NASCAR has a long history of racing in Jackson County.
Saturday night, more history will be written at Gresham Motorsports Park in Jefferson, as the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East will make their only Georgia appearance of the season in the American Fence Association 150.
Drivers expected to take part include 2009 series champ Ryan Truex, Max Gresham, Eddie MacDonald, Ty Dillon and Mike Olson Jr.
While it may be the latest page in the track’s NASCAR history, it’s far from the first.
When Gresham Motorsports Park opened as Jefco Speedway (a name combining Jefferson and Commerce) in July of 1967, it was a NASCAR sanctioned facility.
The first event held at the speedway was a NASCAR Sportsman division race called the “Tiger 200,” in honor of the Commerce Tigers football program. That event, ironically enough, was won by veteran racer “Tiger Tom” Pistone.
That event was followed in 1968 with a NASCAR Grand National (now Sprint Cup) event that was won by three-time NASCAR champion Cale Yarborough. In 1969, the late Bobby Isaac would pilot his Dodge to a win in the same event at the track.
Years later, Darrell Waltrip and Larry Pearson would score Busch Grand National (now Nationwide) series victories on the Jefferson high banks.
The final NASCAR event held at the track came in July of 1996, when Ron Young won a NASCAR All-Pro event there.
And now, NASCAR is returning for its first national touring event in several years.
“When you go back and look at all the champions and great drivers that competed at this track when it was first built, you have to have a sense of pride about the people that made NASCAR – and Gresham Motorsports Park – what it is today,” said Dan Elliott, General Manager of Gresham Motorsports Park. “We’ve have such great NASCAR history here and we know that with the kind of NASCAR K&N Pro Series drivers we have coming here, that tradition is going to carry on in the future.”
Darrell Wallace Jr., the most recent winner on the K&N Pro Series East tour, said that the main difference between one of the series’ racers and the Late Models usually seen at Gresham is amount of horsepower. A Late Model generates around 400 horsepower, while the engine in a K&N Series machine puts out around 600 horsepower.
“That’s a lot more horsepower and a lot more weight,” Wallace Jr. said. “You’ve got to be easy in and hard off, that’s the main thing.”
Wallace, a two-time winner in his first season on the K&N Series tour, has never been to Gresham.
“I’ve heard a lot about it, I’ve heard it’s going to be fast and be fun,” he said. “I’m looking forward to it.”
Wallace Jr. said last week that he hasn’t heard many comparisons from his fellow competitors of the track to any other facility.
“They haven’t said anything to compare it to another track, so I’m guessing it’s one of a kind,” he said. “I like tracks like that. I think it will be cool.”
For more on this story, see Wednesday's edition of
The Commerce News or
The Jackson Herald.
