Any car entered had to be built totally out of parts that were accessible to the general public through car dealers when NASCAR was established in 1948. About ten years later, this rule started to change, but NASCAR hasn’t stopped doing other things since then. There were also reshaped oval tracks.
Originally, NASCAR ran on dirt tracks that were seldom longer than a mile (1.6 km). With increasing popularity of the series and quicker vehicles, NASCAR switched to longer, paved ovals. Racetracks like as Daytona, Charlotte, Indianapolis, and Talladega range in length from 1.5 to over 2.5 miles (2.4 to 4 km). After NASCAR finished using the historic dirt ovals, what became of them? Unfortunately, the most of them were repurposed and eventually vanished completely.
But here’s one that survived even though it’s been abandoned for decades. Meet Occoneechee Speedway, one of the first two NASCAR tracks that were opened for the inaugural 1949 season. Located in Hillsborough, North Carolina, and known as Orange Speedway in its final years, the track was built on a farm that also included a half-mile (0.8-km) horse racing course.
According to legend, Bill France purchased the land before founding the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) in 1948 after spotting the horse track while soaring over the farm. Over the former horse racing racetrack, France constructed a 0.9-mile (1.4-kilometer) track in late 1947. Occoneechee Speedway debuted in the 1949 NASCAR season and was scheduled to run until 1968.
Dominated by the Flock brothers in its earliest days, the track also hosted NASCAR legends like Lee Petty, Fireball Roberts, Junior Johnson, Herb Thomas, and Richard Petty. It’s also the track that saw Louise Smith become NASCAR’s first female driver.
Bill France abandoned the track in late 1968, mainly due to local opposition to its Sunday racing schedule. It was replaced by the more iconic Talladega Superspeedway, which opened a year later in Alabama and took Occoneechee’s date in the seasonal calendar.
But unlike most dirt tracks that were decommissioned, Occoneechee wasn’t landscaped into something else. Although it became a park, it wasn’t messed with and it still displays some of the buildings and ads that were left behind. And as this video by “Dark Exploration Films” shows, the abandoned oval is still home to a couple of old stock cars.
One is a pre-WWII five-door coupe in an advanced state of decay. The vehicle appears to be a 1940 Chevrolet and what’s left of the racing livery suggests it was driven by Herbert Cates. The other one is a 1950s Mopar. It’s also in really bad shape, but check out the modified front fascia with several holes in the upper nose. I guess that’s how they enhanced cooling back in the day.
The video also demonstrates the primitive nature of these early NASCAR races, with their gravel circuit and rudimentary concrete stands devoid of seats. Naturally, the trees that have grown here over the past fifty years have destroyed most of the track, so it’s essentially buried by a little forest. Information about who won at Occoneechee Speedway is available in a results list that is posted at the entry. Additionally, it features a few well-known brands and iconic vehicles, such as the Chevrolet Tri-Five, the Chrysler 300 “letter series,” the Oldsmobile “Rocket” 88, and the Hudson Hornet.
Not to mention, starting in the early 1950s, the average speed was less than 80 mph (129 kph), but by the late 1960s, it was up to 90 mph (145 kph). Or how, in the mid-1960s, attendance fell from over 11,000 spectators in the early years to less than 7,000. Since it’s the only remaining track from the early days of NASCAR, it goes without saying that it’s a fascinating place to explore. However, given that it was one of the series’ crown jewels for at least ten years, it clearly requires some upkeep and attention.