"NASCAR Heaven!" a Charlotte Travel Page by Karnubawax

If you like NASCAR, you owe it to yourself to spend a day or two in the greater Charlotte area.

The Charlotte area is not only home to the gargantuan Lowe's Motor Speedway, one of the best tracks on the circuit, but also a 12,000 seat dirt track, and an NHRA dragstrip.

Charlotte is also the business center of the sport; virtually all of the major and minor race teams in the nation have their shops in the greater Charlotte/Concord area. Most of them welcome visitors, and the larger, more prestigious teams have free museums (and VERY large gift shops) dedicated to their championship drivers.

Lowe's holds three races a year - the only track on the circuit to do so. One of the big events of the NASCAR season occurs around the Memorial Day holiday in late May. For nearly 2 weeks, the Charlotte area is full of NASCAR related events, punctuated by the All-Star race, held on Saturday night the weekend before Memorial Day, and then the Coca-Cola 600 on the Sunday of the holiday weekend. The 600 is one of the oldest and most prestigious races on the circuit. It is also the longest, sometimes lasting over 5 hours.

The track also holds a race in early to mid October during the Chase (playoffs).

Even if you can't go to the race itself, you can tour the shops, you can tour the track, and, if you're REALLY daring, you can get in a race car yourself and zoom around the track!