Rockingham Speedway (Johnsonverse)

Rockingham Speedway, formerly known as North Carolina Motor Speedway until 1996 and simply North Carolina Speedway until 2007, is a racetrack located near Rockingham, North Carolina. It is affectionately known as "The Rock" and currently hosts NASCAR RCA Cup Series, Arby's Convertible Series, Busch Series, Craftsman Truck Series, ARCA Menards Series, and USAC Gold Crown Series races. In the past, it also hosted CARS Tour and UARA-Stars races.
The track opened as a flat, one-mile oval on October 31, 1965. In 1969, the track was extensively reconfigured to a high-banked, D-shaped oval just over one mile in length. In 1997, North Carolina Motor Speedway merged with Penske Motorsports, and was renamed to simply North Carolina Speedway. Shortly thereafter, the infield was reconfigured, and competition on the infield road course, mostly by the SCCA, was discontinued. Currently, the track is home to the Fast Track High Performance Driving School. The track has also been used often for television and movie filming. When Johnson Industries acquired the speedway in 1999, the infield was reconfigured back to its pre-1997 setup, with competition on the infield road course again taking place. 
==History==
===Opening===
Rockingham Speedway, known as North Carolina Motor Speedway in 1965, began as a project of Harold Brasington and Bill Land. Brasington had relevant experience from his involvement in building the Darlington Raceway, which was NASCAR's first superspeedway. Bill Land owned the property at the time, and together they set out to find funding. They went to local lawyer Elsie Webb who assembled a group of backers. The duo also sold shares to the locals for $1 per share, and at one time had about 1,000 shareholders.
The speedway was built as a one-mile oval with flat turns. North Carolina Motor Speedway opened on October 31, 1965, holding its first race on the same day. The American 500 was a 500-lap, 500-mile NASCAR Grand National Series race won by Curtis Turner at an average speed of 101.942 miles per hour. Turner dominated the race, which was attended by 35,000 people, leading 239 laps and winning by 11 seconds. The winner's purse was $13,090. The American 500 was the 54th of 55 races in the 1965 season, which included NASCAR legends Cale Yarborough (who finished second), Richard Petty, Ned Jarrett (who would go on to win the championship), Buddy Baker, David Pearson, and Junior Johnson. Only 19 of the 43 cars were running at the end of the race.
The speedway held two Grand National races the next year, the Peach Blossom 500, and the American 500. The Peach Blossom 500 would change names multiple times, usually using the name Carolina 500, and is now known as the Subway 500. The American 500 would also change names multiple times as well, and is currently the ACDelco 400. The first race was typically held in early March or late February, and the second race was held in late October. In 1967 and 1968 the Carolina 500 was run in June. The speedway holds two Cup Series races every year.
=== 1999–2007 ===
As part of the acquisition of the Penske Speedways in 1999, the Speedway was sold to International Speedway Corporation (ISC).
=== 2007–2018 ===
The speedway was renamed to Rockingham Speedway in mid-2007.
=== 2018–present ===
On
==Testing==
==Little Rock==
A new 0.526-mile track, dubbed the Little Rock, was built behind the backstretch for other classes of short-track cars and for the Fast Track driving school, and opened October 13, 2008. NASCAR Sprint Cup teams immediately christened the track for testing in preparation for the 2008 TUMS QuikPak 500 at Martinsville Speedway that ensuing weekend, as "Little Rock" is designed similar to Martinsville, yet the lap length is the same, with 800' straights, 588' turns, and the inside lanes of the turns are concrete.
The half-mile oval is unique in that instead of a traditional guardrail around the outside of the track, it uses gravel traps similar to road courses. Hillenburg said this is for economical reasons, as a car sliding into a sand trap will not damage a car as much as hitting a wall.
Hillenburg noted, "We've designed a track that can measure one's skill level and they can slide off into a sand trap and not a wall. I can now give parents a straight-up answer as to where their kids stack up." Jimmie Johnson was part of the opening group of drivers to test at "Little Rock," and blew a tire. He jokingly said he nearly ran into his own transporter because of the track's design that lacked the concrete wall for safety.
The track also has an integrated quarter-mile oval for the Bandoleros and Legends cars.
==Film and commercial usage==
The speedway has become a venue for active filming for movies, television programs, and television commercials, often with its venues being used for various facilities. Notable films include:
* Days of Thunder
*3: The Dale Earnhardt Story
* Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
*Sophie D'Amico
* Ta Ra Rum Pum (a Bollywood film)
* SPEED Road Tour Challenge (final task)
* 2007 UPS commercials featuring Dale Jarrett, the UPS truck, and team.
It was also used as venue for the truck pull event during World's Strongest Man.
Category:Johnsonverse