Enoch Staley attended a stock car race in Spartanburg, South Carolina in 1945 and was immediately captivated. He purchased a plot of land from Lawson Curry and partnered with Curry, John Mastin, Jack Combs, Charlie Combs, and Bill France Sr. to build the facility, each investing $1,500. Funding ran out during grading, leaving the track shorter than planned and uneven in elevation — the frontstretch descends downhill while the backstretch runs uphill, an asymmetry that defines the circuit to this day. Originally a dirt track, NWS was paved in September 1957. Banking stands at 13 degrees in the turns and 3 degrees on the straights.
The track opened officially on May 18, 1947, drawing approximately 10,000 spectators. Fonty Flock won the first modified feature race. Two years later, France's newly formed NASCAR Strictly Stock Series — now the Cup Series — added it to the schedule.
North Wilkesboro was considered the "Moonshine Capital of the World" by the 1950s. Many of the men who built early NASCAR were former moonshine runners from Wilkes County, and NWS was the physical intersection of that world and professional motorsport. In 1965, the track and local native Junior Johnson — a former moonshine runner turned NASCAR champion — were featured in a Tom Wolfe article in Esquire, a piece widely credited with spreading knowledge of NASCAR far beyond its core Southeastern audience. A grandstand at the track was later named in Johnson's honor.
By the early 1990s, NASCAR was exploding in national popularity and moving toward large, modern facilities in new markets. North Wilkesboro, with its dilapidated infrastructure, rotary-dial press phones, and grandstand of roughly 34,000 actual seats, was struggling to keep pace. After Enoch Staley died in May 1995, motorsports businessman Bruton Smith bought the Combs family's half-interest for $6.05 million, intending to transfer a race date to his new Texas Motor Speedway. New Hampshire track owner Bob Bahre then purchased the Staley family's half-interest for $8 million, wanting to move the other date to New Hampshire.
The two new co-owners fell into a bitter dispute over control. The track's last points-paying Cup Series race — the 1996 Tyson Holly Farms 400 — was run on September 29, 1996, and the facility was officially closed in January 1997. All employees were laid off, with one exception: longtime worker Paul Call negotiated a deal to live on the property as caretaker, mowing the grass and occasionally guiding curious visitors through the ruins for nearly two decades.
Throughout the 2000s, revival attempts repeatedly failed. Junior Johnson led a group that tried to purchase the track but was rebuffed by Bahre. SMI eventually bought full control in 2007 when Bahre retired from motorsports. Bruton Smith showed little interest in reinvestment, and the facility deteriorated severely — grandstands collapsed, buildings caved in, suites were damaged. In 2017, the derelict track served as the inspiration for the fictional Thomasville Speedway in the Disney/Pixar film Cars 3.
In late 2019, Dale Earnhardt Jr. persuaded Marcus Smith — Bruton's successor at SMI — to allow racing simulator iRacing to laser-scan the facility for digital preservation. The scan was added to the simulator in May 2020, reigniting public interest.
In 2021, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper included $18 million for NWS in a state budget package, which the General Assembly passed. The funding allowed SMI to begin demolishing the most deteriorated structures while preserving historically significant ones — including suites and a Winston cigarettes mural from the pre-closure era. Renovation announcements accelerated through 2022, including new SAFER barriers, lighting systems, and sewer infrastructure.
Racing resumed on August 2, 2022, with a grassroots multi-class event drawing an estimated 9,000 spectators. Shortly after, NASCAR announced it would move its All-Star Race exhibition from Texas Motor Speedway to North Wilkesboro — a symbolic return of a date that Bruton Smith had transferred to Texas in 1996. The NASCAR Cup Series returned for points-paying races in May 2023, the first such events in 27 years. The track was repaved in late 2023 and the work was completed by March 2024.
As of 2023, the track has a stated capacity of 25,000, down from a peak of 55,000 in the 1990s. Current events include the Window World 450 (Cup Series) and the Window World 250 (Craftsman Truck Series). The track retains a deliberately vintage aesthetic alongside modern safety improvements.