NORTH CAROLINA MOTOR SPEEDWAY - ROCKINGHAM NC
(Rockingham Speedway)
Rockingham Speedway, formerly North Carolina Motor Speedway and later North Carolina Speedway is a racetrack located near Rockingham, North Carolina. It is also known as "The Rock". Rockingham Speedway, known as North Carolina Motor Speedway in 1965, began as a project of Harold Brasington and Bill Land. Brasington had relevant experience from his involvement in building the Darlington Raceway, which was NASCAR's first superspeedway. Bill Land owned the property. The speedway was built as a one-mile oval with flat turns. North Carolina Motor Speedway opened on October 31, 1965, holding its first race on the same day. The American 500 was a 500 lap Cup race won by Curtis Turner. He led 239 laps and beat Cale Yarborough by eleven seconds. 35,000 people showed up to see Turner win $13,000. Only 19 of the 43
starters were running at the finish. The speedway hosted two Cup races each year starting in 1966 and did so through 2003. The race length was shortened to 400 miles in 1995. Typically the race held it's Spring race in late February or early march; and it's Fall race in late October. This possibly was a major cause for the track losing it's spot on the Cup Circuit. With the tracks location being in the mountains of North Carolina; weather was often cold and blustery on these race dates, and it effected attendance greatly. Richard Petty was strong at this facility; winning five of the tracks first 13 races. David Pearson also ran well posting one win and four second place finishes during the same span. In 1969, the track was extensively reconfigured to a high-banked, D-shaped oval just over one mile in length. As
part of the acquisition of the Penske Speedways in 1999, the Speedway was sold to International Speedway Corporation (ISC) and in 2004, one of its two Cup races was transferred to ISC's California Speedway. The change was made after sagging attendance at Rockingham Speedway. It left the track with only one date, in late February, a highly unpopular date for spectators due to the commonly unpredictable weather. That date was moved up from the traditional early spring date in 1992 when Richmond International Raceway wanted a later date than the traditional post-Daytona date because of two postponements in the late 1980s caused by snow. Rumors persisted that the track's lone remaining date was also in jeopardy, as several new tracks in larger, warm-weather
markets coveted the date. The track hosted its final race, the Subway 400, on February 22, 2004. In that last race, Matt Kenseth held off rookie Kasey Kahne on the last lap to win by only 0.010 seconds. This finish was one of the closest in NASCAR history. Over the tracks history it hosted 78 Cup races from 1965-2004. Richard Petty holds the records for the most wins with 11 in 54 starts. Cale Yarborough has seven wins. ISC sold Rockingham Speedway to Speedway Motorsports (SMI), and the track's lone remaining race was "transferred" to Texas Motor Speedway. The Rockingham track was often praised for good racing, including 37 official lead changes in one race in 1981,
2022 repave
and for having great sightlines for spectators. However, the facility made limited infrastructure reinvestments over the years while being owned by the DeWitt family, and seemed to lag behind other facilities which continually modernized and updated their business plans. Speedway Motorsports put the track up for auction on October 2, 2007. ARCA RE/MAX Series Series car owner and former driver Andy Hillenburg, who owns Fast Track High Performance Driving School, paid $4.4 million for the track. Just hours after closing the deal for the sale, he called some sanctioning bodies to arrange dates for his new circuit. Hillenburg made improvements to the track, including installing SAFER barriers; hosted several different race series including the NASCAR Truck series and Whelen
Modified series through 2014. In September of that year, it was reported that Farmers & Merchants Bank was requesting a court order to take "immediate and exclusive custody" of the speedway from co-owners Hillenburg and Bill Silas, who were reported to owe $4.5 million to the bank. On May 16, 2016, BK Rock Holdings purchased Rockingham Speedway at a Richmond County Courthouse auction for $3 million. The track sat idle. Then on August 30, 2018 a group of North Carolina investors named Rockingham Properties LLC., leaded by Dan Lovenheim, completed the purchase of the track. Lovenheim announced 4 days later that racing would be returning to the track in some form in the near future. Things haven't progressed as quickly as hoped for. In 2021 a large influx of government money was doled out to tracks in North Carolina. NASCAR is also looking at returning to tracks where they previously raced, and it is hoped Rockingham will be one of those tracks. North Wilkesboro Speedway also has hopes of getting back on the Cup schedule as does Nashville Fairground Speedway. As of this writing we are anxious to see what transpires. Money is being spent for upgrades at Rockingham; and as the picture above shows, a complete repave has been done. The track has been the site of several film and commercial projects. Some items of note include: 3: The Dale Earnhardt Story; Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby; Days of Thunder; and UPS commercials featuring Dale Jarrett, the UPS truck, and team.
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