Orange County is a county located in the Piedmont region of the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 148,696. Its county seat is Hillsborough.
The town of Hillsborough is the county seat of Orange County, North Carolina, United States and is located along the Eno River. The population was 6,087 in 2010, but it grew rapidly to 9,660 by 2020.
Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area is a North Carolina state park in Orange County, North Carolina in the United States. Located adjacent to the town of Hillsborough, it covers 221 acres (0.89 km2) and includes Occoneechee Mountain, the highest point (867 ft) in Orange County and a settlement of the Occaneechi tribe.
Charlotte Motor Speedway is a motorsport complex located in Concord, North Carolina, 13-mile (21 km) outside Charlotte. The complex features a 1.500 mi (2.414 km) quad oval track that hosts NASCAR racing including the prestigious Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend, and the Bank of America Roval 400. The speedway was built in 1959 by Bruton Smith and is considered the home track for NASCAR with many race teams located in the area. The track is owned and operated by Speedway Motorsports with Greg Walter as track president.
The Chicago Motor Speedway at Sportsman's Park was a motorsports race track, located in Cicero, Illinois, just outside Chicago. It was built in 1999 by a group including Chip Ganassi, owner of Chip Ganassi Racing. In 2002 the 1.029-mile (1.656 km) oval shaped track suspended operations due to financial conditions in the motorsports industry. The track was also the site of horse races, for which the track was called "Sportsman's Park". The track was one of three racetracks that hosted both NASCAR auto races and horse races.
Nazareth Speedway is a defunct auto racing facility near Nazareth in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania which operated from 1910 to 2004 in two distinct course configurations. In its early years, it was a dirt twin oval layout. In 1987 it was reopened as a paved tri-oval that measured just slightly under 1 mile.
North Wilkesboro Speedway is a short oval racetrack located on U.S. Route 421, about 5 mi (8.0 km) east of the town of North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, or 80 miles north of Charlotte. It measures 0.625 mi (1.006 km) and features a unique uphill backstretch and downhill frontstretch. It has previously held races in NASCAR's top three series, including 93 Winston Cup Series races. The track, a NASCAR original, operated from 1949, NASCAR's inception, until the track's original closure in 1996. The speedway briefly reopened in 2010 and hosted several stock car series races, including the now-defunct ASA Late Model Series, USARacing Pro Cup Series, and PASS super late models, before closing again in the spring of 2011. It was re-opened in August 2022 for grassroots racing and hosted the 2023 NASCAR All-Star Race and a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race, with further renovations planned after the events.
Orange County Speedway is a 3⁄8 mile (0.60 km) asphalt oval in Orange County, North Carolina, near Rougemont. It first opened in 1966 as a 1⁄4 mile (0.40 km) and a 5⁄8 mile (1.0 km) dirt oval, which operated until 1967 and 1973, respectively. The facility was reopened and paved in 1983. With a slogan of "the fastest 3/8-mile race track in America," the oval features 19-degree banking through the turns and 16 degrees on the straightaways, creating three distinct grooves making for very fast turns. The aluminum grandstands stretch from Turn 4 all the way down the front straightaway to Turn 1. The speedway closed in 2003 but reopened on March 11, 2006.
Langhorne Speedway was an automobile racetrack in Middletown Township, Bucks County, near the borough of Langhorne, Pennsylvania, a northern suburb of Philadelphia.
The 1949 NASCAR Strictly Stock season was the inaugural season of professional stock car racing in the United States. Beginning at Charlotte Speedway on June 19, 1949, the season included eight races and two exhibition races. The season concluded with the Wilkes 200 at North Wilkesboro Speedway on October 16. Raymond Parks won the Owners' Championship, while Red Byron won the Drivers' Championship with a 16th-place finish at the final race of the season.
Concord Speedway was a motorsports facility located in the town of Midland, North Carolina, southeast of Concord, North Carolina. The complex featured a 1⁄2-mile asphalt tri-oval and a 1⁄4-mile asphalt oval.
Evergreen Speedway is an automobile racetrack located within the confines of the Evergreen State Fairgrounds in Monroe, Washington. The stadium can accommodate up to 7500 spectators in the covered grandstand and an additional 7500 in the uncovered modular grandstands. The layout of the track is unique in that it incorporates an oversized 5/8-mile paved outer oval, a 3/8-mile paved inner oval, a 1/5-mile paved inner oval, a 1/8-mile dragstrip, and the #2 ranked figure-eight track in the United States. The track is the only sanctioned NASCAR track in Washington State. Evergreen Speedway hosts Formula D the third weekend in July every year. Along with NASCAR, the multi-purpose track can be configured to road courses with sanctioned SCCA, USAC, ASA and NSRA events. Under new ownership for the 2011 season and beyond, Evergreen Speedway has become a NASCAR Top Ten Short Track in North America from 2012 though 2016.
State Fairgrounds Speedway, located at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds in Raleigh, North Carolina, was a half-mile oval dirt racetrack which was the site of auto races for NASCAR's top series in 1955, 1969, and 1970. The race on September 30, 1970 was the final Grand National race ever held on a dirt track, until the 2021 season. It was won by Richard Petty in a Plymouth that had been sold by Petty Enterprises to Don Robertson and rented back for the race.
There has been auto racing in Illinois for almost as long as there have been automobiles. Almost every type of motorsport found in the United States can be found in Illinois. Both modern and historic tracks exist in Illinois, including NASCAR's Chicagoland Speedway and Gateway International Speedway. Notable drivers from Illinois include Danica Patrick, Tony Bettenhausen, and Fred Lorenzen.
Lakewood Speedway was a race track located south of Atlanta, Georgia, in Lakewood, just north of the eastern arm of Langford Parkway. The track held many kinds of races between 1919 and 1979, including events sanctioned by AAA/USAC, IMCA, and NASCAR. It was a one-mile (1.6 km) dirt track which was located adjacent to Lakewood Fairgrounds. Lakewood Speedway was considered the "Indianapolis of the South" as it was located in the largest city in the Southern United States and it held an annual race of the Indy cars.
Birmingham International Raceway, (BIR) was a 5/8-mile oval paved racetrack located at the Alabama State Fairgrounds in the Five Points West neighborhood of Birmingham, Alabama. It was used primarily for late-model automobile racing.
The Petoskey Motor Speedway was a dirt track jalopy racing center in northern Michigan during the mid 1950s.
Dog Track Speedway was a 1/4-mile dirt then 1/3-mile paved oval in Moyock, North Carolina. It hosted seven NASCAR Grand National races between 1962 and 1966. The track switched from a quarter mile to third mile between 1963 and 1964.
Poplar Hill is a historic plantation house in Hillsborough, North Carolina. The home was the center of a large plantation, formerly called Occoneechee Farm and Banks of the Eno. Established on farming and hunting grounds for the Occaneechi and Saponi peoples, the land was granted to colonist Francis Corbin by the English and made into a working plantation. Ownership later passed to the Hogg family before the farm was purchased in 1891 by tobacco industrialist and white supremacist Julian Carr. Carr and his wife had the original 1794 plain farmhouse redone in the Greek Revival style. After Carr's death, the house was moved from its original location to a new lot in the Hillsborough Historic District. Poplar Hill later became a rental property and, in the twenty-first century, many tenants, including the singer Tom Maxwell, have broken their leases due to reported hauntings on the property.
Wilson Speedway was a half-mile dirt oval located in Wilson, North Carolina that held 12 NASCAR Cup Series between 1951 and 1960 and 5 races in the NASCAR Convertible Series from 1956 to 1958. and continued to hold local races until 1989 when the track was closed. The track was located at the Wilson County American Legion Fair Grounds.
