Langhorne Speedway
Middletown Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Opened in 1926, this circular one-mile dirt track was known as the "Big Left Turn." It hosted a NASCAR inaugural race in 1949. Notable drivers Doc Mackenzie, Joie Chitwood, Rex Mays, Lee Petty, Dutch Hoag, A.J. Foyt, and Mario Andretti raced here in stock, midget, sprint, and Indy cars. Langhorne was reshaped as a "D" and paved in 1965. The National Open Championship run here was regarded as the "Indy of the East." Final race was held in 1971.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
When Langhorne Speedway opened in 1926, its perfectly circular one-mile dirt oval was unlike anything else in American racing, earning the fearsome nickname the "Big Left Turn." For nearly half a century its turns tested the greatest names in the sport, from Lee Petty and A.J. Foyt to Mario Andretti, and it hosted racing across stock, midget, sprint, and Indy classes. Reshaped and paved in 1965, the track finally fell silent after its last race in 1971.
Why it matters
Langhorne captures the daring, dangerous golden age of American motorsport, when local dirt tracks launched national legends and helped build the culture that became NASCAR and IndyCar.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · A.J. Foyt
- · Mario Andretti
- · Lee Petty
Related events
- · 1949 NASCAR race at Langhorne
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Durham Road Milestone
Middletown Township, PA · est. 1988
This weathered stone once told riders exactly where they stood: one mile to Newtown. Set in place before 1741, it survives as one of only two remaining milestones along the 43-mile colonial road that ran from Bristol to the ironworks at Durham Furnace. Newtown, an important waypoint on that route, served as the Bucks County seat for most of the eighteenth century.
Bristol
Bristol Township, PA · est. 1949
Laid out in 1697 as Buckingham and chartered in 1720, Bristol grew up as a river port on the Delaware, one of the oldest boroughs in Pennsylvania. For a time in the early 1700s it served as the seat of Bucks County, and for two centuries it thrived as a hub of travel and trade. Its wharves and roads tied the farms of the interior to the wider Atlantic economy.
Abraham Lincoln
Bristol, PA · est. 1991
On February 21, 1861, the train carrying President-elect Abraham Lincoln from Springfield toward his inauguration in Washington paused near this point in Bristol, where he stepped onto the rear platform to greet a crowd of more than a thousand. His long, winding journey east came in the tense weeks after Southern states had begun to secede, and such whistle-stop appearances let anxious citizens glimpse the untested leader on whom the Union's fate now rested.
Pennsylvania Canal
Upper Makefield Township, PA · est. 1948
In the canal-building fever of the early republic, Pennsylvania spent public money on an ambitious network meant to knit Philadelphia to Pittsburgh and Lake Erie. The Delaware Division, running from Bristol to Easton, opened this stretch to boats beginning in the late 1820s and carried freight—especially coal—for roughly a century. First run by the state and later by private owners, the waterway outlived most rivals before it finally closed and was reborn as a state park.