From left, Teresa Earnhardt, Ron Hornaday, Jr., Jack Ingram, Darrell Waltrip, Lisa France Kennedy, Brian France (behind Lisa France Kennedy), Richard Petty (rear right gesturing) and Junior Johnson react as they officially open the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte on Tuesday. Photo: Associated Press

CHARLOTTE - If the NASCAR Hall of Fame does for the area what in-house estimates suggest, it's going to turn the area's historic support of NASCAR inside out.

In other words, the area's going to get a considerable return. The supporters are to become the supportees.

According to those estimates, the $195 million Hall in downtown Charlotte is going to generate $60 million annually ... and, in time, justify the considerable investment of public funds to build it.

The grand opening on Tuesday stressed more intangible benefits: grand generalities like Gov. Bev Perdue's declaration regarding people around the world: "When they think of NASCAR, they think North Carolina."

Gov. Perdue added, for good measure, "Don't talk to me about tourism in North Carolina unless you talk to me about NASCAR."

Everyone and his widow were represented, many key figures in NASCAR having passed away over the years. Among the notables in a cast of hundreds were Richard Childress, Rick Hendrick, Ned and Dale Jarrett, Bobby and Donnie Allison, Terry and Bobby Labonte, Bud Moore, Richard Petty, Darrell Waltrip and Rex White. Notably absent was David Pearson. Naturally, NASCAR's far-flung administrative royalty all gathered at the podium, as well.

"To have so many legends and current superstars at opening day demonstrates their belief in the NASCAR Hall of Fame's mission," said executive director Winston Kelley.

Of course, it takes a long time to spend $195 million, and the full-speed, wide-open shrine to stock car racing began with a bidding process - incredibly, given the remarks on Tuesday, other cities were supposedly considered - that included Daytona Beach, Atlanta and, oddly, Kansas City. Charlotte, the logical choice, came up with megabucks to match the megabucks of other cities, and ground was broken on Jan. 25, 2007. In July 2009, the date of the grand opening was announced, and on Oct. 14, 2009, the first five Hall of Fame inductees - William H.G. France, William C. France, Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt and Junior Johnson - were selected. They will be inducted on May 23 in another grand downtown spectacle.

It all happened. It opened on time, and it's a good thing there wasn't a parade, or else it would have rained on. Drawing all those stock-car pilgrims to Charlotte - the plan is for 800,000 to visit the first year - and raising the corporate support that has thus far lagged pose the next challenges.

Of course, it's not just a Hall of Fame. It's not just a museum. It's a glittering, lavish, interactive place for people who love NASCAR to spend their money and get others who don't love it - yet! - to spend theirs, too. Presidential libraries don't lend books and sports halls of fames don't generally have actual halls. The NASCAR Hall of Fame has a Great Hall (that, strictly speaking, isn't one) and a Glory Road. It has a High Octane Theater, a Hall of Honor (again, not really a hall) for the inductees, a Race Week ("fun opportunities for the whole family"), a Simulator Experience (allows "avid fans to 'feel' what it's like on the track") and Heritage Speedway, which is actually a collection of films and artifacts, not, technically, a "speedway."

And, of course, who could do without an Exterior Ribbon, the Hall's central designing touch, with its 3,225 shingles and 1,150 linear feet of light slots. According to publicity materials, the ribbon is 1,800 feet, which is "the same length as the Atlanta Motor Speedway back straight." (We all know, of course, how central to NASCAR history the Atlanta Motor Speedway back straight is.)