WILKESBORO, N.C. — NASCAR is returning, finally, to one of its original tracks. 26 years after Jeff Gordon beat out Dale Earnhardt Sr., and a field of others, to win the Tyson Holly Farms 400, NASCAR is coming back to Wilkes County.
Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith, along with Governor Roy Cooper, NASCAR COO Steve O'Donnell, and hall of famer Dale Earnhardt Jr, announced that the 2023 NASCAR All-Star race would be held at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
The cherry on top of a very good year for the Speedway that has been undergoing a revival since the legislature dispersed funds from the American Rescue Act to restore the race track. While Dale Sr, who won five times at North Wilkesboro Speedway, finished in second for its last NASCAR race, Dale Jr has helped lead the charge for its revival.
When the COVID pandemic shifted everyone online in 2020, NASCAR followed suit. The eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series saw pro drivers compete in a virtual 10-race schedule meant to hold fans over until the lifting of restrictions allowed real-world racing to return. It was then that Dale Jr reached out to Smith about scanning the track for a virtual race. The excitement and passion for the speedway only became more evident.
"With Wilkesboro, it really came not any one thing, it came around to being an active opportunity after Dale Jr talked about iRacing and scanning the speedway in for digital preservation," Smith said after the big announcement.
When Dale Jr, adorning the Sun Drop green and driving the number 3 car, got behind the wheel to compete on the track in late August 2022, the fans followed. For the first time in nearly 30 years, the grandstand was filled to the brim with racing fans. It was the sort of eye-popping scene that built confidence that North Wilkesboro Speedway was worthy of a bigger event.
If you ask NC racing legend Richard Childress, he will tell you hosting the All-Star race was his idea. "I was up there with the Governor when we did the dedication, bringing the speedway back. I said Marcus we need to run the all-star race here. He kinda looked at me like I was out to school and here we are, were running the all-star race."
North Wilkesboro Speedway started running NASCAR races back when it was a dirt track in 1949. There were plans to tear up the asphalt and run a few dirt races this fall before repaving, those plans have been superseded by NASCAR's big return.
It seems fitting that in NASCAR's 75th year they will run their All-Star track that helped pave some of that illustrious history. Now NASCAR helps North Wilkesboro Speedway race into a new era of roaring engines and squealing tires. It is no less fitting that the announcement comes just days after Richard Petty, who has the most career victories at the speedway, won his landmark 200th race.
As for Dale Jr, who said some of his best memories came at North Wilkesboro, he won't race in May when the All-Stars come to town but he knows how important this track will be for the community that surrounds it.
"This is such a great sign that there is a real purpose for the track going forward...and the community can celebrate that."