Suspected Moonshine Cave Found Under Grandstand At North Carolina Speedway

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The history of racing in America is deeply intertwined with bootlegging. For North Wilkesboro Speedway, though, the connection may be closer still. Recent investigation has revealed what may have been a secret moonshine cave under the track’s concrete grandstands.

“When we began renovating and restoring North Wilkesboro Speedway in 2022, we’d often hear stories of how an old moonshine still was operated here on the property under the grandstands,” said Steve Swift, the senior vice president of operations and development at Speedway Motorsports. Indeed, rumors of the track’s illicit history have circulated for decades, suggesting the speedway once played host to an illicit moonshine distillery. The new find under the grandstands provides significant supporting evidence to that theory, but it’s not 100% confirmed just yet.

The find occurred when track staff were undergoing cleaning and inspection of the grandstands on the track’s front stretch. Cracks were identified in section N of the stand, with approximately 600 seats subsequently removed as crews inspected the structure. Further investigation revealed an area of approximately 700 square feet under the stands.

“We haven’t found a still [yet], but we’ve found a small cave and an interior wall that would have been the perfect location to not only make illegal liquor, but to hide from the law as well,” said Swift. “We don’t know how people would have gotten in and out, but as we uncover more, there’s no telling what we might find.”

Fans of North Wilkesboro Speedway need not fear for the track. Speedway Motorsports staff are in the process of evaluating the grandstand for repair works. The clock is ticking ahead of the upcoming NASCAR All-Star Race Week, taking place at the track from May 14 to 19. “Now we have a race before the race,” said Swift. “The area that’s been affected by the sinkhole is a front stretch grandstand area with some of the best views of the track. We’ll have a lot of work to get done before NASCAR All-Star Race Week.”

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We’re yet to get a good look inside the cave revealed under the front stretch grandstand.

North Wilkesboro Speedway first opened in 1947. That’s long after the Prohibition era, but bootlegging wasn’t just limited to that period. Indeed, in the American South, moonshiners continued to operate illicit stills well into the 1940s. Drivers involved in the trade would modify their cars to better outrun the police on bootlegging runs, and competitions between these cars would eventually help spawn the series we know today as NASCAR. Thus, it’s easy to see how a vintage speedway track could have played host to  an illicit moonshine operation.

The Autopian has reached out to NWS for comment on whether any historical investigation is ongoing. It could be quite revealing to see what historical artifacts a dig on site could turn up.

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Today, the worlds of motorsport and alcohol are strictly split for good reason. In the past, though, it was an entirely different matter. The history of American motorsport has rich and storied roots, and it’s always interesting to learn more about the secrets lurking beneath the speedways of the American South.

Image credits: North Wilkesboro Speedway

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75 thoughts on “Suspected Moonshine Cave Found Under Grandstand At North Carolina Speedway”

  4. My wife’s grandmother still keeps some on hand as cough medicine. When we lived in Johnson City, TN, my dad worked on the national forest and would find stills tucked away all the time. I guess that is why there were mason jars in the garage, lol. Like many others have said, the tradition lives on in the entire Appalachia region.

    1. There is an ancient barn in the woods near my parents house that had to have been for moonshine. There isn’t a still but there are several dozen 5 gallon glass jugs and an old flathead V8 sitting on the ground.

  6. SW Virginia and the adjacent parts of NC, TN, and KY were active with bootleggers well past the prohibition era. I grew up there, and while my dad was not a bootlegger, he was a welder, and he was the go-to guy for when a still or some other part of the operation needed welding.

    Dad worked in a factory until 5pm, came home, had dinner, and then went out to the big garage/workshop on the backside of our property. Most nights at least one or two farmers brought a tractor part or plow in for repair. As dusk fell, some other more eclectic visitors might come by for a needed repair.

    I remember distinctly one guy who would bring his still in for repair. It was cleverly hidden in the back of a retired school bus. The bus had about half of the rows of seats removed, and was still roadworthy, so he could actually drive the whole assembly in for repair, and then take it back to where he had it hidden way back in the woods.

    @TOSSABL mentioned Franklin County VA a few posts earlier. I grew up in Henry County, immediately to the south. Big moonshine country.

    1. I swear that for most of the people I met who were involved in the 90s, it was more about giving a raspberry to the authorities than profit motive. And pride and ingenuity: I never would have thought of a freakin’ mobile still. Love that.

  8. “ Indeed, in the American South, moonshiners continued to operate illicit stills well into the 1940s”

    Errrm. I live not far from Wilkesboro. The practice has not ended.

    2. My dad was transferred to North Wilkesboro for work back in the 1980s. He likes to tell a story about how one day in the office he mentioned that he had never tried moonshine. The next day, a crate of mason jars appeared on his desk.

    4. Also not far away and I am sure if I think really hard I could come up with one or two families that don’t know offhand where to get shine. Hell, most of them know the “brand” names of multiple homegrowns.

