I hope NHRA is taking notes on how to promote and market an event from the guys over at SMI. Pics are not great as they were taken on my phone, but the fence is 5-6 deep at least and there is not an empty seat in the house.

Inaugral events are always packed........

Wait until they figure out that they don't turn left.

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StockersRock

You can still have 1/4 mile racing if you don't go get a hot dog after the fuel classes.

I does look like a nice crowd but the stands will always look full at that race track. Looks can be deceiving.

A shot from the ZMAX site....

True, but the seats are only painted on the left side of the track, the right side grandstands are like a typical NHRA track, except with lots of people in them

Question: Are the stands "angled" like they are in Vegas?
It kinda looks like it, but I can't tell.

I thought they looked "(" shaped. Closer to the track @ the beginning and at the end. Optical dilusion?

The Nascar track in Las Vegas is painted that way and they always have the lights on at night. Looks packed all the time.

it looked like the land was sloped upward as you went down the track. Must be an awesome view. Bruton is the man.

NOW QUITE SCREWING WITH ME AND RUN 1320 DAMMIT

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I'm still DamnYankee

"A Friday night run in a Funny Car is just really intense" - Whit Bazemore

I don't think that the stands are curved, the look to be about the same distance from the track all the way down the strip, but the stands do raise in elevation as you go down the track. You can really tell by looking at the fans on the fence. At the starting line the fence crowd is at the same level as the starting line. At the end of the stands the fence is a good 6' higher than the track which makes the view absolutely perfect. I made it a point to watch some racing from both ends of the stands (on the Force side) and the view is spectacular. The finish line is only 150-200' from the end of the stands so there really is no bad seat in the house. The east side stands are a bit farther back, but the view is still pretty good.

Yes, the stands are painted to always look full which is just smart marketing. However, I think there are even more people here today than there were yesterday. They keep selling more standing room only tickets and they seem to sell as fast as they release them. Charlotte has embraced NHRA and has certainly set a new standard for facilities and attendance. I had the good fortune to also attend the Vegas inaugural event and while it was certainly impressive at the time, it simply is not in the same league as zMax. The bar has been raise, we'll see if NHRA can make anything out of this.

Awesome facility, I can't help but think that if more tracks were like this one, drag racing would take a step up. The seats are angled to about 200 feet or so, that meant no having to stand up to see down track from where we were sitting. Our seats were at the very end of the grandstands, overlooking the pro staging lanes, about 100 feet behind the starting line. Looks like the crowd was somewhat larger on Saturday than Sunday, maybe a home game for the Panthers didn't help. Good crowds for 3 days, even a few thousand in there Thursday. Pretty good kickoff for the track, I'd say.

Murdock.

Yes the first sets of grandstands are angled, I remember seeing this picture a few months ago on the NHRA site.