Upper Left: Cars rolling off pit row.
Upper Right: Michelle and Mike in the Winners Circle!
Lower Left: Pit Row in fore ground and finish line in background car #24 on track.
Lower Right: Looking from Gasoline Alley at pit row and front stretch. Scoring tower.

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Lowe's Motor Speedway

Hello All!

I just returned from North Carolina, visiting my sister Michelle. I travelled the state almost from end to end applying for jobs, dining in all the best spots and seeing the sights. One of the many highlights of the trip was a tour of the Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord Mills, NC just North of Charlotte.

First, If you find yourself in the area, stop into the speedways gift shop and sign up for the tour. It only costs $5.00 making it the best value of the trip, unless you count the evening I spent talking to a beautiful North Carolinian at my sisters home. Sorry about that, back to the race track tour. Our group of 9 loaded into a van with our guide and proceeded to drive off around the exterior of the speedway with our guide telling us about the growth of the track and the area around it. I did not know that there are a number of condos built into the track and a number of them house year around tenants. Richard Petty owns one as does Mario Andretti. We looked at the Dirt Track, one of the busiest tracks in the south. We then went through the tunnel and into the infield. Did you know that there is a road test track on the infield of the Raceway? During the race over 33,000 people live in the infield with over 170,000 people in attendance on race day! During the Coca-Cola 600 race in October the people in and around the track will be the 3rd largest city in North Carolina!

We toured the infield Hospital, Gasoline Alley, the Busch Series Garage area and of course the NASCAR Garage area. So clean that you could eat off the floor! I even hung out in the Winners Circle! During our tour there were numerous cars testing the track. They screamed around the track at incredible speeds. I even caught a few on my camera, which was no easy feat. Those babies were moving!

Then we got to get out on the track. Our van stopped in the beginning of turn 1 and had to hang on tight because of the 20 degree banking in the corners of the track. After the stop, our driver who happened to be a lady about 70 years old, opened it up and we sped off around the track at speeds up toward 100 mph!! Michelle was pounding the hell out of my leg in fear. It was cool looking at the Black tire marks on the wall, which was about 6 inches from my face! I think it would have been better to be at the wheel. There is a couple of schools available at the track that you can take so you can experience the feel of driving a NASCAR style car at these speeds! Maybe next time!

Above are some pictures from the tour. Next time I'll report on the Dove hunt!

Always,

Spike