The Milwaukee Mile has hosted auto racing since 1903, making it the oldest continuously operating motor speedway on the planet. But before The Mile was home to motorsports history, an NFL championship game, and even Led Zeppelin, it was a horse racing track.
The one-mile oval in West Allis, Wisconsin, was privately built in 1876 as a horse racing facility. In 1891, the land would be purchased by the Agricultural Society of the Wisconsin State to become the permanent home for the Wisconsin State Fair. The first automobile race was held in 1903 on the same dirt surface that horses raced on.
During this 1903 race, Milwaukee-born William Jones won the five-lap speed contest with a 72-second, 50-mph lap, setting the first track record. Horses and cars have existed together for decades, with grounds keepers constantly loosening the surface for harness racing and tightening it back up for cars. A concrete safety fence and a cement wall around the racetrack for the safety of drivers and attendees were not installed until 1925 and 1927, respectively.
The track’s popularity waned in the 1920s when fashionable board tracks attracted crowds elsewhere, but local promoter Tom Marchese revived interest in 1929 and ran events there until 1967. A new grandstand added 14,900 seats in the 1930s, and the first Champ Car events – a 100-mile race in June and a 200-mile race in August – became fixtures.
A track that hosts variety shows and refuses to leave
The grounds of the Milwaukee Mile became a landmark in their own right. Between 1934 and 1951, the Green Bay Packers played occasional home games on a football field built inside the oval – an arena known as the Dairy Bowl – including the 1939 NFL Championship Game, a 27–0 Packers victory over the New York Giants. In July 1969, the same grounds hosted the Midwest Rock Festival, which featured acts including, but not limited to, Led Zeppelin, Blind Faith, and Joe Cocker. The oval was finally paved in 1954, and an additional pit lane, expanded paddock area, and resurfacing in 1967 confirmed that the Milwaukee Mile was now a purpose-built racing circuit.
Open-wheel events under USAC and IndyCar rival series CART took over the miles in the ’70s and early ’80s until NASCAR began hosting its own Busch Late Model Sportsman series from 1984 to 1985 and later from 1993 to 2009. The Milwaukee Mile also hosted NASCAR’s Craftsman Truck Series from 1995 to 2009. The 2002–2003 renovation added a new main grandstand and 40,000 new seats for the Mile’s various motorsports events.
IndyCar, a brand name that did not come into use until 2003, would leave Milwaukee in 2015, and the track spent several years without a major professional event before the ARCA Menards Series returned with the Milwaukee 150 in 2021. Today the Mile hosts the ARCA Menards Series in August and the ARCA Midwest Tour in June – minor events, but events nonetheless.
The Save the Mile campaign has been actively lobbying Wisconsin legislators since 2008 to ensure that racing can continue at the venue rather than converting the land to other uses. Lobbying and continued interest in The Mile from motorsports enthusiasts led IndyCar to return to the circuit in 2023 – a sign that would prove true. Since 2024, the Milwaukee Mile has been a mainstay of the NTT IndyCar Series. With the Snap-on Makers & Fixers 250 coming in August, it continues to prove that it’s not going anywhere.