  10. “Indeed, in the American South, moonshiners continued to operate illicit stills well into the 1940s”
    You forgot about-
    Just a good old boys
    Never meanin’ no harm
    Beats all you never saw
    Been in trouble with the law since the day they was born

  11. Atlanta Motorsports Park is in Dawsonville, Georgia, prime moonshine country. During construction of the track, the workers were bridging a creek on the property and found a very old still on the waters edge. A hand drawn plaque quoted Psalm 23, “He leads me beside still waters”.

  12. I was gifted some moonshine out of Franklin County Va in the late 90s. I had stopped drinking by then, so it ended up in my dip bucket for carburetor cleaning. Was awesome for that—but I definitely only could use it in a well-ventilated area.

    (I did try to give it to a friend first: he’s the one who suggested parts-cleaning with it)

  14. wow, when my grandpa took me there he told me we were doing maintenance on the plumbing for grandmas hooty tooty fancy people warshing machine plumbing. Wow, grandpa duped me into doing illegal crap. God rest his soul.

  15. Empty space under a grandstand?

    Must be a moonshiner’s cave. Not a standard feature because filling it with concrete would be kind of pointless.

  16. A good story, a fine myth that gets busted by lack of access.
    I think about concrete formwork removal, backfilling, poor compaction and fill migration due to adjacent soil instability exposing a void and a foundation wall.
    Probably nothing to see here unless you are a structural engineer.

    4. I can’t help but think that if the soil were that unstable and poorly filled that the stands would have failed long ago. This does seem more intentional to my eye. That’s a pretty big void.

      Note, I am not a structural engineer, but my stepfather was, so I’m not entirely unfamiliar with the concepts.

  18. What, the empty space under bleachers being used for illegal or immoral activities?
    Who’d a thunk…

    (walks away whistling suspiciously)

    1. Not to mention Kevin Harvick’s Busch Light car. The cameras would sometimes even catch him drinking one on the grid immediately after a race.

    4. Well… there’s booze *at* NASCAR, just not booze *in* NASCAR. Which is honestly a shame. There should be an additional grading component based on carrying a couple of boxes of mason jars full of water in the back of the car, and having points deducted at the end of the race for however many are broken.

      NASCAR is now virtually free of its hillbilly DGAF roots, and that’s why it has sucked so bad for the last 20 years.

  23. I knew two moonshiners when I lived in NE Tennessee in the 70’s. Wouldn’t surprise me at all if the profession is still alive and well in that area and across the border in Kentucky.

    1. It’s definitely still a thing in some areas. I was in college in the early-mid 2010s and a friend of a friend lived in Virginia. One weekend he came back after a visit home with a jar of real deal, distilled in the middle of the woods moonshine. That stuff tasted more like rocket fuel than something a person should be drinking.

      1. I had some in the early 2000s, and while it was serious (e.g. safe) stuff, it was like paint thinner.

        Booze is one of those things, like motor oil or light bulbs, where I definitely want something non artisanal.

        1. Ugh my pet peeve is all the restaurants touting their this and that is “homemade.”

          I’m not David Tracy. I don’t want to eat something made in someone’s bathtub.

      3. Some of the stuff I tried was definitely of the rocket fuel variety, some of it was remarkably smooth. I mean, generations of the same family working the craft they developed some real skill. Still kicked like a Tennessee mule.

      4. The one and only time I’ve ever had authentic white lightning was courtesy of a friend of mine who got some from his brother. And where did his brother get it? He was a helicopter pilot, and a yearly participant in what the state of Alabama calls “The Green/Gray Sweep,” an annual joint task force between the Alabama Department of Public Safety and the Alabama National Guard, where helicopters are used to spot illegal stills and marijuana grows from the air, then state troopers come in and clear the site and make arrests.

        Not only did it make me sick as a dog and give me one of the worst hangovers I’ve ever had the next day, it also made me grumpily wonder how much weed and ‘shine never made it into evidence each year.

        1. I got to ride on some of those drug interdiction flights in Florida back in the day. Great way to spend an afternoon, if you like riding in a Huey with the doors open.

    2. We’ve just gentrified. You have been able buy distilling lids for all-in-one home brewing systems for like a decade now. Of course, they’ll be for “essential oils only!”

      Or something

    4. The legendary Junior Johnson once said that more than any of his countless racing accolades, his proudest accomplishment as a driver of anything was “they never caught me a-runnin’.”

    5. A racin’ (note the apostrophe) buddy of mine brings his North Carolina hooch to the track for his friends to share (never before a race!). In classic tradition, we pass around clear Mason jars. His apricot and peach infused 140 proof is remarkably tasty and smooth.

  24. Stories like this are why I am STILL disappointed that Autopian comments don’t support images, because I could have made a great Avatar/”Secret Tunnel” song joke.

  25. Lasted a decade or two longer than the 1940s, still a lot of dry counties in the South in that period (think its down to like 36 now, number’s been dropping for a long time)

    1. Fun fact: “dry” counties often have markedly higher rates of DUI, because of all the people going to the next county over to get loaded, then driving home.

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