There were no NASCAR races in the Charlotte area the week we were there. That didn’t stop us from stopping by Lowe’s Motor Speedway. They offer tours of the speedway several times a day/week. The tour includes a drive around the track itself (in a 15 passenger van, not a race car). It was neat to drive around the infield, see the garages (where they had Legends cars parked at that time), and (as the photo above shows) stop by Victory Lane for some photo ops. Lindsey & Shelby have both been to Texas Motor Speedway with me to races but Mom has only seen TMS from the interstate as we driving through Fort Worth. Getting to the see a track up close & personal for the first time, I think she was pretty impressed. (Unfortunately, I don’t think that will convince her to go to a race with me though. Haha!)
An interesting fact we learned while at LMS…The racing scenes in Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby that were supposed to be Texas Motor Speedway were actually filmed at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. The production company came in and painted all of the signs so they said Texas. I’m not sure I see that much of a resemblance between the two tracks (especially looking at the grandstands and such). I’m going to have to re-watch the movie sometime soon and see if I can tell.
Our tour guide also said that the contract between the track and Lowe’s is up at the end of 2008. She said that the current rumors are that Lowe’s will extend their sponsorship, the track could go back to its original name of Charlotte Motor Speedway, or supposedly Home Depot is interested in the sponsorship. I’m really not sure if the last option was a joke or she was serious but it is going to be interesting to see how the contract pans out. For me, it would be weird to call it anything other than Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
Click here to see all of the photos I took while we were at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
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