(Redirected from Charlotte Motor Speedway)
'Lowe's Motor Speedway' (formerly 'Charlotte Motor Speedway') is a
speedway in
Concord, North Carolina, north of
Charlotte. It features a 1.5 mile long quad-oval track that seats 167,000 people, with room for 50,000 more spectators in the infield. Constructed in
1959, it was the first speedway to host nighttime superspeedway racing (in
1992) in the "modern era," the first being the now defunct Raleigh, N.C. Speedway in 1958, and to offer year-round residences (in
1984) with 52
condominiums available over turn one. It is owned by
Speedway Motorsports, which has its corporate headquarters on the same property. The speedway is considered the home base of
NASCAR, with 90% of NASCAR teams being based within 50 miles. In February
1999,
Lowe's bought the
naming rights to the speedway, making it the first race track in the country with a corporate sponsor.
Along with the main oval, the speedway also has a 2.25 mile road course in the infield, a 0.6 mile
kart course in the infield, a quarter-mile oval using part of the front stretch and pit road, and an 0.2 mile oval outside turn three. Also, across
U.S. Highway 29 from the speedway, is a 0.4 mile dirt track that opened in May
2000.
In 2005, the surface of the circuit had started to wear from its last paving in mid-1994, resulting in the track's treatment in a diamond-grinding process to smooth out bumps. This process, known as levigation, caused major tire problems during both NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series events there, with a record 22 cautions at the showcase
Coca-Cola 600, which is considered one of the top five annual
NASCAR races
[1]. It was the first NEXTEL Cup Series event to go more than five hours (excluding red flags) in 25 years. Speed increases were also a result of the levigation. After the problem with the tires, the speedway was repaved in 2006.
''See also:
List of NASCAR race tracks''
Events
ARCA
The
ARCA RE/MAX Series races here, and for several years, an ARCA racer died in either a race or practice. The last person to die at Lowe's Motor Speedway was
Eric Martin from
Hixson, Tennessee, on
October 9,
2002. Martin lost control of the car and
Deborah Renshaw plowed into Martin's car at 160 MPH killing him instantly. As a result of this, spotters must be used in all practice sessions.
Indy Racing League history
Two
Indy Racing League races were held at the circuit in
1997 and
1998, with
Buddy Lazier and
Kenny Brack winning the mid-summer Saturday night 500k (208 lap) races on the circuit. In
1999, the race was moved to the first weekend in May, the last race before the
Indianapolis 500. On the 61st lap, a crash led to a car losing a tire, which was then propelled into the stands by another car. Three spectators were killed and eight others were injured in the incident. The race was cancelled after 79 laps, and the IRL did not return.
'Aftermath'
That incident, and a previous incident in July 1998 in a
Champ Car race at
Michigan which also killed three spectators (that race was run to its finish), led to new rules requiring cars to have tethers attached to wheel hubs in an effort to prevent such incidents from happening again. New catch fencing was also invented, curved so debris could not sail as easily into the grandstands.
Following the accident, a short series of bombings took place in
Lowe's stores in North Carolina, injuring three, and prompting some to think there may be a link with a relative of one of the victims. When George Rocha was arrested for the bombings, he claimed that he was angry about the crash at the speedway, but he later confessed that it was retribution for being caught shoplifting and an attempt at extortion.
Indy Racing League results
★ NOTE: A three-car crash in Turn 4 caused debris to fly into the grandstands on Lap 62; As reported by IRL announcer Mike King, grandstands in the apex of Turn 1 was closed, but seats in Turns 1 and 2 past the apex were open. Seats outside of Turn 4 were also closed. When the attendance grew (50,000 were estimated for the race), extra sections of stands were opened, and one of them was the section of track where the debris flew in Turn 4.
Buddy Lazier was leading the race at the time of the caution for the Lap 62 crash. After pit stops, Greg Ray was leading the race when the race was abandoned on Lap 80. (Source: Indy Racing Radio Network.)
Additional uses
The facility is considered one of the busiest sports venues in the country, with typically over 380 events a year. Along with many races, the speedway also hosts the
Food Lion Auto Fair twice a year, one of the nation's largest
car shows. Movies and commercials have been filmed there, notably ''
Days of Thunder'', and it is a popular
tourist stop and testing grounds.
On
May 26 2006, the
Pixar movie
''Cars'' premiered at the speedway, on several monster screens.
The feature of the
April 2005 Spring Food Lion Auto Fair at the speedway was a popular sculpture exhibition, ''
Jim Gary's Twentieth Century Dinosaurs''. It is a menagerie of ''Garysauruses'', all life-sized, and constructed of automobile parts. A special tent housed the heavily attended exhibition and a huge Gary sculpture, over forty feet long, was displayed at the entrance to the raceway during the entire fair. H. A. "Hummpy" Wheeler and the speedway then sponsored the funding for the traveling sculpture exhibition to be featured by Belk College of Business on the campus of the
University of North Carolina at Charlotte where a self-guided tour of the campus-wide display was extended to the end of July.
[1]
During a typical race week,
Concord can balloon by over 200,000 people, temporarily making it the third largest city in
North Carolina as fans and tourists visit the events at the speedway.
The speedway became home to the first season of in 2007.
Current records
External links
Lowe's Motor Speedway as viewed form the adjacent road.
★
Lowe's Motor Speedway Official Site
★
Lowe's Motor Speedway Page on
NASCAR.com
★
Trackpedia guide to driving this track
★
GNEXTINC.com: Lowe's Motor Speedway Page - Local area information, track specs, mapping, news and more.
★
Jayski's Lowe's Motor Speedway Page - Current and Past Lowe's Motor Speedway Speedway News
★
NASCAR's Best Races
العربية
中国
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिन्दी
Italiano
日本語
Português
Русский
Español
