As you drive away from Charlotte, North Carolina, you notice a great many things, including how many signs there are pointing to historical sites. There are vintage historical sites (Native American burial grounds), early American sites (the country's first gold strike in 1799, and the birthplace of the seventh [Polk] and 11th [Jackson] U.S. presidents), plus signs pointing toward nearby Mooresville, better known to NASCAR fans as Race City, USA.
You'll find the home to the Earnhardt empire in Mooresville, as well as representatives from Roger Penske, Rusty Wallace, Robert Yates, and even the corporate home offices of Lowes, the giant in home improvement stores that is also heavily vested in NASCAR. And, for the past 13 years, the Goodguys Rod & Custom Association has found a home at Lowes Motor Speedway to hold their annual Southeastern Nationals. The event caters to rods and customs as well as musclecars and trucks through the 1972 year of manufacture-a real cross-section of what the world of rodding is all about.
The three-day show was effectively made into a two-day event because Mother Nature blew through with a rainstorm on Friday. Some hardcore folks were out at the show in the rain, mostly checking out the indoor vendor displays, and some were disappointed when the Friday night Rent-A-Ride in a Rocketship program (where you get to ride around the Lowes track in a NASCAR trainer car at 150-plus mph!) was cancelled, but what could you do?
Though it was a bit chilly and overcast on Saturday, many of the nearly 3,000 rodders decided a two-day event was all right with them, so they began filing into the infield of the track to get a decent parking place. Some of the field was a bit muddy, but because the speedway had recently added a large asphalt section to the infield, you could find a dry spot pretty easily. The track has also recently expanded the number of infield buildings, making it easier for Goodguys to bring in more vendors.
Saturday turned out to be the busiest day of the event, with special parking set aside for '55-72 musclecars, a Kustom Korral, a Young Guys section, and a handful of others. While different seminars were being held inside the infield's media center, folks could wander through the automotive swap meet and look for relics, or they could have stopped by the pits and listened to NASCAR pioneer Junior Johnson talk about the early days of racing (and moonshine running!).
Later in the evening, attendees who registered to take their own cars on the track-thus supporting the Ronald McDonald House Charities in the process-got to do so and had a great time on the 1.5-mile oval. The turns are built at a 24-degree bank, so steep they are a little difficult to walk up. The front and back stretches (1,952 and 1,360 feet, respectively) are where many NASCAR drivers regularly wind their small-blocks up to 180 mph, though you wish you could go that fast when you're driving along in your '48 Ford sedan! And on Saturday night, registered attendees could do just that, albeit at a much lower speed than Robbie Gordon or Ryan Newman would do it!
The weather on Sunday was about as perfect as you could order, and people gathered after lunch to see the winners of the various awards had lined up in the pit section of the facility. All recipients of the STREET RODDER Top 10 were there, as were the finalists for Goodguys' Muscle Car of the Year, Kustom of the Year, and Truck of the Year. Nearly 60 other award winners were also present (so there was a lot to take in) before the name was announced for the Goodguys' Grand Prize Giveaway. The top prize was a 2006 Dodge SRT8 Hemi Charger-not a bad return for just dropping your name into a hat!
Since the event is only 13 years old, it might be too soon to have signs alongside Interstate 85 proclaiming the historical facts concerning the Goodguys Southeastern Nationals, but the truth is the organization has done a great job providing a fun event to attend at one of the best locations in the country-no wonder the participants numbers keep growing each year!
This car looked to be a barn find: a '32 five-window, also in storage since '68, but mostly unmolested all these years-and yours for $20,000. | 
Reliving an earlier time in his life, Jeff Romig recreated the car he owned in 1973, though this one is a little nicer! An Eaton-supercharged LS2 Gen III delivers 578 hp and runs through a Viper six-speed with overdrive. Imagine having that setup in '73! | 
Rich Linder's Flattie-powered modified was made from a '28 Ford roadster pickup. The gray paint was made to look vintage, as an undercoat of red was bleeding through the topcoat, and the top of the driver's door looks to have been peppered with a shotgun blast (or the pick end of a point-peen hammer). |
Crew cab trucks have been around for many years, but not back in '55. Mark Coleman's F-100, equipped with a 351W motor, looks like what the Ford factory should have been concentrating on instead of all those finned cars! | 
A little off the top, or a lot? From stock to extreme, you could find many different versions of chopped tops on display at the Charlotte show. | 
Low and lean, this '29 roadster was built in 1955, so claims its owner, C.S. Bagshaw. It was another car with an interesting motor/trans combo: a 241 Hemi backed to a '39 Lincoln box. |
There were a handful of seminars conducted all day Saturday, including this one on painting tips put on by PPG Paint Products. Chevron, Fatman Fabrications, Air Ride Technologies, and Detroit Speed & Engineering also participated. | 
No, we don't know what it is either. But it sure got people to turn around and look at it as it drove by! And look! License plates! That means it must be legal! | 
What does a 24-degree banked turn look like? Here ya go. Each corner of the 1.5-mile, 177,000-seat Lowes Motor Speedway has these banks, rolling out to five degrees in the straights. It was great to not only walk up these turns during the day, but have the chance to drive on them in your street rod on Saturday night too. |