M. C. Today is the vice chairman of the North Carolina Motorsports Association and also the general manager of charlotte Motor Speedway, please welcome Greg walter Gregg. Well, welcome. Um, on behalf of Marcus smith and our entire team at speedway motorsports. Welcome to a historic day for the state of north Carolina. It's appropriate that we're on the steps of the Museum of History where inside tells all sorts of stories about, about history and what a great state we have. Um, it would be remiss being general manager to Charlotte Motor Speedway. If I didn't get a plug in that in just a month, we're gonna have the Bank of America Roll 400 for which tickets are still available. I get paid to do that. But today we're here today, we're here to talk about another race track and another piece of history. Earlier this year, the month of May marked 75 years since the first race at North Wilkesboro Speedway. The number three you see in front of us was driven by dale sr and built just down the road and welcome north Carolina by R. C. R. And if you walk into this great museum, you'll see one of the first things you'll see is another number three driven by a north Carolinian who should not only shape motorsports in our state, But around our country and around the world. And if you proceed even further into the museum upstairs for the North Carolina Hall of Sports Hall of Fame, there's a number 43 driven by our own, the King Richard Petty. So our state celebrates Motorsports and that's something that we're going to do here today. So indeed it's appropriate to be on the steps of the Museum of History. But before we go any further, I want to recognize some special guests um because getting here today, before we make news has been a collaborative effort and so I want to recognize some folks. Um Senator paul Newton, thank you, appreciate you being here. Um Senator has been a fierce days from our area but also been a fierce advocate for, for motorsport as well as tourism in the state. Um also Representative Elmore from Wilkes County, I want to recognize you sir, thank you. There are other members here of the legislature that that I want to acknowledge from both the Senate and the house that had played an important role in just acknowledging motorsports in our state and the role it plays and not only tourism but economic development. So thank you for being here. I also want to recognize Michelle Sanders, Secretary of Commerce, are you here Secretary and then read Wilson's Secretary of Natural and Cultural Resources Secretary and then charlie Peru's State Budget Director. Thank you. I also want to acknowledge the Senate President, pro TEM Phil berger and House speaker tim moore. Um they were out of town today. Wish they could be here, but I do want to thank their appropriate staff, their respective staff for being here and being supportive of where we are today. So with that I want to reduce my boss and Ceo speedway motorsports Marcus smith. Thank you Greg. Um, Greg, I gotta say, big thanks to you, appreciate all your leadership in this. Um, and I wanna tell you a quick story about how we're here today. It's um, it's just amazing how things come together. Um, you know, it was um, it wasn't that long ago that that a lot of people said, we're never gonna race again at North Wilkesboro and we just race for the last two weeks and had some of the most amazing experiences for everybody that could be there. Uh, and it wouldn't have happened without people that kept believing people that kept being optimistic. Um, the hard work of local volunteers, um, the elected officials, um, people like like here to my right. It's um, it's an amazing team effort, group effort that is really exciting to see. And one that, that's inspiring. Um, you know, back in 2019 Dale Earnhardt Jr and I were on an airplane together and he leaned over and said, I got this, I've got this idea to, to maybe um, preserve North Wilkesboro in I racing digitally. I racing is this awesome platform that you can race around the world at any track. You want to in any car. And um, and dale said, could we could we take Wilkesboro and just preserve it. I know it's not gonna be something that we can actually race on again, but it be cool to be able to do that digitally. And this is 2019. And I said, sure, well, let's, let's do that. So we, um, of course, anything that dale's involved in ends up being a big media event. And uh, so we, we had wheat eaters, we had all sorts of equipment and uh, and went to clean up North Wilkesboro. The community came out. Uh, the volunteer firefighters weren't busy fighting fires. They were busy helping us clean up North Wilkesboro speedway. And um, our, our whole crew went hard to work at getting it ready just to be preserved digitally. And since then we have been on a rocket ship with, uh, with that speedway with the community and the state. Um, it's really been phenomenal. Not only, uh, is North Wilkesboro speedway, the number one race track in i racing around the world. Um, it's also this amazing community light that is, uh, that's, that's really lighting up, not just western north Carolina, uh, the whole state and really the whole country knows about North Wilkesboro speedway and the efforts that started, uh, years ago with people like terry Parsons and uh, and Benny Parsons saying one day, let's get back to racing at North Wilkesboro speedway. Um, I also want to say thank you to Governor cooper and the state Legislature for your support of the american rescue plan funds last fall that, that really put us on, um, on a track to rebuild and restore the speedway for all sorts of events. But it was two weeks ago when I was in Wilkesboro at the race and saw about 10,000 fans come out on Tuesday night and uh, I saw a lot of smiling faces. I saw a lot of race cars and the lights and this opportunity that could be and in talking with Nascar um, and talking with, with Dale JR, talking with other drivers, we saw an opportunity and with that, with that success with that momentum, with the light in the eyes of all the Nascar fans out there in the stands Today. I'm really proud to announce that along with NASCAR, the NASCAR All Star race will be hosted at North Wilkesboro Speedway in 2023. Now, obviously this, uh, this, this is gonna take a lot of work. We've already got um, people there working now. We have a tremendous group of, of individuals on our, on our team, led by uh, steve Swift and our contractors and uh, people in the county. There's a lot of work to be done. There's a lot of details that we won't have today, but um, but we're gonna, we're gonna get there. I expect this to be a Nascar All Star Week of activities. Uh, it'll be something that people want to come from all over the country and enjoy Nascar All Star Week at North Wilkesboro speedway, uh, to enjoy the culture, the festivities, the history. Um, it is really the birthplace