The 1.25 mile wood oval track had high banked turns, two grandstands, and parking for 20,000 automobiles, including 5,000 in the infield.

Seventeen drivers participated in the first race, including Tommy Milton, Leon Duray, Tony Gulotta, and Cliff Durant.

On July 4, 1942, following the World War II attack on Pearl Harbor, then-Senator (later President) Harry S. Truman broke ground on the site for construction of a large facility that became home to Pratt and Whitney.

The famous Double Wasp airplane engines were manufactured for the Navy at the facility through the duration of the war effort.

A Department of Defense landfill was established in 1942 on a portion of the area, as a disposal site for the Bannister Federal Complex.

In 1947, the Internal Revenue Service moved facilities onto the site, and in 1949 the largest portion of the plant was leased to a division of Westinghouse Electric Corporation.

At that time, the Fairfax Storage Company also began using part of the complex as a warehouse for tires, raw rubber, sugar, and lumber.

Bendix began operating the facility for the Atomic Energy Commission and building nonnuclear components for nuclear weapons.

The National Archives and Records Administration, which occupied 153,000 square feet (14,200 m2) of space at the complex, began operating in a new location, also near Union Station on Memorial Day 2009.