While Dale Earnhardt Jr. is all in for the possibility of a points-paying NASCAR Cup race at one of his favorite racetracks, North Wilkesboro Speedway, you can count Kyle Petty as being on the opposite end of that conundrum.
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On this week’s edition of Fast Talk on the Performance Racing Network, Petty warned that if the 0.625 mile North Wilkesboro oval becomes the site of a points-paying Cup race, it will destroy much of the uniqueness that the track displayed the last couple of years in the All-Star Race. In other words, it would just become yet another race.
“How many things have we experimented, rules packages and other things, during the All-Star race that everybody raved about, that instantly became mainstream (in regular competition), that instantly we started to complain about because those guys in the garage area figured out a way around the rules,” Petty said.
“My point is, it’s like how my mom would always say. It’s like chocolate: if I give it to you all the time, it’s not special. Wilkesboro is special because it means something right now.
“If it’s just another race on a 36-race schedule, does it mean anything? Does it hold that excitement for the fans?” Petty added. He admitted that it will be exciting for some people regardless of how many races are held at Charlotte for instance — the previous long-time host of the All-Star Race — but not for everyone.
Petty makes a valid point. The All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro has quickly become a very special event, especially last week’s race, which has been continually applauded for its competition and how it kept fans engaged.
And, like Petty said, what makes North Wilkesboro more special is the fact it is not on the schedule as a regular points-paying Cup event.
If it becomes a points event, then NASCAR is likely faced with having to find yet another home for the All-Star Race and would have to take a race away from another venue to maintain the 36-race schedule. It’s unlikely NASCAR would expand the schedule to 38 races, even though there’s been talk of that over the last few years.
What Dale Jr. said earlier this week about North Wilkesboro
Still, Dale Jr. remains an advocate for North Wilkesboro and he was one of the key individuals to refurbish the facility and bring NASCAR racing back to it.
“I just think that if you’re going to take a Cup race to Wilkesboro, that you don’t take any risks or chances,” Dale Jr. said. “Let the race kind of go and be with the protocols we have in place in terms of stage caution and so forth, just to make sure you don’t screw up the very first points race back. It could work out, where if you didn’t throw the stage cautions, and be awesome.”
He acknowledged there may be room for experimentation but not right away. “Maybe that’s something you do down the road if you really get that confidence up, do it,” Earnhardt said.
“But are you willing to take that risk on the first points race back for Wilkesboro? Wilkesboro tried for three decades to get back. Let’s not take any unnecessary risk with it.”
For now, preserving the magic might just mean keeping Wilkesboro special.
