NASCAR ON STATEN ISLAND


This 80,000-seat NAASCAR ​stadium was almost ​constructed Staten Island! The 2005 proposal ​for a race track and a 620,000 square-foot mall by the International Speedway Corporation and Related (developer of Hudson Yards) would have been constructed atop a 676-acre abandoned oil tank farm in Bloomfield Staten Island, south of the Goethals Bridge off the West Shore Expressway. The site – the largest vacant industrial lot in the city – was the location of a gas explosion that killed 40 workers in 1973.

​The complex, which would be used for NASCAR events three times a year would have come with 8,400 parking spaces, 635 RV parking spaces, plans to widen the Goethals Bridge toll plaza, new ferry connections, and new on/off ramps for the West Shore Expressway.

Facing community opposition​,​ the International Speedway Corp eventually abandoned the Staten Island site, but it was ​momentarily ​revived in 20​12​ when Staten Island proposed ​building the Nascar site ​to host the​ 2024 Olympics.