North Wilkesboro Speedway's back, baby!
A track that was once essentially left for dead is being resurrected.
North Wilkesboro Speedway, a .625-mile short oval with a unique uphill backstretch and downhill frontstretch, will once again play host to various classes of stock car racing, it was announced Saturday.
Marcus Smith, president and CEO of Speedway Motorsports Inc., made the announcement at the crown jewel of SMI's kingdom, namely, Bristol Motor Speedway, which is hosting a much-hyped dirt racing weekend, including Sunday's main event, the Food City Dirt Race.
Although North Wilkesboro will once again host racing in a few months, it is not expected to bid for a NASCAR event -- and most likely be a Camping World Truck Series race -- until at least 2024, Smith told reporters.
North Wilkesboro first opened in 1947 as a dirt track and eventually was paved and grew to a capacity of between 40,000 to 60,000 -- although that number is a lot less today because of the deterioration of much of the seating area due to lack of use over the last 26 years.
The track has essentially been closed since NASCAR left the track following the 1996 season (when its lone race date was moved to Texas Motor Speedway) -- with the brief exception of limited non-NASCAR racing in 2010 and 2011.
However, it is currently undergoing an extensive $18 million facelift (called a "Racetrack Revival") by SMI, which still owns the property.
Competition is expected to return to what locals simply call "North Wilkes" in August on the asphalt racing surface, before the track is converted into a dirt track for additional racing in October. However, the track, located about 90 minutes northwest of Charlotte, is due for a complete repaving in 2023.
Jeff Gordon won the last NASCAR Cup Series race at North Wilkesboro Speedway in 1996. Photo courtesy NASCAR Archives.
According to reports, the track in both August and October will see practice sessions take place on Mondays and Thursdays, with racing on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Most of those events will be at night.
The pavement races in August will include Late Model, Super Late Model, Pro Late Model and Limited Late Model cars, as well as Modifieds, Street Stock, and Hornet classes.
The dirt races in October will include Late Model, Super Late Model, 602 crate Late Models, 604 Late Models, 410 Sprint Cars and Hornets, Street Stock, Modified and Big Block Modified.
Here's a recent video about how North Wilkesboro Speedway fell on hard times and, for all intents and purposes (and the title of the video), was "Abandoned."