Two tracks revisited, Wilkesboro and Nashville

H

HardScrabble

Guest
The Winston Cup series has run at many tracks in its 50 some year history. I don’t know the exact number but many of them are legends in their own right.

A quick look here at two of them. Not all the stories and please add anything you wish to these little sketches. More tracks to come……….

North Wilkesboro Speedway
North Wilkesboro, NC

Built in 1947.

September 16, 1949 – Nascar’s Strictly Stock division (the forerunner of Winston Cup) runs the 8th and final race of its inaugural season. A 200-lap event on the dirt half miler Bob Flock wins it in an Oldsmobile.

May 18, 1958 – Now a paved half-mile, Junior Johnson wins the first race on the surface in Ford.

September 29, 1996 – NASCAR visits the venerable track for the last time. Unless the gods smile upon us, but I doubt it. Bruton Smith and Bob Bahari have bought the track for sole purpose of taking the dates for Texas and New Hampshire. Jeff Gordon wins this race in his Chevy.

Who won here, and how often? Check out the Who’s Who list of winners at Wilkesboro. Richard has the most with Darrell Waltrip second. Darrell’s wins include a streak of 5 straight wins during the 1981 to 1983 seasons.

Driver -------- Wins
Richard Petty -------- 15
Darrell Waltrip -------- 10
Cale Yarborough -------- 5
Dale Earnhardt -------- 5
Bobby Allison -------- 4
Junior Johnson -------- 4
Terry Labonte -------- 4
Geoff Bodine -------- 3
Herb Thomas -------- 3
Lee Petty -------- 3
Rex White -------- 3
Rusty Wallace -------- 3
Buck Baker -------- 2
David Pearson -------- 2
Fonty Flock -------- 2
Mark Martin -------- 2
Marvin Panch -------- 2
Benny Parsons -------- 1
Bob Flock -------- 1
Bobby Isaac -------- 1
Brett Bodine -------- 1
Darel Dieringer -------- 1
Davey Allison -------- 1
Dick Hutcherson -------- 1
Dick Rathman -------- 1
Fireball Roberts -------- 1
Fred Lorenzen -------- 1
Harry Gant -------- 1
Hershel McGriff -------- 1
Jack Smith -------- 1
Jeff Gordon -------- 1
Jim Paschal -------- 1
Leon Sales -------- 1
Neil Bonnett -------- 1
Speedy Thompson -------- 1
Tim Flock -------- 1
Tim Richmond -------- 1
Tiny Lund -------- 1

Wars in Wilkesboro – A quick story

October, 1972 – Richard Petty and Bobby Allison declare war on each other. The feud had been building for a while and here it was reach a fever pitch. My oh my what the media, fans and NASCAR would do if such happened today. Weapons of choice for this particular war were a Plymouth chosen by Richard and a Chevy by Bobby. The final ten laps found the bumping and banging more and more intense ; both cars were trailing smoke from sheet metal rubbing against tires. It seemed neither driver had any concern with winning the race so much unleashing their total wrath upon the other. With two to go Allison banged a path past Petty. But since his tires were filling his Chevy with clouds of smoke he couldn’t see squat. Petty refused to lift after the white flag waved and after once more roughing each other up heading into turn one the two cars bounced off the wall. The two bulls kept their feet buried to the floor, and it was a battle to the checkers won by a margin of two lengths by the King. Not content to leave the settlement to the driver’s one Allison fan jumped the fence around victory lane and went after Petty. One of Petty's crew members used Richard's helmet as an effective bludgeon and decked the intruder, the mood was set however and other fans seemed ready to try the same, Petty was escorted to the press box and the post race ceremonies were held there. The drivers were less than kind to each other in their post race remarks.

More wars followed at North Wilkesboro……another day perhaps. Lets move to another track.


Nashville Speedway
Nashville, TN

Built in 1907 (yes 1907)

August 10, 1958 – The dirt was replaced with pavement for 1958 and the NASCAR boys came calling for the first time. Little Joe Weatherly wins the 200-lap event in a Ford. A Ford convertible in which he set a blistering pace of 59.2 MPH. (Rex White sat on the pole at 71.3 MPH)

July 25, 1970 – Track length is increased to .596 miles and the race is now 420 laps long because NASCAR has mandated a minimum race length of 250 miles. Most importantly the banking has been increased to 35 degrees! The track record had been set two years earlier by Richard Petty at 85.06 MPH, Lee Roy Yarbrough’s Ford was to take this pole at 114.1 MPH. Bobby Isaac wins the race in a Dodge.

