Rockingham's NASCAR Return: Behind The Scenes! Former Ghost Track Back In Action!

Most of them. You are one of the main reasons we came back here. I just want you to do it . Thank you. Thank you once again. Did you have your camera on when I spoke? Yes, I had it. Feel free to say whatever you want. Yes, but I mean, you always wanted this to happen, but you never knew if it would actually happen. And now it's happening. And we're here to witness it, and we'll show you what it's like. Oh. Look at this place. Buttoned up, I suppose, would be the best way to describe it because all of this was here. I simply wasn't . It seemed lifeless, and now there is life. Yes, there are only people here. Then, you can feel that there are colors and people. They repainted the tower up there . I'd like to see what they did inside those suites. Yes. How much they fixed them. Oh, that's great. They have the motorhomes parked on the back straight like this. Where the stands used to be, but now they are elevated. So, literally, you could sit next to your campervan and watch things. I thought it was funny. Then, on the back of the original scoreboard, you could see the remains of where it said Winston Cup Series when it was painted, but it is still Winston red. Well, look at this. I mean, these Henry Benfield, Richard Bosik, some of the best. Have you ever wanted to make tractor trailers? There they are. Those are the legendary tractor-trailer drivers. Junior Johnson, Kale Arbor, Melo Yellow, Melo Yellow. Who did you make? Anyone else besides Junior back then ? I did the best I could. I am young. 1984. I am a team leader at Levi Gar. And I keep telling you this story. I'm 22 years old and he takes an air pacifier from a nitrogen model and that little one, what was it? The little ones fell asleep in a rental car and it rained, but it's still raining . He is sleeping in a rental car. It has an air chamber. He got in line. I don't know what it was. You put that on, you put the chuck on and it turns, opens the bottle and that damn thing couldn't make it explode. The entire garage area was staring at that damn car; the rental car left. He and she were fast asleep. We were waiting for that thing to explode. That was a good day indeed. Well, anyway, listen. Did you have your camera on when I was talking? Yes, I had it. Feel free to say whatever you want. Yes, but I'm referring to Henry Benfield, one of the legendary ones, one of the great truckers, both of them died. And then Richard Boston, these two drivers and they confuse them. He's older than me. How much? He's not older than you. You need to get to know each other. Hey, you know what? Just never drink his... I've never met him before. Are you kidding? Don't drink their lemonade. I'll leave it at that. No. Hello, Winston Kelly. How are you? The voice of MRN. I just want to be like Kenny Wallace. I don't want to. You just missed out on a great story. Well, he's recording right now. This is good. Back then, MRN radio, you know, had a team like they have now, but the team was more united back then. Tell us the story of Ned Jarrett in Martinsville. Ned Jarrett was a pit reporter at Martinsville and during a commercial break, he let the booth know that he was going to have to take a one-minute break. He was going to stop talking on the radio. And about 2 minutes later, Richard Petty came down the pit lane and they forgot he had gone to the facility and came down saying, "Ned, Richard Petty is coming out of the pit lane." He was at the facility and called for the pit stop from the facility, only hearing by ear. And he said the funniest part was the guy standing next to him at the facility and his face when he saw a two-ton tire stop going to the bathroom. It's a true story. It's hilarious. I do many things. He is the best. But you know, if you add one more adjective, I'm in the bathroom. I have fans all around me. Thank you, Bonnie. Richard's two-tire stop, you know, at the urinal. Oh my God . You had to do the...But those are great stories. You wouldn't do that nowadays because you have to tell people, right? Well, I don't think the restrooms are as close to the circuits as Martin's were in the 60s, or probably the late 60s, early 70s. Hello, mate. Early 70s. Luckily, someone in the stable didn't start yelling while he was on air. I suppose it could have turned out very differently. There's our boss. Look at that. Oh, yes. There's nothing better. My God. I need to get this. I do n't know what to do about this. We're enduring everything. You have everything under control. We are holding out in court . The only time I actually got on the trailer was because I was in trouble . So it was Phoenix and I was in the cup car and I was racing with John Andred and we were going down the main straight, which is now the first one. Phoenix. We were going around that sharp curve with John and Drey. I was underneath him and John and Dreddy were coming at me and I was on the valance going into turn one at Phoenix and my front right