Qualla: North Wilkesboro Speedway

North Wilkesboro Speedway: Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit ClumsyBiggun, CC BY-SA 4.0. Enoch Staley ran out of money building the track, which is why one straightaway runs downhill and the other runs uphill - a constructional accident that became the most distinctive feature of any NASCAR oval ever built. North Wilkesboro Speedway opened on May 18, 1947, with about ten thousand spectators watching Fonty Flock win a modified feature race. Staley had been to one stock car race in his life, in Spartanburg in 1945, and walked away in love with it. He partnered with Lawson Curry, John Mastin, the Combs brothers, and NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. to build a 0.625-mile dirt oval in the foothills near the Brushy Mountains. The dirt was treated with fourteen tons of calcium chloride and salt to keep down dust. Nobody, including Staley himself, expected the track to last more than a year.

Image: ClumsyBiggun | CC BY-SA 4.0

North Wilkesboro Speedway: Moonshine Runners Christen the Track

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Glenn Courtney, CC BY-SA 2.0. Before Bill France Sr. brought his sanctioned race to the new track in May 1947, local moonshiners ran unofficial races there. NASCAR personality Junior Johnson - a North Wilkesboro native and former moonshine runner who became one of the sport's defining figures - confirmed thos...

Image: Glenn Courtney | CC BY-SA 2.0

North Wilkesboro Speedway: Enoch's Death and the Texas Move

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit NCDOTcommunications, CC BY 4.0. Enoch Staley died in 1995. NASCAR was exploding in popularity. Bruton Smith of Speedway Motorsports Inc. was building Texas Motor Speedway and needed dates on the Cup schedule. Bob Bahre owned New Hampshire International Raceway and wanted Cup dates too. Together they bought out ...

Image: NCDOTcommunications | CC BY 4.0

North Wilkesboro Speedway: Paul Call, Caretaker

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CavsFan45, CC BY 4.0. On January 3, 1997, the Winston-Salem Journal reported that the facility had been officially closed and all employees laid off. There was one exception. Paul Call, a longtime employee, had begged Bruton Smith and Bob Bahre for a deal that would let him live on the property. They ...

Image: CavsFan45 | CC BY 4.0

North Wilkesboro Speedway: The iRacing Revival

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CavsFan45, CC BY 4.0. In September 2019, Dale Earnhardt Jr. approached Marcus Smith - Bruton's son and successor at SMI - about digitally preserving the track. Three months later, Earnhardt organized a cleanup so that the racing simulator iRacing could laser-scan what remained. The scan was added to t...

Image: CavsFan45 | CC BY 4.0

North Wilkesboro Speedway: Uphill, Downhill, Asymmetrical

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CavsFan45, CC BY 4.0. The track that returned is fundamentally the same one Enoch Staley built with his friends in 1947. The frontstretch still runs downhill, the backstretch still runs uphill, the turns are still asymmetrical because Staley ran out of money before he could make them symmetrical. The ...

Image: CavsFan45 | CC BY 4.0