Lowe's Motor Speedway, or Charlotte Motor Speedway as it was originally known as, was built and designed in 1959 by current chairman O. Burton Smith along with Curtis Turner. When he first built the speedway he was an automobile dealer and helped with short-track racing at Concord Motor Speedway and the Charlotte fairgrounds. Turner was one of the first drivers on the Nascar circuit when it debuted in 1949. The 1.5 mile superspeedway held its first race, the World 600, on June 19, 1960.
In 1961, the track declared Chapter 11 and was forced to reorganize. Like many raceways of this era, low ticket sales was blamed.
After leaving for some time, Smith came back as the majority stockholder and hired current president H.A. Wheeler as general manager and the improvement phase of Lowe's Motor Speedway took place. Thousands of grandstands seats and luxury suites were added onto the park along with restroom and concession facilities were added and modernized. Smith's Tower, a seven-story facility connected to the grandstands was added, which hosts the corporate offices, souvenir shop and other offices. Lighting was installed in 1992, allowing Lowe's to be the first superspeedway to host night auto racing.
As well as the main raceway, there is a 2.25 mile road course and a six-tenths of a mile karting layout, a 1/4 mile asphalt oval, and a 1/5 mile oval.
Three NASCAR Winston Cup events, two NASCAR Bush Series races, two Automobile Racing Club of America events and Goody's Dash Series are events held during the year at the superspeedway. Also the Richard Petty Driving Experience uses the track throughout the year.
Along with races, several motions pictures, "Days of Thunder", "Speedway", and "Stroker Ace" were filmed there.
Information for this node was taken from www.nascar.com and www.charlottemotorspeedway.com