NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — For the first time in more than a decade, NASCAR Cup Series cars roared to life Tuesday at the historic North Wilkesboro Speedway.
Tyler Reddick, Austin Dillon and Chris Buescher wheeled their Next Gen vehicles around the legendary 0.625-mile oval, a venue steeped in a history palpable upon arrival. North Wilkesboro was a staple upon Cup Series schedules from the sport’s inauguration through 1996, its last race won by then-one-time champion Jeff Gordon for the 19th victory of what would become a 93-win, four-time title-winning career.
The next generation of drivers finally got their turn in a Goodyear tire test on Tuesday ahead of the May 21 NASCAR All-Star Race (8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Reddick was nine months old the last time multiple Cup cars hit the track in northwestern North Carolina. Dillon was 6 years old and Buescher wasn’t yet 4.
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A test session at a site so unique and rich with stories made Tuesday unlike any other test.
“I’ve never had that level of nostalgia coming to a test ever really,” Reddick said.
Twenty-seven years since Wilkesboro’s last NASCAR national series event and even longer since its freshest coat of asphalt, Reddick wasted no time Tuesday. He was first to hit the track in his No. 45 Toyota and immediately set out for a decent outing.
“I’m imagining they did a lot of work to it. I mean, you can tell for sure. But for it to have sat, what, 27 years, is that right? I mean, it does not seem like it’s at 27 years,” Reddick said after the session. “I guess that’s the thing I’m not thinking about. I went out there and just went right to ripping laps, 20-lap run in the Next Gen car and yeah, it didn’t it doesn’t seem like a track that sat that long.”
The NASCAR Cup Series …
… back at @NWBSpeedway. pic.twitter.com/piTbQFyrDx
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) March 21, 2023
The grandson of car owner Richard Childress, Dillon knows North Wilkesboro holds a special place in his family’s lineage. Childress, of course, owned the No. 3 Chevrolet that Dale Earnhardt wheeled to five wins there and now owns Dillon’s. But Dillon has ties from his father’s side of the family too: dad, Mike Dillon, earned a 1995 victory late model win at North Wilkesboro and took the ride up the famed elevator to the track’s one-of-a-kind Victory Lane.
“I actually drove up here (Tuesday) with one of his old crew guys, and who kind of helps me around my house,” Dillon said. “And he was like, I want to check out the elevator because I got to take an elevator ride. I guess I did too when I was here when I was a kid. I just don’t remember it. So hopefully, we get to try and take an elevator ride for a million dollars.”
Turning laps around the short track was a far cry from what Dillon typically thinks of when driving through Wilkes County on Highway 421.
“Just driving by it as a kid, going into the mountains and seeing like this ghost of a track that you hear about from your family and all the good times that were had here,” Dillon said. “And now we’re getting to experience it and it’s coming to life fast and it’s cool to be a part of it.”
Buescher is quite the fan of just how worn the existing pavement remains, happy the fresh asphalt has been reserved only for pit road and infield parking. He was chasing grip all day in his No. 17 RFK Racing Ford — just what he wanted.
“It’s probably not as bumpy as I thought,” said Buescher, who hadn’t been back to North Wilkesboro since helping Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Speedway Motorsports President Marcus Smith clean the facility in December 2019. “I mean it’s rough. But man, I can’t tell you how many other race tracks we go to where we get hits through the suspension that hit you a lot harder than anything out here. So it’s probably a lot by design, just trying to make sure we get as much grip in these things as possible. It’s hard to chase aero when the track’s not very flat underneath you.
“All the right reasons to make it a good race. So excited to have the All-Star (Race) here. It’s amazing just seeing the progress, seeing a lot of history is still being preserved.”
The goal of the day, through all the glory of just getting onto the race track, was to help Goodyear determine what tire to bring in May for the exhibition event. The problem, per se, is that each driver has his own preferences behind the wheel.
Ahead of a true debrief with his team and Goodyear, Buescher said their fall-off in lap time was “several seconds throughout runs depending which tire you were on.”
Dillon noted he thought the fall-off was “pretty significant,” but Reddick, his former teammate at Richard Childress Racing, believes there could be even more.
“You’re kind of on ice taking off for sure. This place has got a lot of age and character to it,” said Reddick, now five races into his tenure at 23XI Racing. “You know, you’re having to pedal it pretty good. The first lap, you have to kind of be careful squeezing the gas down and as you run, you know, it’s hard to get back to wide-open throttle. But you know, really, I think we were seeing a second-and-a-half fall off or so over even 50 laps, and that was kind of surprising. I figured we’d have more fall off.
“But I mean one little miscue misstep into Turn 1 or Turn 3, you’d lose a second sliding up out of the groove and losing control of your car, so that’s with no traffic, no mistakes. So maybe with more traffic and everything the fall off will be more, but certainly, we’re out of control from I’d say Lap 10 on.
“You have to really take care of your car. So I guess that’s all I was really saying was hoping to make the throttle time even less, but I mean it’s really hard 30, 40 laps in around it to even get wide open.”
North Wilkesboro is set to become the fourth host of the NASCAR All-Star Race in the past five seasons. Texas Motor Speedway hosted each of the last two while Bristol Motor Speedway held the 2020 event. Through 2019, Charlotte Motor Speedway hosted the festivities annually since the event’s 1985 inauguration, with a lone exception for Atlanta in 1986.
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A facility and location previously stuck in time, North Wilkesboro is getting all dolled up for a romantic reunion with stock-car racing’s biggest names, a weekend full of racing goods. Late models hit the track Tuesday and Wednesday as preludes to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Tyson 250 on May 20 (1:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM) and the Sunday night All-Star Race.
“Dating back to 2020, I was somewhat familiar with this place,” Reddick said. “But I had a lot of downtime as all of us did during the pandemic and I got to watch a lot of races — not necessarily here, but just old-school races, and a number of them were here. And the place just was super entertaining back then.
“I thought to myself watching those races, man, it would’ve been really cool to be a part of it and to have been there — see a race there. I’ve thought that as I’ve driven by it heading to Bristol Motor Speedway through the years. So really glad we got to have that opportunity. I’m excited to see this place full of life and be a part of the event and experience.”