Nash bashed: Liberty Street dead end a danger to drivers, a hassle for museum owner
Will Spencer, figuratively speaking, had seen the movie before.
Multiple times, in fact.
Over the last 10 years or so, several motorists, for a variety of reasons, have crashed spectacularly into barriers outside the Nash, his special-events center and museum, because they missed a sudden right turn a few feet before a problematic - and abrupt - dead end on North Liberty Street.
"They've run into the guardrail that's there now. Before that, they ran into concrete barriers we had there until we were told they weren't safe," said Spencer. "One time, we had a nice Jaguar knock over one of those barriers and hit the building. At 6:15 in the afternoon."
The wrecks were all bad in their own way, but the latest incident - this one captured on video - takes the blue ribbon for boneheaded recklessness.
"I don't know why, but it seems to be getting worse," Spencer said. "All I know is, if we don't fix it, somebody's going to get killed. And it won't be my fault."
Roll the tape
The issue is that North Liberty Street, when driving east to west, ends just past its intersection with Chestnut Street.
Miss that right turn onto Chestnut, if you're driving at an appropriate speed, you'll have enough space for an awkward three-point turn.
But if a motorist has buried the needle like the driver of what appears to be a Land Rover late Sunday night did, the result could be just this side of catastrophic.
Cue the tape. (If you're reading this online, watch it for yourself. It ain't pretty.)
The driver, still unidentified as of late Thursday afternoon, smashed right through the guardrail and totaled a fully restored 1951 Nash Airflyte race car in front of the museum and event center.
A security camera at Robert Hall, another of Spencer's businesses about a block up North Liberty, shows the Land Rover barreling down the street at an unsustainable speed and past a startled pedestrian on the sidewalk.
A second camera closer to the museum recorded the impact.
"He never even hit the brakes until he went through that guardrail," Spencer said. "He took a left and drove off on Martin Luther King. There was a lot of fluid left on the road.
"I still don't know how he did it."
As you'd expect, the Winston-Salem police came to investigate. The department's traffic enforcement unit, in the happy event you've never needed its services, does a bang-up job investigating crashes.
More often than you'd think possible, they can pull enough information off security cameras to identify a driver involved in a hit-and-run.
"If anybody can get a license plate number (off security video), they can," Spencer said.
If a driver is identified, Spencer might have some recourse to recoup some of the damage.
"Before someone gets killed, there needs to be a new plan for (the dead end)," Spencer wrote in e-mails to officials asking for help.
"This must be a wake-up call, as the damage to my property has now exceeded $50K."
Potential fixes
To help protect the Nash, which locals might remember at the former Winston Cup Museum, Spencer put up concrete barriers. After those were deemed a hazard, they were replaced with a guardrail, reflectors and a sign that can be difficult to see.
Those things help, Spencer said, but don't do the whole job. Closing North Liberty at its intersection with Chestnut, and/or adding a dedicated turn lane on Chestnut, could make it clear that the road ends.
Not being the sort of guy to sit around, Spencer got on the phone on Monday and fired off emails to officials at the city and the N.C. Department of Transportation, which mentioned the turn lane.
"I am not familiar with a proposed turn lane on Chestnut … what we are proposing is extending the curb from Chestnut to N. Liberty St., making it a 90-degree turn and installing the appropriate signage," wrote John Couch, an NCDOT engineer in reply.
Because Chestnut is a city-maintained road, the city will have to be involved with any changes.
But given that municipal transportation folks work well with their state counterparts, that shouldn't be difficult.
Plus, the circulation of the bonkers crash video won't hurt.
"You are correct," wrote N.C. Division Engineer John Rhyne. "The same video was shared with us recently as well.
"We have made incremental changes at that location in the past, but they have obviously not solved the problem. We are currently working with the city to develop a broader solution, but we don't have all the details worked out yet."
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This story was originally published June 20, 2026 at 5:36 AM.