Race Fan's Reflections ~ I Remember "The Rock"7/02/2013 |
I didn’t see my first race at Rockingham until the fall of
1991. If I had known the Rock would hold
its last Winston/Nextel/Sprint Cup race just thirteen years later, I probably
would have paid better attention.
Truthfully, you probably could not have pulled me away from the
television that day, as my favorite driver, Davey Allison, led 100 laps on his
way to a win, his fourth win of the year.
He’d win again the following week at Phoenix, and eventually finish in
third place in the Championship standings that season. That’s a different story, though. This one is about The Rock.
The Entrance To Rockingham With The Speedway In The Background
There had already been forty-six races run at what was then called the North Carolina Motor Speedway. I had missed guys like Paul Goldsmith, Curtis Turner, Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough, Bobby Allison, David Pearson and Donnie Allison winning races there in the 1960s and 1970s. Then it was Darrell Waltrip, Terry Labonte, Neil Bonnett, Rusty Wallace, Dale Earnhardt, Mark Martin, and Kyle Petty, and I missed them all.
But then 1991 came around, and I made sure we had cable in the house after watching the 1991 Daytona 500. Unfortunately, I didn’t get it until the fifth race, which then was Darlington, so I missed the first race at The Rock that year, which was another one won by Kyle Petty. Then, later that year when the series returned for what was then the eighth of eight races in North Carolina, I saw my Davey win.
Rockingham was somewhat of an oddity, to me, anyway. It was shaped a little bit funny and the surface just flat out ate up tires. That’s probably why I loved it so much. There was decent competition, good passing, and entertaining races. Besides seeing Davey Allison win, I saw some cool moments at Rockingham back then.
Now, my brain may be playing tricks on me, but I do believe it was Rockingham in the fall of 1992. Ernie Irvan led two laps, Mark Martin led three, and Bill Elliott led three as well. The other 484 laps were led by Kyle Petty as he went on to take his third win in the last six races there.
Then at the next race at Rockingham, it was Rusty Wallace who toured the 1.017 mile track faster than anyone in the 1993 GM Goodwrench 500. In victory lane, as Rusty brought the car to a stop, Glenn Jarrett, who had interview duty, went to get a few words from the winner, but began the conversation telling Rusty that he (Jarrett) was going to hold the microphone this time. In the previous race broadcast on TNN, which also covered this one at Rockingham, Jarrett had the unfortunate job of interviewing Wallace as he sat in the garage while the race was still going on. That race was at Phoenix in the season before, and as Jarrett tried to get a word with Wallace, Rusty grabbed the microphone from Jarrett’s hand, curtly described the battery problem with the car, and tossed the microphone back at Jarrett.
That win was the first of three consecutive for Wallace at Rockingham before he turned the reins over to his old buddy Earnhardt. But a shift was coming…a changing of the guard of sorts. Seems there was some new kid in town, and word on the street is that he was pretty fast. He had won the 600 at Charlotte and the first Brickyard 400 in the previous year, and when that kid took the checkered flag at the Rock in 1995, it set off a seven win year for some young cat named Jeff Gordon, who would go on to score four career wins there.
Rockingham hasn’t really been known to give a little snack to a hungry driver every now and then, as it was the home of the first career win for only a few of our favorites. Donnie Allison got his first win driving for Banjo Matthews, and Mark Martin got his first win there in 1989 in the AC Delco 500 in Jack Roush’s Stroh’s Light Ford. In 1995, it loosened its grip on wins for first timers when Ward Burton was able to tame The Rock and have his name set in stone. In 2002, Johnny Benson became the latest first timer to make it to the winner’s circle, and he only led the final 28 laps of the race.
