The last lap awaits as Rockford Speedway prepares for 76th and final season of racing

If you‘re a race fan in the Midwest, then odds are you‘ve heard of Rockford Speedway.

Located in Rockford, Illinois, Rockford Speedway has been a hub for NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series racing for decades.

“Rockford is well known for what we‘ve done,” said David Deery, the general manager of Rockford Speedway. “That‘s pretty cool. I like that aspect of it. The impact that this facility has had not only for the motorsports industry and not only the Rockford area, but the whole racing community across the country.

“Everybody knows of Rockford.”

Unfortunately, progress has finally caught up to the quarter-mile oval, which will close following the conclusion of its 76th season of racing and the property will be redeveloped.

“It was our thing. It was what our family did. We worked here, it was our life,” said Susan Deery, the president of Rockford Speedway. “We knew eventually (the closure of the track) was going to happen because we‘re just being surrounded by homes and businesses. It‘s the nature of the beast.

“All of the pieces kind of came together in December, January where the right thing to do was close.”

For nearly as long Rockford Speedway has existed, the Deery family has been involved with the speedway and the local community. The track was built in 1947 by a group of investors, but by 1966 Hugh and Jody Deery had taken ownership of the facility.

Together, they operated the speedway and raised eight children – Gunner, Ted, Jack, Susan, Tom, Brad, Chuck and David. Hugh passed away in 1984, but Jody was determined to carry on and continued to own and operate the track for more than 30 years with help and support from her children.

“We called it the Deery farm,” Jody explained in a story that appeared on NASCAR.com in 2017. “My husband and I both grew up on a farm. We realized the value of family working together. One of the dreams my husband had was to buy a few small acres and put kind of a model farm so people could bring their kids out from Chicago to see what farm life was like.

“Well that never materialized, but then when we got involved in the speedway it became our farm and my kids, as soon as they could talk or walk, they were involved. They grew up here.”

Jody finally retired in 2020 at the age of 95 and passed away last year at the age of 97.

While Jody was perhaps best known for her role at Rockford Speedway, she was just as well known for her generosity.

A devoted Catholic, she always went out of her way to donate time and money to those in need according to David.

“Rockford Speedway and all of her community involvement kept her going,” David said. “She was a go-getter. She just never quit. She loved helping people out. My brothers and sisters can probably say it in better words, but that was her forte really.

“She always felt that everybody could use an extra hand.”

Jody continued her tradition of giving as part of her will. It was recently announced that she had donated a total of $320,000 to 16 organizations, with each organization receiving $20,000.

In addition, the St. James Catholic Church and the Catholic Diocese of Rockford were each given an ownership stake in Deery Properties, the family‘s development group that is working to redevelop the land where Rockford Speedway currently resides.

“My mother was a very generous person and a very religious person, very faithful to the Catholic church,” Susan said. “All 16 she was involved in, either as a volunteer, a member of the board, they all meant something important to her.

“My mom lives on through those 16 charities.”

While the future of Rockford Speedway has already been decided, work is already underway by the Deery family to make sure the track is not forgotten.

Tom Deery, who worked as the general manager at Rockford Speedway from 1984 to 1996 before going on to hold executive rolls at NASCAR and the World Racing Group, said discussions are already taking place to make sure part of Rockford Speedway‘s history remains once the physical race track is gone.

“No matter what happens to that piece of Earth in the development, to hundreds of thousands of people that will always be where Rockford Speedway is or was,” Tom said. “It‘s important for all of us to somehow leave a mark that this is where that speedway was.

“Once we see how all the pieces get put together, there will be a park or an area that will reflect what happened on these grounds for 76 years.”

While the popular quarter-mile oval will no longer host racing at the conclusion of the 2023 season, the track will always be remembered by those who raced and worked there.

The track has welcomed several familiar faces throughout the years, including seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion crew chief Chad Knaus. His father, John, won seven track championships at Rockford in the 1980s and ‘90s.

John Darby, who worked as an official for NASCAR for more than 30 years, is also a Rockford Speedway graduate. Countless drivers who have raced at Rockford Speedway have also gone on to enjoy success on a national stage.

“The first emotion is to reflect back on the 75 years (of history),” Tom said. “That a small, paved quarter-mile in Rockford, Illinois, could have influenced the industry the way it did and give people a platform to expand their careers and to make a living in racing and show that motorsports is a viable choice in life and it can provide the types of rewards that many other types of employment do, probably even a little more rewarding in some aspects because of what you‘re able to accomplish.”

Rockford Speedway will open its 76th and final season of NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series competition this Saturday night. It‘s one of more than 30 racing events scheduled for Rockford Speedway this year.

Headlining the list of events during Rockford‘s final season will be the 58th and final National Short Track Championships on Sept. 29-Oct. 1. The event, which debuted in 1966, has been won by some of racing‘s greatest competitors through the years.

Among those to win the National Short Track Championships are Dick Trickle, Ramo Stott, Joe Shear, Mark Martin, Jim Sauter, Junior Hanley, Tim Fedewa, Rich Bickle, Butch Miller, Steve Carlson, Eddie Hoffman, Alex Prunty, Casey Johnson and, most recently, Austin Nason.

Susan is hoping to add a few special surprises to the National Short Track Championships program in celebration of Rockford Speedway‘s final season, though those details have not yet been finalized.

“We always said if we were going to close, we‘re not going to just say we‘re done. We‘re going to have a final season,” Susan said. “We‘re going to let our people know, let our competitors know, the fans, the sponsors, so they‘re not caught off guard.

“The very last weekend, which will be Oct. 28, will be our classic‘s weekend. We want to bring in the Late Models, the Figure 8s, the Midgets, those were the divisions that started at Rockford in the ‘40s. We feel like that‘s a nice sendoff to what Rockford‘s all about.”

The green flag for the 76th NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series opener this Saturday at Rockford Speedway waves at 7:07 p.m. CT, with gates opening at 5 p.m. CT. Additional information is available at www.rockfordspeedway.com.