While Charlotte may be proud of giving millions in tax breaks for the NASCAR Hall of Fame Museum, the folks in Rockingham aren’t as lucky and there’s no Commerce Secretary or Governor hanging around either. But then again, Rockingham isn’t where all the voters are or where Sen. Rand, Owens or Basnight are likely to really care what happens.
ROCKINGHAM —
The North Carolina Speedway — abandoned by NASCAR for glitzier venues in 2004 — is on the auction block.
Owner
Bruton Smith, a Charlotte billionaire and speedway tycoon, will unload
the roughly 250-acre piece of racing history Oct. 2.
It
is quite a fall for “The Rock.” The 42-year-old track put Rockingham,
about 100 miles south of Raleigh, on the map — giving the community’s
46,000 residents something to brag about. Homegrown racers became
superstars here, and locals witnessed it, standing so close to the
track that black dust speckled their brows. The speedway is assessed at $30 million, forcing a tax bill of $279,000
a year; assessors set that number based on a sales price years before.
How would you like to have that tax bill on a track that is really kind of worthless?
