Rockingham Speedway : Ask Biography

Home | motorsport venue | Rockingham Speedway

Rockingham Speedway, formerly North Carolina Motor Speedway and later North Carolina Speedway is a racetrack located near Rockingham, North Carolina. It is affectionately known as "The Rock" and hosted two NASCAR Cup Series, the Subway 400 (1966 � 2004) and the Pop Secret Microwave Popcorn 400 (1965 � 2003), as well as two Busch Series races, the Goody's Headache Powder 200 (1982 � 2004) and the Target House 200 (1984 � 2003). Rockingham has hosted Automobile Racing Club of America and USAR Hooters Pro Cup series races since 2008. Currently, the track is home to the Buck Baker Driving School, and also the Fast Track High Performance Driving School, which is owned by new track owner Andy Hillenburg, and is used extensively for NASCAR testing. It has been used often for television and movie filming, and the 2004 ESPN telefilm 3: The Dale Earnhardt Story was filmed at the track along with some scenes from Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. For the filming of the later movie, the walls were repainted to resemble famous tracks on the NASCAR circuit. It also was the site of the 2007 Bollywood film Ta Ra Rum Pum.

Starting in 2012, the Good Sam Roadside Assistance 200 presented by Cheerwine will move from a UARA sanction to a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series sanction.

The track opened as a flat, one-mile oval in 1965. In 1969, the track was extensively reconfigured to a high-banked, D-shaped oval measuring slightly over one mile in length. The track surface is rather abrasive compared to other tracks on the circuit, due to the high sand content of paving compounds made from local materials. This abrasiveness notoriously contributed to excessive tire wear. This characteristic is often cited as a demanding element of racing at the facility, necessitating strict management of tire wear by teams. In 1997, North Carolina Motor Speedway merged with Penske Motorsports, and was renamed North Carolina Speedway. Shortly thereafter, the infield was reconfigured, and competition on the infield road course, mostly by the SCCA, was discontinued. North Carolina Speedway played host to two NASCAR Winston Cup races each year through 2003. The final NASCAR Nextel Cup race at Rockingham was held on February 22, 2004 with Matt Kenseth winning the event.

In 2008, a new half-mile oval was built behind the backstretch for driving schools, but quickly became a popular test track for NASCAR race cars in preparation for races at Martinsville Speedway, as the tracks are similar in length and radius of turns. Since Rockingham is not on the NASCAR circuit, testing is unlimited. (Martinsville cannot be used for Sprint Cup testing.) On August 16, 2011 it was announced that Rockingham would install SAFER Barrier along the track walls to improve driver safety. However, rumors spread of the track possibly getting a date on the 2012 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series schedule. On September 2, an announcement was made by ESPN that Rockingham would receive a Truck Series race scheduled for April 2012 and a press conference would be held on September 7 with Andy Hillenburg and North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue to announce plans. The press conference on September 7 confirmed that the race would be called the "Good Sam Roadside Assistance 200" and be held on April 15. Wayne Auton, the director of the truck series, confirmed that teams can still test at Rockingham until December 31. However, testing on the .526 mile oval would remain legal.