Charlotte was selected as the location on March 6, 2006, after a competitive bid process. Ground was broken on January 26, 2007, for the $160 million facility, which officially opened on May 11, 2010. The inaugural class was inducted the day following the 2010 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race. The city of Charlotte owns the building; it is operated by the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority. Winston Kelley serves as executive director.
The 390,000-square-foot structure was designed by internationally renowned firm Pei Cobb Freed & Partners. Structural engineering was by Leslie E. Robertson Associates. A stainless steel Möbius strip wraps the exterior, engineered and fabricated by Zahner of Kansas City. Exhibition design is by Ralph Appelbaum Associates. Alongside the Hall of Fame, the NASCAR Plaza — a 20-story office building — opened in May 2009 and houses NASCAR Digital Media, NASCAR's licensing division, and video game licensee Dusenberry Martin Racing (now 704Games).
Richard Petty and Dale Inman helped unveil the first artifact at the Hall of Fame — the Plymouth Belvedere that Petty drove to 27 wins in 1967. A partnership with Buffalo Wild Wings was established in 2009 as the exclusive restaurant partner in Charlotte.
Charlotte was favored due to stock car racing's deep roots in North Carolina. The area, termed "NASCAR Valley" by the selection committee, accounts for over 73% of motorsports employees in the United States. The bid was led by NASCAR car owner Rick Hendrick, then-Mayor Pat McCrory, and local business leaders. The Hall of Fame is located in Uptown Charlotte, about 25 minutes south of Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Other final candidates were Atlanta and Daytona Beach. Earlier bids from Richmond, Virginia and Kansas City, Kansas were eliminated on January 5, 2006. Alabama was considered but stepped aside, as Lincoln, Alabama is home to the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, which is unaffiliated with NASCAR. Michigan considered bidding but did not submit proposals.
The building spans 150,000 square feet across four floors:
High Octane Theater (below ground): screening room showing introductory videos for visitors.
Glory Road (second floor): a 33-degree banked ramp — matching the banking at Talladega Superspeedway — featuring 18 different cars and saluting 46 past and current tracks.
The Great Hall (second floor): a 14-by-18-foot video screen with rotating exhibits, described as the "Times Square of the hall."
Studio 43 (second floor): named in honor of Richard Petty's car number, used for television production.
Hall of Honor (third floor): a 360-degree wall with each inductee's dedicated exhibit.
Transporter and Racecar Simulators (third floor): simulators provided by iRacing.com.
Inside NASCAR (third floor): simulates an actual week with a NASCAR team, from race prep through inspection, practice, time trials, and the race.
Heritage Speedway (fourth floor): covers seven decades of NASCAR history, including a glass-enclosed section with historic artifacts.
The facility also includes a gift shop, the Hall of Fame Café, and a Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant.
Former drivers must have been active in NASCAR for at least 10 years and retired for at least three. The three-year retirement rule is waived for drivers who competed in 30 or more years of NASCAR-sanctioned competition or who have reached age 55. Non-drivers must have been involved in the industry for at least ten years; shorter careers may be considered under special circumstances.
A nominating committee selects nominees: as of 2025, 15 for the Modern Era and five from the Pioneer Era. The Modern Era nominating committee has 22 members, including seven NASCAR representatives, the executive director, the Hall of Fame historian, select media members, track owners from NASCAR-owned tracks and Speedway Motorsports Inc., representatives from Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Pocono Raceway, Gateway Motorsports Park, and Circuit of the Americas, and four historic short-track owners including Bowman Gray Stadium and Rockford Speedway. The Pioneer Era committee adds the Honors Committee, comprising all living Hall of Fame members.
A total of 65 votes are cast, including a fan vote. Two inductees are selected from the Modern Era and one from the Pioneer Era.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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