North Wilkesboro Speedway is a short track located in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. The track opened on May 18, 1947, and hosted races in NASCAR's top three series from 1949 until its closure in 1996. The 0.625-mile facility was built by Enoch Staley, Lawson Curry, Jack Combs, and Charlie Combs. The frontstretch of the track was downhill, while the backstretch had an uphill slope.
On May 22, 1995, Staley died from a stroke. In less than a month, Speedway Motorsports, Inc. bought fifty percent of shares from the Combs family. The Staley family declined to sell to Speedway Motorsports Inc. because they did not trust the organization's CEO, Bruton Smith. On January 1, 1996, the Staley family sold their fifty percent share of the speedway to Bob Baher, owner of New Hampshire Motor Speedway at the time. Because Bahr and Smith owned other tracks on the NASCAR circuit, they decided to take the dates North [...] Read more