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Perhaps no other town in America can boast more residents who drive 200 mph, or can change four tires in less than 15 seconds, than Mooresville, N.C., known as Race City USA.
The town of 18,823 comes by the moniker honestly, considering that it’s home to the North Carolina Auto Racing Hall of Fame, racecar training schools, 60 motorsports teams and scores of NASCAR drivers.
"I moved my shop to Mooresville in 1992, the same year we won the Busch Series Championship," racecar driver Joe Nemechek says. "Mooresville was centrally located to a lot of the tracks at the time, and this area soon became the hub for NASCAR."
In the early 1990s, the Mooresville Chamber of Commerce even trademarked the name Race City USA. "Residents like being branded with the distinction because it implies skilled employees," chamber official Melanie O’Connell Underwood says.
Dan Wallace, the chamber’s executive director, believes the racing industry began around Mooresville in 1988 when the Bahari Racing team moved to town, followed by Penske Racing South in 1990. Others soon followed, including auto racing-related industries such as museums, suppliers and schools.
"Mooresville courted the racing industry when there was a decline in the textile mills, which moved overseas," says Breon Klopp, senior director of development at PIT Instruction and Training, which provides pit crew coaching and consulting services. The company’s Mooresville facility includes a pit road with six pit stalls, where visitors can don fireproof suits and participate in a mock pit experience, including changing tires, a fueling simulation and making car adjustments.
No one knows for certain how many racecar drivers live in Mooresville or the surrounding area, but Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeremy Mayfield, Nemechek, and Ryan Newman all call it home. Townspeople bonded together in their grief when the tragic death of Mooresville resident and NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt occurred in 2001.
"He was a member of our church and community," Wallace says. "We got the state Legislature to change the name of State Highway 136 to (his racecar number) No. 3 in his memory."
Mayor Al Jones, who served as assistant principal during Earnhardt Jr.’s years at Mooresville High School, says, "We’ve had some families come for a visit and like the area so much they went back, sold their home, and moved here."
That’s exactly what happened to NASCAR fan and Mooresville Chamber Special Projects Coordinator Sylvia Spury, who claims among her prized racing collection several life-size cardboard cutouts of racecar drivers.
"We moved here from Massachusetts to be near racing," says Spury, who, along with her husband, Dave, relocated to Mooresville in 2000. "I’m a huge fan who would rather spend my lunch money on race collectibles than on diamonds.
"My dream is to work for Earnhardt," she adds, referring to the racing corporation of Dale Earnhardt Inc.
In fact, Mooresville, located 30 miles north of Charlotte and Lowe’s Motor Speedway, is so tied to motorsports that racing-related businesses employ nearly 8 percent of the town’s population.
One such business is NASCAR Technical Institute, the nation’s first technical training school to blend automotive and NASCAR specific motorsports technology. Up to 2,000 students a day are trained in the $12 million, 146,000-square-foot-facility, which opened in 2002.
Appropriately, Mooresville also is home to the North Carolina Auto Racing Hall of Fame. Opened in 1994, the museum houses 35 racecars and honors racecar driving legends such as Richard Petty, Ned Jarrett and Junior Johnson.
"The cars themselves seem to be the favorite exhibit of our patrons," museum manager Donna DeNardo says. In addition, the organization holds a Hall of Fame induction ceremony every October.
"Everywhere you go in Mooresville you see the residents and businesses celebrating our sport," Nemechek says.
For more information on Mooresville, log on to www.racecityusa.org
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