“I’m having a Walter Mitty moment,” laughed Raleigh First Amendment and media attorney and novice NASCAR fan Mike Tadych. We are sitting in the well-appointed owner’s box at Rockingham Speedway and Entertainment Complex “The Rock,” which not long ago had plywood peeling from the walls and insulation hanging from a collapsing ceiling. It’s April 20, and in a few hours, the NASCAR Xfinity Series NC Education Lottery 250 presented by Black’s Tires will get the green flag.
Tadych is the unlikeliest of today’s fans. He was a telecommunications major who started his career doing aerial news photography in Cleveland before going to law school at Case Western Reserve University. His firm, Stevens Martin Vaughn & Tadych, PLLC, represents Raleigh night club owner Dan Lovenheim, who, along with Tadych and other minority partners, bought the closed and decrepit track in 2018 for $2.8 million. Tadych serves as general counsel of The Rock.
Rockingham Properties LLC was created to own the facility and redevelop the property to host concert festivals and big parties. But the festivals and big parties sank under the weight of the pandemic.
So today, a sell-out crowd of 30,000 fans is gathering to watch the first NASCAR Xfinity Series race at The Rock in 21 years. Thirty-eight cars, travelling nearly 160 miles per hour, will circle the 0.94-mile track at about 22 seconds per lap. An ARCA Menards Series East 125-mile race ran earlier in the day, and the Craftsman Truck Series Black’s Tire 200 ran the previous day, the first NASCAR event at The Rock since 2013.
In 2022, after informal inquiries about The Rock from NASCAR, Lovenheim had an “If you build it, they will come” moment. “It didn’t seem like a conversation worth having. Somebody needed to be the voice of reason,” recalled Tadych. Months later, the state earmarked $9 million for repairs, renovations and upgrades to The Rock. The group’s total investment in The Rock is almost $15 million. Repaving the track alone cost nearly $3.1 million.
When Tadych was given detailed specifications of what NASCAR needed, he enlisted long-time friend and Charlotte sports attorney Jonathan Fine of Fine Strategies to help get him from zero to NASCAR. After a “You did what?!” conversation, Fine was on board. The deal was inked in mid-August 2024.
Hosting a NASCAR event is like putting on a concert, Fine explained. NASCAR is like the band. A company called Track Enterprises is the promoter and sells the tickets, concessions, hospitality, camping, parking, etc. And Rockingham Properties owns the venue and had the responsibility of getting it ready for NASCAR, which was why every time a car hit a wall or tore up the grass, Tadych yelped, “Dude, that’s my racetrack!”
These Xfinity Series races are a steppingstone for drivers, cars, and their teams to the NASCAR Cup Series, where the big money, the best drivers, and the best cars call home.
This was also a proof-of-concept steppingstone for The Rock, which hopes to host the lucrative Cup Series races in the future. “When we acquired the track, we made a commitment to bring back something the fine folks of Richmond County, Rockingham, and North Carolina could be proud of,” said Tadych. “We made good on that promise this past weekend.”
“The whole thing was outrageous,” said Tadych of his Walter Mitty moment. “There were SO MANY firsts for me, including getting my 81-year-old mother to her first NASCAR race, where she had a great time!”
Robert "Bob" Friedman is the publisher of Attorney at Law Magazine North Carolina Triangle. He contributes articles and interviews to each issue.
Comments 3
I was with Owen and Danny. Great race, great time. Look forward to seeing more racing. Thanks a bunch!!!
Thanks to Mike for providing access to the race for me and four other golfing buddies. They cannot thank you enough. Danny Blalock took care of getting us the tickets and Mike access to his box. Thanks to both
Great article thanks so much!!