Nostalgia can be a powerful force within one’s mind, especially when it comes to NASCAR.
Legendary singer Bob Seger once belted out something about today’s music not having the same soul as that old time rock and roll. But lately there’s a different rock that the souls of many race fans have been longing for.
That particular rock is Rockingham Speedway, a 1.017-mile, high-banked asphalt oval in North Carolina.
With the NASCAR Cup Series now turning laps around North Wilkesboro Speedway again, stock car traditionalists have shifted the resurrection effort to Rockingham. With the NASCAR Craftsman Truck and Xfinity series headed back to the track, a Cup return seems not only possible, but imminent.
The Rock, as it was often referred to, suffered a similar fate less than 10 years after its Wilkes County predecessor. Both tracks were victims of being in small, saturated markets at a time when NASCAR could fill hotels and grandstands in the biggest of the big venues.
Rockingham Speedway was a driver’s track in the sense that the big-budget teams didn’t necessarily outperform based on resources alone. Some drivers just had a feel for the track, even if they didn’t run up front every week. Names like Bobby Hamilton, Ward Burton, Joe Nemechek and Ricky Craven often showed up at the front during the final years of Cup racing there.
On February 22, 2004, the series raced at Rockingham fresh off of a two-week season kickoff in Daytona. The Daytona 500 and spring Rockingham race took place in that same order for over a decade. Dale Earnhardt Jr. had won his first Daytona 500 just seven days prior and looked to continue the momentum that could get him into the first ever NASCAR Cup playoffs, then known as “The Chase.”
It was already known that the Cup Series would not return to the track in 2005, but its long-term future was a bit more murky than North Wilkesboro Speedway’s had been for its finale in 1996.
Ryan Newman qualified on the pole, besting the 47 other drivers who attempted to make the show. Five of them went home. None of those five or the 43 who started that race are still full time in NASCAR.
Jamie McMurray, who started that day in second, took the lead on lap 3 and seemed to be the one to beat early on. Just one day prior, McMurray had won his fourth consecutive Xfinity Series (then Busch Series) race at the track, so his prospects for his second career Cup win looked promising.
In the early going, there were a couple single-car incidents that brought out the yellow flag, but they were minor. Then on lap 131, third-year driver Jimmie Johnson hit the wall trying to avoid the spinning car of Ken Schrader, ending his day. Rockingham was one of the only tracks that Johnson started a race during his time in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 without winning at.
Into the middle stages of the race, Jeff Gordon and defending Cup champion Matt Kenseth emerged as contenders. Both spent time up front, including stretches of 40, 79 and 87 consecutive laps led by Kenseth’s No. 17 Ford.
In the midst of that 87-lap run at the front came one of the most unexpected incidents I had witnessed on a racetrack to that point.
On lap 264, Nemechek got turned while trying to get to the outside of journeyman Carl Long‘s No. 46 as the field came off of the second corner. Nemechek hooked Long, and as Long’s car turned sideways, the nose climbed up enough of the wall to launch it into a barrel roll. The Dodge was completely destroyed as it tumbled to a stop at the end of the backstretch, but fortunately the driver was unharmed.
Despite being the second flip in as many races, it raised more than a few eyebrows than the first. Such accidents were commonplace at Daytona International Speedway, as Michael Waltrip demonstrated the week prior. But although Rockingham was a lower-speed arena, minimally affected by aerodynamic lift, it was clearly not immune.
Long made 18 more starts in his Cup career, never finishing higher than 29th before hanging up his Cup helmet after the fall race at Martinsville Speedway in 2017.
Meanwhile, a crash involving Robby Gordon and Jeff Green on lap 351 brought the field together for a restart, which took place with 30 laps remaining.
Rookie Kasey Kahne had started the race in third but hadn’t led all race long. However, on the restart, he found himself just behind leader Kenseth. The No. 17 driver scooted away at the drop of the green flag, but Kahne and McMurray slowly began chipping away at the deficit.
The three cars were nose to tail at the white flag but McMurray nearly hit the wall coming off of turn 2. Kahne dove to the bottom in the final corner and came to the checkered flag side-by-side with Kenseth. The No. 17 of Kenseth edged out the young upstart by merely 0.01 seconds, equating to about a foot of separation.
In victory lane, Kenseth said the race was the most fun he had ever had in a racecar and said that the fans would likely see more such finishes that year. Unfortunately for Kahne, that was true, as he finished second to Elliott Sadler by nearly the same margin a few weeks later at Texas Motor Speedway.
Kahne won the first of the Truck races at the track when that series had a brief stint there in 2012-13. He will get another shot at Rockingham in the upcoming Xfinity Series race this weekend.
If Rockingham should end up on the Cup schedule again, I’d expect Kahne to want another shot at a win. Who knows? It might just soothe his soul.
Frank Velat has been an avid follower of NASCAR and other motorsports for over 20 years. He brings a blend of passionate fan and objective author to his work. Frank offers unique perspectives that everyone can relate to, remembering the sport's past all the while embracing its future.
Follow along with @FrankVelat on Twitter.