May 12, 1973 – Track length stays the same, but the high banks are gone. The banking has been reduced to 18 degrees. The track record which will likely stand forever was set the previous by Bobby Allison at 116.9 MPH, Cale Yarborough captures the pole for this race at 105.7 MPH. Just for good measure Cale pilots his Chevy to the win as well.

July 14, 1984 – The Winston Cup series pays its last visit. Geoff Bodine wins the race his Chevy.

Nashville still operates and races are run there virtually every weekend of spring and summer. As a note of interest the track champions from the local series includes many names readily identified by Winston Cup fans. Coo-Coo Marlin won it 4 times. The only driver to do so. Darrell Waltrip won it 2 times and is second in all-time track wins with 55. Sterling Marlin won it 3 times and holds third place for all time track wins at 51. Bobby Hamilton won it twice. Jimmy “Smut” Means won it once, as did Jeff Green.

Winston Cup wins at Nashville:

Driver ------- Wins
Richard Petty ------- 9
Darrell Waltrip ------- 8
Cale Yarborough ------- 7
Benny Parsons ------- 3
Jim Paschal ------- 3
Dale Earnhardt ------- 2
Bobby Allison ------- 1
Bobby Isaac ------- 1
Buddy Baker ------- 1
David Pearson ------- 1
Dick Hutcherson ------- 1
Geoff Bodine ------- 1
Joe Lee Johnson ------- 1
Joe Weatherly ------- 1
Johnny Beauchamp ------- 1
Rex White ------- 1
 
Great stuff HS as usual. I remember both tracks well. Nashville for that 420, an unusual number to be associated with a race. Yes, the track is still in business, but rougher than a corn cob the last time I was there. What hurt it was its limited seating capacity, and the track owners' and the city of Nashville's steadfast refusals to spend any money upgrading it. It's located mere blocks from downtown, and in a not so appealing neighborhood to boot.

Wilkesboro is another fascinating track, one that many fans sorely miss. It too was becoming outdated as far as seating capacity and pit accomodations were concerned, but there were some incredible races there. Most of the money used to build the track and pay the initial few purses was moonshine money. Wilkes County NC is famous for two things primarily: moonshine, and Holly Farms chicken, which provided honest jobs for many of the old whiskey bootleggers for the first time in their lives, and in effect stopped the blockade business there. How ironic that later, Junior Johnson's car would carry the Holly Farms colors, after he himself spent time in prison as a younger man for bootlegging!

Interesting stuff HS. You get a gold star for today my friend. :thumbsup:
 
I probably should have noted that the demise of North Wilkesboro was influenced by the factors you mention. Bruton and Bob closed the place with full cooperation from NASCAR. Indeed it is likely that the whole deal was at NASCAR’s suggestion.

It and Martinsville were the only tracks remaining from the 8 tracks run in the 1949 debut of NASCAR. Now we are left only with Martinsville and I fear its days may be numbered.

Those 8 tracks in the order they ran that first season btw:

Charlotte Speedway a .750 mile dirt oval run from 1949 every year until 1956.

Daytona Beach, the beach course was run under threee different configurations from 1949 through 1958.

Occoneechee Speedway in Hillsboro, NC. Also called Orange Speedway, a nasty 1 mile dirt oval run every year from 1949 through 1968.

Langhorne Speedway in PA, considered perhaps the scariest track ever run by NASCAR was another 1 mile dirt oval, Ran 1949 through 1957.

Hamburg Speedway in Hamburg, NY. A half mile of dirt oval the NASCAR tour ran in 1949 and 1950 only.

Martinsville which runs still.

Heidelburg Speedway in Pittsburgh. Ran in 1949 and 1951 as a half mile dirt oval, then was dropped until 1959 when it was run as a quarter mile dirt oval then run for the last time in 1960 as a half miler again.

North Wilkesboro the last race of the first year.
 
I have some tapes of races at Wilkesboro in the 80s. Hearing the tires screech into the corners, watching the smoke from that right rear --- *sigh*

Having to go uphill out of turn 2 into the back stretch. That was a great track.
 
That's right, TRL....the track wasn't exactly level! I had forgotten that. Made for a few interesting passes in turn 1, huh?
 
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