NASCAR has acquired the lease to operate motorsports events at Bowman Gray Stadium.
More specifically, it has purchased the promotional company that holds the lease to promote races at the tiny race track inside a football stadium within downtown Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and has the rights to do so through December 2050.
Bowman Gray Stadium and NASCAR have deep ties to each other as it is the oldest, continually operating NASCAR weekly track in the country and was the site of the first pavement track to host a national touring event in 1958.
It has hosted NASCAR sanctioned races since 1949. The inaugural races were promoted by NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. and Alvin Hawkins, whose descendants sold the lease to the sanctioning body on Wednesday.
So, this doesn’t seem to change a lot as NASCAR has always been the sanctioning body overseeing The Madhouse but it now outright holds the lease. Ben Kennedy, NASCAR’s Senior Vice President and Racing Development (France’s great-grandson) says the Hawkins family and their staff will continue to work alongside NASCAR overseeing the Stadium.
“There’s a lot of history of the families working together, and a lot of history that we’ve had with that stadium,” Kennedy told NASCAR.com “Especially over the next few years in particular, we want to stay super close. … They’re going to continue to stay involved with us as we kind of get our feet underneath of us because they know every nook and cranny of that entire facility. They know how things operate, and they have relationships in the city that are priceless. We’ve got to make sure that we’re shepherding that into the next generation.”
Gray Garrison, the grandson of Alvin Hawkins, initiated the conversations with NASCAR during a test of the NextGen car in 2021.
“We all realized, at some point in time, we’ve got to pass it on to someone else,” Garrison told NASCAR.com “And we felt like what a better partner coming in than you can do with NASCAR. Our big thing is, we really care about the drivers, the competitors, the fans, and they’re like family to us. So we wanted to make sure if we did do something, we wanted to make sure somebody would come in have the same love for the sport and the same vision that we did, and we feel like NASCAR would be the best choice to come in and take this over.
“A lot of these things are not about money. It’s about relationships. I think NASCAR, they’re definitely not getting involved at Bowman Gray for the money. It’s the relationship that’s the full circle of things. … It’s pretty unique, we think, how it ties back in 70-some years later, how it comes back around, and we feel like it’s going to be in good hands.”
No Change Expected
Bowman Gray Stadium is known for its close racing on a quarter-mile setting but also the fights and theatrics it inspires.
The atmosphere was subject to a History Channel spotlight called ‘Madhouse’ in 2010 that documented the characters and controversies of NASCAR’s most notorious weekly facility.
FloRacing, which broadcasts the weekly racing from the track, also produced a short film in that same spirit.
Its brand of motorsport entertainment draws over 10,000 fans every time the gates open and there are some concerns that NASCAR will work to dilute or sanitize the product with its ownership of the lease but longtime PR rep Loren Pinilis says that’s not true at all.
So the Madhouse is going to remain the Madhouse?
“The Madhouse is going to remain the Madhouse,” Pinilis told Sportsnaut.
“We asked everyone at NASCAR about that and they said they don’t want to change Bowman Gray Stadium racing. They know how special it is. I think there are some things they can do from a resource standpoint to really make it better but they don’t want to change what happens here on Saturday nights.
Kennedy echoed those sentiments too.
“I expect it to be very similar, if not identical to what people have seen,” Kennedy said. “In the past, there might be some kind of small tweaks and upgrades that we might make to the facility, but other than that, the true experience and the uniqueness of it is exactly that. It’s the concession stands and the ticket pricing and the racing on the track and the entertainment off the track. It’s all of that mixed together, and I think that’s what makes it so unique and so special. That’s something that Jim (France, NASCAR chairman) has asked us to make sure that we maintain, and I know the Garrison family wants to maintain.”
That includes what currently stands at $12 for an adult grandstand ticket.
“I think the biggest takeaway from this is it shows their support for grassroots racing,” Garrison says. “You know, they don’t need to be at Bowman Gray, but it’s a passion they have for weekly racing, and they want to be there to show their support for grassroots racing. And we think that’s very important, not only here in the community of Winston-Salem but in the racing community as a whole. Hey, NASCAR’s still here to stay in weekly racing, they want to be involved, and they want to help it grow, and I think that’s a huge statement on their part.”
Mike Robertson, who has come to the Stadium for decades with his father racing before him and now his son racing behind him embraces NASCAR obtaining the lease.’
“From a facility standpoint, we already have the best concessions, best lights and bathrooms,” Robertson told Sportsnaut. “We’re in a good spot from a facility standpoint. As far as the racing, maybe transponders because we’re still hand scored. I’ve been going there my whole life and I’ve been on the good side of a hand score and the bad.
“But I just think with their resources, NASCAR can take what is already great at The Stadium and continue to make it better.”
But the biggest question on everyone’s mind, especially during a decade in which Kennedy has spearheaded major changes to the NASCAR Cup Series schedule with races on dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway, inside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and on the Streets of Chicago, is The Madhouse setting itself up for a Cup Series race?
It would be the first time since 1971 if it ever comes to fruition.
“Potentially. I certainly wouldn’t rule anything out, and I’d be lying to say if we haven’t talked about it before,” Kennedy said. “We’ve talked about hundreds of tracks. … So obviously nothing to report today. Our focus is really getting up and running on April 20 this year with weekly Modified racing.”