- A week of racing at the historical 0.625-mile North Wilkesboro Speedway culminated Sunday night with Kyle Larson delivering an old fashion “ass whipping” on his fellow competitors.
- Larson’s 4.537-second victory over Bubba Wallace makes him the only driver to have won the All-Star race at three different tracks—Charlotte, Texas, and North Wilkesboro.
- Chris Buescher, who won the All-Star race’s second qualifying heat race Saturday night, was adamant that NASCAR should return to the track.
Twenty-seven years ago, North Wilkesboro Speedway was abandoned, left to be reclaimed by the land from which it rose in 1947, but a series of events that began in 2019 set it on a different path and NASCAR returned.
“It’s never happened before that you’ve taken a sporting venue and left it for dead and it’s been revived. It’s a true Lazarus story,” Speedway Motorsports Incorporated president and CEO Marcus Smith said. “This place is going to have racing on the calendar in the very near future.”
A week of racing at the historical 0.625-mile track culminated Sunday night with Kyle Larson delivering an old fashion “ass whipping” on his fellow competitors to claim his third NASCAR All-Star race victory in the last five years. Larson’s 4.537-second victory over Bubba Wallace makes him the only driver to have won the All-Star race at three different tracks—Charlotte, Texas, and North Wilkesboro. He also walked off with a victory in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Tyson 250 the day before the All-Star race, defeating Ty Majeski by less than a second.
Larson executed a reverse lap burnout around the track before climbing from his car to a thunderous roar from the crowd after the All-Star race. His wife Katelyn shot-gunned a beer on the frontstretch before they rode the mechanical lift platform to victory lane atop the media center.
“I want to see us keep coming back here,” Larson said. “I think NASCAR has a lot of roots here, so it deserves a spot on our schedule, whether it be a non-points race or a points race.
“For whatever reason, the crowd just feels more on top of you here than other tracks. Doing the frontstretch interview they were just so loud, and it was hard to hear yourself talk. It was just so cool. You could feel the atmosphere from Friday of truck practice. The crowd was massive for that. I think typically you see like 45 fans in the stands at any other track on a Friday.
“This place … feels like a race track to me. I get to race at a lot of grassroots venues more than any other driver in the field. A lot of these drivers get to go to these fancy facilities every weekend. That’s all they do. I was in Wayne County, Ohio, on Tuesday night, and it has a grassroots feel to it here. I think that’s what makes this weekend feel so special.”
Even though two different Late Model Series—CARS Tour and ASA Stars National Tour—preceded NASCAR’s return, the week was about more than racing. It was a welcome home celebration that involved concerts, families and friends sitting around a campfire and grilling at motorhome campsites, tailgaters, and the reopening of the property’s Go-Kart track. Kevin Harvick’s souvenir rig sold out of his No. 29 commemorative items the day before the All-Star race. Many North Wilkesboro Speedway and NASCAR 75th Anniversary items sold out as well.
A moonshiner/revenuer reunion roundtable entertained fans with stories from real moonshiners and the federal agents who chased and arrested them. That was followed by a “Tires Side Chat” with Richard Petty, Darrell Waltrip, Richard Childress, Rusty Wallace, Geoffrey Bodine, Harry Gant, Mike Skinner, Rick Mast, and former Charlotte Motor Speedway president H.A. “Humpy” Wheeler.
Of course, there were hiccups along the way, but overall, it was a weekend of joy and cooperation with many still unable to believe the speedway’s reopening was reality. One NASCAR executive said he wished they could bottle the vibe that existed at North Wilkesboro and carry it from track to track.
Even though Smith says racing will continue at North Wilkesboro, how it fits into future NASCAR schedules has yet to be determined.
North Wilkesboro Speedway’s Marcus Smith
“I do think that there’s definitely a place in the NASCAR world for North Wilkesboro Speedway, and whether it’s a special event like All-Star, maybe one day it’s a points event, I don’t know,” Smith said. “I think it’s a very important place for short track racing, the Late Model races, the Modifieds, you name it. It’s a special place. It’s like walking into a museum that’s active and living and very special for the competitors and fans alike.”
Harvick, who co-owns the CARS Tour with Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Burton, and Justin Marks, said the week was “good for racing in general.”
Chris Buescher, who won the All-Star race’s second qualifying heat race Saturday night, was adamant that NASCAR should return to the track.
“This track is a blast to run,” Buescher said. “It just brings me back to Saturday night short track racing. The track has a ton of character, more fall off than most places.”
Buescher said he was a “big fan” of North Wilkesboro having a points race in 2024.
“I love tracks with this much character,” Buescher said. “It makes you think about how you’re gonna approach early runs versus long runs and puts strategy back in the game for our crew chiefs and crew members. It puts so many things back into the race that we used to talk about every week because there’s so much character. There are so many variables with a track like this and I love it.”
Some drivers would love to come back to North Wilkesboro next year with NASCAR Cup Series points on the line.
North Wilkesboro was last repaved in the early 1980s and even after a slipping and sliding weekend on the old surface, the competitors still liked it.
“I don’t think they need to pave the whole thing, but just little patches here and there add character to the track and find grip,” Larson said. “I think if they can introduce some patches in the middle to upper grooves, I think that’ll make the racing even better. I would hate to see them repave the whole surface.”
Smith said when the track was repaved it would not be equivalent to a parking lot surface.
“Our paving goal is totally different,” Smith said. “(Paving) a parking lot or a street, you want it to last for a super long time and you want it to be smooth. I don’t mind how long it lasts. I really want it to come out of the box racing really well.”
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