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Picture Information
URL: http://riceornot.ricecop.com/?auto=44941
Submitted by: DiRF
Comments: 8  (Read/Post)     Favorites: 1  (View)
Submitted on: 10-04-2005
View Stats Category: Off-topic
Description:
North Wilkesboro Speedway.

It sits as a "Ghost Track." Completely abandoned. The last Cup race was run there, everyone left, and no one came back...well, almost no one.

Jack Roush used the track last year as a test-bed for his "Gong Show", a competition with over 20 drivers to see who would get to drive his #99 truck, the winner was Todd Kluever.


   Comments

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#1
10-04-2005 @ 08:47:37 PM
Posted By : DiRF  Reply | Edit | Del
http://www.jayski.com/cts/gongshow2004.htm

It's surreal seing a brand-spakin' new Craftsman Truck speeding around a faded track stuck in the mid-'90s.

Why was NWS abandoned? Greed, plain and simple. Bob Bahre, owner of New Hampshire International Speedway, wanted a second date for his track. Bruton Smith, owner of about half the NASCAR tracks, wanted to free up yet another date on the schedule to get another date for one of his various tracks.

They co-bought North Wilkesboro, and then shut it down. It's a damn shame, this was one of the oldest and most revered tracks on the Cup circuit... and due to bad communication between Bahre and Smith, they won't even come together to pay to "update" the track so it could possibly host Craftsman Truck, Busch, ARCA, or maybe even USAR Hooter's Pro Cup races...

It was a great short track. But it now lies forgotten, except for the good people at http://www.savethespeedway.net


#2
10-04-2005 @ 08:51:09 PM
Posted By : Low-Tech Redneck Reply | Edit | Del
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say good riddance, history is one thing, but the track was simply too small for the speeds and 32 car fields of the modern nascar circut. Those who really like short track racing have Bristol and Martinsville, but I never found the racing here to be all that exciting

#3
10-04-2005 @ 08:53:09 PM
Posted By : DiRF  Reply | Edit | Del
#2, Hmmm...ok, good to get a different perspective on it. All I've ever heard are glowing things. I got into NASCAR in the late '90s, so I'm not completely familiar with NWS. Thanks for making this thread well-rounded.

#4
10-05-2005 @ 01:12:52 AM
Posted By : Dadol21 Reply | Edit | Del
Tear the concrete up and use it as a dirt track. :D

#5
10-13-2005 @ 10:08:29 PM
Posted By : Low-Tech Redneck Reply | Edit | Del
I think at some point, they used this track for a NASCAR video game commercial, because I noticed that the walls looked pretty rust streaked in the TV ad and wondered where the hell they found a track in that bad a shape....

#6
11-10-2007 @ 08:20:50 AM
Posted By : Skid Reply | Edit | Del
Quite fascinating, really.

#7
12-14-2021 @ 11:35:30 PM
Posted By : DiRF  Reply | Edit | Del
#2, If you thought this track was too small, wait until next year when they race inside the LA Coliseum.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. led an effort a couple of years back to "clean up" the track so it could be accurately LIDAR scanned for inclusion in iRacing.

Also, the state of North Carolina just approved budgetary funds this year to officially renovate this track (along with Rockingham, which was similarly abandoned in the early 2000s). Am very curious what the future holds for this place.


#8
3-26-2024 @ 08:11:31 PM
Posted By : DiRF  Reply | Edit | Del
So, North Wilkesboro has been refurbished, and returned to the NASCAR schedule as the site of the All-Star Race last year, to pretty good success.

But now they have a problem... a very, VERY uniquely NASCAR problem... a sinkhole has developed in the front grandstands due to... a moonshine cave. https://www.northwilkesborospeedway...randstands.html


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