side started smoking and NASCAR was like in a black flag position. Kenny Wallace is in front of his tires smoking and I say I'm not going in because he was only smoking in the corners in my mind. The truck and trailer are leaving Charlotte, North Carolina, going all the way to Phoenix, and I'm not going in there, I'm not going to ruin my career. So I don't go in until they tell me, "Herman, you have to go in." They're going to take out the scorecard. So I go back home with Shraider and go to the FBO after...No, I park my car in the pit area and my teammate comes up and tells me that NASCAR wants to see you and I tell him to tell NASCAR that you've never seen me. Serious mistake. I go to the FBO and Bill France is there. And I say, "Oh my God." He looks at me . Bill France does it. He says, " Kid, you're in trouble." And he says, " Yes, sir." Then, the next day, Mike Kelton calls me and yells at me. Mike Kelton finally $10,000. Oh. He ruined Halloween. And then he calls me back. My company. He says, "Okay, let's reduce it to $ 7,500." So, I had to take my checkbook and write NASCAR $7,500 because I ignored the black flag and took that check with a letter from my daughter to Miami Homestead. And my daughter is about 6 years old and she says to me, "Mr. Mike, you are an ignorant moose-head." I'm handing all this over to Mike Kel. He reads it and says, " I'm going to show this to Mr. France." He says, "We have letters, right?" He's laughing. Since that day, Mike and I have been best friends. He's the boss. He's the boss. Kenny as a surprise attack approaches. When are they going to break my record? What breaks your record? It's like from the late middle. Funny. That's how it would have looked from the Winston Cup era, right? Or I suppose from a Nexttel Cup race , right? Correct. Correct. Yes. What is this? North Carolina Speedway. Where was that? I found this under the annotators' building. Well, they still call it the Chris Economic Media Center. Someone said, "Yes, oh, we saw it in Berlin." Yes. Yes. Tim Horvath. Good. We met you in Berlin with... Yes, I was walking with Kenny and I was playing , playing too much, having a lot of fun, I got bruised in Berlin with him. Oh, yes, Johnny. All of us. World travelers, baby. They were...Oh, yes, they were sitting with us with Johnny Benson up there for that super modification. Well, trophies are getting more and more elegant. Tell me how awesome that is. And you did this. Yes, we...we manufacture, design and manufacture all weekend, the return of the rock. Well, we made the Ark, the trucks, and the trophy. This is our first Expinity trophy that we've made for Expinity. We 've already done a couple of truck series trophies and a bunch of ARCA and short track stuff, but our first Exfinity trophy and this thing just came out. That's incredible. What a coincidence. We're here and it turns out you also have the trophy in your hand, so we can put it in the video. Is n't it great? You did it with a real rock. Yes, that's it, uh, that was water jacket granite and we tried to make the rock in front match as closely as possible. And how did he get stuck carrying the rock? I always give it to her. Yes, I also drive an SRX, so I'm used to it. 32 pounds. Oh. Not bad. Yes. Until you've been doing it like that for a while. I guess that adds up. But no, as we move forward with this type of trophy, we come up with new ideas, fresher ideas. So putting the rock in front and grinding it is like a new idea that we're testing, and it's like we're continuing to level up. Did you ever put batteries in them so they would make noises and have lights? I never make noise. Yes, I didn't think about the noises. Yes, maybe the sounds of racing cars. We'll talk about that later. Hobby Lobby pulls me in too much. I see all those Christmas decorations with buttons and stuff. But it's super fun. Because there's no right or wrong way to do it, right? They give me the logo and tell me: "Make it happen." All the trophies were approved in the first design. We didn't have to do any checks. So that 's great. Yes, it's quite important. Having a cool trophy is like part of the character that makes a specific race or circuit desirable. As if they had this generic trophy, like : "Yeah, whatever." But you know what? We were taking a couple of photos earlier and the guy from General Tire had the 1988 Neil Bonnet trophy from here, we took them out and were able to take pictures with them side by side. So it was also great to have one from 1988 and then, obviously, one from 2025. What's the name of your business? He wants you to make them a trophy. HD5. Find us on all social media platforms, we're from Grand Rapids, Michigan, but we travel all over the country. Yes. I'm glad to see you . I appreciate it. I'm glad to see you guys. This has been there for about 30 years. Let's see if there are any birds there. I remember mine. I was here. Yes. Wardrobe. You have to turn the corner. Then it's there. Yes. Yes. I remember how small it was and