Yes, it’s Hendrick Motorsports. But you won’t find race cars at this new Concord plant
The Hendrick Motorsports campus in Concord is growing with the recent opening of its Technical Solutions advanced manufacturing facility.
But it’s not for making NASCAR race cars, it’s for building U.S. Army vehicles.
Last month, Hendrick opened its 80,000-square-foot manufacturing facility to build part of Army Infantry Squad Vehicles for GM Defense, a subsidiary of General Motors. In 2021, Hendrick teamed up with GM Defense to begin making the fabricated metal structures for the agile, all-terrain troop carriers as part of a $214.3 million Army contract. The vehicles are in use by the Army’s 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions.
“We were in four locations occupying 30,000-square-feet,” Scott Lampe, president of Hendrick Motorsports Technical Solutions, told The Charlotte Observer during a recent exclusive tour of the new facility. “We were absolutely on top of each other and just out of space.”
Hendrick has invested nearly $15 million in the Technical Solutions expansion that also includes a second 80,000-square-foot building next door. That building is currently used as warehouse storage but will eventually include assembly for military carts also made by Hendrick, Lampe said.
“We’re still moving in,” Lampe said during the March 7 tour.
Walking into the manufacturing side of the facility are stacks of sheet metal with punchouts. Stock is moved on and off floor-to-ceiling shelves. The space is bright and clean with gray and red paint stripes on the white walls with the loud sounds of beeps and metal grinding. There are yellow remote-controlled hoist cranes with hanging straps along the ceiling on the building’s side wall.
Multiple gas lines needed for all of the welding fabrication run under the floors and are covered by metal plates. The setup eliminates a traditional problem in plants with gas lines dropping from the ceiling, Lampe said, and allows the crane and gas to run at the same time. “This creates better efficiency,” he said.
NASCAR’s business for speed goes beyond the race track. Hendrick can quickly turn a design plan into a product, Lampe said.
“That’s where the melding of the racing tradition and culture comes into this work,” he said. “The NASCAR industry is ideal with skilled fabricators.”
Here are four things we learned during the Technical Solutions manufacturing facility tour:
Combining three vehicles to make one
The Infantry Squad Vehicle is a mix of Colorado pickup truck, a Baja dune buggy and Hendrick Motorsports race car,” Lampe said.
The ISV is built on the pickup’s platform using off-road suspension. The NASCAR component is a chrome-moly alloy steel roll bar.
The vehicle could seat up to nine soldiers. It doesn’t have doors or armor. It’s made to load into a military helicopter with just 2.5-inches of clearance, Lampe said.
“This is meant to be dropped in with paratroopers,” Lampe said. “This is not a fighting vehicle. It is a transport vehicle.”
Lampe notes how the stacks of raw steel have been turned into rows of lightweight fenders, less than 25 pounds.
“We’re doing the cutting, breaking, stamping, and the welding,” Lampe said.
It takes about 200 hours to fabricate one ISV structure. Hendrick currently is building four or five a day.
“Our plan is to double that by the end of the year,” Lampe said.
A whole lot of welding going on
Of Hendrick Motorsports Technical Solutions 140 employees working at the facility, which includes offices, 96 are welders.
Hundreds of hours of welding go into one ISV, Lampe said. “What we do all the time is welding.”
The quality of the weld for the vehicle that can rollover and keep going are high. Hendrick’s Technical Solution welders have to pass a seam test, inspected under a microscope.
“Half the people we interview fail the welding test,” Lampe said.
But it’s something ingrained in NASCAR car fabrication.
“We literally put people’s lives on the line every week with our welds,” he said.
A strong weld will have color gradations moving away from the bead line, Lampe explained. “The lines of the rainbow should be parallel lines to the weld.”
Along with skilled welders, modern manufacturing is complex with automation and machine learning tools, as well as artificial intelligence. Lampe notes a large robot machine that welds rivets in one hour compared to three hours of manpower.
While the bulk of the workforce are fabricators, Hendrick also needs material handlers and supply chain experts, electrical technicians, and mechanical, design and industrial engineers.
Hendrick plans to hire about 50 more workers this year, Lampe said.
ISV isn’t the only vehicle made by Hendrick
Hendrick Motorsports has invested in specialized manufacturing programs outside of the racing industry since 2019.
There are other products made at Hendrick’s manufacturing facility with GM Defense and other military partners.
Hendrick also makes STEED electric carts for the Army. The Silent Tactical Energy Enhanced Dismount carts can carry up to 500 pounds and travel from 15 to 30 miles over difficult terrain during combat.
The lightweight self-propelled carts are easily movable through the woods. Five STEEDs on display just off the production room include a command center, generator, machine gunner and ambulance-style bed. All featuring the Hendrick Motorsports brand.
The STEED vehicles are made at a different building on Hendrick’s campus but will eventually be made at the Technical Solutions’ building next door, Lampe said.
Hendrick also offers customization of metal fabricated parts for other companies. “They send the print and Hendrick builds it,” Lampe said.
Lampe said 40 years ago, NASCAR teams would buy parts working with vendors. Then teams started buying machine tools, making mills, lathes and grinders, and using 3-D printers to make their owner parts.
Then NASCAR moved to next generation of cars buying parts from a single source. “That has left NASCAR teams with the shops, equipment and skilled workforce,” Lampe said. “We’ve pivoted into adjacent spaces.”
NASCAR history meets GM Defense
Two traditional steel surface plates where race cars were once built are now used for building the Army’s ISVs.
“The race cars that Jeff Gordon won his last NASCAR championship (with) were built on this plate,” Lampe said. “Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., all of those guys had race cars built on these surface plates.”
The tables are marred with 30 years of holes of different sizes and depth drilled into the surface to accommodate different vehicle design builds. Surface plates today are made with a plethora of pre-made holes, like Swiss cheese, that can be assembled as needed. Those holes are crucial for the precision needed for the builds down to the millimeter.
Hendrick’s Technical Solutions employees are part of the team. The welders uniforms are the same as the employees putting race cars together.
“The connection to the racing community is super important to us,” Lampe said.
This story was originally published March 13, 2025 at 5:00 AM.