History of Lowe's 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 Lowe's Motor 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 Lowe's Motor 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 a 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. 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.

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.

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 Lowe’s Motor Speedway became home to the first season of Fast Cars and Superstars: The Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race in 2007.