Myrtle Beach Speedway’s sale is complete. What we know about the property’s future
When Joseph Poggi moved to Carolina Forest in the fall of 2018, he sat outside on his porch one evening and heard a noise.
It was racecars, from the now-closed Myrtle Beach Speedway.
“It’s just a nice sound, maybe not for all people, but it is for me,” Poggi, 70, said. “I just liked this because it was part of Myrtle Beach.”
The family-oriented racetrack evoked a sense of “Americana” for Poggi, who grew up in Brooklyn and spent his career working in Manhattan. It was affordable entertainment that brought a community together, he said.
“The track is kind of nostalgic, I guess,” Poggi said. “It was part of an Americana. The race would open up with prayer, they would salute our veterans and our first responders, pray for the drivers. And I kinda liked all that.”
After 62 years of holding races, Myrtle Beach Speedway closed in 2020.
Now, owner Bob Lutz has sold the property to Speedway Villas Holdings, a South Carolina LLC formed on March 14, which closed on the sale April 8 for $7.85 million, Horry County records show.
The property’s future
County land records show the property is 21 acres and sits between U.S. 501 — near its intersection with S.C. 31 — and the Waccamaw Pines neighborhood.
The total project, though, will be 45 acres. Forty-three acres will hold the housing and two acres, facing the Tanger Outlets, will be commercial.
The new owner has submitted a preliminary redevelopment plan to the county that includes more than 400 multifamily homes and a commercial element, according to Horry County Planning Director David Jordan.
The property was rezoned in 2020 to RE3, which allows multiple purposes including stores and apartments.
Joe Stevens, of Demeter Properties in the Charlotte, N.C., area, a spokesman for the new owner, confirmed Lutz’s previous statement that the new development would be a mixture of residential and commercial.
The track’s history
The speedway had been part of the Myrtle Beach community from the time it opened in 1958 until it hosted its final race Aug. 15, 2020.
The track was slightly longer than a half mile, hosted the NASCAR Cup series in its early years and NASCAR’s secondary Busch Series (now the Xfinity Series) annually as recently as 2000.
It hosted many of NASCAR’s top names over the years and was the home track of Dale Earnhardt Jr. early in his racing career, though Lutz said attendance at the track had waned in recent years.
The track was featured in the final episode in season 2 of “Lost Speedways,” a series about abandoned racetracks produced by Matthew Dillner and featuring Earnhardt Jr. The series airs on Peacock TV.
Missing the Speedway
While some Carolina Forest residents — including Horry County Council member Dennis DiSabato — found the Speedway too noisy and sleep-disturbing, others hold fond memories of the racetrack.
For Poggi, the track was akin to a high school football game, a cheap community-centered event that gave residents weekend entertainment. He said it was activities like that, plus the area’s golf courses and amusement parks, that made Myrtle Beach feel welcoming.
Coming from New York “where everything is commercial,” Poggi said places like the Speedway were refreshing, “simple pleasures.”
“It pulled people in from all walks of life, from all monetary positions. It wasn’t made for the rich,” he said. “They weren’t there trying to cripple you with expenses like going to a football game or a baseball game.”
He said having the Speedway developed into stores and homes was disappointing.
“Seeing it replaced by development doesn’t make me happy, but it is what it is,” he said. “I just think the community is going to miss it.”
Editor’s note: This story was updated with additional information about the development plans.
This story was originally published April 20, 2022 at 10:56 AM.
