North Carolina Highway 3 (NC 3) is a primary state highway in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The road runs from US 601 in southern Concord, north through Mooresville to US 29 in Kannapolis. It is numbered after Dale Earnhardt, the NASCAR driver, who was driving the #3 car when he died at the 2001 Daytona 500. This state highway runs from Kannapolis, Earnhardt's birthplace, to downtown Mooresville, where many NASCAR teams are based. A short section of NC 3 is named Dale Earnhardt Boulevard, a name which was given to the road prior to Earnhardt's death.

U.S. Route 601 (US 601) is a north–south United States highway that runs for 316.3 miles (509.0 km) from U.S. Route 321, near Tarboro, South Carolina, to U.S. Route 52, in Mount Airy, North Carolina. In North Carolina, it is one of the main north-south corridors connecting the cities of Salisbury, Mocksville, and Mount Airy.