The iconic roller coaster Fury 325 at Carowinds in greater Charlotte, NC has been closed since July 7, 2026. It has now been reported that this is due to a routine maintenance inspection uncovering a foundation issue. Guests have seen work walls erected around a support pillar of the ride with no timeline for the ride’s return. Fury 325 is the world’s tallest and fastest traditional chain-lift “giga” coaster and the speeds and forces on it are intense. The ride got national attention 3 years ago with videos of a crack in one of Fury 325’s support pillars that caused an extended shutdown. This broken support beam had the ride down for about 6 weeks.

Anytime an issue like this happens it’s always interesting to see the media coverage versus the enthusiasts coverage of the same issue. It can be frustrating to see reports portraying a ride as unsafe when it pauses on a lift hill when it is actually the safety systems working exactly the way they were designed. It’s fun to see these worlds collide such as Brandon Stoff, AKA YouTube’s “Theme Park Brandon” appearing on traditional media talking about the current issue. As he and other ride experts like Ryan the Ride Mechanic will tell you, this is the system working the way it should. This was an issue caught on routine inspection and the rides have redundancy and safety systems so that the failure of one component doesn’t lead to catastrophe These ride structures are subjected to intense forces and sometimes need to be repaired and/or reinforced and that’s what’s happening here. Fury 325 is Carowinds signature ride and hopefully it will be up and running again soon.