A familiar name will return to North Wilkesboro Speedway for the track’s first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race since 1996, with the Tyson® brand serving as the official sponsor of the Tyson 250 on Saturday, May 20, during NASCAR All-Star Race weekend.
Tyson Foods has a long relationship with North Wilkesboro’s iconic, five-eighths-mile oval. The track’s fall NASCAR Cup Series race was known as the Tyson Holly Farms 400 from 1990-96 and as the Holly Farms 400 from 1979-89, prior to Tyson Foods’ acquisition of Holly Farms. Today, Tyson Foods remains vested in the Wilkes County community. It employs nearly 2,400 team members in Wilkes County with nearby operations in Monroe, North Carolina, employing over 1,400 team members. Tyson Foods also recently invested $300 million in a state-of-the-art poultry processing facility in Danville, Virginia. The facility is expected to be completed in 2023 and will create 400 jobs for the area.
“Given Tyson Foods’ storied history with the North Wilkesboro Speedway, we are delighted to partner with NASCAR and bring fans back to this beloved racetrack for the first time in more than 25 years,” said Stephen Silzer, senior marketing director, Tyson brand. “Throughout the years, Tyson Foods has become synonymous with the Wilkes County community, through its job creations, economic development and the significant investments in our processing facility making it an integral part of the Wilkesboro identity. Our company is about bringing people together and this partnership does just that, at one of NASCAR’s most historic tracks.”
The renewed Tyson-North Wilkesboro partnership also brings with it the return of the iconic, red-and-yellow manual leaderboard, which was synonymous with racing at North Wilkesboro well into the 1980s.
“North Wilkesboro Speedway has a special history with Tyson Foods, so it makes perfect sense for us to grow our partnership with the Tyson brand on NASCAR All-Star Race weekend,” said Jessica Fickenscher, the executive director of the NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway. “The Tyson-branded manual leaderboard makes North Wilkesboro even more of a can’t-miss place to be in May.”
Race fans looking to experience the excitement of North Wilkesboro can do so on Saturday, May 20, which features the Tyson 250 as well as NASCAR All-Star Race qualifying, with a limited number of single-day tickets going on sale Feb. 22.
Speedway Motorsports PR
