ROCKINGHAM — The Richmond County Board of Commissioners is holding an emergency meeting later this week regarding local funding for Rockingham Speedway.
Board Clerk Dena Cook on Monday issued a public notice stating that one of the items on the agenda for the meeting on Thursday is “a request that Richmond County agree to commit County funds of approximately $375,000 through a loan/grant to help facilitate the completion of a transaction involving the Rockingham Speedway and future NASCAR events.”
The Rock hosted its first NASCAR event in more than a decade this past April with races in the Craftsman Truck and Xfinity series, as well as one in the ARCA Menards Series East.
Track Enterprises was the promoter for the race weekend.
The Sandhills reportedly saw an economic impact of nearly $40 million from the NASCAR races. More than half of that was in Moore County.
Before this year, NASCAR previously held truck series races in 2012 and 2013, and the last Xfinity and Cup series races were in 2004.
Less than two months after the race, the track was listed for sale by CBRE Group, an international real estate and investment firm. The asking price — added later — is $12 million.
Aluminum bleachers at the track have also been listed for sale on Facebook Marketplace for $12,000 per section.
Screenshot from Facebook Marketplace
Rockingham Properties purchased the property in August of 2018 for $2.8 million, and the track started hosting events in early 2021.
Millions of dollars have been spent on renovations, including paving both the main oval and the infield road course and the installation of new SAFER barriers — the latter of which changed the track’s size from just over a mile to a little less than a mile.
The state allocated $9 million to the county in 2021 “for water and sewer and related infrastructure projects” at the speedway.
In late 2023, Commissioner Justin Dawkins dissented in a vote to allocate some of the funding due to what he saw as an ethics violation.
Rockingham Properties and Carolina Design and Construction — the contractor awarded the renovation work — both are listed as companies on the website for Oak City Group — among others — with Dan (or Daniel) Lovenheim named manager or registered agent in records with the N.C. Secretary of State.
In late 2024, the track received $300,000 — from funds that had previously been set aside for a pedestrian bridge — for continued improvements. Rockingham Dragway received $1.7 million from that allocation.
Also during the emergency meeting, the board is set to approve a renewal for an existing contract with YoungWilliams, INC for child support collection enforcement.
The meeting is scheduled for 1 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 21 at the Richmond County Airport. It is open to the public, but seating is limited.
NOTE: This story has been updated to include "k" after the dollar amount in the headline. 6 p.m. 8-18-25.
NOTE: This story has been updated to correct the clerk's name. 7:03 p.m. 8-18-25.
