The problem is that land right at a Sunrise or LIE exit is $$$, and exits to secondary roads are 2-lane and instantly choked by any traffic at all.
The residents don't want the noise & traffic, the merchants won't get any more money unless they're very close to the track.
This means watch for sales of vacant property, that's where the politician's friends are buying land cheap (for a 7-11, motel, auto parts, tavern) because the decision as to where the tack will be has been made.
Most of the people who want the track don't vote in Suffolk County, so they don't count. Until the corrupt make money nothing will happen.

This is so true. The same thing happened here in Chicago when they were trying to get the last Olympics. Every politician and there friends bought all the property they could get there hands on near the Olympic sight. They were so sure we were going to get it. Then Brazil ended up getting it and they all got stuck.

Westhampton was exit 62 off Sunrise.

Funny thing called greed.....we hear about that more & more.

Have to wonder how Riverhead Raceway survives, there are houses right next to the track. See pic.

Track has been there since the 50s I think? There was nothing out there back then, the houses had to have come after it was built.

How do they manage to escape the ire of those neighbors? Not sure of the schedule but has to be a few times a week during the season.

I live about 5-8 miles from Lernerville dirt track and can hear them if the wind is blowing right. Personally it’s music to my ears. Many many years ago when the township commission heard of their plans for the track they said as of next year no race tracks in the community. The track planners took on another partner who’s job was to cut a track and parking area in like right now so he did and they had a race that month effectively grandfathering them in. Lol. It was all farm land back then but is now a stones throw away from a housing plan. The place get packed every Friday during the summer and for every outlaw sprint car race.

Who says there's no track in New York. I know of a great racetrack right next to JFK that shares in the noise with the 747's flying in and out at all times of the night. The neighbors don't seem to mind. LOL

When I started racing there in early 71 Sunrise ended there, it was the last exit.

When I raced at Westhampton, close to the end, there was a noise ordinance in place. Since the track was right next to Suffolk Police, I remember plenty of times when squad cars came in by 6:15 on Sunday with fines in hand.

the houses had to have come after it was built

As the judge said when they sued "you knew the track was there when you bought the house, you assumed the risk, case dismissed."

That's why a new track is far more difficult: the home owners assumed a quiet neighborhood.

What exit was National Speedway?

I was a 9 or 10 year old kid the last time I was there....... 68 or 69.
I remember the radio ads......... I thought they said “Sunrise Hwy exit 57”.........but thats obviously a long ways to remember back.

West Hampton was farther out than National?

Edit....... sounds like I was off by one:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9B2KDhinQFE

Roar of Speedway Ruffles Neighbors

AUG. 10, 1987

For Greg Richardson and other auto-racing fans, there is no sweeter sound on a warm summer night than the ear-splitting roar of engines at the speedway here.

For Ruth Reifel and other residents near the track, the raceway's sound of summer has struck a singularly sour note.

''The noise is so loud that when you have company over, you have to close your windows just to hear them talk,'' said Mrs. Reifel, a 60-year-old widow who moved from Deer Park a year ago to Glenwood Village, a retirement community a half mile from the raceway.

''That's ridiculous - it doesn't bother me,'' said Mr. Richardson, 31, an auto dealer service agent, who lives within earshot of the track four miles away. ''Besides the raceway was here before they were.''

A dispute over decibels has erupted in this usually quiet, largely rural community. The speedway, on the outskirts of the Village of Riverhead and a local landmark since it opened in 1949, is one of the last auto-racing tracks on Long Island. Over the years there have been 28.

The controversy over noise, which has been simmering for the last two years, is another sign of how growth is changing the character of eastern Long Island. As with airports, raceways have increasingly locked horns with residential communities that have developed land near once isolated areas.

Three years ago, after buyers of new homes complained, the town of Southampton stiffened a noise ordinance governing a drag-racing strip in Westhampton and a three-mile course in Bridgehampton. Both are still used.

Noise complaints contributed, however, to the closing of the Islip raceway in 1984.

In Riverhead every Saturday night from May to September - and on occasional Wednesdays and Sundays - 5,000 to 6,000 spectators from all over Long Island flock to the speedway to watch as many as 25 supermodified, supercharged custom stock cars chase one another around the banked, quarter-mile oval track.

