Developer Cancels Data Center Plans On Dale Earnhardt’s Former Farmland After Public Backlash
on Aug 15, 2025
A Developer Has Cancelled His Plans To Build On Dale Earnhardt’s Former Land
A developer has withdrawn plans to build a multibillion-dollar data center campus, on approximately 400 acres of land owned by Teresa Earnhardt, the widow of Dale Earnhardt.
According to the mayor of Mooresville, North Carolina, Chris Carney, the proposed project, known as the Mooresville Technology Park, will no longer move forward and has been removed from the agenda.
Carney and the town’s commissioners were reluctant to approve zoning without knowing which company would ultimately occupy the data center.
Tract, the developer behind the project, did not yet have a client secured, intending instead to construct the data center and market it to potential tenants afterward.
Backlash Against The Project
The plans were met with significant opposition from Earnhardt’s family, including his son, Kerry, who claimed his dad would have been “livid” with the idea.
“Dad worked hard for all he had & our family has benefited from his sacrifices! It’s easy to get caught up in emotions! I appreciate the Media requests, but I want clarity on why Data Centers don’t belong in rural residential areas, especially on Dad’s hunting ground!” Kerry said.
He said that he was speaking up on behalf of the entire community that did not want the center to infiltrate their town.
“I think, you know, some people have voices that reach further than others,” Kerry said. “And if my voice is that voice, I’m here to speak it for our community, for our neighbors, for our family, for our friends.”
Community members voiced resistance during multiple public hearings, raising concerns over multiple aspects they saw as problematic.
“I love the solitude, the quiet and I just can’t imagine it being so grown up, and our country life is going away because of it,” Janice Wilkinson, a nearby neighbor, said of the project.
NoDataCenterMooresvilleNC.com was also set up to promote community members to make their voices heard.
“We do not want industrial zoning, nor a data center with severe and long-term implications that result in Iredell County, Rowan County, and Cabarrus County residents indefinately [sic] suffering the consequences of the Town of Mooresville’s choice,” the website says.
What The Data Center Would Have Entailed
According to reports, the development would have spanned 400 acres, offering up to 1.5 million square feet of data center space across up to five buildings. The timeline included construction beginning in 2028, with power delivery starting in 2029, backed by over $30 billion in investment over two decades.
Duke Energy was expected to supply power to the proposed Mooresville Technology Park. Tract called the site “ideal” for a data center, highlighting its central location in North Carolina and access to existing Duke Energy transmission lines.
“The Mooresville Technology Park will be a master-planned data center campus. Data centers are the critical infrastructure of our modern world, powering the internet and providing a foundation for our digital world,” its website said.
