North Wilkesboro Speedway is a paved oval short track in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, United States. The track has hosted a variety of racing events since its inaugural season of racing in 1947; primarily races sanctioned by NASCAR. The facility has a capacity of 19,800 as of 2023. North Wilkesboro Speedway is currently owned by Speedway Motorsports, LLC (SMI) and led by track executive director Graig Hoffman.
In the mid-1940s, local Carolinian Enoch Staley built a track near the Brushy Mountains with help from Lawson Curry, John Mastin, and the Combs family. NWS was propped up with NASCAR Cup Series races soon after with help from NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. Until the 1990s, the track was owned by the Staley and Combs families with each controlling half-interest, in the process becoming ubiquitous for its connection to NASCAR's roots relating to moonshine runners. After Enoch died in 1995, and with popularity for NASCAR exploding in the 1990s, Speedway Motorsports (SMI) owner Bruton Smith and businessman Bob Bahre each bought out half interest from the families. Due to a strained relationship between the two along with the facility's reputation of lacking amenities, NWS was left desolated by 1997 to extreme local opposition. SMI later bought full control of the track in 2007. After two decades of failed attempts to revive the track by various groups, Bruton's successor, Marcus Smith, led a successful campaign to resume major racing at the facility after increasing pressure from drivers and North Wilkesboro locals in the early 2020s.
Description
Configuration The speedway in its current form is measured at , with 13 degrees of banking in the turns and 3 degrees of banking on the track's straightaways. The frontstretch is graded at a downhill slope and the backstretch is graded uphill, which is attributed to founder Enoch Staley running out of funds when constructing the facility. NWS is asymmetrical. Before 1957, North Wilkesboro Speedway utilized a dirt surface. In late August of that year, developers opted to pave the track; it was completed by mid-September.
Amenities North Wilkesboro Speedway is right next to U.S. Route 421. As of 2023, the track has a reported capacity of 25,000 according to The Sporting News. At its peak, NWS had a capacity of 55,000 according to a 1996 report from The Herald-Sun.
As of 2024, a currently ongoing effort by track developers to both modernize the facility and retain the vintage aesthetic of NWS is being made. As a result of it, most of the original structures built before 1996, including suites and a tower featuring a Winston Cigarettes-sponsored mural have been preserved. Modern amenities, such as new SAFER barriers, lighting systems, and sewer systems have or are planned to be added to modernize the facility as part of renovations.
Track history
Beginnings, first years In 1945, Enoch Staley, who at the time was working numerous jobs at a variety of industries, went to watch a stock car race in Spartanburg, South Carolina, with his friend, John Mastin. According to Staley in an interview with the Winston-Salem Journal, after watching the race, "I fell in love with racing... I was hooked." Soon after World War II, Staley was offered to purchase a plot of land from Lawson Curry, which Staley accepted. Staley later partnered with Curry, Mastin, Jack Combs, Charlie Combs, and Bill France Sr. to build the facility, with Enoch and France Sr. investing $1,500 (adjusted for inflation, $) each. Funding quickly ran out due to the cost of grading, causing the track to be shorter in distance than planned and uneven in elevation. Originally, North Wilkesboro Speedway utilized a dirt surface, with developers adding a 14 ton mixture of calcium chloride and salt into the track to prevent dust. In interviews given by Staley, he did not expect the facility to last more than a year, stating, "back then, promoters built tracks like they might not run but one race. We were like the rest of them... We didn't know where we were going, and we didn't have any long-range plans." Initially, Enoch, John Mastin, and John's brother Oscar each owned some interest the facility.
According to NASCAR personality Junior Johnson, unofficial races organized by local moonshiners christened the facility. Official races promoted by Bill France Sr. were later scheduled to run soon after on May 18, 1947, with officials expecting the largest crowd at a sporting event within Wilkes County, North Carolina, at the time. In its first official race, a crowd of approximately than 10,000 saw Fonty Flock win a modified feature race. Two years later, the France Sr.-founded NASCAR Strictly Stock Series (now known as the NASCAR Cup Series) ran their first races at the facility. In 1953, both Mastin brothers sold their interest of NWS to Jack Combs.
Moonshine runner connections, slow timeline of renovations Throughout the track's history, it became renowned for its connection to moonshine runners; a common activity within the Wilkes County area that has its roots in the American Prohibition era. The town of North Wilkesboro, considered to be the "Moonshine Capital of the World" by the 1950s, was a moonshine runner haven, with moonshine contributing a sizable part of the North Wilkesboro economy. Many within the Carolinas who participated in moonshine running were also directly involved in the formation of stock car racing, which subsequently created NASCAR. In 1965, the track, along with North Wilkesboro native and former moonshine runner Junior Johnson, were featured in an Esquire article written by journalist Tom Wolfe. The article itself is considered to be a key point in expanding the knowledge of NASCAR outside of its core Southeastern United States market.
