{"id":227737,"date":"2025-10-20T20:58:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T20:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/227737\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T20:58:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T20:58:11","slug":"iconic-speedway-track-and-one-of-first-nascar-circuits-ever-used-reopens-to-public-as-historic-walking-trail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/227737\/","title":{"rendered":"Iconic speedway track and one of first Nascar circuits ever used reopens to public as historic walking trail"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A LEGENDARY Nascar speedway track has reopened to the public as a historic walking trail.<\/p>\n

The trail, which resides in Hillsborough, North Carolina, still shows remnants of the former circuit.<\/p>\n

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The Occoneechee Speedway was a dirt track that ran NASCAR Cup Series races for nearly 20 yearsCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

The site is now a walking trail and features numerous rusting carsCredit: Alamy<\/p>\n

Occoneechee Speedway<\/a> held 32 Cup Series races for 19 years.<\/p>\n

It was originally a horse racing<\/a> track in 1947, before it was converted into a speedway by Bill France Sr., the founder of Nascar, per the\u00a0North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But in 1968, the one-mile track closed and sat dormant for several decades.<\/p>\n

Then, in 2003, a year after The Speedway was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, it became a walking trail.<\/p>\n

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‘wild ride’<\/p>\n

Terrifying moment NASCAR driver slams into and slides along barrier at 200mph<\/p>\n

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NAS-TY SHOCK<\/p>\n

Nascar ratings plummeting as F1 on track to be America’s No1 for first time<\/p>\n

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Nascar<\/a> fans and others can walk along the trees and across the clay track.<\/p>\n

There is a concrete grandstand and a concessions stand.<\/p>\n

And there are old cars and an official\u2019s podium, which still remains.<\/p>\n

The trail is four miles long and takes you along the banks of the Eno River.<\/p>\n

Fans can walk around the only surviving dirt speedway from NASCAR\u2019s inaugural 1949 season.<\/p>\n

The track played host to one of the eight races in Nascar\u2019s first year, when the series was known as the Strictly Stock Series.<\/p>\n

Bob Flock drove his 1948 Oldsmobile to victory at the 200-mile race and won $5,000 in prize money, per Racing Reference<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The track had numerous Hall of Famers be part of its list of winners, including Lee Petty, his son, Richard Petty, Ned Jarrett, Joe Weatherly, and Fireball Roberts.<\/p>\n

In 1968, Richard Petty drove his 1968 Plymouth to victory in what was the track\u2019s final Cup Series race.<\/p>\n

The closure of the track was due to pressure from clergies, who reportedly \u201cdidn\u2019t like the Sunday races,\u201d per the NCDCR.<\/p>\n

The track is on the National Register of Historic PlacesCredit: Instagram \/ @nicholette_shea29<\/p>\n

The walking trail isn\u2019t the only memory of the former track.<\/p>\n

The Thomasville Speedway in Pixar\u2019s Cars 3 was reportedly inspired by Occoneechee Speedway.<\/p>\n

And the North Carolina track was the subject of an episode of Dale Earnhardt Jr.\u2019s Peacock show Lost Speedways.<\/p>\n

The concession stand of the former track still stands todayCredit: Instagram \/ @archer3225\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A LEGENDARY Nascar speedway track has reopened to the public as a historic walking trail. The trail, which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-227737","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nascar","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}