Three more Nextel Cup teams will call Race City USA home when MB2 Motorsports moves into the vacant Eaton-Aeroquip complex in late summer. Vacant since 2003, Eaton’s former automotive complex on N.C. 115 at Timber Road, south of downtown, will now house the teams of drivers #01-Joe Nemechek, #10-Scott Riggs, and #36-Boris Said, MB2 officials said Thursday. MB2 left Mooresville in 2001 for a facility near the Concord Regional Airport. Jay Frye, CEO and general manager of MB2 Motorsports, said the move to Concord wasn’t a long-term decision. “We liked being in Mooresville,” he said. “We found an opportunity to come back there. The town and the county were very gracious and excited for us to be coming back.” The teams will now have a little more room to maneuver, moving from 40,000-square-foot facility to the 144,000 square-foot Eaton building, Frye said. The move is expected to be completed by September, after a building upfit by MAX Construction Services of Mooresville. “This strengthens our motor sports cluster that we have in our community,” said Melanie O’Connell Underwood, executive director of economic development at the Mooresville-South Iredell Chamber of Commerce. “(The teams) have more opportunity to be closer to suppliers that we have here.” The 40-mile move to Mooresville will also shorten the commute for many of the teams’ 100 employees who kept their homes in town when the company moved five years ago, she said. Fifteen Nextel Cup, 26 Busch Series, and 14 Craftsmen Truck teams will now be based in Mooresville, according to the MSI Chamber.

(Mooresville Tribune)

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