Thought about this thread earlier this week. I happened to stop on a trip to "below Macon" Georgia at an exit near Byron, former home of Middle Georgia Speedway; a half mile paved oval that opened in 1966 and closed in 1988, that still stands today.
Hosting NASCAR for multiple races each year from 66 to 71, where at times it was the first race of the season, it was regarded as the fastest 1/2 mile paved oval in the US and it drew large crowds to the small little town.
Speaking of large crowds, the 1970 Atlanta International Pop Festival drew somewhere between 200K and 600K (no one really knows for sure but it was a bunch of folks). It was held at the speedway and the adjoining soybean fields. The Allman Brothers Band were pretty much the headliners but Jimi Hendrix played to what was said to be his largest crowd and certainly one of his last shows in the States (if not his last):
The final NASCAR race was held on November 7, 1971 and Bobby Allison drove from the pole to win the 274-mile race. ASA (lower level stockcar series) raced there through the 70s and early 80s where the likes of Rusty Wallace and Mark Martin drove their fair share of races, but the last noteworthy race was an ARCA race in 1984 that saw Davey Allison take the checkered. Pretty cool father / son connection.
Shortly after it opened, federal agents raided the facility to find a moonshine still in an underground bunker around turn 3. Welcome to Georgia!!! Another interesting note is that they filmed some of the racing scenes from Greased Lighting, movie about Wendell Scott, who was played by Richard Pryor and most recently, a Dodge commercial was filmed there in 2011.
Vacant since 1988, it still stands and is likely to be there for a while as driving around the outskirts, it's nothing but half vacant mobile home communities and generally a sad sight to see...
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.6690.../data=!3m1!1e3
The grass area east of the track and to the north of "Bobby's Food Mart" is a golf driving range.
Current owner is looking to do some more there:
http://www.byronga.com/middle-georgia-raceway.cfm
More sources for this post and more pics:
https://abandonedsoutheast.com/2018/...orgia-raceway/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Georgia_Raceway
I tend to get lost in history....
edit:
Here's a drone video over the abandoned track:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-SmZGXdZbM