The most recent NASCAR Cup Series winners at North Wilkesboro Speedway are a veritable who’s who of racing stars — not from the recent past, but from the sport’s 1990s heyday.
The fourth-most recent driver to earn checkers on the 5/8th-mile speedway? Dale Earnhardt.
Not Dale Earnhardt Jr., who never raced the Nos. 8 or 88 in a points race at the legendary facility, but his legendary father.
In the final race before the track gates were locked in October 1996, Jeff Gordon won after Hendrick teammate Terry Labonte did five months earlier. Before that, it was Mark Martin and Earnhardt, with the latter comfortably beating Gordon by nearly 13 1/2 seconds.
That’s a strong foursome of Hall of Famers.
Returning to the Cup schedule after three decades, NWS will host its first points-paying race in Sunday night’s Window World 450 in North Wilkesboro, N.C.
Earnhardt Jr. was instrumental in bringing the downhill-uphill track back to life in December 2019 when he wanted to clean it and scan it for the iRacing platform before the bullring just crumbled.
Then he contacted Marcus Smith, CEO of Speedway Motorsports Inc., about bringing the track the Staley family owned for nearly half a century back to life.
“I’m looking around and thinking, ‘This track is too far gone,'” Earnhardt Jr. said in 2023 of the cleanup project that involved mowing and weed-eating.
Less than four years after that restoration began, NASCAR awarded the track the 2023 All-Star Race, which Kyle Larson dominated by lapping half of the 24-car field and beating runner-up Bubba Wallace by almost five seconds.
Joey Logano claimed the exhibition race in 2024, one remembered more for Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kyle Busch throwing fists behind the haulers. Christopher Bell was victorious last season.
Ryan Blaney found himself Sunday back where he left off early Monday morning in Atlanta: Out front.
After winning at EchoPark Speedway in Hampton, Ga., late last weekend, the No. 12 Team Penske Ford driver was awarded the pole following a bad spell of rain.
The washout puts Blaney on the front row with the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Ty Gibbs after the latter beat Blaney at Bristol Motor Speedway for his first Cup victory in April.
Bell, Carson Hocevar and Tyler Reddick will round out the first five qualifiers.
Once ruined, the speedway has been transformed by a roots revival decades after it hosted its first event — a dirt race in 1947, before NASCAR was born.
The two-time Cup champ Larson is carrying the burden of an 0-for-44 slump, while Bell and Chris Buescher are also winless in 2026.
“Nobody knows what to expect going into North Wilkesboro with a full field and twice as long of a race,” said Bell, who last won at Bristol in September. “The track’s going to take a ton of rubber, and it’s going to change tremendously from the start of the race to the end of the race.
“The racing on track is going to be wild. I can’t imagine having a full field at North Wilkesboro Speedway for the first time in 30 years; it’s going to be something you don’t want to miss.”
Buescher said many factors will determine the first winner of a points race since Gordon’s triumph 30 years ago.
“It’s going to be a wild one. Pit road’s tight, that’s going to be a tricky part of it,” said Buescher, seventh in the standings. “But it’s such a cool racetrack with so much character, so much history to it.”
–Field Level Media
