Choose your Hickory Motor Speedway Driving Experience or Ride Along Experience below to begin booking. If you’re giving as a gift or are unsure about a date, you can purchase a gift voucher and you or the recipient will have 90 days to return to the website or call 855-227-8789 and book a date.

Hickory Motor Speedway is a short track located in Hickory, North Carolina . It is one of stock car racing ‘s most storied venues, and is often referred to as “The World’s Most Famous Short Track” and the “Birthplace of the NASCAR Stars”.

The track first opened in 1951 as a 1 / 2 -mile (0.80 km) dirt track. Gwyn Staley won the first race at the speedway and later became the first track champion. Drivers such as Junior Johnson , Ned Jarrett , and Ralph Earnhardt also became track champions in the 1950s, Earnhardt alone winning five of them.

In 1953, NASCAR’s Grand National Series (later the Sprint Cup ) visited the track for the first time. Tim Flock won the first race at the speedway, which became a regular part of the Grand National Schedule. After winning his track championship in 1952, Junior Johnson became the most successful Grand National driver at Hickory, winning there seven times.

The track has been re-configured three times in its history. The track became a 0.4-mile (644 meters) dirt track in 1955, which was paved for the first time during the 1967 season. In 1970, Hickory was shortened a second time to its present length of 0.363 miles (584 meters).

Hickory is still used as a venue for NASCAR’s club racing division, the Whelen All-American Series . The CARS Tour featuring Late Model and Super Late Model touring series cars on the same night also features a full meet at the track.

Track Size & Banking
.363 mile asphalt oval
14 degrees Turns 1 & 2
12 degrees Turns 3 & 4
8 degrees Front & Back stretch