all that. What is this place? This is the old press center. Press members only. It doesn't matter if we do it. Oh. These are the old chairs from the office conference room. Is it a racetrack? It's a 36-foot-wide race car track that has two huge motors with inverters powering it. There's so much energy circulating through this thing . It's terrifying. Okay. So when are we going to set it up and have boxing matches after the race here? The building has some patina. Not everything is perfect. She has character. There are no birds flying and no Mitchell newspapers. I know you, and I was the guy who was bothering the guy who was giving me a tour of the Kiki store in Wisconsin. So I knew your name sounded familiar . And my friend John said you had to ask him about the hole in the wall. There are some people between Mark Martin's store and Alan Quickie's store . Yes. And I was the one who spoke to him on the phone when you were there. Really? I had the opportunity to talk to Mark on a podcast last week and I said to him, "Mark, who made that hole there?" Yes, he said he knew exactly where he was. I looked at him. I don't know who did it, but I was there and I definitely saw those things. Is there anything in particular we should see while we're here? We walked through this whole place several times before they renovated it. If I had known you were here, I would have spoken to the trophy designer who lives in Michigan. We met him too. We just saw him there. Did he tell you about the Neil Monroe he had? Yes. Okay, fine. I don't know where he is, but he told me. And I thought, "Dude, you'll probably like it." Yes, we'll have to find it. Yes. Wow, I'm excited. Yesterday a merchant came and there was a large crowd in the center. I mean, big and...I just went through the tunnel . I said, "Oh my God, Trader, you know, going through the tunnel. It 's all packed." Yes. It just felt... It's very exciting. They used to be pretty decent, weren't they? A couple of potholes, a couple of... Are you kidding me? Oh, yes. I mean, down here. Oh, it was great because Connor Zilla cornered me or I said, "Connor, I've never met you" and that was great. He wanted to talk to me about that quickly. He knows I've been successful here and I told him, "Well, this is what I do." You know he turned back, but it was really cool that Connor reached out to me, and you know you always want to make sure these kids know, and like all athletes should know, about history and so have a little respect for it. I don't demand it like Rusty or Nhard did. You'd better know who the hell. Come on. I've already drunk many cups of coffee with you, so I know what you want. So everything is clean. Shh. Last time, fresh paint made a big difference. A lot. Or at least he did. Yes, he did. You know, mechanics pay close attention to the oil filter and the air filter. You don't want them to be dirty because they're bad for the engine. They're bad for performance , aren't they? Well, when was the last time you thought about the cleanliness of what you put in your car? What 's in your tap water? I want to show you this Water Drop A1 filter. The desktop reverse osmosis system. No installation required. The water supply is there. Once it filters, put the dirty side back on that side. It has two filter cartridges and they are very easy to replace. Now, let's put this to the test and take away all the care from this tail and turn it back into water. Yes, I know it's hard to believe . The truth is, I've never tried it before. Let's find out how it works . Yes. Put it all in there. In fact, I'll leave it turned off so you can see that it's still there. It's touch-sensitive and easy to use. You choose the temperature. Seven filtration stages. There's no way this can come out transparent right now. This is impossible. It removes 99% of contaminants, including lead, chlorine, odors, microplastics, and more. No, he did. It absorbed him. You can see where the water line dropped . I can't taste anything. You can also make very hot water for things like a cup of tea, for example . Staying hydrated is an important part of my daily routine. And now this water droplet filter will help me do that and save money by not relying on plastic bottles. Check the link below to get your A1 water droplet filter today. This is great. This room, I'm sorry to see it for this. Yes , that's the AP darkroom process on site by AP in that room. There's a bit of energy there. In fact, we process films in our process. So that was the dark room. I would like to see the doctor. Ah, yes. What does the primary care center look like now? All the purple floors and stuff. This has names from 2013. Let's go inside the tents from back then. It says XM radio there . So, in fact, they dropped it in the spaces here. That red at the end. I don't think it's been a primary care center since 2012. Yes, there used to be a small elevated structure here, wasn't there? Yes, I remember seeing that photo. Yeah . Oh. I feel like I'm in 1995 right now . This