It has been more than 13 years now since race cars last made competitive laps around North Wilkesboro Speedway, that venerable old short track on the outskirts of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Since the autumn of 1996, when Jeff Gordon beat Dale Earnhardt by 1.73 seconds -- not a bad way to go out, actually -- the .625-mile facility has sat mostly idle, except for one of Jack Roush's gong shows. Driving by the place on Highway 421, it looked like some abandoned vestige of NASCAR's long-forgotten past.

If there is any one place that's become the demarcation line between stock-car racing's present and its often-recalled "good ol' days," then North Wilkesboro is it. To traditionalists, one outdated North Carolina short track serves as something of a touchstone, a tangible reminder of an era they don't want to let go. Many people in and around Wilkes County have worked very hard to save it, to keep it viable as a potential racing venue, to ensure the place isn't forgotten and left to rot. At times it seemed something of a Quixotic gesture, given that clearly -- and in many ways understandably -- NASCAR isn't coming back.

And then, earlier this week, a small miracle occurred. Junior Johnson, Ned Jarrett, Bobby and Donnie Allison and other luminaries converged on the place Tuesday for an announcement that, for the first time in more than a decade, real racing would take place at the old track.

Speedway Associates, a group that has secured a three-year lease on the property, unveiled a trio of small-series events planned for 2010, most notably an ASA Late Model race formerly held at Memphis Motorsports Park, which has since been shut down.

Supporters of the old track are understandably excited. Losing North Wilkesboro was a dagger to the heart of many old-school NASCAR fans, and the way it happened -- with Bruton Smith and Bob Bahre each buying half the place and splitting its two dates between Texas and New Hampshire -- felt like a form of betrayal.

No question, North Wilkesboro couldn't have remained on NASCAR's Cup schedule for much longer anyway; it was simply too antiquated for a sport that was moving quickly into a more modern age. It was the last track in NASCAR to use a manual scoreboard, and its 40,000 seats are 23,000 fewer than the facility with the smallest seating capacity on the Sprint Cup tour today.

And yet, people revered the place, and it's easy to see why. In its early days, North Wilkesboro was among the fastest dirt tracks in the region, and people packed in to see the likes of Red Byron and Tim Flock compete. Other than Darlington, perhaps no single facility better embodies stock-car racing's roots; after all, this was home to Johnson and Benny Parsons, the place Tom Wolfe wrote about, the crossroads of the moonshine highway.

Over time it's become somewhat glorified, the sale and closure ultimately transforming a rickety old race track into a martyr made of concrete and steel. Conversations about North Wilkesboro often revolve less around what it is, and more around what it used to be.

Still, there's nothing wrong with trying to recapture a little bit of the past, if the effort is feasible and it makes people happy. But we need a little perspective, which the track's current operators seem to have. People still pining for NASCAR's return to North Wilkesboro, and there are plenty of them, need to come to grips with reality.

From a Sprint Cup perspective, this venue was outdated years ago, even while NASCAR race cars were still competing upon it, and it's even more so today. We won't be seeing Dale Earnhardt Jr. race at North Wilkesboro anytime soon, unless he jumps into a late-model car or buys a ticket.

Yet that should not detract from what Alton McBride and his Speedway Associates group have done, which is breathe some life into a historic old facility few thought would ever stir again. The folks up in Wilkes County have been teased before, with numerous groups and even Johnson himself hatching plans to buy or revive the speedway, intentions that for one reason or another all went for naught. Naturally, they've become a little skeptical as a result.

But there was no skepticism Tuesday, not with Johnson, Jarrett, Allison and other legends announcing "restart your engines," and McBride telling reporters on the scene that deals have been signed.

So finally, it appears that once again North Wilkesboro's grandstands will echo with the rumble of race car engines, a day advocates of the speedway have waited some time to see. Even the timing will be appropriate -- the first scheduled race has an early October date, harkening back to the time of year when the NASCAR tour used to visit the track. Close your eyes, taste those exhaust fumes, and it might seem a little like 1996 again.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.

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