Rockingham Speedway, a piece of NASCAR history lost for nearly a decade, roars back to life Sunday when the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series makes its initial visit to North Carolina’s sand hills region. Opened in 1965 — NASCAR’s fourth paved track measuring a mile or greater in length – Rockingham Speedway hosted 78 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events through 2004. The final race ranked as one of the track’s most exciting as Matt Kenseth held off Kasey Kahne’s furious last–lap, final–turn challenge to win by .010 seconds. Appropriately, Kahne intends to be in the field for Sunday’s (SPEED, 1:00pm/et) Good Sam Roadside Assistance 200 Presented by Cheerwine.
Known upon completion as North Carolina Motor Speedway, the track was built by Harold Brasington and Bill Land. Brasington also built Darlington Raceway, which heralded NASCAR’s superspeedway era in 1950. The track saw a succession of owners including the DeWitt family, Roger Penske, International Speedway Corp. and Speedway Motorsports. Its closure in 2004 coincided with transfer of the track’s remaining date to Texas Motor Speedway. Current owner and former NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Andy Hillenburg purchased “The Rock” at auction in 2007.
This week’s race is the culmination of a five–year project by Hillenburg. Three ARCA races were held at the track in 2008–10 – two of them won by current NASCAR Camping World Truck Series competitors Ty Dillon and Parker Kligerman. “Kudos to Andy for being able to pull that off,” said Mark Martin, whose 13 victories – two NASCAR Sprint Cup, 11 NASCAR Nationwide – lead all drivers at Rockingham. “It’s cool to see them have the truck race there. Rockingham is just a ball to race on.”(NASCAR Integrated Marketing Communications)[See complete article including more history on the Rockingham Race Info page.](4-11-2012)
