Race City Steel ties together Spartanburg's manufacturing, stock car legacies

One of Spartanburg’s newest businesses has deep ties to the county’s stock-car racing legacy.

Race City Steel distributes steel, aluminum and plastic products, and offers cutting, bending, shearing and welding services. The company started in 2007 as the primary source of steel for most NASCAR teams located in the Charlotte-metro area, and they have grown ever since.

Now, Race City Steel has refurbished the space at 1611 Union St. after purchasing Arrow Steel Products in August. The company’s corporate office will remain in Charlotte while its 12,000-square-foot Spartanburg facility will specialize in metal fabrication and steel and aluminum sales.

“Since purchasing Arrow, we have completely revamped the facility, added all new racking, new offices, and a complete interior and exterior renovation,” said Damon Lusk, president of Race City Steel. “We are 100 percent committed to serving the Greenville-Spartanburg-Gaffney area, and the response we have gotten so far has been unreal.”

Lusk is no stranger to Spartanburg, or to NASCAR. He moved to Spartanburg in 1999 to pursue a NASCAR driving career, driving in the NASCAR Busch Series for legendary Spartanburg driver Bud Moore’s Bud Moore/Fendley Moore Motorsports team. For the next eight years, Lusk drove in NASCAR’s Busch, Craftsman Truck and ARCA series, including victories in the Pork 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway and the Pocono 200.

“In 2007, I felt it was time to hang up the helmet, and that’s when we formed Race City Steel,” Lusk said.”

Lusk and Race City Steel bring a unique knowledge base to their business, having seen steel put through the rigors of NASCAR driving, and car development and testing. With that inspiration, the company has set its sights on the construction, manufacturing, vehicle repair, heavy equipment and even agriculture sectors to grow its business, in particular its Spartanburg facility.

Now with three locations and 80,000 square feet of warehouse space, Lusk is happy with Race City Steel’s growth, and sees Spartanburg’s thriving economic development track record as a way to continue that.

Lusk sees Race City Steel providing a one-stop shop for manufacturers and other industrial businesses in need of metalwork, able to order what’s needed and leave with the materials. The Hub City gives the company a solid place to grow and expand to a new, wider range of customers, Lusk said.

“The people in the Spartanburg area have really welcomed us with open arms, and we are going to bring a whole new element and ways of selling steel in this area. It’s really cool to see this come full circle,” he said. “We feel like the Spartanburg area is on fire with growth and industrial opportunities that are in the surrounding areas.