Speedway LLC

Speedway started as Speedway 79, the name of a gasoline chain based in Michigan for much of the first half of the 20th century. In 1959, Marathon, then known as the Ohio Oil Company, purchased the chain and in 1962 converted its outlets to the Marathon brand.[7]

As self-service gasoline became legalized in many states, Marathon decided to use "Speedway" (without the "79") at higher-volume self-service stations with convenience stores. The concept turned out to be one of the few bright spots for Marathon during this time, and the company quickly expanded this concept across Marathon's main territories across the Midwest and Southeastern United States. Part of this expansion was through the acquisition of various other smaller regional gasoline station chains, including GasAmerica, Starvin' Marvin, Gastown, Wake Up, Bonded, United, Cheker, Port, Ecol, and Value. These stations were converted to the Speedway branding. Stations acquired in the Cheker deal included former Enco stations that Cheker acquired after they were sold off by Exxon in 1977.[8]

In 1997, Marathon and Ashland Petroleum formed Marathon Ashland Petroleum LLC (MAP), a joint venture which combined the companies' refining, marketing, and transportation businesses, with Marathon owning 62% of the operations while Ashland owned 38%. In the process, Ashland's SuperAmerica and Marathon's Speedway convenience store chains were merged to form Speedway SuperAmerica LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of MAP. At this time, Marathon acquired the rights to the Solo, Save Mart, Save More, and Rich brands from Ashland, along with others. Many of these brands would be converted to the Speedway brand over time. When the merger was completed in 1998, the Speedway and SuperAmerica brands began to market together.

In 2005, Marathon purchased Ashland's share of Marathon Ashland Petroleum, which became Marathon Petroleum Company LLC, retaining the SuperAmerica and Rich brands that were originally owned by Ashland. At this time the locations outside the Upper Midwest were converted to "Speedway" and the "SuperAmerica" brand was restricted to the Upper Midwest market. Marathon sold SuperAmerica to Northern Tier Energy, a newly formed company backed by the private equity firms ACON Investments and TPG Capital, in February 2011. It is based in Woodbury, Minnesota. Speedway and SuperAmerica became unrelated chains until 7 years later, when Marathon bought Andeavor, who owns SuperAmerica's parent company Western Refining. Following the separation of Marathon's upstream and downstream operations in 2011, Speedway remained a part of Marathon's downstream operations.

In 2001, Speedway's truck stop chain was merged into the Pilot Travel Centers brand after Marathon and Pilot Corporation entered into a partnership to form Pilot Travel Centers. Pilot has since bought out Marathon's interest in Pilot Travel Centers, now Pilot Flying J. Following its merger with Hess Corporation's retail chain in 2014, six WilcoHess locations in Virginia were rebranded as Pilot locations and jointly operated between Pilot Flying J and Speedway.[9] On June 23, 2016, Pilot Flying J and Speedway announced a new joint venture between the two companies that will see 41 Speedway locations (all former Wilco Hess locations) and 79 Pilot Flying J locations primarily in the Southeastern United States form PFJ Southeast LLC. The locations will be operated by Pilot Flying J and the Speedway locations will be rebranded as either Pilot or Flying J.[10]

As of December 2, 2016, 12% of Speedway stores carry E85 Ethanol.[11] Speedway currently has 326 stores with E85 available, and one store which carries CNG. Almost all of its stores in the Pittsburgh Metro as well as its stores in the state of Tennessee offer E85, greatly expanding the availability of the fuel in these respective markets.

Expansion since 2012

Map of states containing at least one Speedway station as of December 2019; red indicates Speedway's core Midwestern states prior to its 2012 expansion, green indicates former Hess stations, orange indicates both former Hess stations and states where Speedway was already expanding into organically prior to the Hess purchase, and blue from the former Andeavor properties, including the SuperAmerica chain that Speedway owned & operated from 1997 to 2011.

Map of Speedway locations as of August 2020 (the date of the announced purchase by 7-Eleven).

2012–14 expansion

On February 13, 2012, it was announced that a deal had been reached with Indiana and Ohio convenience store chain GasAmerica to acquire all 88 of its locations.[12] Speedway also acquired all trademarks, trade dress and intellectual property from GasAmerica[13] and included several parcels of undeveloped real estate for future development. The transaction was finalized on May 29, 2012, for an unspecified price.[14]

On June 5, 2012, it was reported that Speedway, LLC signed a deal with the convenience store chain Road Ranger. The deal gave Speedway nine Road Ranger stores in Kentucky, and one in Ohio, in exchange for cash and a truck stop in the Chicago metropolitan area.[15] Rockford, IL-based Road Ranger operates approximately 80 truck stop and gasoline convenience store locations in seven Midwestern states. Like Speedway before it, Road Ranger has a partnership with Pilot Flying J.

Former Hess station, now a Speedway, in Newburgh, New York

In May 2014, Speedway announced they would purchase Hess Corporation's retail business for $2.6 billion. Hess has 1,342 locations along the Eastern United States.[16] Some Hess stations in the Northeastern United States originated as Merit Oil stations until Hess bought the company in 2000.

A corporate partner of Children's Miracle Network Hospitals since 1991, Speedway has raised more than $100 million over the past 26 years for the charity through a variety of fundraising activities. Speedway LLC raised $10.3 million for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals in 2017.[31]

Speedway was ranked the 4th worst company to work for in the United States in 2018, with work-life balance and senior management as major detractors to the work environment.[32] These issues are highlighted in the memoir, "Corporate Lunacy; Behind the Scenes of America's Worst Gas Station" (written by Rob Clooney).[33]

In 2019, Speedway became the official fuel supplier of the IndyCar Series, and announced their endorsement of LPGA golfer Ally McDonald through 2020.[34]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Speedway Gas Stations in the United States.

• Official website