For four decades, visitors to The Rock left with souvenirs and memories. On Tuesday afternoon, someone will leave with the deed. And no one has the faintest idea who it might be or how much it will cost them.
“I’ve heard and read what you’ve heard and read,” says Rockingham mayor Gene McLaurin. “We’ve met with some interested people and I’ve talked to every racing official that I can get in touch with. But I don’t think anyone truly knows what will happen at the auction until we get there.”
How we got there in the first place is a long, winding trail of gasoline, politics and money.
Rise and Fall of The Rock
The North Carolina Motor Speedway was born in 1965, when Harold Brasington, the man who built the Darlington Raceway just 50 miles to the south, decided to construct another quirky racetrack in the Sandhills region of the Carolinas. The inaugural American 500 was a brutally tough event, won by aging racing god Curtis Turner, his crowning moment of an amazing comeback.
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