ACE Speedway isn’t the only racetrack defying Gov. Roy Cooper’s executive orders against mass gatherings. In rural Stokes County, 311 Speedway owner Mike Fulp is planning a protest with several hundred people, live music, and racing on Saturday, June 13. Fulp wants to reopen his race track, and he says the governor is acting like...
The N.C. General Assembly is in session, but it’s unclear how long it may take lawmakers to deal with economic fallout caused by COVID-19 . Lawmakers converged on the legislative complex to begin work as a few hundred people gathered in downtown Raleigh to protest shutdown orders from Gov. Roy Cooper. The House gaveled in...
A number of lawmakers are pushing Gov. Roy Cooper to allow races at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord next month — even if the stands are empty. “Allowing NASCAR to return Memorial Day Weekend without fans would not only benefit the motorsports industry that calls our state home, it would mark a rebeginning for...
U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-10th District, wants to keep Washington regulators from getting under the hoods of race cars. McHenry introduce the RPM Act, designed to block the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating cars used in motorsports. “Automobile racing plays an important role in our state, both as a significant part of our local economy and...
Economic development is a game, and it’s played by its own special set of rules. At its core, it involves taking public money and spending it on private companies, which is also presented as a gain for the public as a whole. That’s especially true for stadiums and other facilities built for sports teams, where...
Dubious numbers helped provide political cover as politicians lured the money-losing NASCAR Hall of Fame to the Queen City.
RALEIGH — The father of NASCAR champions Terry and Bobby Labonte says he thinks the NASCAR Hall of Fame being pursued by North Carolina officials should be built in Daytona Beach, Fla., not in Charlotte, and that no public funds should be invested in the project, regardless of its location. NASCAR should pay for its own museum, said Bob Labonte, who lives in Trinity and is a city councilman there. “I don’t think taxpayer money should go to build hall of fames, or ballparks, or race tracks.” Earlier this week, Charlotte officials submitted their bid for the museum to NASCAR.
Suppose we take Charlotte's pursuit of the NASCAR Hall of Fame to its logical, if absurd, conclusion.
As if a $130 million wish list for arts projects was not big enough, Charlotte leaders now ponder adding a NASCAR racing museum to the list. Since when is NASCAR hurting for money?
