North Wilkesboro Speedway’s Moonshine Fiasco: Just a Marketing Gimmick for NASCAR’s ‘Bootlegging’ Roots?

The road to resurrection hasn’t been easy for the North Wilkesboro Speedway. While making it ready in time for the All-Star race for the second consecutive year has been a challenge, reports of a sinkhole at the track have kept the NASCAR fandom interested.

NASCAR and moonshine go hand-in-hand, given the latter’s role in the origin of the sport. While that was in the past, recent rumors indicate its present existence. Having said that, is there any truth to the matter, or is it just a gimmick to promote the sport?

Is North Wilkesboro Speedway rekindling with its bootlegging roots?

Founded in 1948, NASCAR’s roots go back to the Prohibition era. Back in 1920, small and fast vehicles transported whisky and alcoholic beverages to the United States. The key to those cars was speed and handling. In addition to that, the removal of floorboards and seats helped store the bootlegged alcohol.

Later on, in 1933, despite Prohibition being repealed, stock car racing remained popular amongst the moonshine transporters. While it helped in outrunning the revenue, highway patrol, or sheriff, it also resulted in the formation of NASCAR, given the popularity of racing.

Interestingly, at that time, given the huge production of whiskey, finding adequate storage was a hassle. As a result, many expected the North Wilkesboro Speedway to be stuffed with plenty of moonshine, given the discovery of a massive sinkhole. Given SMI’s vice president of operations and development, Steve Swift, it certainly looked fishy when the presence of a sinkhole was rumored earlier in March.

As reported by ESPN, the VP of Operations said, “One of the crew came to us and said, ‘Hey man, we might have a problem here. We all ran up there and there was a foot-and-a-half crack in the grandstand, where we had taken some of the old seats out to do some maintenance work. Next thing you know, we take a look through that hole and it’s a not a hole. It’s a cavity. I mean, you could put a Ford pickup truck in there. I thought, this is a cave. Well, that isn’t good.”

Understandably, it raised the possibility of it being a moonshine cave. In order to get to the depth of the matter, Smith ran sinkhole tests. He even pumped water into the hole to observe where it went. Primarily, the intent was to find any potential paths of erosion that might affect the strength of the grandstand. Instead, the hole filling up seamlessly demanded the water to be pumped back out.

Naturally, it left Smith and his team stunned. In his words, “We found a wall that had been placed and some columns that were underneath, stuff you don’t find inside of what is supposed to just be a dirt bank. There were things in place there that just didn’t appear as something that had happened over time. This was a purpose-built structure.”

Earlier in the 40s, 50s, and 60s, there was liquor at the track for drinking purposes and not for distribution. Having said that, there is no evidence of it ever being manufactured or stored there. While it is difficult to rule out the possibilities of what happened earlier in the cave, the mystery remains unsolved.

Unfortunately, Smith and his team ran out of time to conduct any sort of archaeological research. With the track having to be prepared for the All-Star race, an in-depth analysis was out of the question. Given what used to take place at Middle Georgia Raceway, it is difficult to rule out the same at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

Richard Petty believes in the notorious moonshine speculations

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Back in 2022, resurrection activities were going on full force at North Wilkesboro Speedway. During that time, Steve Smith and his team were working on the suites above the main grandstand on the front stretch. When the hill serving as the suites’ foundation was taken up for further construction activities, a strange thing happened.

The longtime track caretaker and unofficial welcome director of North Wilkesboro Speedway alarmed Smith and his team about something underneath the grandstand. Speaking about it, Smith said, “When we started running equipment up that hill, Paul Call came up here and warned us that we needed to be really careful because there were things underneath that grandstand that might cause that equipment to fall through.”

Call was the only employee at NWS during the 26 years that the track remained inactive. While Call passed away four months later, he took the secret beneath the grandstand with him. It is not the first time a fishy activity has been speculated at a NASCAR track.

From 1966 to 1971, Middle Georgia Raceway hosted nine Cup Series races. While the greats Richard Petty, David Pearson, and Bobby Allison made racing iconic, the track’s image came under scrutiny after the finding of “the most cleverly run moonshine operation.”

A secret trapdoor was found on the floor of a faux ticket booth. Interestingly, this gave the entry into a 125-foot tunnel that eventually made its way to a chamber 17 feet below the grandstand. What’s shocking is that the chamber contained a pair of stills capable of producing approximately 80 gallons of moonshine on a daily basis.

Unfortunately for the historians and the fanbase, no such setup was found at North Wilkesboro Speedway. However, Richard Petty believes otherwise. He said, “I think there was definitely something down there. But if someone was keeping a bunch of cases of liquor down there and someone else knew about it, then it wasn’t going to be down there for long. Some guy either drunk it all or sold to a guy who drunk it all.”

With caretaker Paul Call’s warning and Petty’s comments, it is difficult to rule out the absence of any notorious moonshine activities at NWS. Having said that, the evidence speaks, and as of now, there’s nothing controversial with the hole now filled with concrete and seats fixed back onto the cement. All we can hope is that the fans enjoy a good race on Sunday, putting aside the moonshine speculations.