Wilson County

Originally built in 1934 for horse racing, it was a year before the half-mile dirt Wilson Speedway held its first car races. The AAA sanctioned races at Wilson before the United States entered World War II in 1941, and 12 rounds of NASCAR’s Grand National division were held from 1951-60. Herb Thomas’s three such victories included winning the 1952 100-mile race at an average of just 35.398 mph because of the poor track surface. A crowd of 10,000 saw him lead from start-to-finish on 4 October 1953 to clinch his second title. It held a controversial championship finale in 1956 when Joe Weatherley ran out of fuel on the last lap but appeared to coast across the line just ahead of Buck Baker. However, the scoring hut was by Turn 1 so Baker’s car owner Carl Kiekhofer protested and officials eventual reversed the decision after hours of deliberation, giving the winning margin as a foot. The Easter Sunday race in 1959 was overshadowed by the wooden main grandstand catching fire and burning to the ground. Wilson Speedway finally closed in 1989.