The races run from 15 to 200 laps, and cars reach speeds around 100 miles an hour on straightaways.

No rules govern the raceway now, but the town, which has been involved in a two-year feud with the raceway owners over building permits, is considering limiting racing to 26 nights a year between May and September.

Warm-ups would start by 4 P.M., and the last race could not start after 10:45 P.M. Violators would be subject to a $500 fine. A noise ordinance with decibel limits, modeled after Southampton's, is also in the works.

''The noise levels have increased dramatically over the years, and we're just trying to formalize what's been an informal agreement,'' said Joseph Janoski, Riverhead's Superviser, who said the town board would likely approve the regulations at its meeting on Aug. 18.

''It would take away our rights to use our place of business,'' said Barbara Cromarty, who has operated the track with her husband, Jim, since 1983.

''We're just a small business trying to exist,'' said Mrs. Cromarty, who also runs a public-relations concern in Copiague with her husband. Differences Aired at Hearing

Many of Glenwood Village's 1,100 residents, who have spearheaded the drive to muffle the noise, say some races continue until nearly midnight. Glenwood Village, a mobile home park, opened in 1965.

''We don't want to close down the track; we just want to close down the noise,'' Bernard Hahn, an 82-year-old retired sheet-metal worker said at a packed public hearing last Tuesday night in the Town Board room. More than 200 people attended.

Racing fans contended that the track was normally used only one night a week and that races rarely lasted past 11 o'clock.

''Maybe you guys should turn down your hearing aids,'' a young woman, Ingrid Goodale of Riverhead, retorted, causing a momentary uproar at the hearing.

Many fans also testified that stock-car racing had cleaned up its roughneck, leather-jacket image and was now a fun Saturday night for children and the rest of the family.

''I went to the track with my parents in the '60's, with carloads of my friends in the '70's, and now with my children on Saturday nights,'' said Mark Tooker, 31, who operates a marina here.

Neighbors have suggested that the race track build a sound barrier and require racers to install mufflers on their cars. But the Cromartys say that a stand of trees between the track and the retirement community is barrier enough and that many drivers already equip their cars with mufflers.

Underlying the noise issue is a long-running dispute between the Cromartys and the town, which has accused the track of illegally building a new press box and adding bleachers.

Mr. Janoski said that two years ago the Cromartys failed to obtain one permit to tear down an existing press box and another to erect a new one. He said the race track had ignored three town warnings to halt construction on the wooden structure, which, he said, violated the state fire code.

''We were told we wouldn't have a problem to replace the press box, then they hit us with all sorts of forms and procedures,'' Mrs. Cromarty said. Court Orders Demolition

The issue eventually landed in State Supreme Court here, where a judge last spring ordered the track owners to demolish the 20-foot-high press box that cost $25,000 to build. The raceway has since requested and been granted permits to rebuild the tower.

''We think this noise issue is a vendetta,'' said Mrs. Cromarty, who with her husband ran the Suffolk County Fair for 25 years.

Mr. Cromarty said, ''We're running a raceway, not a church.''

Mr. Janoski, who said he has met with the Cromartys to resolve the issue, contended: ''It's not a conspiracy - they're the makers of their own problems. We just want them to be good neighbors.''

If I remember correctly, New York National was Center Moriches, exit 70 off the Long Island expressway.There was a Sunoco station right on the corner that sold Cam2 racing from drums and then a regular gas pump.The Good Ole Days.Watched a Super Stock Camaro make about 20 time trials one Sunday morning. They moved cars fast. Bill

Much grandstanding with no granstands
There are spots everywhere.Setup,burnout,roll.gone in 60 seconds.........

Yup. When I started racing at National Speedway, that's where I would stop to fill my Cuda. Flat towed from Williston Park. Days long gone by.

The link to the radio ad I posted says “sunrise highway exit 56”....... is that coming from a different way or something?

By the map,Sunrise Highway and Long Island Expressway basically parallel each other, in that area. The dragstrip was off Chapman Blvd.between the 2 highways. Exit 70 on the LIE and 60 off Sunrise Highway. New York National Speedway, not sure where the others were located as I have never been to them. Bill

Because there were several ways to get to either,,,,,,10 different ways!!