Rockingham Speedway

**Rockingham Speedway**
The Rock
1965–1996: North Carolina Motor Speedway
1996–2007: North Carolina Speedway
	Rockingham , North Carolina , USA
Route type:	permanent race track
Owner:	Speedway Motorsports Inc.
Operator:	Andy Hillenburg
Architect:	Harold Brasington ; Bill Land
Opening:	1965
Speedway oval
	D oval
	Route data
Important ; events:	ARCA Racing Series , Camping World Truck Series
Route length:	1,637 km (1.02 mi )
Curve superelevation:	Curves: 22 ° and 25 °, ; straight lines: 8 °
Audience capacity:	60.113
	http://www.rockinghamracewaypark.com/

34.974166666667 -79.610277777778Coordinates: 34 ° 58 ′ 27 " N , 79 ° 36 ′ 37" W.

The Rockingham Speedway is a race track in Rockingham , North Carolina . NASCAR races have been held on the Speedway, also known as "The Rock", since 1965 . Due to the antitrust lawsuit brought by Francis Ferko , an owner of the Texas Motor Speedway , he lost all of his races to other racetracks. Since then, it has served as a base for the Buck Baker racing school and for tests by NASCAR teams. The course, formerly known as the North Carolina Speedway, is often used for television and feature film shoots, e.g. B. for 3: The Dale Earnhardt Story or Ricky Bobby - King of Racing Drivers .

The circuit opened as the North Carolina Motor Speedway in 1965 as a flat oval one mile long. In 1969 it was extensively reconfigured into a D-shaped oval with a strong curve superelevation and a length of just over a mile. The surface itself is quite rough compared to other NASCAR tracks due to the high proportion of sand in the materials used for the asphalting work. The tires of the racing cars are heavily used as a result and wear is correspondingly high. Because of these characteristics, tire management is more crucial in the race than on other racetracks.

In 1997, North Carolina Motor Speedway merged with Penske Motorsports and was renamed North Carolina Speedway. Shortly afterwards the infield was reconfigured, after which there were no more races on the course in the infield.

history

As part of the 1999 acquisition of Penske's Speedways, the route became the property of International Speedway Corporation . After the 2003 season, the fall race was transferred to California Speedway , which is also owned by International Speedway Corporation. The reason was the poor number of visitors. So there was only the race at the end of February, which was not particularly popular because of the unpredictable weather conditions. The date was moved forward from a later spring date when the Richmond International Raceway requested a later date in 1992 after the races there had already been postponed twice due to snow in the 1980s. Rumors made the rounds that the remaining date was also at stake as several new tracks in warmer regions scrambled for the race.

While there has been speculation that the 2004 season might be the last at North Carolina Speedway, this season's race wasn't sold out. Around 10,000 places remained empty in the last NASCAR race on February 22, 2004. In that final race, Matt Kenseth won by just 0.010 seconds over newcomer Kasey Kahne . This race, which ended as one of the tightest in NASCAR history, was viewed by many fans as one of the best races of the season.

As a result of Francis Ferko's antitrust lawsuit and the dwindling number of visitors, the speedway's situation changed dramatically. International Speedway Corporation sold the North Carolina Speedway to Speedway Motorsports and the remaining race moved to the Texas Motor Speedway . The fans saw the situation a little differently, however, as the prestigious Southern 500 from Darlington Raceway was removed from the calendar in favor of a second race in Texas and the race went from North Carolina Speedway to Phoenix International Raceway . Speedway Motorsports agreed not to run a NASCAR race on the Speedway at the time of sale while it is in their possession.

On October 2, 2007, the North Carolina Speedway was auctioned off. Former racing driver Andy Hillenburg bought the circuit for $ 4.4 million. At the same time it was renamed Rockingham Speedway. Since then, races of lower racing series have been held there.

In 2012, a Nascar race took place for the first time since 2004, the Good Sam Roadside Assistance Carolina 200 of the Camping World Truck Series .

Test drives

North Carolina Speedway became a test track for many teams in the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series after NASCAR put new restrictions on testing to save money. After the track was removed from the racing calendar, the teams began testing racing cars and engines, especially to simulate the high level of tire wear that occurs on certain other tracks. After NASCAR banned testing on all active tracks in the Sprint Cup in 2006 with the exception of mid-season open testing, testing in Rockingham became critical. Especially for the Pep Boys Auto 500 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway , which is part of the Chase for the Sprint Cup , the Rockingham Speedway is used for testing.

The race track was also used for extensive tests of the new racing car in the Sprint Cup, the Car of Tomorrow . Michael Waltrip Racing , for example, tested the new Toyota Camry in mid-September 2006 and Elliott Sadler tested a Dodge Avenger in November 2006.

Web links

Statistics on racing-reference.info

Commons : Rockingham Speedway - collection of pictures, videos and audio files