The heart of Nascar beats today because of the initiative, hard work, determination and money to foresee what the future would be.

Cities and communities, invested money, time and effort to create a racing experience for fans to come to. By doing so, the economy of these areas blossomed. As time went by, tracks were closed which resulted in many businesses closing. Hand thousands of disappointed fans.

One track I can speak about is “The Rock”, Rockingham Speedway in Rockingham NC. It was the host to many Nascar events such as American 500 (1965-1984), Peach Blossom 500 (1966), Carolina 500 (1967-1985), Nationwise 500 (1985-1986), GM Goodwrench 500 (1986-1995), AC Delco 500 (1987-1995), Goodwrench Service 400 (1996), AC Delco 400 (1996) Winston Cup (2004) the last race which saw Matt Kenseth just slip by then-rookie Kasey Kahne for the win. After that it was closed.
North Carolina Motor Speedway, aka "Rockingham", opened on October 31st, 1965, as a flat oval after operating in the 60’s. The oval was extensively rebuilt in 1969 from a flat oval to 25 degree banking.
In 1997, NCMS merged with Penske Motorsports, and was renamed North Carolina Speeday. An extensive program of changes in the infield ensued, and the road course, previously used extensively by the SCCA and other clubs, was discontinued but the road course use resumed in 2005
Penske subsequently sold his speedway operations to International Speedway Corporation, a business affiliated with NASCAR. One of the Cup races at Rockingham was transferred to the new California Speedway in 2004.
Stories have managed to surface as to why it closed, some say the traffic was awful while others say that there were too many tracks in a geographic vicinity and needed to be spread out. What ever the reason, the Rock closed and the economy and dreams of many went away.

After the transfer of a Cup race to California in 2004 subsequently, a lawsuit (the "Ferko" Lawsuit) involving NASCAR, ISC, and shareholders in Speedway Motorsports ("SMI") was filed, and shortly thereafter settled, which sharply altered the state of affairs. As a part of the settlement, the second and last Cup date at Rockingham was transferred to Texas Motor Speedway. SMI purchased Rockingham, and agreed that there would be no NASCAR events there while the track was owned by SMI.

Since the closing the ovals were being used by NASCAR teams for testing. The road course was restored to a low level of operation in 2005 and was being used for Club Racing and Driver's Schools; the 2005 road course appeared to be very similar to the original road course.

On October 2nd, 2007, the track was purchased at auction by "Indiana" Andy Hillenburg, who has opened the track for events run by the USAR Pro Cup late models and the ARCA RE/MAX Series.
Andy Hillenburg competed in the 2000 Indianapolis 500, finishing 28th, and has sixteen Winston Cup starts nine Busch Series starts and four in the Craftsman Truck Series. His best finish in NASCAR was a third place finish at the 1999 NAPA Auto Parts 300, where he finished 3rd in the #18 MBNA Pontiac Grand Prix for Joe Gibbs Racing.

He has done a fantastic job to bring back racing. Since SMI no longer owns the track there should be no reason why we cannot see at least a NASCAR Nationwide race there once in a while. Since the reopening a major renovation to US 1 making it a 4 lane highway that will handle traffic flow much better than the past is being accomplished as I write.

Other tracks that could also be revived to bring back the past and maybe have Nascar do a race once in a while are:
Texas World Speedway     2.000-mile paved oval     Texas (College Station) Texas 500 (1969),Texas 500 (1971-1972),Lone Star 500 (1972),Alamo 500 (1973),Texas 400 (1979),NASCAR 400 (1980-1981)     1969,1971-1973,1979-1981     Closed in 1989; reopened in 1993. Used mostly for testing.

A track worth saving, let’s bring back the memories, let’s go back to our roots do a cup race or nationwide even though it is a 5/8 mile paved oval with 18 degree banking, let’s save this track.
Music City Motorplex     0.596-mile paved oval     Tennessee (Nashville) Nashville 500 (1961-1962),Nashville 400 (1963),Nashville 400 (1965),Nashville 400 (1967-1969),Nashville 420 (1970-1983),Music City USA 420 (1973-1980),Melling Tool 420 (1981),Cracker Barrel 420 (1982),Marty Robbins 420 (1983),Coors 420 (1984),Pepsi 420 (1984)     1958-1984     
Mayor Karl Dean wants to close this track and redevelop entire Fairgrounds. Many locals oppose plan.

There are many more instances of going back to where we started, once a year a track could be revisited and find out how the fans react. After all, isn’t that what truly matters?

*Some information obtained from Wikipedia