Observer reporter Scott Dodd today digs out an absolutely vital bit of evidence that the Uptown crowd is utterly unhinged from reality. Combing over 17,000 pages of NASCAR Hall of Fame negotiation documents wrested from the city via the N.C. Public Records Act, Dodd found that the idea of trading the Nextel Cup All-Star Challenge race for the Hall of Fame was broached.

To put that in perspective, some racing buffs consider the All-Star race, which Lowe’s Motor Speedway has hosted for years despite much hunger for the event among other NASCAR venues, to be the Super Bowl of NASCAR. So says Birmingham News columnist Mike Bolton:

If a Super Bowl is about atmosphere and laying it on the line, Saturday night’s Nextel All-Star Challenge fits that description a whole lot better than the Daytona 500.

A $1 million paycheck awaits the winner. There will be no precious Cup points to worry about. That means racing like the good old days when the object was to win instead of cruising along to a good finish. Those that didn’t win either wrecked or blew up their equipment trying.

And the race is certainly insanely popular with race fans who come to Charlotte every year for the race by the tens of thousands. Sounds like an event worth keeping, huh?

Nope. Not if you are hell bent to win the NASCAR Hall because your 10-year-old convention center is leaking money like a blown engine leaks oil. Like we’ve said all along, the Uptown crowd was determined to do anything to win the Hall, no matter how bad the deal might be because the current financing deal for the Uptown goodies — the convention center, the Arena, the Westin — was falling apart. And guess what? It is happening again with the Wachovia Arts Tower — another bad deal for taxpayers.

So forget all the “Born Here, Belongs Here” hype. The Uptown crowd actually considered trading the Super Bowl of NASCAR for a publicly-run, publicly-funded $150 million convention center expansion. Great job, guys. Can hardly wait to see that Uptown baseball deal you are working on. And how’s that whitewater park thing going?

Dopes.