NASCAR: Top 5 figures who could be owners of the Carolina Panthers

JOLIET, IL - SEPTEMBER 17: Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the #88 AXALTA Chevrolet, stands on the grid with Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports, prior to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Tales of the Turtles 400 at Chicagoland Speedway on September 17, 2017 in Joliet, Illinois. (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images) /

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CHARLOTTE, NC – JANUARY 28: Felix Sabates, co-owner of Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images) /

With the sale of the Carolina Panthers, what other NASCAR figures could join Felix Sabates and Bruton Smith in their bid to buy the Panthers?

North Carolina is the home of NASCAR, and anyone that disagrees would be, well, wrong. This is where the sport was born and where the sport has grown from a weekly redneck drinking party into arguably the largest autosport league in the world.

Most of the NASCAR teams race shops are around the Charlotte area and almost anyone who’s anyone in NASCAR lives in that general vicinity.

So when the Charlotte-based NFL team, the Carolina Panthers, were put up for sale by founder Jerry Richardson, most of the first names that came up were those who had ties to the Carolinas and are wealthy beyond most of our wildest dreams — NASCAR owners.

I’m not just talking about team owners but also track owners and any high-ranking officials that have anything to do with NASCAR.

Well, recently one of the rumors that erupted when the news of the Panthers sale first broke has risen again with Chip Ganassi Racing and Charlotte Hornets minority owner Felix Sabates making it publicly known that he is very interested in putting together a group of investors to buy the team.

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