It’s a final race weekend the Devil’s Bowl Speedway. NBC 5’s Maria Guerrero reports on the North Texas dirt track’s final series of races taking it back to its roots and what the future holds for the valuable parcel of land in Mesquite.
Hailed as the Southwest’s most famous dirt track, fans will be flocking to Mesquite for one last race weekend at Devil’s Bowl Speedway.
The lights are about to go out at the legendary racetrack after 50 years.
It started with father and son driving out to Mesquite around 1973.
“The first time he brought me down here I was 10 years old,” recalls Lanny Edwards. “I thought: many, this is way out in the country. Why are you buying this?’”
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His father, Lanny’s dream turned to reality on the 89-acre piece of land.
Devil’s Bowl Speedway, “where fast is fun.”
From the stands to the buildings, five generations of Edwards built the speedway from the ground up.
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The D-shaped, high-banked, half-mile tacky black clay track was designed to give fans in all 10,000 seats an unobstructed view.
“You can sit on the bottom row and see all the cars going down the back straight away and the rigs don’t get in your way,” he said.
Devil’s Bowl has hosted a weekly championship series featuring some of the biggest names in the sport for 50 years.
“The time is now,” said Edwards. “50 years.”
After five years in the making, Edwards opted to sell the property to several investors.
“Daddy told me on his deathbed he said: Son, that land out there is going to get so valuable that there will come a day that you can’t afford not to sell it.”
He won’t disclose for how much, ‘just enough to sell’ and allows his family to race instead of tending to the track.
“It’s bittersweet,” he said. “I’m in ‘Redneck Heaven,’ got a gun range, fish farm and race track, but 50 years is a long time. I don’t think anyone in the country or the world that can say they owned one for 50 years, run it every week, every season, privately owned.”
Meg Dorman worked as a scorekeeper up in the judge’s booth. Her son also raced on the track.
“I knew all of the drivers, mostly by car numbers rather than names,” she laughed. “I know everyone is going to sit around and say: Where’s everybody going to go? Where are they going to race? Because this has been part of everyone’s life.”
Another reason Edwards says he knew the time had come to sell was the encroaching development and growth in this unincorporated part of Dallas County, just outside city limits.
“They’re putting 15,000 [houses] right down the road with the lagoon,” he pointed. “They say 190, Highway 190 is going to go right through that building and you can’t stop progress. You can’t. They’ve got a plan. That plan’s going to happen no matter what.”
As part of its final weekend of races, Devil’s Bowl will host the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series where the famed series began.
“I got so many people coming in, I don’t think we can even get any motorhomes in here,” said Edwards. “I don’t think I’m gonna have the space to put just general parking!”
Edwards says he hopes the community will remember his family as people who did ‘right’ by the racers.
“We’ve always done that, never shorted nobody,” said Edwards. “I don’t think many can say that.”
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