There are a lot of old and abandoned NASCAR racetracks around the country. There are several in North Carolina alone, including North Carolina Speedway, better-known as Rockingham, or simply, "The Rock."
2023 saw NASCAR's return to North Wilkesboro Speedway after nearly 30 of the track sitting abandoned.
After seeing North Wilkesboro's revival, the local government in Rockingham, North Carolina, hopes to have something similar happen at their racetrack.
Rockingham hosted NASCAR for years but with the construction of new tracks outside NASCAR's traditional Southeastern homebase, Cup left "The Rock" after the 2004 season.
The facility features a 1.017-mile oval, along with a 1.6-mile road course and "Little Rock," a half-mile oval. It also has a dragstrip. So, Rockingham has enough resources for NASCAR and other racing series to be featured at the track.
The state of North Carolina received millions of dollars during the pandemic, and there is still plenty of money that can be spent at Rockingham. According to the Richmond County Daily Journal, there is currently a request of $4.99 million to fully repave the racetrack.
The Board of Commissioners, Finance Director and the Commerce Department are hoping to approve the funding and plans for improvements to the facility.
Commissioner Andy Grooms spoke at a recent meeting about the importance of the big track at Rockingham, and how they need to get the funding where NASCAR can come back to Rockingham.
"My biggest thing," Grooms said, "is for that track, I want it (the money) to go (to) the big track. I don't want anything that comes through this board... necessarily saying that we agree that you (Commerce) can look at this and spend it how you want. I want what we vote on ... to go to that track and bring back NASCAR."
The vice chairman of the board, Dr. Ron Watkins, made it clear that he was on board with the NASCAR plans, because if you aren't going to get NASCAR back in town, what would be the point of using so much money to upgrade the track and facilities?
"I think this board would agree that our number one goal here is to get NASCAR back in Rockingham," Watkins said.
There is a lot of hope that some of those old tracks like Rockingham and the Nashville Fairgrounds return to the NASCAR schedule. North Wilkesboro is finally back, and other historic tracks could be as well. That would be a welcome change in the sport and a turn in the right direction.
