Bill Poindexter

All American Speedway (Nascar Library Collection) Bill Poindexter

It began as a rodeo arena with bucking broncos entertaining an annual gathering for the Placer County Fair in Roseville, California, about 10 miles east of Sacramento. The rodeo grounds eventually gave way to a different kind of horsepower in 1955, when a dirt track was built. The original Roseville Speedway later became All American Speedway. The surface was paved in 1972, and three years later, its signature race, the Rose Classic, was born. Future NASCAR drivers Ernie Irvan, Mike Skinner, and more visited the track. The Rose Classic went away in the early 1990s, but NASCAR Whelen All-American Series action lives on each year.