COVID-19 Pulled This “Resto-Mod” Track Back from the Brink

NASCAR’s All-Star race rolls into North Wilkesboro Speedway for the third consecutive year this weekend, but without the pandemic recovery grant North Carolina awarded the facility, the historic track’s revival might have remained a dream.

In November 2021, North Carolina’s Legislature passed a budget that awarded $45.8 million to 15 local governments to help 17 motorsports venues recover from the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Of those 17 facilities, the historic North Wilkesboro track was awarded the largest grant from the Motorsports Relief Fund—$18 million.

“This is, literally, the only thing you could ever thank COVID-19 for because if it wasn’t for COVID-19 and the funds that went into fixing this back up, I don’t know that it ever would have happened,” driver Ryan Newman has said.

The money funded numerous infrastructure improvements that included:

• Repairing significant drainage problems in the infield and paving the infield.

• Renovating suites, the infield media center and concourse.

• Installing the new MUSCO lighting system, a new public address system, internet, SAFER barriers, and new catch fence.

• Constructing a new hospitality building in turn four.

North Wilkesboro Speedway owner Speedway Motorsports also had a financial investment totaling more than seven figures allocated for the facility’s projects.

“The support we received from the American Rescue Plan, coupled with our own investments has put us in a very blessed position to host NASCAR yet again with the All-Star race,” Speedway Motorsports President and CEO Marcus Smith said. “Not only did then Governor (Roy) Cooper and the state Legislature get behind the project, but the Wilkes County community has been supportive from day one.”

Prior to the revitalization, the track’s surface and grandstand area were overgrown with weeds. Trees had grown up through the grandstands in the first and second turns and backstretch. Terri Parsons, wife of NASCAR Hall of Fame member and Wilkes County native Benny Parsons, spearheaded a county-wide campaign to let Smith know the area’s residents would embrace him if he reopened the facility.

Once the short-track’s return appeared on the horizon, local residents began assisting with the cleanup. Former Junior Johnson employee Ronald Queen, now the track’s operations director, began cleaning up the property and track as a volunteer, using thousands of gallons of weed killer. Wilkes County volunteer first responders cut the trees into firewood for those in the county who needed it for heat in the winter.

Once the restoration of North Wilkesboro Speedway began, every building on the property that could be saved was restored in an effort to maintain the nostalgic, historical look and feel of the facility. Smith likened the speedway’s restoration to a “resto-mod” in the car world.

“North Wilkesboro Speedway is now one of the most unique venues in motorsports, like Lambeau Field or Fenway Park, it’s truly a throwback race track,” Smith said.

Fans attending this year’s All-Star race weekend, which includes the CARS Tour, NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, and NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, are coming from 43 states and nine foreign countries, including Australia, New Zealand, and the Netherlands.

North Carolina Motorsports Association statistics show that auto racing’s economic impact on the state of North Carolina is $6 billion.

While North Wilkesboro Speedway received the largest grant from the state’s Motorsports Relief Fund, Charlotte Motor Speedway was next with $13 million and then Rockingham Speedway, which hosted NASCAR’s Xfinity and Craftsman Truck Series races earlier this year, at $9 million.

Not every race track in North Carolina received a grant, but of those who did, Orange County Speedway in Rougemont received the lowest amount. The three-eighths-mile paved track was awarded $39,738. Next was the three-eighths-mile dirt track Dixieland Speedway in Elizabeth City at $85,600. Tracks receiving six-figure grants included Bowman Gray Stadium, which hosted The Clash earlier this year, and Hickory Motor Speedway, a 0.363-mile paved track that hosted NASCAR’s Cup Series prior to 1972 in addition to its weekly races.

Overall, the 17 grants went to one intermediate track, a one-mile facility, eight paved, and two dirt short tracks, four dragways, and one—Coastal Plains Dragway now known as Coastal Plains Park in Jacksonville—that has a dragway, short track, and dirt and drift complexes.