NASCAR returning to North Wilkesboro with ’23 All-Star race

NASCAR is returning to one of its original venues that it left more than a quarter-century ago — North Wilkesboro Speedway. Gov. Roy Cooper and North Carolina native Dale Earnhardt Jr. joined the stock car body and the track’s owner on Thursday to announce that the track will host the NASCAR Cup Series All-Star race next year — NASCAR’s 75th anniversary season. “It’ll be something that people want to come from all over the country and enjoy — NASCAR All-Star week at North Wilkesboro Speedway — to enjoy the culture, the festivities, the history,” Marcus Smith, CEO of Speedway Motorsports, which owns the track, said at a news conference outside the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh.