Possible Moonshine Hideout Discovered Under Broken NASCAR Grandstands

From 1947 to the mid-Nineties, North Wilkesboro was one of stock car racing's classic venues. It fell in popularity as NASCAR grew into a national phenomenon and eventually closed down entirely for more than two decades, but a campaign led by Dale Earnhardt Jr. led to a grand re-opening and a non-points NASCAR Cup Series race at the track last year. That return did not come with new infrastructure, though, and that means the metaphorical ghosts of the past have stuck around for a new generation to discover. Including, potentially, a moonshine cave.

While checking in on the current state of the track's old concrete grandstands, leaders found cracks under a section of seats. After removing the seats, the group found a cavity of about 700 square feet underneath the stands. That, officials say, could have been the home to a rumored moonshining operation rumored to have existed inside the track.

Was this actually the home of a moonshine still? Maybe. Maybe not. If it was, the operation was closed down a very, very long time ago. As Speedway Motorsport executive Steve Swift notes in a press release, track officials did not find a still in the cave and could not find any way in or out of the around 700 square foot space. If the cavity was used to distill and move moonshine, the tracks to actually do that were sealed in concrete and any evidence of the operation was destroyed.