The Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. - State lawmakers want to spend millions of dollars to protect North Carolina's status as the hub of stock car racing.

They are pushing for a $50 million test track and research complex in the Charlotte area that would allow drivers to remain close to home. Virtually all NASCAR teams are based in the area.

But the sanctioning body limits the number of times drivers can practice on a sanctioned track, such as Lowe's Motor Speedway outside Charlotte. Big time stock car racing is a $1.5 billion industry that employs 10,000 people in the state, supporters said.

"This is an industry that a lot of states are really showing a lot of interest in right now," said House Co-Speaker Jim Black.

Gov. Mike Easley is proposing $15 million be included in the 2004-05 budget for a North Carolina Motorsports Testing and Research Complex, which would link with the UNC-Charlotte's existing motorsports engineering program.

About 300 race teams - NASCAR and otherwise - are located within 60 miles of Charlotte, said Humpy Wheeler, president of Lowe's Motor Speedway.

The complex would include four tracks and probably include Formula One and other racing entities, proponents said.

Mike Schmaltz, a spokesman for Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, Ky., said NASCAR teams practice a few days a week at the 1 1/2-mile tri-oval, which opened five years ago.

Ultimately, they want them to race there, too.