The Charlotte Motor Speedway is nearly 2,000 acres just outside Charlotte in Concord, North Carolina. Did you know that the Charlotte Motor Speedway is where the world was first introduced to Lightning McQueen from the movie CARS?
The speedway was designed and built in 1959 by O. Bruton Smith and Curtis Turner. Smith was a well-known automobile dealer and Turner was a short-track stock car racing promoter at the Concord Motor Speedway and the Charlotte Fairgrounds. Turner was one of the pioneers of NASCAR racing.
Turner got into racing the same way racing began: bootlegging and moonshine. The moonshine business directly caused early racing. During Prohibition, bootleggers had to dodge law enforcement. To get a leg up, they began modifying their cars to outrun the stock cars (production model cars, with no enhancements) that the police used. Turner hauled his first batch of moonshine at nine and started to hone his abilities to outmaneuver the law. Those skills would ultimately be helpful in his career as a NASCAR driver. Bootleggers began racing in their free time, which created a new form of sports entertainment.
As illegal racing grew throughout the mid-1900s, it became more legitimized when people like Smith and Turner began entering the racing world. When they came together in 1959, they built a 1.5-mile superspeedway in Concord that cost $1 million. The superspeedway opened on June 19, 1960, as the Charlotte Motor Speedway hosted the inaugural World 600 (now the Coca-Cola 600).
In 1961, the Speedway experienced financial hardships but was able to bounce back. Smith left the Speedway in 1962 and lost majority ownership and therefore control of the day-to-day operations at some point. Smith ran several successful Ford dealerships and, by 1975, had purchased enough shares to be the majority owner.
Smith hired H.A. “Humpy” Wheeler in 1975 as the general manager, and the two of them began improving the Speedway. The two of them worked to introduce thousands of grandstand seats, luxury suites, food concessions, and restrooms. Smith Tower was constructed in 1988. It is a seven-story tower connected to the grandstands and home to the Speedway’s corporate offices, gift shop, leased office space, ticket offices, and the Speedway Club, an exclusive dining and entertainment facility.
In 1992, they added a lighting system that simulates daylight, becoming the first speedway to host night racing. The Charlotte Motor Speedway has, in addition to its 1.5 track, a 2.25-mile road course, and a karting track. The Speedway hosts two NASCAR Cup Series races, two NASCAR Xfinity Series races, one NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, and the Coca-Cola 600. The Pixar movie CARS premiered at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. Outside of CARS, the Speedway has seen some major events, like in 1976 when Janet Guthrie became the first woman to race in a NASCAR Cup Series. In 1994, Jeff Gordon won his first Cup Series.
The speedway has continued to grow steadily throughout the years. In 2018, a 2.8 mile, 17 turn ROVAL (a combination of a road course and oval) was added. The Bank of America ROVAL is the first road course race in the history of the NASCAR Cup Series. The Speedway generates roughly $450 million annually; it hosts two major NASCAR events each year: the Coca-Cola 600 and the Bank of America ROVAL 400.
Through the Charlotte Motor Speedway, the Queen City has always been connected to the world of racing, as over 90% of NASCAR teams are located within the Greater Charlotte area. Uptown Charlotte is home to the NASCAR Hall of Fame, which honors expert drivers, phenomenal crew chiefs, owners, broadcasters, and other significant contributors to NASCAR like Bruton Smith and Curtis Turner.
