The Save the Speedway page shared this from the County Commissioner.
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**SPEEDWAY PARKING**
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![Chequered flag :checkered_flag: 🏁](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f3c1.png)
There has been great concern expressed about the price of parking for the up coming All-Star race at North Wilkesboro Speedway!!
I have reached out to the personnel with SMI to see why and/or how the pricing for parking was set at its current rate.
There are a LOT of moving parts to this and I will try to keep this short.
To set a timeline we went from a dormant track of almost 25 years to one that is about to hold one of Nascar’s premier races all in LESS than 1 year.
Most venues plan for years in advance for all of their parking, transportation needs, etc. 
SMI’s original plan was to contract with local church’s, nonprofits and school systems to provide transportation to and from the track. BUT a State law prohibits the use of nonprofit vehicle’s for use as profit for public entities events (the race).
Since Merle Fest is set as a nonprofit event. These issues do not pertain to the NON-PROFITS providing transportation for the music festival.
With this being said, SMI had to contract with a commercial bus company to provide the transportation to and from the track at an enormous cost. ($2300) per bus per day plus other expenses) Not counting, leasing property for parking and other personnel needed to make this happen.
This unforeseen cost caused the expenditure for moving people to double, I was reassured. They will be lucky to even break even if every spot is sold in their parking lots.
So in Mondays meeting of adjoining property owners and SMI, SMI took information from local landowners to try and help promote the parking and Camping at local residence fields and yards to keep the cost down and continue to give back to Wilkes County citizens. 
Sadly, at any type of sporting event, parking is all of a premium price and part of modern large events not just our own Hometown event.
As an elected official I can only try to better understand for our citizens why the cost are what they are.
I hope this shed some light on the pricing of parking on “SMI PROPERTY”