Race Shop Rides (February 25+27)

Back in Concord, amazing pair of motorcycle rides, and as its NASCAR time, some race shops. The first one is new; First visit to Stewart-Haas Racing in Kannapolis, NC. I sort of stumbled upon it; was getting around some Friday traffic (bad on a Friday night) and saw the building. Took some doing but found my way to it. Nice race shop, and these are some of the cars on display there. The shop itself is the glass area behind it where you can see the cars being built. Of note is the motorcycle at very far right; it was built for the team in 2004 by Orange County Choppers and is quite a piece of work. More photos can be found on my photo page of that bike, and more of the cars at the shop.
I rolled up (how else to get there?) NC-3 to Dale Earnhardt, Incorportated. Though the major team operations have moved to the "Earnhardt-Ganassi" shop near the Concord airport, the big building Dale built is still there and still has his cars on display in Mooresville, NC. They have
changed the photos but still have the "3" car in which he won his 7th Championship on display. Some really neat items to see there. Building with the sign in front was taken on February 26 (not a motorcycle ride, and is the shop of Wood Brothers Racing in Mooresville, NC. That team, one of Nascar's oldest, won the Daytona 500 this year with the youngest driver ever (Trevor Bayne...20 years old). The shop is located in what was an old plastics factory a few years ago.
Last photo was taken during a short one hour motorcycle ride around Concord, and is Charlotte Motor Speedway (formerly known as Lowe's Motor Speedway). A fine track, and will be hosting three events this year; the All-Star Race, the Coca-Cola 600, and the 500 mile race in the fall. I have been on that track a few times with The Petty Experience; twice in a "ride along" and once driving one of the NASCAR replica cars (that was quite an experience; in fact they all were). As noted, a number of other photos can be found on the photo page from the shops I saw this weekend; and a few other photos of note will be coming up in the next post!