Dale Earnhardt Jr. explains why racing at Hickory might not be the “realistic direction” for NASCAR
NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. shares his feelings about potential return of Hickory and South Boston to the sports.
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Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Via IMAGO)
The 2025 NASCAR Cup Season marked the return of Bowman Gray Stadium to the series after over 50 years, marking the second iconic track after North Wilkesboro to enter the premier stock car racing. Many in the racing community has been urging NASCAR to continue this trend and re-introduce other legendary tracks.
NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. shared his feelings about the impressive Clash race at Bowman Gray and the possibility of it being hosted in another track like Hickory. He is doubtful about NASCAR moving The Clash to another such track, as all the old tracks are not the same and requires additional fixing to host a Cup event.
Well, I love that idea a lot, but I just don’t know if NASCAR would do it. Bowman Gray is an anomaly because they seat 10 thousand, 17 thousand people, okay? So, Bowman Gray’s infrastructure while minimal in terms of like a Charlotte Motor Speedway, it still seats 17,000 people.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. said via Dale Jr. Download podcast.
Talking about Hickory. Junior highlighted how the track requires the building of new grandstands, as they don’t have a good enough seating capacity like in Bowman Gray. He pointed out that NASCAR might not see racing there as a realistic direction owing to the changes needs to be made to these short tracks.
How many does Hickory sit? You know, they’re not going to come in there and build grandstands at these places. They could maybe put in some temporary grandstands…I just don’t know that, while it would be amazing for them to go to like Hickory or some of these other short tracks to do what they did at Bowman Gray, I don’t know if NASCAR will look at it like that’s a realistic direction.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. added.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. sees South Boston as a nice facility
Further talking about the point, Dale Jr. asserted that South Boston Raceway has some nice facility that can be used. But unlike Bowman Gray, the location of the Boston track is an issue. It being over hours away from the road makes the whole logistics complicated.
Now, you could say South Boston. South Boston’s got a really nice facility. And that might be one of the places you could probably consider taking the race. But I don’t know man. The location of Bowman Gray, it’s kind of in this very dense area. You’d have to think about why that matters. If you take it to South Boston, that’s three and a half, two and a half hours up the road.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. said.
The comments from Junior highlights how it is hard for NASCAR go back to the iconic tracks and at the same time it also shows how much the sanctioning body can help develop these the tracks. It would be interesting to see what the future holds for the sports return to such tracks.
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Justin P Joy
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