Hickory Motor Speedway

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Hickory Motor Speedway
The World's Most Famous Short Track
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Address:
3130 Highway 70 Southeast
Newton, North Carolina

Hickory Motor Speedway (USA)
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United StatesUnited States Newton , North Carolina , USA
Route type: permanent race track
Opening: June 1951
Short track oval
oval
Route data
Important
events: 		NASCAR Whelen All-American Series

USAR Hooters Procup Series

Route length: 0.584  km (0.36  mi )
Curve superelevation: Curves 1 & 2: 14 °
Curves 3 & 4: 12 °
Straight lines: 8 °
Audience capacity: 13,200
http://www.hickorymotorspeedway.com

Coordinates: 35 ° 41 ′ 45 ″  N , 81 ° 16 ′ 10 ″  W.

The Hickory Motor Speedway is a short-track -Rennstrecke in Hickory , North Carolina . It is one of the most famous racetracks for touring car racing and is often referred to as "The World's Most Famous Short Track" and "Birthplace of the NASCAR Stars".

history

The racetrack opened in June 1951. At that time it was an unpaved racetrack, a so-called dirt track on loose ground. The lap length was half a mile or around 800 m. The first race on the course was won by Gwyn Staley , who also became a course champion during the year. Junior Johnson , Ned Jarrett and Ralph Earnhardt were also champions of the racetrack in the 1950s . Earnhardt alone won the title five times.

In 1953 a race of the Grand National Series of NASCAR was held in Hickory for the first time . Tim Flock was the first winner . Junior Johnson, who won the circuit championship in Hickory in 1952, was to become the most successful NASCAR driver on this circuit. He won seven races at Hickory as part of the Grand National Series.

In 1955, the Hickory Motor Speedway was reconfigured and the lap length was 0.4 miles and 0.64 km. In 1967 the loose ground was replaced by an asphalt lane and in 1970 the course was shortened further to a length of 0.363 miles or 0.584 km.

After the 1972 season, Hickory was removed from the Grand Nation Series racing calendar when the RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company became the main sponsor of the series, which began under the name Winston Cup in 1972. Associated with the sponsorship was that all races with a race distance of less than 250 miles were removed from the calendar. NASCAR stayed true to the course and hosted races of the Late Model Sportsman Series in Hickory. After the series was converted into the Budweiser Late Model Series in 1982, the Hickory Motor Speedway played an important role in the first season of the new series: Six of the total of 28 races were held in Hickory. The most successful drivers of the series on this circuit include Jack Ingram and Tommy Houston , both of whom have won eight times each.

After the racing series spread to other racetracks, the number of annual races decreased to two in 1987. In 1995 there was only one race of the now Busch Grand National Series racing series. When the races were increasingly relocated to the Winston Cup tracks in 1998, the Hickory Motor Speedway was deleted from the racing calendar after 17 years.

Even though none of the top divisions drive the Hickory Motor Speedway anymore, NASCAR continues to race the circuit with the Whelen All-American Series . The program also includes a USAR Hooters Pro Cup race .

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