A sinkhole has potentially revealed a hidden moonshine cave at the North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Carolina
- A possible moonshine cave has been found beneath the grandstands at North Wilkesboro Speedway
- There’s an open area that spans approximately 700 square feet and officials said “there’s no telling what we might find”
- The track has been rumored to be the site of a secret moonshine still for decades
Rumrunners and moonshiners might have been breaking the law, but they paved the way for NASCAR. As their Hall of Fame noted last year, “In the first decade or so of NASCAR racing, the transportation of illegal liquor in the South was huge business, and a lot of the sport’s early stars drove, owned or built moonshine cars, and Wilkes County was a hotbed of the moonshine industry.”
That’s ringing especially true today as the North Wilkesboro Speedway has potentially discovered a long-rumored moonshine cave. As the track explained, they were cleaning the grandstands last week and discovered cracks in the original concrete of Section N.
Crews then began removing the seats to get a closer look at the damage. While they were simply trying to evaluate the need for repairs, workers ended up discovering an “open area” – spanning approximately 700 square feet (65 square meters) – beneath the frontstretch grandstands.
This came as a surprise, but rumors had been swirling for decades. As Steve Swift, Senior Vice President of Operations and Development at Speedway Motorsports, explained “When we began renovating and restoring North Wilkesboro Speedway in 2022, we’d often hear stories of how an old moonshine still was operated here on the property under the grandstands.”
Swift went on to say they haven’t found the rumored still itself, but they’ve discovered a “small cave and an interior wall that would have been the perfect location to not only make illegal liquor, but to hide from the law as well.” He added they don’t know how people could have accessed the area at this point, but “there’s no telling what we might find.”
While only time will tell what secrets the cave holds, the North Wilkesboro Speedway opened in 1947 and became one of NASCAR’s original tracks. However, the facility fell on hard times and NASCAR left in 1996. It just returned to the schedule last year.
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The initial damage was the result of a sinkhole and the Speedway said approximately 600 seats have been removed from Sections N and O. Staff are currently evaluating how to proceed with repairs as they’re gearing up for the NASCAR All-Star Race in mid May.