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At the start of the pandemic, I submitted a story as an AC about abandoned North Wilkesboro Speedway being scanned for iRacing. As NASCAR shut down along with other professional sports, a series of virtual races were run, and North Wilkesboro was the final virtual race in 2020.
NASCAR last raced at North Wilkesboro in 1996. It's a very unique short track in the mountains of western North Carolina. The distance is 0.625 miles, and the track is built on an incline. The two ends of the track race differently because the front stretch is downhill and the backstretch is uphill, with an elevation difference of 18 feet. There were limited updates to the track in the 1980s and 1990s, meaning that the track had significantly fewer amenities than other tracks of that era. After the track's owner died, it was sold, and North Wilkesboro's two races were moved to Texas and New Hampshire.
At the time, many people assumed that as NASCAR added more races, they would eventually return to North Wilkesboro. Unfortunately, that never happened, and no other series raced there, either. Aside from a brief attempt to reopen the track in 2010, the track was completely abandoned. The buildings and grandstands around the track started crumbling, and plants were growing through cracks in the track surface.
Before the pandemic hit, Dale Earnhardt Jr. gathered a group of people to visit the track to remove the plants from the track and clean it so it could be scanned by iRacing. Even then, I don't think anyone expected the track to ever reopen. However, the virtual NASCAR event drew attention to the abandoned track. When the North Carolina government had a surplus of money, the governor's budget allocated funds for three tracks in the state: Charlotte Motor Speedway, Rockingham Speedway, and North Wilkesboro Speedway. With the funding from the state, track owner SMI decided it was financially viable to rebuild the grandstands and buildings around the track.
Last year, SMI started rebuilding the facilities around the track. A few smaller races were held at the track late last year and early this year. Originally, NASCAR's all-star race was scheduled to return to Texas Motor Speedway this year. However, the racing at Texas has not been good, and fans were generally not pleased with this. SMI backtracked and later announced that the all-star race would take place at North Wilkesboro. The track is still being renovated, but the facility is once again in good condition.
SMI has not repaved the track, meaning that cars will run on the same surface as they did in 1996. Having been last repaved in 1981, this is by far the oldest track surface that NASCAR will run at this year. This means that grip will be low and tire wear will be very high, which could very well produce good racing. The truck series race starts in just a few minutes, and this is a points race. The cup series race is not a points race. Qualifying will continue this evening, and then the all-star open and race will take place tomorrow evening. There were a lot of fans in the stands yesterday for truck and cup series practice, which is unusual. The stands are packed today for the truck series, which is also unusual.
In 1996, Texas Motor Speedway took away one of North Wilkesboro's race dates. And now, 27 years later, this has been fixed and North Wilkesboro took that race date back from Texas.
(Score: 1) by dalek on Thursday May 25, @09:21AM
I thought it over a bit more after posting my comment. You might be on to something about making NWB a multi-groove track. I'm not sure how to fix the Nextgen car to race better on short tracks, so it might actually be easier to reconfigure NWB to work better with these cars. If you can't get to the bumper of the car in front, you might be able to make time on the outside lane. I'm not sure how well that will work, though. I could be wrong, but it seems like there's been a lot more passing on the outside at Martinsville with the Nextgen car. It used to be important to get down to the bottom lane as quickly as possible, but that doesn't seem to be as important now at Martinsville. It seems like a good idea in principle, but the general consensus has been that the racing at Martinsville has been subpar last year and this year. Still, it's worth a shot. If you can't fix the car, change the track to work with the car.
I hate to say it, though, but I'm not sure reconfiguring NWB will go over well with a significant portion of fans. I seem to remember a great Bristol race a few years ago with a side-by-side finish. I can't remember which year it was, just that it was fairly recent but before the Nextgen car. Without question, it was a fun race and a great finish. I remember reading complaints online, anyway, to the effect of that it would be a great finish at any other track, but Bristol should be a single groove track, and SMI ruined Bristol. Here's an example: https://www.reddit.com/r/NASCAR/comments/ergbbe/what_exactly_was_done_to_bristol_that_ruined_it/ [reddit.com]. I understand the criticism of the Texas reconfiguration because the racing just hasn't been entertaining. For that matter, I understand why people don't necessarily want two more superspeedway-type races on the schedule, but I think Atlanta will produce good racing as the track ages. But I don't envy NASCAR and SMI because I think even if they reconfigure NWB to produce great racing with Cup cars, some fans will say they ruined NWB. It's a no-win situation for them. In my opinion, as long as the racing is entertaining, I fail to see any reason to complain.
I have no problem with reconfiguring NWB if it produces better racing. For that matter, I wouldn't be opposed to covering NWB with dirt for the all-star race and going back to the normal spring Bristol race. NWB was originally a dirt track, and SMI originally planned to have some dirt races last fall during the repave they had planned.