The Track With A Rough History

Rockingham Speedway originally known as North Carolina Motor Speedway, was started in 1965 by landowner Bill Land and Harold Brasington who was involved in the building of NASCAR’s first superspeedway, Darlington Raceway.

At the time Land and Brasington sold shares of the speedway for $1.00 per share! The speedway was a one-mile oval with flat turns and it opened in October 1965.

After years of acquisitions and money troubles, the track was up for Auction in October 2007 when it was purchased by Andrew Hillenburg, a former pro-stock car racing driver.

The Rockingham Speedway began the ARCA Menards Series (the American 200). Then in 2011, Rockingham announced it would hold the Good Sam Roadside Assistance 200 in April of 2012. Things were looking up until 2014, when the Truck Series did not return to the track. At the same time, the bank was requesting a court order on payments owed of over $4 million dollars. During the proceedings, Vets-Help.org went to court and was given the opportunity to buy back the track instead of forclosure. Bill Silas refused to sign the sales contract.

In 2016 BK Rock Holdings purchased the Speedway. In 2018, the property was again sold to Rockingham Properties LLC. The company announced racing would be coming back to the track. On December 12th, 2020 MBDrift hosted a drift event at the speedway which attracted the attention of others in racing with the outcome being numerous event dates being planned for the 2021 season.

The rack became a test track in the mid to late 2000 for many NASCAR and Xfinity Series teams due to testing restrictions by NASCAR on active tracks. Teams began using the track to simulate abrasive wear. The track surface is more abrasive than other tracks due to the high sand content in the paving compound. It remained a testing track until NASCAR banned all private testing in 2015.