Baseball players dream of Cooperstown.

Football players want to make a trip to Canton, Ohio.

But the stars of NASCAR have no shrine to call their own. Until now.

Plans were recently unveiled for the new NASCAR Hall of Fame, and several cities are vying for the chance to have it built in their city.

Among the contenders are several well-known stops on the NASCAR circuit: Charlotte, North Carolina; Atlanta, Georgia; Kansas City, Kansas; Richmond, Virginia; and Daytona Beach, Florida.

The proposed complex for Charlotte was designed by famed architect I.M. Pei, who is best known for his work on the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston (1979), an addition to the Louvre in Paris (1989), and most recently the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio (1998).

The other possible cities have their own design teams. The Atlanta design team is headed by Verner Johnson and Associates, who have worked on over 200 museum projects, including the World Golf Hall of Fame and the Texas State History Museum.

Developers promise the NASCAR Hall of Fame will be much more than a shrine to the sport’s heroes. It will be a museum that honors the past, present, and future of the sport.

NASCAR is the fastest growing sport in America, transforming itself from a “good old boys” pastime to a national phenomenon. Drivers like Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Jeff Gordon enjoy celebrity status comparable to movie stars, not your typical sports heroes.