Charlotte DISSERS! - Visting Concord Mills Mall on raceday???

[Straitlover]

I will be in Charlotte Memorial Day weekend for Speed Street, not going to the races. I would like to visit Concord Mills Mall on Saturday, the day of the Nationwide race. Any idea when the traffic starts getting bad? I believe the race starts around 2 or so.

We are staying downtown (or is it uptown???) at the Courtyard by Marriott at Tryon and 3rd. My thought was to head out to the mall around 9 AM or so. What about going a back way? Looking at Google maps, it looks like you could go up Tryon to right past the 485 and llop around to the backside of the mall. Or would there not be backups on 85 that early? Or should we just forget it - LOL? If the mall will be a total zoo, I would not have any fun.

We won't be needing to make it back to the Courtyard on Saturday (too expensive that night!), so hopefully we won't get stuck in any later traffic. If we stay Saturday night, it'll be around the Arrowood area so we can take the light rail back to Speed Street Saturday night.

TIA!

 

[DisneyLover83]

I know that Hwy 73 (coming from I-77) starts to get back up around 8 or 9am, I only know that becuase we got caught in it one year in Huntersville and Huntersville is around 10 to 15 miles away from the speedway. I have not lived in Charlotte long but every local has told me not to get near the speedway on race weekends. Hopefully someone who has lived here longer can give you insight on I-85 or Tryon.