Lakewood Park

The Southeastern Fairgrounds at Lakewood Park opened in 1915 with the first car race, a match-off between Ralph de Palma and Barney Oldfield, held two years later. The one-mile dirt oval circumnavigated a lake. The first visit of the AAA National Championship (now IndyCar Series) on 2 September 1946, although that meeting was marred by the deaths of George Barringer and Indy 500 winner George Robson in a multiple-car pile-up. The final NASCAR race to be held at Lakewood Park in 1959 was won by Lee Petty after he protested his own son Richard Petty’s apparent first victory claiming a scoring error. The new Atlanta Motor Speedway and Road Atlanta facilities caused Lakewood’s star to fade, and it closed after the Labor Day meeting of 1979.