Wake County Speedway
About
Wake County Speedway is a quarter-mile asphalt oval on Simpkins Road, about fifteen minutes south of downtown Raleigh. It calls itself America’s Favorite Bullring, and it has been Raleigh’s home for short track racing since 1962.
Glenn and Marvin Simpkins built the track, and the first stock car race ran on May 4, 1962. Going to the races here is a family tradition for a lot of people in south Wake County, and many current and former NASCAR drivers have turned laps on the same surface.
What to know
- John Matthews of Raleigh won that first race and was a cousin of the Simpkins brothers.
- Tickets for the opening race cost a dollar and fifty cents.
- The track was paved ahead of the 1987 racing season.
- It became NASCAR-sanctioned in 2020, the first time in its history.
- Charlie Hansen runs the track and has been involved since 1994, first as a competitor.
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