Rockingham Speedway - Little Rock

Little Rock

A new half-mile track (.526 miles), dubbed the Little Rock, was built behind the backstretch for other classes of short-track cars and for the Fast Track driving school Hillenburg owns, and opened October 13, 2008. NASCAR Sprint Cup teams immediately christened the track for testing in preparation for the TUMS QuikPak 500 at Martinsville Speedway that ensuing weekend, as "Little Rock" is designed similar to Martinsville with 800' straights, 588' turns, and the inside lanes of the turns are concrete. Unlike the 1.017-mile (1.637 km) oval, which will be restricted to NASCAR testing on January 1, 2012), NASCAR testing will remain unrestricted on the Little Rock.

The half-mile oval is unique in that instead of a traditional guardrail around the outside of the track, it uses gravel traps similar to road courses. Hillenburg said this is for economical reasons, as a car sliding into a sand trap will not damage a car as much as hitting a wall.

Hillenburg noted, “We've designed a track that can measure one's skill level and they can slide off into a sand trap and not a wall. I can now give parents a straight-up answer as to where their kids stack up.” Jimmie Johnson was part of the opening group of drivers to test at "Little Rock," and blew a tire. He joking said he nearly ran into his own transporter because of the track's design that lacked the concrete wall for safety.

The new half-mile track, with its intentional similarity to Martinsville, quickly became a testing venue for Sprint Cup teams in 2008, and it with NASCAR testing rules, will likely be a testing hotbed for Sprint Cup teams to test before Martinsville's two races in 2009, since new NASCAR rules prohibit testing on any track on the three national series or the Grand National division, and Rockingham is not on any of those schedules.

The track also has an integrated quarter mile oval for the Bandoleros and Legend's Cars.