NWS was slow in improving the amenities through most of its lifespan prior to the 1980s, making gradual improvements every few years. In 1955, construction started on a new concrete grandstand to replace the original wooden grandstands, with the new grandstand seating around 5,200. It was completed by April 1956. Enoch announced the track's paving in June 1957; it was completed by September of that year. Four years later, renovations to the infield and the addition of 3,500 seats were made. By 1963, the facility was recorded to have 8,500 permanent seats, with a total capacity of 15,000 according to the Winston-Salem Journal. A year after, NWS went through its first repave. In 1976, a 3,500-seat grandstand named in honor of Junior Johnson was constructed along with a concrete retaining wall that replaced a guardrail.
Throughout the most of the 1980s and 1990s, efforts were made to add additional amenities and capacity to modernize NWS. At the end of the 1970s, the track surface was repaved. However, by September 1980, the track surface drew complaints from drivers for its quick deterioration. At the end of the 1980 Holly Farms 400, winner Bobby Allison stated that it was a "disgrace to have to run on a track [surface] like this". As a result, it was repaved by December of that year. Eight years later, a new infield, roofed garage and a multi-purpose building were constructed in the track's infield; before, crews had to stop working when rain pelted the track due to a lack of cover. In 1990, along with the addition of 3,100 seats, an electronic scoring pylon was added, replacing the last manual scoreboard on the Winston Cup Series schedule. The original West Grandstands were also expanded and renovated in 1992, with chairs replacing barren concrete tiers. Additional suites were added three years later.
Conflict between NASCAR's roots and 1990s popularity explosion In the mid-1990s, stock car racing oversaw a major rise in popularity. Despite NASCAR vice president of competition Mike Helton declaring that "the Cup schedule can't grow much more" in January 1995, a boom period of developers announcing plans to build modern, high-capacity tracks in new markets such as Las Vegas, the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, and St. Louis was kickstarted. Due to this, NASCAR beat reporters began predicting that NASCAR would have to abandon longtime staples, such as NWS, in the search of newer, broader markets.
By the start of the 1990s, NWS was known as a vintage, dilapidated facility that lacked both basic amenities and capacity given by more modern tracks. Monte Dutton, writer for The Gaston Gazette, wrote about the lack of modern telephones for members of the press in the 1990s, stating that only four phones were available; three being rotary dials. Although eventual buyer Bob Bahre later conceded that the track was profitable, he maintained that the track could not keep up with the growing minimum purse amounts needed. The track was also lacking in capacity; although peak capacity was reported at 60,000 in 1996, according to Bahre, grandstand seats totaled to a lackluster 34,000, with Bahre stating in The News & Observer, "The Lord fed a whole city with a loaf of bread, but I don't think for one damn minute you can get 60,000 people in 34,000 seats." Despite efforts to modernize NWS, drivers also began making calls for NASCAR to move into modern facilities; longtime driver Rusty Wallace declared in 1996, "we need to be at the tracks that are best for teams and sponsors... from better pit road facilities to bigger purses". In addition, the track was also near the facilities of Bristol Motor Speedway and Martinsville Speedway, which had expanded in the 1990s.
Bruton Smith and Bob Bahre purchase, subsequent Bruton–Bahre feud Enoch Staley died on May 20, 1995. In an interview with SB Nation'''s Jeremy Markovich, Enoch's son, Mike, stated that after Enoch's death is when "all the buzzards came in". According to Markovich, soon after Enoch's death, motorsports businessman Bruton Smith, founder of Speedway Motorsports, Inc, (SMI), drove over to the Combs family to negotiate the sale of the Combs' half interest of the track. Having started on building the Texas Motor Speedway that year, he proposed to the family to move one of North Wilkesboro's race weekends to Texas and move the remaining race weekend to a Wednesday primetime slot. On June 20, The Charlotte Observer reported that they accepted the offer at an undisclosed price; it was later revealed to be sold for $6.05 million according to the News & Record. Mike stated in interviews at the time that while he was surprised at the news, he was "fine" at the purchase. He later admitted, however, that "I couldn’t be partners with Bruton". Mary Staley, widow of Enoch, also refused to sell their family's interest of the track to Bruton. After Bruton's purchase, owner of the New Hampshire International Raceway, Bob Bahre, negotiated with the Staley family to purchase the remaining half-interest. Bahre was only interested in taking its remaining Winston Cup Series weekend, wanting to give the track back to the Staley family to run NASCAR Busch Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races. Although the Staley family expressed "pure agony" at the offer, they relented after realizing their financial situation. On January 2, 1996, Bahre's purchase was officially announced, which was later revealed to be at a price of $8 million.