to receive the capital improvement grant. The footprint of the tracks receiving funds is remarkably widespread, including Alaska Raceway Park near Anchorage, Michigan’s Berlin Raceway, East Carolina Motor Speedway in North Carolina, New Hampshire’s Lee USA Speedway, Meridian Speedway in Idaho, Motor Mile Speedway in Virginia, Wisconsin’s Spring Lake Speedway, Tucson Speedway in Arizona, and Canada’s Eastbound International Speedway in Newfoundland & Labrador. Devil’s Bowl Speedway previously received a NASCAR grant in 2012.
“It’s an honor to receive the capital improvement funding again,” Devil’s Bowl Speedway promoter Mike Bruno said. “We are fully committed to the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series, and programs like this are why. NASCAR treats our race teams incredibly well, and it’s great that they’re reinvesting in the tracks, too. We are always trying to improve at Devil’s Bowl, and the grant money is a huge help.”
Devil’s Bowl Speedway’s NASCAR Whelen All-American Series stock car racing season begins on Sunday, May 7 at 1:30 p.m. with the highly-anticipated return of the historic “Spring Green” event. Weekly racing begins on Memorial Day weekend, May 27-28, every Saturday night and Sunday night.
Devil’s Bowl Speedway is located on Route 22A in West Haven, Vt., four miles north of U.S. Route 4, Exit 2. For more information, visit www.DevilsBowlSpeedwayVT.com or call (802) 265-3112. Devil’s Bowl Speedway is on Facebook at facebook.com/DevilsBowlSpeedway and on Twitter and Instagram at @DevilsBowlSpeed; follow the action using the #DevilsBowl hashtag.