“I think it was fantastic,” said Rockingham City Manager Monty Crump. “To see the green flag wave again and the fans in the stands was fantastic. I saw a good smattering of local folks and I saw a lot of folks that I didn’t know. I think they got good local support.”
The track hadn’t hosted a race since the last NASCAR event in 2004. It was purchased by Andy Hillenburg in October, who quickly put an American Race Car Association (ARCA) event on the calendar.
“It’s our first try,” Hillenburg said. “I’ve only been running the race track for six months. And to pull off a major event, I think we did OK for our first try.”
Hillenburg estimated the attendance at between 16,000 and 19,000 — numbers he said he was pleased with.
“I didn’t purchase Rockingham to make a million dollars,” he said. “I did it to bring racing back to a track that deserves to be racing.”
Not everything went so smoothly, though.
“If you ask me, the race they had there was a whole lot better than NASCAR is now,” Crump said. “I have to give the credit to Andy. As for everything, I think it went a whole lot smoother than any NASCAR race I’ve ever been to and I’ve been to a lot.”
Race winner Joey Logano called the speedway “one of his favorite tracks” and NASCAR veteran Ken Schrader, who finished second, raved about coming back to The Rock.
“I forgot how much fun this place is,” he said. “This is a fun race track. I was glad to see it back open, that’s for sure.”
There were plenty of other big names in the sport on hand for the event as well. Two-time Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart waved the green flag, his crew chief Greg Zipodeli drove the pace car at the start and NASCAR legends Bobby and Donnie Allison did a live interview in the infield during the pre-race ceremonies.
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