is incredible. I think these, these ones that weren't making any noise, these Ethernet connections are also from around 1995. I think that's DSL. Oh, are these like the phone numbers for each of these places? So someone can say, "Yes, contact me at blah, blah, blah." And then his phone rings. They conducted interviews. That's great. And all that. Oh. Yes. You can see where they nailed the board. Like the subsequent career. Hmm. Here, this is great. There's a dark room here. The Associated Press darkroom. That's incredible. Hmm. So they had their own dark room here. Hmm. That's great. With a small sink. I can only wonder how many photos I've seen come out of this room. Clear. And here are some soundproofed radio rooms. There's that guy's radio interview. And here's another one. In fact, it's quite acoustically friendly here. Oh. Yes, it's very boring. You can feel the monotony when you speak. If those of you watching this video are interested in this, be sure to hit the subscription button because this is what we're doing now. We find cool things like this, we look at them and show them things that no one has ever seen before. So do it. Why isn't your car here? Because I couldn't park behind you to leave today. The acoustics are good back here. I like this. It's very visible. The others don't have this. Oh yes, this is good. Good job. You have an amazing setup back here. I like this better than tracks that have all those things in the infield. All things fan-related. It's been good. The facilities are large, but not so large that walking from one side to the other is a major problem. Now, I think we're going to go under the track for the start of the race. I remember the first time we passed by here and I thought we were in the wrong place because the truck barely fit. It doesn't seem like you should go this way . What's your name? Where are you from? Joe Richwell. I am from Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Watching your videos. I had to get there quickly this weekend. So you made it happen, man. Thank you . That's why Kitty is here. Four years ago, I won my last NASCAR race right here. Oh, it's already on its way. And I've gone to bed every night dreaming of returning to the rock. And damn it , I got goosebumps. Are you OK? We had some moments. I'm here to tell you, man. But those days are gone. I mean, now it's all about the dollar. It's not just for racing fans. But I would love for it to happen here again. We have to go there. We'll walk there. No, no, this is not the original. Goodyear put it there . Where is the original? You have to be underneath the corral, sticking out. I made a box stand out of it. So the original flag stand , the first Rockingham flag stand, is being used as... You have to be under the pitch. Oh, that's the one with the ladder. The one I fixed. I had no idea. That's the flag stand. I was right here . You use the original flag stand for hunting. That's incredible. I had no idea. That's exactly what it is. Hey. Okay. Yes, we'll have to go back there too. I didn't bring a notepad. We'll have to go back there now. Yes. Well, that's the original 1965 flag stand. Cool. That is. Was it like a revision of the original? Because it looks like it has legs and then it extended to make it taller. I wanted that hood and to put a tarp over it. It was constantly raining on him. Hey. It had plywood around it and a hood and everything. He hunted it for about 20 years. Then I left it. I built myself a condo stand that melts onto it. It was higher than that. It was on top of the wall. Ah. So he wasn't very tall. If you like this, you'd better hit the subscription button because, I don't know if you've noticed, if you've been here before, it gets deeper and deeper . It's getting more and more interesting. We're unearthing these things everywhere. Please welcome back Dan Revenheim, owner of Rockingham Racecourse and Entertainment Complex, Rockingham Properties. I would like to thank the North Carolina State Legislature, Track Enterprises, and most of my supporters. He's gone now . Actually, the main reason we're back here . I just want you to do it. Thank you. Thank you once again. Tomorrow we'll bring the races back to Rockingham, and again next year. Enjoy the race and have a safe trip home. Also joining us today on behalf of Richland County is the chairman of the board of commissioners. Ryan has my camera on the stand. I'm using my phone right now. It starts here this afternoon. The first time I drove here, they would n't let me in in 2020. Then a guy came out and asked me, " You okay, man?" And I told him, " Yes, I just wanted to see the track. I'm from out of town." And he said to me, "Eh ". I wish you could go anywhere outside of this parking lot. It's like a danger zone or something. I believe they used this place until 2012, if I'm not mistaken. But that was 8 years ago. It's a long time. In my head, 2012 doesn't seem so far away, but 8 years is a long time to do nothing and come back in 2021 and be…