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Charlotte Sports & Entertainment
SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT
From football to basketball to motorsports, Charlotte has just about any form of spectator sport you could desire. Charlotte is home to the Carolina Panthers of the National Football League, who have played in three NFC Championship games and a Super Bowl (2004 when they were narrowly-defeated by the New England Patriots). Charlotte is also home to the NCAA's Meineke Car Care Bowl, played annually in December at the Bank of America Stadium, and Big South Conference headquarters.
Charlotte also has the National Basketball Association's Charlotte Bobcats, an expansion team, and is home to the Women's National Basketball Association team Charlotte Sting. The Major League Baseball Triple-A team, the Charlotte Knights, affiliates of the Chicago White Sox, play the national pasttime in nearby Fort Mill, SC.
But the undisputed king of sports and entertainment in Charlotte is NASCAR, which is short for the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. More than 75% of the people who work in American motorsports live within two hours of Charlotte. Most of the teams have shops and facilities in and around the metropolitan area, and a large number of drivers from Nextel Cup, Busch and Craftsman Truck racing series live in the area.
Charlotte is home to the Lowe's Motor Speedway, one of the fastest tracks in NASCAR, and hosts the Coca-Cola 600 and NASCAR's All-Star Challenge in May, and one of the final races for the Nextel Cup championship, the Bank of America 500 in October. The track is also home to the Richard Petty Driving Experience and a number of other motorsports events. In 2009, Charlotte will become home to NASCAR's Hall of Fame, a $150 million facility honoring the sport's greatest teams and drivers, including the late Dale Earnhardt and 7-time NASCAR Champion Richard Petty, winner of more than 200 races.