With stock car racing surging in popularity across the American Southeast during the late 1940s and 1950s, Bruton Smith and Curtis Turner agreed to pool resources after both had independently set out to build a major racetrack. Groundbreaking began on 28 July 1959 in Cabarrus County near US Route 29, two months late due to land-purchase disputes. Construction was immediately troubled: crews found large granite veins beneath the soil, aggressive hornets on site drove off workers, and three snowstorms hit in March 1960. The track's first major race, the 1960 World 600, was postponed from 29 May to 19 June. It was completed in less than 11 months at a cost of approximately two million dollars.
The asphalt surface deteriorated badly during the inaugural race, with sections breaking apart and drivers dodging flying debris. Financial difficulties followed swiftly: the facility accumulated roughly one million dollars in debt within its first year, faced multiple civil lawsuits, and by November 1961 entered Chapter 10 bankruptcy under federal court oversight. After several reorganisation attempts, stability gradually returned under general manager Richard Howard in the mid-1960s.
Smith and new partner Humpy Wheeler — a promoter who would become the track's long-serving general manager — completed a takeover of Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1976. Under their stewardship the facility expanded substantially. By the end of the 1980s its grandstand capacity had peaked at over 170,000. In 1983, 40 condominiums were constructed overlooking the first turn; in 1987 a members-only private restaurant called The Speedway Club was added. A naming-rights sponsorship arrangement led to the facility being known as Lowe's Motor Speedway from 1999 to 2009, before reverting to Charlotte Motor Speedway. The complex today covers approximately 2,000 acres.
The main oval measures 1.5 miles (2.4 km) with 24 degrees of banking in the turns and five degrees on both the frontstretch and backstretch. A quarter-mile oval on the frontstretch, built in 1991, is used primarily for legends car racing.
In 1970, officials announced an infield road course connected to the backstretch. It held its first races in May 1971 as part of the World 600 weekend and was later extended to 2.25 miles. In 2018 the road course was modified to suit NASCAR racing with the addition of a backstretch chicane, creating a combined oval-road course configuration known as the "roval." Further chicane modifications were announced in 2024.
The complex also includes a 0.400-mile dirt track that opened in May 2000, a 0.200-mile clay short track used for dirt legends car racing, and ZMax Dragway, a purpose-built drag strip that cost 60 million dollars and held its first races in September 2008 after its construction triggered a significant political dispute with local government.
The speedway's signature event is the Coca-Cola 600 — originally called the World 600 — a NASCAR Cup Series race and one of the sport's crown jewel events. The track has also hosted the NASCAR All-Star Race and various IndyCar and IMSA events over the decades. The roval configuration is used for a dedicated road-course race on the NASCAR calendar each autumn.
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