Stock car racing grew in popularity during Prohibition, when bootleggers modified cars for rough terrain and held recreational races to see who had the fastest car. In the 1930s and 1940s, Bill France Sr. promoted stock car racing in Daytona Beach, Florida, and after a wartime decline during World War II, the sport became more popular than ever. On December 14, 1947, Bill France Sr. met with 34 men in Daytona Beach to establish bylaws, rules, and guidelines for a national stock-car racing organization. Around 1947 and 1948, after spotting the horse racetrack at Occoneechee Farm while flying over Hillsborough, he joined Enoch Staley, Ben Lowe, Dobe Powell, and Joe Buck to form the Hillsboro Speedway Corporation, which purchased and transformed the site into the 1-mile oval Occoneechee Speedway. NASCAR was incorporated on February 21, 1948, with Bill France Sr. elected president, and on June 27, 1948, NASCAR promoted a modified stock car division for the inaugural race at Occoneechee Speedway, drawing almost 20,000 fans to a 100-mile race. On August 7, 1949, NASCAR's Strictly Stock division held the third race in its inaugural eight-race series there, where Bob Flock, driving a 1948 Oldsmobile, won the 200-mile race at an average speed of 76.8 MPH. From 1949 to 1968, NASCAR races were held at the speedway once or twice a year. From 1952 to 1956, Bill France Sr., Anne France, and Enoch Staley formed Orange Speedway, Inc., purchased the racetrack, shortened it from 1 mile to 0.9 mile, and renamed it Orange Speedway. On March 10, 1963, Jayne Mansfield was guest of honor at the speedway. On September 15, 1968, the Hillsboro 150 became the last NASCAR race held there. The property then sat in disuse and became overgrown from 1969 to 1997, before being sold in 1997 for preservation. In December 1997, Classical American Homes Preservation Trust purchased 200 acres including the old speedway trail and surrounding structures with plans to preserve the land and open it to the public. On May 2, 2002, Occoneechee Speedway was added to the National Register of Historic Places as the third racing venue to receive that honor, and on September 1, 2002, the Historic Occoneechee Speedway Trail opened as a walking path. In May 2006, volunteers formed the Historic Speedway Group to help preserve and maintain the track area and surrounding structures, and in December 2011, a Mountains-to-Sea Trail easement connected the site to the larger trail system.