Smith spoke Thursday night at the Wilkes County (N.C.) Chamber of Commerce’s 75th membership celebration.
“The future of North Wilkesboro Speedway is bright,” he said. “There is a great opportunity to revive this fantastic venue to be, not just a race track, but a place that can host lots of events, a place that people will come to from far away and enjoy the community, enjoy the region and enjoy special events.”
The track hosted its first NASCAR Cup Series race in 1949. Jeff Gordon, now an executive at Hendrick Motorsports and NASCAR Hall of Fame member, won the final NASCAR race at the track in 1996.
Local volunteer groups have spent months cleaning up the area around the 75-year-old race track. The N.C. state budget passed in November included $18 million toward infrastructure improvements at the historic 0.625-mile facility.
“We specifically – and I’ll thank Marcus Lemonis, the CEO of Camping World, for his voice of support – we specifically think it’s a…
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