The 2001 spring race at Rockingham, dubbed the Dura Lube 400, was interesting for different reasons. A week earlier in the Daytona 500, Dale Earnhardt was killed. Many thought that it was too soon to return to the track without their hero, but NASCAR held the event, and the drivers took to the track. Dale Earnhardt, Inc. driver, Stave Park, qualified on the outside pole, to the right of Jeff Gordon. The cars took the green flag, and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. didn’t even make one complete lap before he was rear-ended and planted firmly into the wall by Ron Hornaday, Jr. His day over before he even got started, Earnhardt, Jr. retired from the race. I guess sometimes you’re just not supposed to go to work, and let others fill in for you when you need them. That’s exactly what happened as Earnhardt Jr.’s DEI team mate, Steve Park, took care of the business and won. And just to be sure, Park went ahead and put his car on the pole for the next race, too. The following week at Atlanta, Kevin Harvick continued the healing by bringing his No. 29 home to his first win, and we all saw Chocolate Myers, a big bear of a man, cry like a child.
Time passes on, politics are played out, money changes hands, and futures are decided, and in NASCAR, unfortunately none of that is privy to those who matter the most, the fans, until it is too late. As part of the International Speedway Corporation’s buyout of the Roger Penske racing facilities, which included California (now Auto Club) Speedway and Michigan International as well, Rockingham became an ISC track. ISC moved one race from Rockingham in preference of a second event at the Auto Club Speedway. On February 22, 2004, the final race at Rockingham would be run, and it was Matt Kenseth over Kasey Kahne in one of the closest finishes in the history of the track.
Why was it the last race? Well, there was the Ferko lawsuit, in which a Speedway Motorsports Incorporated stockholder attempted to sue NASCAR. Francis Ferko claimed that NASCAR violated anti-trust laws which prevented Texas Motor Speedway from obtaining two race dates. As part of the settlement, ISC sold Rockingham to SMI. SMI moved the final remaining Rockingham race to Texas. (As a sad footnote, Francis Ferko’s life spiraled downward uncontrollably. His employer was not a fan of the publicity Ferko was receiving because of the lawsuit, and Ferko was fired. He moved to Atlanta with his wife for a new job, leaving his 20 year old son behind. His son later committed suicide, and after unsuccessfully attempting to gain custody of their grandchild, the Ferkos divorced.)
Maybe you can’t keep a good track down, though. In October of 2007, SMI put the track up for sale via auction, and the new owner would be Andy Hillenburg, a former driver and car owner in multiple series. Hillenburg won with his bid of $4.4 Million dollars, and brought racing at Rockingham back to life. In May of 2008, The Rock hosted an ARCA series race, which was won by Joey Logano just before his eighteenth birthday. ARCA races continued at the track for the next few year, and then in 2011, the Camping World Truck Series held a race, which was won by Kasey Kahne, and then by Kyle Larson the following year. That race won by Larson in 2013 would again be the last race of a major series at Rockingham once again as the Truck Series would not return for the 2014 season.
The Rockingham facility is still used, but not in its original capacity. A .526 mile oval has been constructed near the backstretch of the original track, and it is almost a spot on replica of Martinsville, complete with concreted corners. Before the testing ban for Cup drivers on Cup venues, it was a favorite testing facility for many of the Cup teams. Every now and then, you can also see the track in a movie or television commercial if the need arises.
Author’s Note: I did attempt to reach out to Andy Hillenburg to gain some information about the track and the future of it. My attempts were through twitter, and unsuccessful, however, Hillenburg was quoted last October with the following statement:
"We've got a number of issues that have to be resolved before we can host races again," Hillenburg told the (Charlotte)Observer on Thursday. "These issues have been mounting over the last two to three years. I'm not giving up on this. My plan is to keep doing it. I want it and NASCAR wants it and I'm determined to have it continue."
That was after NASCAR announced that the K&N Pro Series East races scheduled for last November were not to be held. The UARA STARS Late Model series and CARS X-1R Pro Cup series had cancelled events at the track for the same time as well.
I’ll always have my memories of Rockingham. No one can take those away from me. I tell you what though….it is such a special and unique place, and it sure would be nice to have a few new memories to add to those of the great racing I saw there, which now seems so long ago. I hope Andy Hillenburg is right, and I hope he stays the course and can bring The Rock back to where it should be, because I miss it like I would an old friend.
Until next time, my friends...keep your memories with you.
Feel free to leave comments below, and be sure to follow me @RaceFansJim on Twitter, because sometimes I give stuff away!