Stock car racing could be state sport

I'm certainly no NASCAR fan, but there's no arguing the impact that the sport has had on the state of North Carolina -- or the impact the state has had on the sport.

So it's not surprising that the General Assembly -- in its effort to tab something as the state "sport" -- is thinking of honoring stock car racing. Less surprising is that the effort is coming from the Heart of NASCAR country: Mooresville.

"Two new bills introduced in the North Carolina General Assembly last week came directly from the people — 13 elementary-school students, to be exact," said the Mountain XPress. "The Mooresville self-designated 'pit crew' worked secretly at first on their proposal to make stock-car racing the official state sport, according to 'That’s Racin’' in The Charlotte Observer, so as not to tip off enthusiasts of any other sport. Then they obtained the cooperation of Rep. Gray Mills, Mooresville Republican, who became the primary sponsor of HB 333. Across the aisle, a familiar Western North Carolina racing enthusiast, Buncombe County’s Democract Martin Nesbitt Jr., was joined by Hendersonville Republican Tom Apodaca in introducing a companion bill (SB 322), and the race was on. ..."