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When Bristol Motor Speedway opened in 1961, it could easily have a different name and in a different location.
The first proposed site for the speedway was in Piney Flats, Tenn., seven miles south of the current location.
But, according to Carl Moore, who built the track along with Larry Carrier and R.G. Pope, the idea met local opposition. The entrepreneurs were on record stating if anyone not in favor of the construction and existence of such a facility in the small community came forward to express their opposition, they would find another location. Some local citizens did, so, the track that could have been called Piney Flats International Speedway eventually was built on a dairy farm less than 10 miles to the north Hwy. 11-E in Bristol.
Carrier and Moore had gotten the motivation after traveling to North Carolina in 1960 to attend the first event at Charlotte Motor Speedway – built by Charlotte businessman race promoter O. Bruton Smith (remember that name) and legendary driver Curtis Turner. It was from that trip the idea was spawned to build a speedway in Northeast Tennessee.
