“They Were Going To Dig the Damn Track Up” – Dale Earnhardt Jr Reveals the Unbelievable Turnaround Behind the Revival of North Wilkesboro Speedway

NASCAR has come up with plenty of creative stuff for its 75th season this year. However, none could compete with the boldness and efforts in reviving the North Wilkesboro Speedway. With the All-Star race on the weekend returning to the roots of stock car racing, the NASCAR community is certainly buzzing. While Dale Earnhardt Jr is certainly one of them, he recently shared an eye-opening story.

It is no secret how Junior’s efforts and push played an important role in bringing the historic track back into the NASCAR Cup Series. In fact, the former Hendrick Motorsports driver explains the twists behind it as expresses his excitement for the race on Sunday.

Dale Earnhardt Jr gets emotional as the NASCAR Cup Series welcomes back racing at North Wilkesboro Speedway

While few expected North Wilkesboro Speedway to host a Cup Series race again, Dale Earnhardt Jr and the CEO of Speedway Motorsports Marcus Smith along with others made it possible. It is indeed amazing how the last race took place in 1996 and the track is now back making all the headlines.

In the build-up to the All-Star race on Sunday, Dale Earnhardt Jr reveals the rollercoaster ride involved in reviving the historic Speedway. Still shaken by the reality, Junior said, “I think when that All-Star Race goes green, that’s sort of going to be the moment where everybody can finally believe that this is all happening and there’s a real future here right.”

Further, Dale Jr deep dives into how it looked impossible to believe that the track had any future. He said, “In August we came here for a one-off. And then, no one Marcus even, didn’t know if we’d ever do this again. They were going to dig the damn track up and turn into a dirt track that was the plan.”

Fortunately, that didn’t happen as Marcus Smith contemplated the options. The 2x Daytona 500 winner said, “Marcus stood here on the front straightaway in August at the car store racing. That was the aha moment for him to go bam ‘maybe we need to consider what we could possibly do here’ because he used to tell me we’ll never have nothing more than a truck race here.”

Despite the scare, things turned out fine and resulted in an unexpected comeback of the track. With all the emotions involved, Dale Jr said, “So, I think Sunday when they get the green flag maybe firing down the front straightaway, all of us are going to have some sort of a reaction to that. I think right some very nostalgic feeling about it and that’ll be a good thing.”

Without a doubt, Sunday’s race will have a lot of emotions to it. Having said that, there are some major concerns revolving around it.

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Dale Earnhardt Jr strongly believes the North Wilkesboro surface requires repaving to host a race next year

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While Dale Earnhardt Jr has an emotional attachment to the North Wilkesboro Speedway, it doesn’t stop him from being practical. Interestingly, the track was last paved in 1981. In fact, some minor repairs were needed recently to make the surface ready for the race.

Citing the risks involved with the track, Dale Jr spoke to Fox Sports journalist Bob Pockrass about the surface. He said, “Our cars, our program and our style of race can deal with a lot of imperfection, but the Cup crowd, it will not put up with problems and problematic surfaces. One little problem, one car has any kind of an issue from a rock going through their radiator or whatever, you can’t have that going on.”

Junior continues, “It’s a big risk that they’re taking now with this surface for this Sunday. I think they won’t want to take that risk again. I’ll be surprised if they do.” The 48-year-old does have a valid point here. Now the question arises, will the track hold well on Sunday? Let us know in the comments below.

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