Before Denny Hamlin ever dreamed of a Daytona 500 victory, he was just a kid from Chesterfield, Virginia, pressing his face against the fence at Southside Speedway on Friday nights, watching Roy Hendrick moving around the famous burgundy No. 11 around the tight little oval. What young Denny didn’t fully know then was that the Flying 11 had been made legendary by Roy’s father, Ray Hendrick, “Mr. Modified” himself, who also helped build “The Toughest Short Track in the South” legacy. But as the dust settled on the speedway, many forgot its importance. Now, after years of silence, the historic track may finally be getting a second life.

The group leading the push to revive Southside Speedway recently unfurled its first major vision for what the future of the property could look like. Competitive Racing Investments, headed by longtime racer and businessman Lin O’Neill, has submitted a master plan to Chesterfield County for the 40-plus-acre property near Brandermill. And, of course, racing is still at the center of it all.

The proposed plan divides the property into two land bays, where the larger of the two would house the racetrack itself alongside a stormwater pond, maintenance building, and parking. This further includes a dedicated 56-spot, 2.6-acre lot specifically for racers’ trailers. The adjacent similarly-sized lot is being circled for a hotel, restaurant, and indoor or outdoor amusement venues. Across Genito Road from the track, a third bay for restaurant, retail, and medical office uses was also proposed, which is in line with Chesterfield County’s own Genito/288 Special Focus Area Plan for the corridor.

As of now, Competitive Racing operates under a 20-year lease-to-own agreement with the Chesterfield Economic Development Authority, wanting to eventually sell portions of the surrounding property to developers. Revenues from those land sales would help fund the return of racing at Southside. But the master plan’s approval by the Chesterfield Planning Commission is a contractual requirement of the lease.

For now, everything still hinges on that county approval, and the path hasn’t been all merry. Earlier this spring, O’Neill wrote that Competitive Racing was encountering “a little bit of resistance” from county officials, who he said needed to “stop these games.” Weeks later, though, he struck a more measured tone.

“I think they’re coming around,” he said. “That’s going to be a moving item. For us, it depends on who wants to pay for the land,” he said. “We’re at their mercy. I’m sure we’ll have to change a couple things here and there. But I think everything’s going forward.”

Competitive Racing pays just $1 annually for the first five years while working to get the track operational again. Beginning in year six, payments shift to $32,833 per month, $394,000 annually, for the remaining 15 years of the deal, ultimately totaling $5.9 million before the ownership is given to the group.

The EDA will retain ownership of the property until those payments are fully made, at which point Chesterfield will have recovered all of its costs from the 2021 acquisition. But if the speedway isn’t reopened within five years and certain requirements aren’t met, the EDA retains the right to terminate the agreement entirely.

When Competitive Racing took over the property, county officials had flagged existing structures as a danger to public health and safety, in violation of local and state regulations. The lease required CRI to remove or rehabilitate all structures on the premises, leaving aside the racetrack itself and the barrier wall, within 12 months.

That demolition work has now been largely completed. The racing surface is described as being in surprisingly good shape, and the walls have received a fresh coat of paint. But almost everything else needs to be built from scratch. The grandstands and flag stand are completely gone. The press box is described as ancient.

Engineering permits will be crucial for practically every element of the rebuild, from new sewage hookups to the grandstands and bathrooms, hinting at months of approvals before construction can properly begin. The current estimate to fully reopen Southside sits at around $3 million.

The CRI has also stated its intention to pursue a NASCAR sanction for the reopened track, something Southside didn’t have in its final years of operation. Nearby Langley Speedway is helping with that process, which would allow Southside to attract drivers chasing the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series national championship and the Virginia state title.

O’Neill further outlined events like car shows, drifting events, and concerts being planned for this year to raise awareness and build momentum ahead of the full racing return. Clearly, the future seems to be an exciting one for a place that closed in December 2020 after its last race in 2019.

As Jeff Oakley, CRI’s chairman, put it at the reopening announcement: “The only thing that will look the same in the future as it is now is this one-third-of-a-mile bullring known as the ‘Toughest Short Track in the South.'”

That said, the speedway’s NASCAR connection runs deeper than most fans realize. Southside Speedway hosted four NASCAR Cup Series races between 1961 and 1963, with Junior Johnson, Jimmy Pardue, Cliff Stewart, and Ned Jarrett all winning there. Richard Petty finished third in one of those races. Beyond those four early Cup races, it was a regular stop on the NASCAR Modified and Late Model Sportsman circuits, the very divisions in which Ray Hendrick made his name.

And just months ago, the sport finally gave him his full due. In January 2026, Ray Hendrick was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2026, selected from the Pioneer Ballot, joining Kurt Busch and Harry Gant in Charlotte. This detail makes the revival all the more wholesome.

A full circle for Hendrick’s legacy and Hamlin’s history

Ray’s son Roy carried the Flying 11 into a new generation, and in doing so wrote some of the most staggering numbers in Virginia short track history. In 1991 alone, Roy won 24 out of 27 races at Southside, a record that still stands. He had three consecutive NASCAR track championships from 1989 to 1991 and became so dominant that he was known simply as “Rapid” Roy.

He passed away on August 3, 2024, at the age of 71, and hundreds gathered for a memorial held at Southside Speedway, the last time the oval truly came alive before the current revival push. Denny Hamlin, who had spent childhood Friday nights in those same stands watching Roy race, drove at Richmond Raceway that very weekend with Flying 11 stickers on his No. 11 Toyota in tribute.

Also, it was Hamlin who brought Southside its biggest moment of modern national attention. His Denny Hamlin Short Track Showdowns, held at the track from 2008 to 2010, drew Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart, Joey Logano, and other Cup stars to race against local late model drivers in charity events benefiting cystic fibrosis research.

At Darlington in 2017, he ran a full throwback to Ray Hendrick’s Flying 11 paint scheme and won the Southern 500. “This is a throwback to my history,” Hamlin said after the race. “This is for Roy Hendrick, Bug Hairfield, Wayne Patterson, and Eddie Johnson – the short-track guys I grew up watching. Back in 1985 to 1989, I was at Southside Speedway in the stands watching them race and learning everything I could from them.”

O’Neill has kept the door open for Hamlin’s future involvement: “Definitely, we hope to have Denny’s race back here if he wants to do it. Before Denny retires, he needs to win a race here, you know what I mean? So we gotta give him that opportunity.”

Several intriguing elements are shaping up around the track’s return. What remains to be seen is in which form that ambition will head forward now.