Sparse crowds at the 2004 Subway 400 at North Carolina Speedway. Credit: AP

Rockingham adjusting to life without NASCAR

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. (AP) -- The billboards still stand around the countryside as they have for the better part of 40 years, promoting the NASCAR race at North Carolina Speedway.

A closer look reveals a date more than a year old -- Feb. 22, 2004. For the first time since it opened, the track known as "The Rock" isn't on the schedule, one of the losers as NASCAR grew into a national phenomenon.

"NASCAR has made a decision to move beyond its roots," said Rockingham Mayor Gene McLaurin. "Maybe neglect is too strong a word, but I don't think so."

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The track hosted two races a year from 1966-2003, then dropped to only one last season when California Speedway near Los Angeles got a second date. Even then, when the Nextel Cup Series came for what most people knew was the last chance for Rockingham, the crowd fell well short of a sellout, with about 10,000 empty seats at a track that holds 60,000.

This year, Texas Motor Speedway got Rockingham's remaining spot on the schedule, part of a lawsuit settlement last year between NASCAR and Speedway Motorsports Inc. shareholder Francis Ferko.

Another part of the settlement awarded North Carolina Speedway to SMI founder Bruton Smith for the price of $100.4 million. The track had been owned by International Speedway Corp., which is run by the same France family that controls NASCAR.

Unless something changes, NASCAR racing at "The Rock" might be gone forever.

"It just so happens Rockingham ain't L.A., and it ain't Chicago, and it ain't Kansas, and it ain't Dallas," veteran driver Kyle Petty said. "They just market race now, and that's the only way you can look at it. It doesn't make a difference what the race track is like or how good the racing is, they're going to go to major markets."

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The change was particularly disappointing to Petty, a Randleman native who watched as NASCAR dropped two of his home tracks in the past decade.

North Wilkesboro Speedway, cut from the circuit in 1997, and Rockingham were both within 100 miles of Petty's hometown.

And North Carolina Speedway provided some of the best side-by-side action of the season, thanks mostly to an abrasive surface that chewed up tires and made aerodynamics virtually useless. Matt Kenseth nipped Kasey Kahne by .010 seconds in the finale, the fourth-closest finish in series history.

At least Petty has gotten a chance to visit the track. He took his team there a few months ago for a test session, running all day to check gear and suspension pieces.

"It's kind of a sad place to go, because they don't race there anymore," he said. "And it is such a good race, and they haven't had a lot of good races this year. You wish it was still on the schedule, but things change."

Through a spokesman, Smith said he is willing to listen to offers for the track, and he has tried to push events that way. The Sports Car Club of America rented the track earlier this year for a weekend of racing, and there's a chance similar festivities will keep people coming to Rockingham.

So far, other than the loss of a little pride, the town and surrounding area haven't felt any dramatic difference.

"We were expecting to see a tremendous drop, but we've had a fair amount of construction going on around here, and our hotel numbers were up in Feb. '05 from Feb. '04," said Bennett Deane, president of the Richmond County Chamber of Commerce. "We only had 550 rooms here, so once they were booked, the other impact was -- I don't want to say insignificant -- but it was simply pass through."

The state's General Assembly made a futile attempt to help the track keep its spot on the schedule, and saw firsthand how little history and longtime support means these days in NASCAR. With Charlotte among the cities bidding for the sport's hall of fame, legislators have approved an increase of the Charlotte-area hotel room tax.

The change would increase the local occupancy tax from 6 percent to 8 percent, making it the highest in the state. The estimated $65 million in revenue would help finance the museum and a new ballroom for the Charlotte convention center, next to the proposed site.

The state has put together a total package worth $137.5 million. Atlanta and Kansas City also are interested, with proposals due by Tuesday.

"I think if it doesn't come to Charlotte or somewhere in that area, it's going to the wrong place," said Junior Johnson, one of the sport's greatest drivers and car owners. "They can talk about all these other places all they want, but the people who started this sport are from here, and it should stay here. The hall of fame wouldn't be attractive somewhere else."

Unfortunately, a similar argument couldn't stop Rockingham from losing out.

"I don't want to get despondent about it, I don't want to get discouraged about it," McLaurin said. "I think NASCAR made a mistake, but mistakes are made. Maybe there's a chance in the future for Rockingham and the track to be a part of it again."