Opened on October 31st, 1965, North Carolina Motor Speedway was built by history. It was the project of Harold Brasington, a land developer who built Darlington Raceway, and Bill Land, who owned the land that the speedway was built on. The track was built as a 1 mile oval, but, over time, it became a 1.017 mile speedway. Most of the funding for the track was provided by a local lawyer named Elsie Webb, who gathered a group of backers to back the track with funding. Brasington and Land also sold 1 dollar shares and they had about 1,000 shareholders at a certain time.
The first race was held on October 31st, 1965 and had an attendance of 35,000. The American 500, which was the name of the race, was a 500 lap, 500 mile race. It was also the 54th race of the 55 race 1965 season. Curtis Turner, who led 239 laps, won the race. The race included NASCAR legends like Cale Yarborough, Ned Jarrett, Buddy Baker, David Pearson, Junior Johnson, and Richard Petty. In 1966, the speedway was given two dates and that tradition continued until 2004.
The demise of North Carolina Motor Speedway began in 1997. North Carolina Motor Speedway merged with Penske Motorsports and was renamed North Carolina Speedway. In 1999, North Carolina Speedway was sold to International Speedway Corporation, or ISC. After 38 years of having two races, North Carolina Speedway was only given one date in 2004. Some people believed that it was due to low attendance, but most people believed it was due to ISC giving it to a newer track that they felt would be better fit for NASCAR racing. NASCAR's best wanted to make the only race at North Carolina Speedway a one to remember. Boy, did they ever.
The 2004 Subway 400 was full of surprises and controversy. The major surprise in the race occurred on lap 265. As the cars were coming down the backstretch, Brendan Gaughan bumped Joe Nemechek, which caused Nemechek to turn Carl Long into the wall. Long then began to flip wildly along the backstretch and flipped 5 or 6 times before landing on his wheels. Long was okay after the crash. The controversy began on lap 350. Matt Kenseth, who was in the lead, pulled into the pits with second place at the time, Kasey Kahne, on lap 350. Jamie McMurray, who was in third, stayed out and took the lead. As Jamie McMurray went down the backstretch and into turn 3, Robby Gordon got loose coming out of turn 2 and went up into Jeff Green. Gordon got on his side, but didn't flip. Jamie McMurray inherited the lead and Matt Kenseth and Kasey Kahne were in trouble. Well, the actually weren't.
When Matt Kenseth and Kasey Kahne came out of the pits, NASCAR ruled that they were still on the lead lap. According to NASCAR, Kahne and Kenseth had, and I quote, "completed routine stops." McMurray and his owner, Chip Ganassi, could not believe what NASCAR had said. After pit road was opened, all the lead lap cars in front of Kahne and Kenseth pitted. It gave Kenseth the lead and Kahne second. McMurray came out of the pits first and assumed third place, but he was not happy.
The restart came out with thirty laps to go and the controversy still wasn't finished. On the restart, Mark Martin, who was Kenseth's teammate and two laps down at the time, let Kenseth by and slid up in front of Kahne. After the race, Martin said that he thought he was "racing and wasn't in anybody's way." Eventually, Kahne and McMurray got by Martin and chased down Kenseth. On the last lap, Matt Kenseth decided to block the outside line, Kahne's preferred line. Kahne used the bottom and coming out of turns 3 and 4, Kahne was able to inch closer to Kenseth. At the line, the margin of victory was .01 second with Kenseth pulling out the win. With arguably one of the best finishes in NASCAR history, North Carolina Speedway went out with a bang.
After three and a half years without any type of action whatsoever, North Carolina Speedway was put up for sale on October 2nd, 2007. Andy Hillenburg, a car owner in the ARCA RE/MAX Racing Series, bought the track for 4.4 million dollars. Immediately after he bought it, he gathered some sanctioning bodies to set dates for the speedway and changed the official name of the track to Rockingham Speedway. They also set up a 2008 ARCA RE/MAX Series date for May 4th. The event was named the Carolina 500 and it featured a field of fifty cars. Joey Logano, an up and coming NASCAR driver, won the pole for the race, dominated the race, lead the most laps, and passed Ken Schrader with 5 laps to go to win the race. After that race, Rockingham held two ARCA Series races until the series left the track after the 2010 season. Rockingham also held series such as the UARA and CARS Series.
After 7 years without a NASCAR event, ESPN released a story on September 2nd, 2011 that Rockingham Speedway would receive a date in the 2012 Camping World Truck Series schedule. On September 7th, 2011, Andy Hillenburg held a press conference that confirmed Rockingham had received a Camping World Truck Series date for April 15th, 2012. Finally, after years of turmoil, NASCAR returns to "The Rock."
Throughout its history, Rockingham Speedway has had to overcome lows and become glorified during the highs. When the Camping World Truck Series comes in 2012, veterans like Kasey Kahne, Todd Bodine, Ron Hornaday Jr. and rookies like Tyler Young, Brennan Newberry, and Caleb Holman will attempt to bring Rockingham back to its former glory. I have no doubts that they will do that and some. Boy, its going to be a good show.
Credits:
-History:
http://www.nascar.com/news/120405/maumann-retro-kkahne-mkenseth-rockingham-2004/index.html
http://premium.nascar.com/TRACKS/northcarolina/
-Statistics:
http://www.racing-reference.info/race/2004_Subway_400/W
http://www.racing-reference.info/race/1965_American_500/W
-Video of Gordon crash(Used to determine NASCAR's ruling):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzMtAgYofTI
-Picture:
http://a.espncdn.com/media/motion/2012/0410/dm_120410_nascar_rockingham.jpg
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