NASCAR and moonshine go way, way back. So while it may seem incredible, it’s not totally surprising that North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Carolina recently may have discovered a secret moonshine cave underneath its grandstands.
And it’s all thanks to cracks in the grandstands’ foundation.
But let’s back up for a second.
Prohibition in the 1920s and 1930s contributed to the development of stock car racing in the U.S. And after prohibition, moonshine runners still needed to enhance their cars to evade authorities, laying the groundwork for NASCAR’s eventual inception in 1948.
Even racing legend Junior Johnson — who went to prison for a year for running an illegal whiskey still — once said: “If it hadn’t been for whiskey, NASCAR wouldn’t have been formed. That’s a fact.” And his whiskey still is now in the NASCAR Hall of Fame too.
OK, so back to North Wilkesboro’s stunning discovery.
The track — which was recently renovated and current host of NASCAR’s All-Star Race (May 19) — noted in a release Tuesday that operations staff found cracks in the concrete grandstands on the frontstretch of the 0.625-mile oval last week. After removing seats to figure out the extent of the damage, they discovered “an open area of approximately 700-square-feet” underneath the concrete.
BREAKING NEWS | Sinkhole unearths rumored moonshine cave underneath front stretch grandstands. 🌖🥃
FULL STORY 📰: https://t.co/Iri8nwI9Nt pic.twitter.com/V1IXPnANdc
— North Wilkesboro Speedway (@NWBSpeedway) March 26, 2024
And it could be an old moonshine cave. More via North Wilkesboro:
“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,” said Steve Swift, senior vice president of operations and development at Speedway Motorsports. “Well, we haven’t found find a still (yet), but we’ve found 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. We don’t know how people would have gotten in and out, but as we uncover more, there’s no telling what we might find.”
According to the track, about 600 seats have now been removed from the area, and North Wilkesboro staff is figuring out how best to address it before the All-Star Race weekend in May.
If you want to learn more about NASCAR and its history with moonshine, check out The Sneak, a serialized true crime podcast with a sports angle from For The Win and USA TODAY.
In the third season, we explore the life of former NASCAR crew chief Mario Rossi, a brilliant engineer and innovator, and we investigate his mysterious 1983 disappearance, which could be connected to a $300 million drug-smuggling ring that infiltrated motorsports.
