Business was booming at the restaurant where everybody knew your name.
It was the Captain’s Table, an esteemed eatery located in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. On NASCAR race weekends at nearby North Wilkesboro Speedway, the restaurant served not only its local regulars but also the invading hordes of drivers, mechanics, other team personnel and fans—even journalists—in town for the twice-yearly circus that was the Cup Series of the day.
Curiously enough, the women who ran the restaurant seemed to remember every visitor from spring to fall, including drivers (who were, of course, easier to recognize), NASCAR personnel, crew members, and the assorted individuals who populate work areas every weekend at speedways from sea to shining sea.
Back in that other time, almost every NASCAR track had a nearby restaurant that was a favorite of the weary travelers who rolled into town on race weekends. For many in NASCAR, the Table, which was basically a Southern-style fishcamp with a busy menu, was that place in North Wilkesboro.
Not far away stood the Williams Motel, a weekend home to people working at the track. Unlike the chain hotels which serve the NASCAR traveling public at most other speedway locations, the Williams was a mom-and-pop place from another era. You parked in front of the door to your room, which opened onto a space furnished by furniture that appeared to be turn-of-the-century (the 20th, not the 21st). You didn’t collect hotel “points” for staying there, but the proprietors were friendly and more than happy to have every room occupied.
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The field gets the one lap to go signal prior to the start of a NASCAR Cup race at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Eventual winner Buck Baker in a Ford (#87) has the pole, with Herb Thomas in a Chevrolet on the outside of row one. The track wasn’t paved until 1957.
From 1949 to 1996, North Wilkesboro Speedway was a staple on the Cup Series schedule. Names like Bob Flock, Herb Thomas, Speedway Thompson, Buck Baker, Fireball Roberts, and Lee Petty won races there. Junior Johnson, who grew up on the edge of the nearby Brushy Mountains, was also a Wilkesboro race winner, but he was so much more than that to the local fans. For many, he WAS North Wilkesboro, and if you didn’t root for him or his team drivers, you might upset the balance of life in the grandstands (one of which was named for Junior).
Johnson was of the same blood and history of North Wilkesboro residents but had hauled his name into big and bright lights because of a singular ability to drive cars fast, not only on race tracks but also on the mountain back roads, which he mastered delivering moonshine from the Johnson family’s liquor operation. He became legend. And a NASCAR Hall of Famer.
To challenge Junior in his home territory was folly.
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Junior Johnson wins at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Johnson had the best year of his Cup career, taking down 13 victories, including both races held at North Wilkesboro in 1965.
The Wilkesboro stories will reach a new generation this weekend with the return of Cup Series point racing to the old track after a 30-year drought. The last point race was held September 29, 1996, and, perhaps appropriately, it was won by Jeff Gordon, the perfect example of the New Order as old North Wilkesboro faded away. He won the race by 1.73 seconds over Dale Earnhardt. There were only 11 drivers on the lead lap at race’s end.
The track was run down and clearly inadequate to continue to accommodate major-league racing in the modern era.
Left were memories of shining moments: Geoff Bodine lapping the field to win in 1994. Terry Labonte tying Richard Petty’s consecutive-start record in the spring race in 1996, then winning it. Bobby Allison and Petty slamming into each other numerous times in a race in 1972, Petty eventually winning as Allison’s car showed smoke.
When they turned out the lights following Gordon’s win in 1996, the track was in such decline that very few people assumed NASCAR would ever return. The property fell into neglect, and only the efforts of a dedicated army of locals and other devotees, including Dale Earnhardt Jr., returned it to something resembling life support. Eventually, the never-give-up attitude of people who loved the track and Earnhardt’s continuing emphasis on restoring it to life returned racing—and soon NASCAR—to the facility.
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After special events, this weekend the real thing—an honest-to-goodness Cup Series point race—returns with the Window World 450. Wonders never cease.
“The racing on track is going to be wild,” said Christopher Bell. “I can’t imagine having a full field at North Wilkesboro Speedway for the first time in 30 years.”
Chris Buescher was involved in some of the cleanup work.
“I’d driven by it on my way to Bristol every year and I knew how bad a shape it was in from the road,” he said. “We got there, and I remember Dale riding around on the street sweeper just making laps and smiling ear to ear covered in mud basically. It was nasty. It was cold.
“It’s pretty remarkable to see where it’s gotten to now. It’s been such a fun racetrack to be on, whether it was the old surface or the new. It’s going to be a fun night race, a long race, as well. There are a lot of cool things coming there, but it’s really neat to see where it’s gotten to, but I had no clue that was even a possibility while we were there.
“The fan involvement there has been fantastic. The stories that you get from people that remember going there back in the day and those that didn’t understand it and had to see it for themselves. It’s pretty wild, but that was definitely something that I don’t believe would have come around without him (Earnhardt) really pushing.”
This weekend in North Wilkesboro, the circus is back in town.
Mike Hembree has covered auto racing for numerous media outlets, including USA Today, NASCAR Scene, NBC Sports, The Greenville News and the SPEED Channel. He has been roaming garage areas and pit roads for decades (although the persistent rumor that he covered the first Indianapolis 500 is not true). Winner of numerous motorsports and other media awards, he also has covered virtually every other major sport. He lives near Gaffney, South Carolina and can be convinced to attend Bruce Springsteen concerts if you have tickets.