Speedway gasoline station and convenience store signs went up in Columbia on November 11, and the WilcoHess brand faded into history.

Speedway has 2,760 stores in the 26 states east of the Mississippi River except Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, and Vermont.

Speedway LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Findlay, Ohio, based Marathon Petroleum Corp., the nation’s fourth-largest refiner.

Marathon’s operations include a seven-plant refining network, a comprehensive terminal and transportation system, and extensive wholesale and retail marketing operations. This includes both the Marathon brand and the corporation’s wholly owned retail marketing subsidiary, Speedway LLC, the nation’s second-largest chain of company-owned and operated retail gasoline and convenience stores.

In January 2014, Speedway president Tony Kenney publicly announced that Speedway is committed to adding alternative fuels at its stations, focusing specifically on E85 Ethanol and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).

“The automobile manufacturers are making flex-fuel vehicles that run on E85, it doesn’t void manufacturer warranties; it’s been proven effective for a number of years,” Kenney said. “I think it’s a viable alternative in terms of adding renewable fuels into the supply chain.”

Pump signs at the Columbia Speedway state that 10 percent ethanol is added to its gasoline.

About WilcoHess

Arthur T. Williams Sr. started what became WilcoHess in Winston-Salem in 1963 with six full-service gas stations.

[Full service meant a station attendant pumped the gas, checked the oil and tires, and washed the windshield for the pump price of the fuel, a la Ike Godsey.]

A.T. Williams switched to self-service in the late 1970s, and convenience stores were added in the 1980s

Williams and Amerada Hess began a joint venture in 2001 after Hess had supplied Williams for 35 years. WilcoHess had 155 stores and 38 restaurants and plans for a travel center in Tennessee.

In 2013, though it was leaving the business, Hess bought the remaining 56 percent interest in WilcoHess LLC, which had 353 convenience stores and 37 travel plazas in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

In September 2014, WilcoHess, along with the rest of the Hess gas chain, was acquired by Speedway LLC in a $2.82 billion deal. Over 1200 WilcoHess stores began converting to Speedway in October 2014. The last changes began in the Southeast on September 28, 2015, and reached Columbia on November 11.