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Story’s photos show sad decline and what remains of North Wilkesboro Speedway

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Photojournalist Seph Lawless came out with a book titled “Autopsy of America” last year, which chronicles once vibrant locations across the U.S. that are now mere shells and memories of their former greatness.

This past Sunday, England’s Daily Mail newspaper and its online site, DailyMail.co.uk, excerpted from Lawless’ book his homage to what was once one of NASCAR’s most storied racetracks, North Wilkesboro Speedway.

Located about 85 miles northwest of Charlotte Motor Speedway, from 1949 until 1996 North Wilkesboro was one of the most popular racetracks in the sport, playing host to countless sellouts of its 40,000 seats.

Even to this day, fans still talk reverently about the place, including many who would love to see racing return to the .625-mile oval.

But as Lawless told the Daily Mail, the track “now sits eerily silent and completely abandoned. It was apocalyptic.”

Lawless did an outstanding job with the photos he took and which are displayed in the Daily Mail story.

Click here to read the story – and more importantly, see the photos – of the sad decline of one of NASCAR’s former jewels.

Follow @JerryBonkowski