otte - it's the culmination of Race Week. It started last weekend with the Sprint All-Star race at the Lowe's Motor Speedway just north of Charlotte in Concord, NC. The track features a main oval of 1.5 miles and various smaller courses, dirt courses and a kart course on the infield. Built in 1959, the "Beast of the South East" can seat 167,000 with room for 50,000 more in the infield. Known as the Charlotte Motor Speedway, in 1999 Lowe's bought the name rights making it the first track in the country to have a corporate name.During the end of the week they turn the Uptown area into "Speed Streets" which is a big street festival geared toward the NASCAR fans who come into the city. I worked the afternoon shift the whole weekend, so there wasn't a chance to head Uptown for the festivities, but from what I've been told, it's very crowded and I'm not really a crowd person. Concerts, food and vendors giving away free stuff. People walk away with shopping bags full of snacks, beverages food samples and just about anything else that's legal to give away. We had a few of the vendors staying in the hotel, so in the evening we got some care packages at the front desk ... most notably from Vitamin Water!
Sunday brings the Coca-Cola 600 race to LMS. This race is the longest race of the season at over 4 hours and the longest race of any kind on an oval track. The race which started in 1960 as the World 600
goes 400 laps around the track. NASCAR started this race to compete with the Indy 500 which also takes place on Memorial Day weekend - and in the past drivers have driven in both races, by flying from Indianapolis after the end of the Indy and racing at Charlotte - that's 1,100 miles of racing in one day! That's a lot of driving. With the timing of the races today and daylight savings time, there isn't enough of a gap between the races for anyone to accomplish this today. The race was won by Kasey Kahne - his first win of the season - although he also won the Sprint All-Star race last week!Great news for the hotel as our Satisfaction Scores continue to go up - for our company, we are the highest scoring full-service hotel in North Carolina, #7 in our region and #31 in all of North America! Putting us in the Top 10 in all those rankings. We are also ranking in those zones for our service scores and the scores for our rooms and hallways!
I have a four day weekend coming up and my first thought was to venture toward the mountains and stay in Asheville, NC - the main purpose to visit the Biltmore Estate, the largest home in the United States. I booked my hotel room and when I was doing a little research, found out that a ticket to visit the grounds of the Biltmore costs over $50.00 - so I've decided to change those plans until after I sell my house and have a few bucks in the bank. My plan is to now visit Atlanta on Friday and Saturday adding another state capital to my list and pay a first visit to that city.
Getting late here - so I'll be logging off now and will be updating again soon - thanks for reading!
1 comment:
Who knew you were so knowledgeable about NASCAR?
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