ROCKINGHAM — Classic stock cars and Allison Legacy Racing return to Rockingham Speedway and Entertainment Complex on March 4 for the track’s second annual open house.
The speedway on Tuesday announced several of the scheduled selections for this year’s event.
The Allison Legacy Race Series will kick off its season at the Rock with a race around the roval, which includes both the main track and the infield road course.
The Allison Legacy cars — which are three-quarter-sized NASCAR Cup car replicas with a five-speed transmission and Mazda truck engine — were designed by the sons of former NASCAR driver Donnie Allison.
Allison, who will be back signing autographs, won two races at the Rock, in 1968 and 1977. His brother Bobby boasts four wins at the track (1967, 1972, 1979 and 1984) and his nephew, the late Davey Allison, took the checkered flag in ‘91.
Rockingham Speedway’s Justin Jones said the drivers liked the track last year.
Click here to read about last year’s race and Open House.
Stock Car Classics is slated to have more than 30 cars on display and put on an exhibition “race” around the newly repaved track with four 30-minute sessions, according to Jones.
The best view, Jones said, will be from the grandstands, and an announcement will be made prior to each run so attendees can take their seats before the runs.
Jones added that it will be “very nostalgic” and have the sight, smell and feel of a ‘90s-era Cup race.
The official pace car from the late Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s final race at the Rock in ‘96 will also be there, Jones said, adding that there may be a few more guests to join the event.
The speedway will be selling new merchandise, including shirts and hats, during the event.
Last year’s Open House drew a crowd of about 3,500 and Jones said he’s expecting more than 6,000 this year.
Admission and parking for the event, which will also include a DJ and food trucks, will be free.
Jones said the open house will be “just a great day for the community to come out.”
Although the track has been back in business since 2001, there is renewed hype following the first repave in decades and the inclusion of the Rock in the state’s Moonshine and Motorsports Trail.
Click here to read about the Moonshine and Motorsports Trail.
Although it is too late to be added to NASCAR’s 2023 schedule, Jones, fans, Richmond County residents and officials, and others in the racing world are hoping the sanctioning body will return to the Rock in 2024.
Another revived North Carolina Track, North Wilkesboro Speedway, will host the All Star Race for NASCAR’s 75th anniversary — the first Cup event at that track in nearly 30 years.
The last NASCAR event at Rockingham was a truck race in 2013, won by Kyle Larson, and the last Cup race was in 2004, won by Matt Kenseth.
The track, formerly North Carolina Motor Speedway and North Carolina Speedway, has been a favorite of fans and drivers since it opened in 1965 — including former driver Rusty Wallace.
Wallace, who snagged five wins at the Rock between 1988 and 1994 and holds the record for fastest lap, was at the speedway last week for the Moonshine and Motorsports Trail kick-off.
“I just hope they can get something going on out here at the track again,” Wallace told the RO. “It’s been repaved, it’s beautiful … If you look at what’s happened at North Wilkesboro, there’s no reason that can’t happen here also.”
In 2018, several months after the track was purchased for $2.8 million, Rockingham Speedway won a Twitter poll from NASCAR on NBC asking at which historic track fans would rather NASCAR return. The other two choices were North Wilkesboro or Nashville Fairgrounds.
Out of 5,913 total votes, The Rock garnered 50 percent of the vote, while North Wilkesboro and Nashville received 26 and 20 percent respectively.
