"A quarter-mile bullring south of Raleigh that's been turning laps since 1962 — Wake County Speedway calls itself 'America's Favorite Bullring,' and in 2026 it handed Conner Jones a fuel-mileage win that ended a decade-long drought for his team."
Location: Raleigh, NC Track Type: Paved short oval (bullring) Length: 0.250 miles Surface: Asphalt Banking: Corners 7° Capacity: 2,200 Opened: 1962 (paved 1987) Operator: Charlie Hansen (since 2018)
Overview
Wake County Speedway is a quarter-mile asphalt bullring about 15 minutes south of downtown Raleigh, North Carolina. At just 0.250 miles with 7-degree corners, it is one of the shortest and tightest tracks on the zMAX CARS Tour Presented by SoundGear schedule — a place where contact is part of the program and track position matters more than horsepower. The track bills itself as "America's Favorite Bullring" and runs weekly stock car racing on alternating Friday nights from spring into early fall.
History
Wake County Speedway was established in 1962 by Glenn and Marvin Simpkins as a quarter-mile clay oval. It was leased to Donald Macon until 1987, when the Simpkins family took over operations and resurfaced the track with asphalt — the surface it still runs on today. After the family's run ended in 2013, the track passed through a series of operators before Charlie Hansen signed a long-term lease in 2018 and continues to run it. In 2023 the speedway drew on North Carolina's Motorsports Relief Fund to repave and upgrade its infrastructure.
The bullring's history is dotted with NASCAR names who turned laps here on the way up or back through, among them J.D. McDuffie, Benny Parsons, Ken Schrader, and Dennis Setzer. The CARS Tour has made Wake County a regular stop, visiting in 2018, 2021, and every season since 2023.
The 2026 CARS Tour Race (Mar 28)
Wake County hosted a Late Model Stock–only round, the Delta Heating Cooling & Plumbing 175. Conner Jones won it in the Carroll Speedshop No. 44 — his fourth career CARS Tour Late Model Stock victory — in a fuel-mileage finish: he ran out of fuel while leading with eight laps to go, then cycled back to the front as others hit the same problem. The win ended a long winless drought for owner Justin Carroll, who had fielded CARS Tour entries for more than a decade. Sam Butler took a career-best second in the R&S Race Cars entry — running without a hood and right-front fender by the finish — and Chase Burrow came from a provisional start to finish third.