While the historic North Wilkesboro Speedway is finally set to host races again, it will take some time for NASCAR to race here again.
Following its multi-million-dollar renovation, the North Wilkesboro will host a month of asphalt racing for multiple classes in August. This will be followed by racing on dirt in October before the track is repaved in 2023, Speedway Motorsports announced.
“As we begin the process of bringing North Wilkesboro Speedway back to life, this is a great opportunity for the historic short track to host grassroots racing and allow our team to learn more about what needs be done before a grand re-opening in the future,” said Speedway Motorsports President and CEO Marcus Smith.
“Our vision is to revive this venue into a multi-use entertainment facility, but racing will always be the core product. We know fans and competitors will enjoy ‘kicking the tires’ alongside us with some live competition this year as we begin renovations.”
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The track has been a part of NASCAR for a long time since it first hosted the Cup Series race back in 1949. However, it stopped running NASCAR races in 1996, Jeff Gordon won the final race there.
After it was announced that the track will host races again, there were questions if NASCAR races will be hosted there again soon. However, it won’t be at least until 2024 that we will see NASCAR run there, Smith said, and it would only start with Truck Series.
“There’s a lot of to do,” Smith said about NASCAR return to North Wilkesboro . “There’s a lot of work that has to be done between now and then.”
The reason that the track won’t host NASCAR races anytime soon is because of the lack of infrastructure and size to host Cup or Xfinity races there. Nonetheless, it is a positive step for the track which has a lot of history with NASCAR.