Federated Raceway at I-55
I-55 track's new owner aims to continue legacy
By Todd Turner
DirtonDirt.com managing editor
Josh Carroll last season at the Brownstown Bullring. (joshjamesartwork.com)
You won’t catch Josh Carroll counting sheep. If the 43-year-old Bethaldo, Ill., resident ever has trouble falling asleep, it’s usually because a dirt oval that he’s preparing for racing isn’t quite right, and he won’t snooze soundly until it’s fixed.
“I'm pretty known for a smooth racetrack,” Carroll said. “If it's got a ripple in it when I go to bed at night, it’s, 'How am I gonna fix that tomorrow? What do I gotta do to fix that?’ ”
The past few seasons, those concerns have revolved around the Brownstown (Ill.) Bullring, a track he leases. But in 2025 and beyond, along with preparing the former Fayette County Speedway, Carroll will also be manicuring and grooming the high-banked third-mile oval of Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 in Pevely, Mo.
He can’t wait to get started.
Carroll, who got his first taste of promoting as a young man when his parents operated Godfrey (Ill.) Speedway, is confident that in doubling his promotional duties that he’ll continue his success at the reputable I-55 oval just south of St. Louis. Carroll and his wife Nicki agreed in December to purchase the track operated for the last 29 seasons by 86-year-old Ray Marlar and 69-year-old Ken Schrader, a deal that’s expected to be finalized in a few weeks upon the completion of a project to connect the infield bathrooms to city sewer lines.
"It’s got a great name and we just gotta pick it up from where it's at and take it up to the next step,” said Carroll, a former racer who also in recent years fielded cars for Highland, Ill., standout Mike Harrison. “It's just something that's gonna be with promotions and signage and sponsorships and filling the suites up and making sure all the suites are rented and taken care of. We've been full speed ahead.”
Carroll’s robust and lengthier schedule that includes two visits by the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars, the World of Outlaws Late Model Series (combined with the DIRTcar Summer Nationals) and MARS Late Model Championship Series has the racing community buzzing about getting a promoter who can put “fresh eyes on the place,” said Jimmy Dearing, the founder of STLRacing.com who has worked at I-55 as a photographer or scorer for 25 years.
"The overall feel of the racing community is excitement with the changes and the additions to the schedule,” said Dearing, who has also worked as a scorer at the Brownstown Bulling. "I've not seen one person post a negative comment about his schedule or what he's doing there. Everything is positive.”
Longtime St. Louis-area Late Model racer Mark Voigt of Marine, Ill., counts I-55 among his favorite tracks and he’s anxious to see what the new era brings at a track that’s often seen as a “Little Eldora” because its layout is a similar, if smaller, version of the legendary Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio.
"Josh is younger and and more open to change and is willing to do what it takes to make the place succeed. Ray's not necessarily eager to run special events (where) Josh, he's gung-ho, he don't care, 'Let's try it, let's get it, let's see if it's good. Let's push and hunt and try to get sponsorship, whatever we gotta do.' And I think he'll force the place — he's gonna work really hard to try to force it to have success,” Voigt said. “It will. It's gonna have success. It's always had a success. It's always been looked at as sort of a premier racetrack. It's always had that persona about it, but in the last few years it's kind of just became another racetrack, where I think Josh is gonna put a lot of effort into it to try to make it where people look at it like, 'Man, that's Pevely.’ ”
Veteran modified and Late Model racer Rusty Griffaw, who lives near the track in Festus, Mo., has no doubt Carroll is the man for the job.
"He had a successful trucking business and I think he made Brownstown, the facility, better and brought in the big shows. I guess he's making money at it or he wouldn't have taken on another (track). I wish him the best,” said Griffaw, adding that he hopes I-55 is around for his son Cruz Griffaw’s racing career. “I think he'll do a good job. I'm just glad a racing person got it. He supported Mike Harrison in the last few years racing and he's got a vested interest in racing so I'm happy about it.”
Part of a longtime racing family, Carroll’s parents George and Kim had multiple stints promoting the Godfrey oval that eventually closed in 2006.
"I was a kid running around hanging on the bleachers,” in the early days, Carroll remembers. “It was something that I just liked to ride with my dad on the road grader. I mean, if he got on the road grader and if I wasn't on there, I was mad. He never said, ‘Hey, this is how you do it.’ I sat there and watched him and one day I was like, ‘Hey, I wanna do that,’ and he let me. You make your mistakes, don't get me wrong, but that's how you learn.”
Carroll went on to spend about 15 years racing in multiple dirt divisions. He and his father kicked around the idea of building a track and once passed on a chance to help operate another Missouri track. George Carroll died in 2013 at 58 and it was 10 years later when Carroll landed the lease at Brownstown, Ill., established his promoting career hosting bigger events and adding a regular Super Late Model division.
