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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: 3, Insightful) by RS3 on Saturday May 20, @07:24PM (3 children)
I occasionally watch NASCAR, or at least have it on and watch bits. I just got home, turned on the TV (which I mostly ignore), noticed a NASCAR truck race, meh, turned to the computer, found your journal post, and now I'm watching TV with interest. I didn't know about the North Wilkesboro history. Thanks!
I recently stumbled onto some YouTube videos of drag racing at: "Brown County Dragway is one of, if not the sketchiest 1/8 mile tracks in the United States."
That quote is taken from a "1320video": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C66bVggz_Wc [youtube.com]
It might interest you, if you've never seen or heard of it.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 21, @02:27AM (2 children)
IIRC, I think that strip has the records for the most accidents and the most accidents involving spectators. They had to make some changes to the place otherwise they were threatened with losing their recognition.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RS3 on Sunday May 21, @04:44AM (1 child)
I watched the video I linked and a couple of others by the same people. Many things are unclear. It almost seemed like the track was a secret (notice I said "almost seemed like").
What I learned: it was originally 2 paved tracks with a grass strip between the paved tracks. Cars that got "squirrely" could get into the grass where they'd really lose traction and lose control and usually have a very bad accident. Some of the grass strip has been paved, and it has prevented, or lessened some accidents.
Not sure if there were guard rails originally, but there are guard rails, then concrete "Jersey" barriers along much of the track- further down where speeds go up.
Videos said spectator fencing has been installed. It's still pretty close to the track, and there are many people inside of the guard rails in the burnout and staging areas. I wouldn't want to run a car with people standing that close.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 21, @11:21PM
Many things seem like secrets to those outside the group. But race tracks and drag strips are more common than most people think. If you've got a fast car, then you want to race it. And if you want to buy/sell one, you want to know its times. In the world where most cars are sold online, you don't just take someone's word for it. You need a certified track/strip to provide you with numbers. For drag strips, they give you the track conditions, track prep/surface, weather, who was driving, timing convention, other runs, acceleration numbers, and more. An illustration of why that is important to compare numbers is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7yigpPSu_o [youtube.com] and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAmv2IO9row [youtube.com] But the key about a certified strip is that you know those numbers are reliable (because the strip cares more about keeping its cert than any particular racer), comparable, and there are multiple places you can verify those numbers.
But if you think where the people are standing is dangerous, it really isn't. Drag racers tend to have (and, in some places, are required to have) steering locks to prevent turns that are too wide. Plus, cars go forward. Being behind or next to the cars isn't dangerous as long as you avoid the exhaust. The danger is in front of the car. That is part of the reason why you see the spectators where they are and the spotters to prevent torque steer during the burnout. Even at NHRA events during their Top Fuel races, people are a lot closer to the cars than you'd probably be comfortable with and the lower classes are even closer. Some classes have people standing just a couple feet away from the cars to cut of tenths of a second by increasing the force of the exhaust on the car.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by istartedi on Sunday May 21, @06:32PM
I used to be in to NASCAR decades ago, and I vaguely remember seeing something on TV about this track and how it had fallen in to disrepair.
Nice to see a sport where they don't just throw everything away when it's old and/or grease politicians (too much, I assume they do some). I'm looking at you, former and likely soon to be former Oakland NFL and MLB franchises respectively.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 21, @08:13PM
Fyi, North Wilkesboro Speedway is not far from where Junior's chicken farm and race shops were located. Just found this fun story that combines present day Wilkes County with some moonshine and NASCAR history, Junior appears a couple of pages in,
https://www.sbnation.com/longform/2015/3/4/8126311/north-wilkesboro-speedway-after-nascar [sbnation.com]
It will be a good fun read during the commercials during the 'Cup racing tonight! (but first there is some Indy qualifying left to watch...).