The NASCAR Cup Series All Star Race will return to North Wilkesboro Speedway on May 19.
There was an air of uncertainty surrounding what NASCAR and track owning Speedway Motorsports would choose to do with its newly renovated historic speedway in 2024. There was some consideration that Speedway Motorsports would simply move its date to what is now the spring race at Bristol. Instead, Bristol will get two races on the concrete surface next year and the North Wilkesboro will get the All Star Race week for the second year in a row.
Wilkesboro returned to the NASCAR Cup Series schedule this year for the first time since September 1996 with Kyle Larson winning the main event. The track had sat largely dormant for the past quarter century prior to a non-NASCAR revival event in 2022.
North Wilkesboro Speedway is the oldest track in NASCAR having opened in 1947.
In related news, North Wilkesboro Speedway will receive $4 million in 2024 as part of the new North Carolina state budget. That played a significant factor into the venue receiving the All Star Race again next season. The track will continue to host two NASCAR sanctioned events next season, the second of which is the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race, which takes place on Saturday night.
That race will be the last one to take place on the historic aged surface, which received patchwork prior to the All Star Race in May. As part of the new budget, the track will be repaved prior to the All Star event next May.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will serve as the companion race for the Cup Series event. The CARS Tour, a Late Model touring series co-owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton and Justin Marks, will also race during the week leading up to the NASCAR weekend.
Despite several delays, the full 2024 NASCAR Cup, Xfinity and Truck Series schedules are expected to be released next week.
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.