Construction began on April 25, 1964, on a 175-acre plot near U.S. Route 1 and North Carolina Highway 177, led by Darlington Raceway founder Harold Brasington and businessman W. R. "Bill" Land. The project, described as a "well-kept secret" during construction, cost approximately $1,000,000 and was financed by a group of eleven investors headed by attorney Elsie Webb. Webb's group included Brasington, Dr. George Galloway, L. G. DeWitt, L. V. Hogan, and several others. Original plans included a 1-mile paved oval, a half-mile dirt oval, and a half-mile drag strip.
The track officially opened on October 27, 1965, for qualifying ahead of its inaugural event, the American 500, a NASCAR Grand National Series race held on October 31. Curtis Turner won that race. In September 1965, prior to the public opening, testing sessions were held with Darel Dieringer and Bobby Isaac; David Pearson subsequently set an official world record lap of 113.175 mph (182.138 km/h) on a mile-long oval.
In 1969, the track surface was repaved and the banking was steepened: turns one and two to 22°, turns three and four to 25°, and the straights to 8°. After crashes in the first race on the new surface attributed to rainy-weather roughness, a second repave was completed by February 1970. The track's length was later measured at 0.94 mi (1.51 km) after a further repave completed in late 2022.
A 1.5-mile (2.4 km) road course combining infield sections with parts of the oval was completed in December 1977. A 0.526-mile (0.847 km) replica of Martinsville Speedway named "Little Rock" was constructed outside the main oval in 2008, becoming popular for NASCAR team testing after NASCAR banned testing at race venues.
Elsie Webb served as president and general manager from 1966. An air-conditioned experimental grandstand near the press box was completed in June 1967. In 1969, plans to extend the oval to 1.5 miles were scrapped after Webb consulted with drivers. Webb died on January 18, 1972, from ulcer surgery complications.
Nine days after Webb's death, NASCAR team owner and peach farmer L. G. DeWitt was elected president. Developments were slow initially. In 1977, a sealant was applied to the worn surface ahead of the Carolina 500; drivers widely criticised it for making the track too slippery, and multiple wrecks were blamed on it. Sealant was continued for cost reasons until a full repave in 1985 for the Nationwise 500. In 1984, NCMS purchased the nearby Rockingham Dragway. Grandstand expansions through the mid-to-late 1980s eventually brought peak seating to approximately 60,122. L. G. DeWitt died on October 9, 1990; Frank Wilson was elected his replacement nine days later.
By the mid-1990s, the track was consistently among the lowest-attended on the NASCAR schedule. In 1995, Speedway Motorsports, Inc. (SMI) founder Bruton Smith purchased a 24–25% interest and Roger Penske purchased less than 2%. A bidding war followed in 1997: Penske offered $29.4 million, Smith countered at $48.3 million, Penske raised to nearly $41 million, Smith to $72 million. Majority shareholder Carrie DeWitt refused Smith's offer, fearing the track would be abandoned as North Wilkesboro Speedway had been, and Penske secured her stock. The North Carolina Business Court dismissed a lawsuit Smith filed against Penske in November 1997; Penske Motorsports officially merged with NCMS a month later. In February 1998, the track was renamed North Carolina Speedway. Frontstretch grandstands were rebuilt and the backstretch Hamlet Grandstand was replaced with a 28,021-seat structure, bringing capacity to 60,122. In May 1999, Penske Motorsports merged with the International Speedway Corporation (ISC).
By 2003, declining attendance and competition from newer facilities such as Texas Motor Speedway and Kansas Speedway had put the track's Cup date at risk. The Ferko lawsuit, filed by a minority SMI shareholder alleging NASCAR and ISC had violated an implied agreement to give Texas Motor Speedway a second Cup date, was settled on May 14, 2004; the settlement awarded the remaining Rockingham Cup date to Texas Motor Speedway. SMI purchased the facility for $100.4 million. No NASCAR events were scheduled in subsequent years; the track was used for filming, testing, and driving schools.
SMI auctioned the track in October 2007; NASCAR driver Andy Hillenburg won the auction with a bid of $4.4 million. The facility was renamed Rockingham Speedway. The backstretch grandstands were removed and later installed at the ZMax Dragway. ARCA Re/Max Series races were added in 2008, with Joey Logano winning the inaugural event on May 4. Little Rock was completed the same year. ARCA raced at the facility until 2011. The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series returned on April 15, 2012, with Kasey Kahne winning; another Truck Series race was held in 2013. In October 2013, NASCAR announced a second departure after the track failed to meet financial obligations. In 2014, a Richmond County Superior Court order placed the speedway under a managing agent after Hillenburg and co-owner Bill Silas were found to owe Farmers and Merchants Bank more than $4.5 million.
An auction was approved in October 2014 with a March 2015 deadline. Disabled veterans charity Vets-Help obtained a lease and set a racing schedule for 2016, but by April 2016 the organisation's lease was terminated with no races run. The facility was listed for sale in November 2016 at $3.795 million.
On August 30, 2018, a group led by Dan Lovenheim purchased the speedway for $2.8 million. Lovenheim announced plans to develop a multi-use complex focused on auto racing and music festivals. North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper proposed $8 million in state funding in 2019; the General Assembly approved $9 million in November 2021. The Epicenter Festival in 2019 was the first major event since 2013. Drifting competitions were held in 2021. A full repave of the oval began in October 2022 and was completed two months later, remeasuring the circuit at 0.94 mi. Grandstand and catchfence renovations were completed by June 2023. The infield road course was repaved in early 2024. On August 29, 2024, NASCAR announced its return for the 2025 season with NASCAR Xfinity Series and Truck Series events. On May 28, 2025, the speedway was reported to be listed for sale again.
On December 31, 2025, IHRA announced its purchase of the facility for an undisclosed price. IHRA owner Darryl Cuttell stated intentions to expand racing events and improve amenities.
The track hosts the O'Reilly Series' North Carolina Education Lottery 250 and the Truck Series' Black's Tire 200. Cup Series events formerly held at the track included the Subway 400 and the Pop Secret Microwave Popcorn 400.
Non-racing events have included the Peach Tree Celebration rock festival in August 1972, attended by approximately 70,000 people; the Carolina Rebellion in 2012; the Epicenter festival in 2019; and Tailgate N' Tallboys in 2023. The facility has appeared in the films Days of Thunder, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, and Ta Ra Rum Pum, and hosted the 2011 World's Strongest Man competition.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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