A LAKESIDE community in North Carolina is known as the Millionaire's Row for NASCAR stars.
Approximately 20 miles outside of the busy streets of Charlotte is Lake Norman where many of the sports top names have set up shop and built their dream homes.
Per The Wall Street Journal, this area has become such a hotspot as the Charlotte Motor Speedway is less than an hour away, while many of the teams such as 23XI Racing, Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, and more are located in the area.
In fact, the community is around 20 minutes from Mooresville, also known as "Race City USA."
It gained its nickname thanks to the 54 motorsports manufacturers and teams that call it home and the accompanying 2,500 employees per the report.
NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr., 48, told the WSJ: "All of the employees, drivers, mechanics, everybody really involved in the industry mostly lives in this area. It’s just become the hub.
"It’s just a coincidence that I was born and raised here but I suppose that if NASCAR was located in another part of the country that’s where I’d be."
As a result of this influx of cash, house prices in Cornelius have jumped 114 percent on average since 2012, while they've jumped 118 percent in Mooresville, per Realtor.com.
To put that into perspective, between 2012-22, the average house prices across the nation rose 91 percent.
EARNHARDT JR.'S 300 ACRES
Earnhardt himself has a 300-acre property near Mooresville which he began to buy up 20 years ago.
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The now-retired 26-time winner has seemingly turned this extensive plot of land into something out of most children's dreams.
The property now consists of a four-bedroom home complete with a basement bar and theater, an 800sq-foot treehouse, and, of course, "an elaborate life-size replica of an old western town in the backyard, complete with a saloon, a sheriff’s office with two jail cells, a bank with teller windows, and a church."
While the majority of these buildings are essentially for decoration, the town serves as a location for family celebrations, parties, charitable events, and even music videos.
Elsewhere on the property is a 70-acre wooded area filled with trails he can ride on a four-wheeler.
The trails have around "80 old race cars that have been ruined in accidents by his team and other teams across the industry."
HAMLIN'S LAKEFRONT PROPERTY
Then there's Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin, 42, whose property sits on the lakefront in Cornelius around 30 minutes south of the Lake Norman community.
His 30,000sq–foot estate reportedly took two years to construct, with designer Scott Carpenter describing it as "a timeless design."
Far removed from Earnhardt's "old western town," Hamlin's home is ultra-modern and appropriately sleek in design.
Among the home's multiple eye-catching rooms is a two-lane bowling alley that sits alongside a putting green, and an entertainment center with five TV screens and both golf and racing simulators.
There is also an indoor basketball court and gym, a bar that overlooks some of his racing cars thanks to a glass wall, that fits in nicely with the home's glass elevator.
Carpenter explained: "Denny wanted the overall design aesthetic to be clean, simple and contemporary.
"We installed custom-built LED lighting strips across many of the home mouldings, especially for the art gallery wall."
If all that weren't enough, outside there's a large pool overlooking the lake, and a helicopter pad.
HENDRICK SPLASHES OUT
And it's not just drivers who are splashing out of new pads in the Lake Norman area.
Hendrick Motorsports owner Rick Hendrick bought a $6.3million home on the opposite side of the lake in Denver back in 2020.
This comparatively meager 2.5-acre estate contains a grand five-bedroom home bedecked in its fair share of dark wood, stonework, chandeliers, and custom fireplaces.
Out back there is a pool overlooking the lake, and of course, there is also a helicopter pad on a pier.