When NASCAR returned the All-Star Race to North Wilkesboro Speedway in 2023, the move resonated immediately with fans, drivers, and teams. The response felt like a homecoming, and much of the public credit landed with Dale Earnhardt Jr., whose long-standing efforts helped breathe life back into the historic venue.
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Yet, in the wake of recent message revelations and renewed discussion, questions surfaced about NASCAR’s urgency in reclaiming the track, particularly amid speculation that the sanctioning body wanted to move first before Dale Jr. brought one of his cars or a dirt racing series there.
On a recent episode of The Dale Jr. Download, Junior addressed that notion directly and made it clear that NASCAR played no role in reviving the speedway.
North Wilkesboro never fully disappeared from the racing map. While it lacked modern infrastructure, the track remained active on the Late Model circuit. Fans continued to show up in meaningful numbers despite those limitations, a detail that did not go unnoticed by Dale Jr. Recognizing that sustained interest, he decided to lean into it rather than let the momentum fade.
In 2019, Dale Jr. took the first concrete step. He approached Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith to request access to prepare the track for iRacing scans. With approval granted, he did more than oversee the process.
He worked alongside the crew, helping get the racing surface ready. That hands-on effort delivered immediate results. North Wilkesboro became a popular destination on the iRacing platform, and with each virtual lap, calls for a real-world return grew louder.
As enthusiasm continued to build, Smith approved a CARS Tour event at the venue in 2022. The race, branded as the “Racetrack Revival,” marked a turning point as Dale Jr. climbed back into a Late Model himself, and his presence on track added credibility and urgency to the movement. That strengthened the argument that North Wilkesboro could once again host national-level competition.
Within months, the speedway earned a place on the calendar as the All-Star Race host during NASCAR’s 75th anniversary season. From there, restoration efforts accelerated. According to Junior, however, the credit for that revival belongs elsewhere.
He pointed to Marcus Smith and financial support from the state of North Carolina’s Build Back Better fund as the driving forces behind the project. Dale Jr. addressed the subject candidly, saying,
“There is a lot of stuff about NASCAR in all of this that I don’t know. I don’t know everything about how they run things, and I certainly didn’t know how they felt about some things, and how these text messages have unveiled some things. But I’ll tell you what I do know, is that North Wilkesboro came back because of Marcus Smith … NASCAR, you know, they didn’t play any role.”
He explained that NASCAR’s involvement only comes after track ownership presents a finished product. In his words, NASCAR would respond when Marcus Smith says, “Man, I’ve got this track back together, I want to put it on the schedule,” at which point the sanctioning body simply agrees.
Dale Jr. stressed that NASCAR never initiated the revival. “NASCAR never was going, ‘Guys, we gotta get Wilkesboro going,’” he said, clarifying that his comments were not intended as a slight. He credited the collective effort behind the scenes, including state and local government support, the town itself, and volunteers who spent two decades maintaining the property.
Even basic tasks, such as maintaining the grass for twenty years, helped preserve the track enough for a return to be possible. Those contributions, Dale Jr. said, deserve recognition.
That view echoed within his own family. Kelley Earnhardt-Miller added that her brother earned significant credit for bringing the CARS Tour to North Wilkesboro and for racing in an event that drew 20,000 fans before NASCAR and Speedway Motorsports officially placed the All-Star Race on the schedule.