In purchasing the Pevely, Mo., track, Carroll has scaled back his trucking business to three full-time truckers (he’d previously had more than a dozen trucks) and shuttered the race team for Harrison, only fielding a car for his 17-year-old son, Blake, who drives B-mods. Carroll is putting his prime focus and finances on race promotion.
“It’s a risk,” said Carroll, whose mother Kim Carroll handles track finances among other duties. “There’s a lot of money being spent there to do it, but I think that the racetrack's got such a great reputation and there's so many opportunities there with sponsors and what you can do with the place.”
Carroll has been friends with Marler — they're currently on a trip to Florida Speedweeks — and is intent on building on I-55’s legacy in kicking off his season with an opening night tribute to former track owners Marler and Schrader, the former NASCAR driver and longtime dirt racer. He sees any improvements or new promotional ideas as building on what his predecessors have accomplished at one of the Midwest’s most popular dirt tracks.
Carroll is targeting improved bathrooms, a new beer stand pavilion and an upgrade in concessions quality among other projects. But his prime focus is a quality racing surface.
"Somebody asked me one time, they said, ‘What do you always go out and look at when you ride your side-by-side out on the racetrack?’ I said I'm looking at what I gotta fix next week,” Carroll said.
He plans changes in track prep at I-55, adding that “it would be hard to explain to you what we're gonna do until I get to doing it. It's one of those things, a lot of it's by eye. If you kind of just know what you're looking for and you make sure the track's going down in the right places and up in the right places,” he said, adding he assures multi-grooved racing. "I want it where you’ve got your Mike Harrisons that’s throwing sparks off the wall and then you got another guy down on the bottom putting on a show. It might take me a little bit of time to get it figured out, but I'll make that happen.
“That's the main thing. If you've got a good racetrack, you're gonna have a good car count, you're gonna have good cars, and you're gonna have good races.”
Voigt is glad to hear that’s in Carroll’s plans, because he feels the I-55 layout has lost its optimal shape in recent seasons with the top groove flattened, less banking in the lowest groove and a crown in the straightaways.
"They need to get in there and put some time in on the racetrack and get it shaped the way it used to be. It always raced good. In the last couple years, it hasn't raced as well because I think the track got unshaped,” Voigt said. "I think for Josh being young and full of piss and vinegar and gung-ho, I think they'll put the effort in and maybe they can get it straightened back out.”
While Carroll’s strength is dealing with the track surface, he knows that relationships with competitors are key, too.
Previously being a driver, "I know both sides of the fence. When a guy comes to you (and says) ‘You did me wrong!’ And a lot of times your answer to that is yes,” Carroll said. "But if you just set a guy down and you go, ‘Hey man, you're right. That was wrong. We can't do anything about it from this point. The race is over. I can't put you back in your spot. I understand you're mad. What do we do to make it right?' And go on. If a guy just gets put back a couple of spots, I apologize for that and we're gonna move on. If it's something that's huge, we’re going to work on fixing it.”
Voigt, who along with racing sells fuel and racing parts to competitors at I-55 and Brownstown, has seen that firsthand with Carroll.
“He gets along with the racers good,” Voigt said. “He talks and he ain't scared to say, 'Hey, I made a mistake, I'll fix it.' He's one of them guys, so I think he's gonna do just fine.”
Could a young Josh Carroll have envisioned that someday he’d be operating a high-profile racetrack near a metroplex providing millions of potential spectators?
“If you'd asked me 20 years ago, or 30 years ago, do you think you'll ever own I-55? I’d have probably laughed at you. Did I ever think that I was gonna run a racetrack? Yes,” he said. "It was always something that I said I wanted to do again.”
The St. Louis racing community is hoping he’ll succeed.
"I think it needed a facelift. It needed somebody to change it ... and I think Josh is that change,” Voigt said. “I think he'll be good for it. He'll get it back the way it used to be. I mean, Josh is all in in that deal. That's going to be his livelihood. Josh wants that place to be a premier racetrack.”
Helping I-55 put its best foot forward is of vital importance, Griffaw said.
“Most all the big Late Model races we have had in the past, I don't feel like Pevely really got showcased because the track (wasn’t in good shape). Weekly races would have a better track condition,” Griffaw said. “I get so disappointed sometimes when there's a big race and the track's is not in good shape because I'm like, 'People are gonna think this place isn't awesome, and it's awesome.' I mean, I think it's the best track in the country, and I've been to a lot of them. I think the potential there is endless and hopefully he taps into it.”
