As far as I know, the USAR Pro Cup Series does not race DeLoreans.
But after glancing at its 2010 schedule, I'm thinking it might need Doc Brown's 1.21-gigawatt-powered machine before it drops the green flag on next season. Because the USAR is, with all apologies to Marty McFly, headed back to the future.
The series formerly known as Hooters Pro Cup will hold events at six deep-in-the-south racetracks that share more NASCAR history than any and every amenity-laden, 1.5-mile, modern cookie-cutter track you can pay $150 to get into. The crown jewel of the calendar will come Oct. 3, 2010, when Pro Cup cars take the green flag at the -- you might want to sit down for this -- North Wilkesboro Speedway. And yes, we're talking about the same NWS that has sat empty and rotting since Jeff Gordon won the final NASCAR Cup race there in 1996.
The unofficial announcement came when the USAR released its '10 schedule to competitors during its season finale weekend on Halloween. The official announcement is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon -- an open invitation to media, fans and local residents -- inviting all to wear whatever they had on at that last race in '96. The invite and instructions were sent to the Wilkes County community by one of their own, Terri Parsons, wife of the late racing hero (and Wilkesboro native) Benny Parsons.
The entire region, once soured on stock racing because it built the sport and then watched as the sport abandoned it, has a hop in its step once again. And it's all thanks to the largely unknown USAR.
"It's pretty cool isn't it?" newly crowned three-time series champ Clay Rogers said. "You walk into all these racetracks on the USAR schedule, and as a racer, you're just aching to add your name to the roll call of winners, because that list includes every legendary NASCAR champion you've ever heard of."
He means that quite literally.
Also on the 2010 USAR calendar will be:
• Gresham Motorsports Park (Georgia), March 27 & Oct. 23. This might very well be the finest short track in the country, built on the site of the old Jeffco/Peach State Speedway, which played host to two Cup Series events in 1968-69, won by Cale Yarborough and Bobby Isaac. Leeroy Yarborough, Wendell Scott and Alan Kulwicki all earned short track wins here on their way up the ladder. The track general manager is Dan Elliott, brother and former crew member of Awesome Bill.
• Hickory Motor Speedway (North Carolina), May 1. The .363-mile oval hosted 35 Sprint Cup races, the first won by Tim Flock in 1953 and the last won by Tiny Lund in 1971 in, get this, a Camaro. For years Hickory was owned and operated by local hero Ned Jarrett and it hosted the Nationwide Series until 1998.
• Rockingham Speedway (North Carolina), May 15. The Rock ran 78 Cup races, from Curtis Turner's emotional comeback win in '65 to Matt Kenseth's victory in 2004. Dale Earnhardt, Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough and Jeff Gordon all clinched championships there. The USAR has run Rockingham since it reopened in 2008. I wrote a feature for ESPN The Mag earlier this summer about the track's resurgence and its overwhelmingly positive effect on the community.
• South Boston Speedway (Virginia), June 12 & Nov. 6. The home of the world famous Bologna Burger is the place where Elliott Sadler, Denny Hamlin and the Burton brothers cut their racing teeth. It hosted 10 Cup races during the '60s, won by the likes of Junior Johnson and Richard Petty. It also welcomed Nationwide from 1982 through 2000, with wins by Jack Ingram and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
In addition, the USAR will visit Bristol Motor Speedway, aka Thunder Valley, as well as the Salem and Winchester Speedways in Indiana, grounds that are just as hallowed to open wheel devotees (Mario, A.J. and Tony Stewart all ran there) as Rockingham and Hickory are to NASCAR fans.
But the unmistakable crown jewel of 2010 will be the reopening of North Wilkesboro. Just two months ago, I openly bemoaned the sight of NASCAR's Titanic sitting there by U.S. Highway 421, rusting away before my very eyes. I, like so many others, held out hope that the old bullring, first built as a show palace for moonshining cars, would one day be reopened. But we all knew deep down that it probably wouldn't.
What we didn't know was that a group called Speedway Associates Incorporated has been working behind the scenes for months now. It received some wind in its sails thanks to a recent resurgence of fans wanting to know about North Wilkesboro. That fever was fueled by Junior Johnson's NASCAR Hall of Fame induction and the recent Moonshiners and Revenuers Reunion, hosted by Terri Parsons. I went to that magical event and wrote a column about it in the current issue of ESPN The Magazine.
Junior and Terri had both hinted to me that some news might be coming, but I had no idea it would be actual racing news.
"There's a lot of work to do up there," Johnson said to me a few years ago as we drove by the rust-covered Turn 1 grandstands. "There was a lot of stuff that got by over the years, sewer stuff and structural stuff that inspectors looked the other way on for years because it was our hometown track. That'll take some doing, but the racing surface has always been fixable. My son [aspiring teenage short tracker Robert] has been testing out there just this year."
Within the Wilkes County community, the hope is still laced with skepticism, even after Tuesday's announcement. Forgive them that. They've been hearing about various groups swooping in to save the track for years and nothing has ever happened. For more on the efforts to get the track ready for next fall, see this story in the Wilkes Journal-Patriot, which includes a promise from Mrs. Parsons to use Tuesday's news conference "to set the record straight as to what is going on."
Regardless of those plans, whether the North Wilkesboro Speedway is up and running full-time or simply throws its doors open once for the USAR and then closes for good, I beg of you now -- as do the ghosts of NASCAR's past -- please buy a ticket and show up. Not just to Wilkesboro, but Rockingham, Hickory, South Boston and all of the other once-proud Cup Series establishments that have been given a second lease on life.
If they have to shut The Rock and North Wilkesboro down again, we'll have no one to blame but ourselves. If they stay open, then we'll first thank USAR. And then Doc Brown.
Ryan McGee
