Jamming the pedal to the metal, the $22-billion-a-year U.S. motorsports business has expanded in strikingly fast-track fashion. And now state and local recruiters have joined in the race, maneuvering to attract and retain major racing-sector operations — and the big clusters created in their wake.
Seven-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion Richard Petty, arguably the most famous American automobile racer of all time, has a simple “When did they have the first automobile race?” asked Petty. “Just as soon as they built the second car.”
That’s not literally true, but it’s close. Auto racing in America dates back to 1895. It grew with the domestic automobile industry in the early 1900s, before exploding in popularity after World War II. In the process, different parts of the country became home to different racing segments: On the West Coast, for example, drag racing down the quarter-mile became all the rage, while in the Midwest… Details