​If you asked most drivers a decade ago if they thought North Wilkesboro Speedway would ever host a NASCAR Cup Series race ever again, they likely would’ve shaken their head and laughed. It seemed like an impossible task to revive the track that hadn’t held a NASCAR-sanctioned race since 1996.“I’d seen some pictures, and I knew how bad a shape it was in,” said Chris Buescher, driver of the No. 17 Ford for RFK Racing.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“When I saw pictures of that place originally, I’m like there’s no way they’re going to get this place to become a points-paying race in the future,” said Zane Smith, driver of the No. 38 Ford for Front Row Motorsports. “And they proved me wrong. So, it’s awesome. It looks great, and hopefully, we put on a show there.”Indeed, North Wilkesboro has risen from its grave.This weekend, for the first time in 30 years, the .625-mile short track in Wilkes County, North Carolina is going to have a points race for NASCAR’s top-level Cup Series. The green flag on the Window World 450 will drop at 7 p.m. ET on Sunday, July 19 – the culmination of a lot of hard work and money spent by NASCAR, Speedway Motorsports, the State of North Carolina and Dale Earnhardt Jr.For the past three years, North Wilkesboro has hosted NASCAR’s All-Star Race. Bringing it back to the point where that was even possible was a long and windy road with plenty of bumps, stops and starts along the way.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“That’s one of those, it’s like Martinsville,” veteran driver Denny Hamlin said. “One of the grassroots tracks that definitely is part of our history and needs to be part of our future as well.”1 / 4March 8: Ryan Blaney celebrates winning the Straight Talk Wireless 500 at Phoenix Raceway.(Meg Oliphant, Getty Images)North Wilkesboro is as emblematic of stockcar racing’s history as any venue on the schedule. It was originally built so moonshiners in the hills of western North Carolina could settle who had the fastest machine to outrun the law. It opened in 1947 simply as an oval of red dirt and soon became an iconic stop on the schedule. Even Pixar’s “Cars” franchise drew inspiration from the track.Junior Johnson, the man Tom Wolfe called “the last American hero,” raced there; Richard Petty took the checkered flag 15 times, and Darrell Waltrip captured 10 victories at North Wilkesboro. Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Cale Yarborough had moments there, as did Buck Baker, Lee Petty and Terry LaBonte.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementBut then the 1990s rolled around – a time when NASCAR’s popularity was skyrocketing. There was a time during that decade when 14 of the 31 races on the Winston Cup Series schedule were held in just four states – an area that stretched south to Darlington, South Carolina, north to Richmond, Virginia, and west to Bristol, Tennessee. NASCAR and the operators of its tracks had expansion in mind to the west and north with the goal of re