Concord, North Carolina, United States

🇺🇸 Concord is a city in Cabarrus County, in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the county seat and the largest city in Cabarrus County. In terms of population, the city of Concord is the second-largest city in the Charlotte metropolitan area.

In 2015, WalletHub ranked Concord as the city with the 16th fastest growing economy in the United States. The city was a winner of the All-America City Award in 2004. Located near the centre of Cabarrus County in the Piedmont region, it is 20 miles (32 km) north-east of Uptown Charlotte. Concord is the home to some of North Carolina's top tourist destinations, including NASCAR's Charlotte Motor Speedway and Concord Mills.

Economy Concord has a diverse economy comprising shipping and transportation, banking, manufacturing, motorsports, and various service sectors.

Employers Concord has many small businesses and several large employers such as Atrium Health, Cabarrus County Schools, Shoe Show, Inc., Celgard LLC, Connextions, Roush Fenway Racing, Sysco Foods, S&D Coffee, and Motor Racing Network, as well as CT Communications (also known as Concord Telephone), before being acquired by Windstream in 2007. The city is home to the international headquarters for ACN Inc.

According to the city's 2014 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city include: 1 Atrium Health Cabarrus; 2 Cabarrus County Schools; 3 Cabarrus County Government; 4 City of Concord; 5 Connextions; 6 Shoe Show; 7 North Carolina Government; 8 Kannapolis City Schools; 9 S&D Coffee and Tea; 10 Sysco.

Commerce Downtown shopping features merchants offering antiques, fine collectibles, arts and crafts, and a seasonal farmers market. Concord is also home to the large retail venue Concord Mills, and Charlotte Motor Speedway. These two are the primary economic driving forces of the city.

Motorsports Concord is the home to Charlotte Motor Speedway, a NASCAR Research and Development Office (which also is the headquarters for research for touring and sportscar racing operations), and several professional race teams, including Hendrick Motorsports, Roush Fenway Racing, Richard Petty Motorsports, and Chip Ganassi Racing. The speedway opened in 1959 by owner Bruton Smith, who is a native of Oakboro, North Carolina. Smith's company, Speedway Motorsports, Inc., owns Charlotte Motor Speedway. The company also owns and operates a dragstrip and dirt track facility adjacent to the speedway. Concord is also home to Windshear, Inc., a firm that owns a state-of-the-art wind tunnel facility used to test the aerodynamics of vehicles (mostly motorsports vehicles).