Thunder in the hills: North Wilkesboro, 20 years later – Nascar

The weekend of Sept. 27-29, 1996, was the final NASCAR race weekend at North Wilkesboro. Two races were held — the Lowe’s 250 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race on Saturday followed by Sunday’s Tyson Holly Farms 400.

The Truck Series race was stop No. 20 of 24 for the season and it was just the second time the series visited the legendary facility.

Sunday’s premier series race was No. 27 of 31 for the 1996 season. It was the last season in which the schedule consisted of 31 races. The following year at the request of the track’s new owners, the spring date at North Wilkesboro was moved to Texas Motor Speedway while the fall date went in as the second of two dates at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Friday, Sept. 27: Following a 3 p.m. ET start, rain interrupted first-round qualifying with 13 of 40 drivers still waiting to get on track. Bobby Hamilton, driving the popular No. 43 Pontiac fielded by Petty Enterprises, was fastest before the delay.

After a 2 1/2-hour wait, Gordon was first out on the track, and the defending series champion quickly put his Chevrolet on top with a lap of 117.937 mph. The run held until Ted Musgrave, driving the No. 16 Family Channel/Primestar Ford Thunderbird for car owner Jack Roush, won the pole with a lap of 118.054 mph. It was Musgrave’s first pole of the season and the fifth and final No. 1 starting spot of his career.

Hamilton wound up third, with Mark Martin and Irvan completing the top five.

In the Truck Series, all but five drivers had made qualifying attempts when rain returned and darkness forced officials to postpone the remainder of the program until Saturday. Rookie Johnny Benson had the fastest lap when qualifying was stopped. Rain was in the Saturday forecast and had it continued, leaving officials to set the lineup by the rule book, Benson would have failed to qualify as he had only two previous starts that season.

Saturday, Sept. 28: Second-round qualifying was still in place for the Cup Series, allowing drivers to stand on their first-round times or make a second attempt. Only the top 25 locked in times from first round the previous day. The practice was done away with following the 2000 season, with only one round used to determine the lineup.

Six drivers made second-round attempts, with Hut Stricklin fastest and Dale Jarrett also improving on his first day’s effort. Provisionals went to Bodine, Lake Speed, Robert Pressley, Jeff Green and Darrell Waltrip (past champion’s provisional).

Ward Burton, Dick Trickle and Gary Bradberry failed to qualify.

Rain following the Truck Series race cut short final practice for Cup teams. Gordon completed just 15 laps when his car developed engine problems, later traced to debris in the carburetor.

In the Truck Series race later that day, Mark Martin won in just his second start in the series to become only the third driver at that time to win at least one race in all three of NASCAR’s national tours.

For posterity, the entire field posed for a picture prior to the last race at the fabled .625-mile track.

Sunday, Sept. 29: More than 40,000 fans were on hand to witness the final premier series race at North Wilkesboro. Many carried signs with, “We’ll miss you North Wilkesboro,” “Farewell Old Friend” or similar messages.

Television coverage was provided by ESPN Speedworld; it was the 30th premier series race broadcast from the track by the network, which had begun airing races from Wilkesboro in 1982.

The race featured eight different leaders, but it was Gordon who had the dominant car. He led at halfway, collecting a $10,000 bonus, and moved past Earnhardt after a restart with 79 laps remaining to grab the lead for the final time.

When the checkered flag appeared, it was Gordon across the stripe first, with Earnhardt, Jarrett, Jeff Burton and Labonte rounding out the top five.

Evernham said the win was special because “we knew it was going to be the last race there.”

“For a little bit of time there the short tracks had almost been our Achilles’ heel and we got a handle on it,” he said. “And that’s the year we won 10 races, so we were pretty proud of that accomplishment; I was really proud of that even though we had won the championship in ’95. I felt like we were becoming one of the dominant teams.

“When you could beat guys like (Dale) Earnhardt, Junior Johnson’s cars and those people at North Wilkesboro, you deserved to be there.”

In addition to being his 10th win of the season, it was also Gordon’s third in a row, coming on the heels of victories at Dover and Martinsville.

“We were on a pretty good roll that year,” Gordon said. “Winning wasn’t outside of the realm but at the same time, knowing it was the last race there … now looking back on it, it’s extremely special to me because it was the last race and because it was such a tough, challenging race track.

“To be good on the short tracks meant a lot back then.”

Bill Brodrick, known as the Hat Man, was waiting in Victory Lane, situated on top of a building in the infield. So, too, was team owner Rick Hendrick and the rest of Gordon’s crew.

Several hours later, the gates swung shut at North Wilkesboro Speedway. The fans had departed. And this time, NASCAR had, too.

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