of stock car racing when it comes to, uh, you know, that those cars that were running moonshine in the hills and then racing on race tracks around the country. It's all, uh, it all started up in Wilkes County and we're excited to revive it, Bring it back and uh, and to have the Nascar All Star race next year. So, uh, with that, thank you governor. Thank you steve O'donnell, thank you Dale, appreciate your support and thank you State legislature for your support. We've got a lot of fun ahead of us. And this is just the beginning. Thank you governor. Governor Roy cooper in north Carolina. So I'm glad that I am the only one appropriately attired. Of course dale JR can wear anything he wants. You look just, just great dale. Just give you a little background here. What you see is not all this is North Wilkesboro speedway jacket I received back in May when we celebrated the opening reopening and rebirth of the north north Wilkesboro speedway, but I had on at the time my Winston All Star short short where I was the grand Marshal in 2000 and saw dale JR beat his dad and dale jarrett a triple dale day. So that shirt that I wore, this shirt that I wore in May got me this coat. So I'm figuring that wearing both of them today, I might be able to score two tickets to this all star race is what is, what, what I'm hoping, what I'm hoping. I told them today that I did not want to be standing out front of North North Wilkesboro speedway with a need to sign. So I'm gonna walk on that. This is a great day for north Carolina. Whether you care about racing or not, this means economic revival and more money in the pockets of everyday north Carolinians, we are the birthplace of Nascar. You're going to see this moonshine to motorsports heritage trail. That's gonna bring people from all over the world to see the history of racing and Nascar and what a better place to concentrate it than the North Wilkesboro speedway. I remember when I was campaigning for office and was in Wilkes County and I did spend time with terry Parsons and although a lot of people were sort of resigned that well, you know, it's never really gonna come back to any of these speedways. Terry Parsons says we're gonna revitalize the North Wilkesboro speedway. It's going to happen in our lifetime and she's not the only one who kept the faith in Wilkes County and when you go into the North Wilkesboro speedway, it's almost like a cathedral when you think about the history of racing and the talent that has been there and the excitement that has been generated and the families that have been brought together and the tourism dollars that have been brought in, it means so much, You know, when you work together, you can do a lot. We've got these legislators here today and I'm grateful for them back in 2019, we got this idea that we ought to start investing in revitalizing some of our racetracks in North Carolina because we thought that it would be something that we could do. So we put a little bit of that in our budget and didn't work out that time. But as we came out of this pandemic and we have federal money coming down, we thought about ways that we could revitalize the economy and I'm grateful for the hard work of the people in my administration. We also have pam cash will hear who's our secretary of administration, but charlie Peru's, who is maybe one of the biggest racing fans ever. He's our budget director and we talked about this and charlie's passion for putting this money in the budget that would help revitalize North Wilkesboro, the rock and many other speedways across north Carolina. General assembly members agreed that this was a great idea. Democrats and republicans came together because we knew what this would mean to our economy, to our culture and to our history. And so this is an exciting day what we've already done actually racing and having dale junior race in North Wilkesboro just a few weeks ago that just boggles the mind that that even happened. But to think about the All star race in North Wilkesboro, that's almost beyond comprehension. And I want to commend Marcus, you and, and the team Nascar who's here for taking the chance to do this because they're used to doing it in a huge race tracks with lots of people and we know it's going to be limited seating in North Wilkesboro. So this is rolling the dice a little bit. But I think it's gonna pay off many, many times over because fans that grew up around racing and love tracks like North Wilkesboro will know that you care about it and know that you recognize the history and how important it is to come back to roots. And I think the people, not only the people of north Carolina will appreciate it, but racing fans all over the world will, and there will be people who come back to Wiltz County just to see where that All star race was run in May of 2023 that's a big deal. I'm grateful for all of the work. The bipartisan effort, the nonprofits, the people in racing, the businesses who have all come together to make this happen today. I'm excited again. What a great day for north Carolina. Thanks so much. Now I'd like to invite up to the podium steve O'Donnell chief operating officer for Nascar. It was very well said governor and I want to start off by by thanking the entire state of north Carolina, there's, there's no more welcoming state where we race. Um, it is our home, the roots of our racing. And if you go back and you look at nascar really over the last four or five years, we've had a real commitment to evolve our schedule. And what did that mean? We wanted to grow our sport, we wanted to be more inclusive. Um, we went out to the colosseum this year, we took a big risk. We had 70% new fans. I was in Chicago last night where we're gonna raise the street course, uh, tons of excitement. But as you look at evolving your schedule, you can't forget about your past. And so when we thought about our 75th anniversary, where can we race? What would have the most meaningful impact on the schedule? If you could marry up a new event in Chicago on the streets, which has never been done before and have somebody go out and have the ability to win there. And then if you could bring the all star race to North Wilkesboro Speedway And I don't think dale may know this, but I don't think any of our current drivers have raced there, um, since it's closed. So another first, if you can run both of those races in your 75th year, what a testament to the sport, embracing our roots, which to us is also a path to the future. Um, so I really want to say thank you to the state of North Carolina Marcus for your leadership for getting this done. Um, I'd echo what Marcus said, there's a lot of questions that, that will be able to answer along the way, but that's what we do. We put on big events. Um, we're used to racing at North Wilkesboro and what will be neat about this is, this will be an experience. I'm sure there won't be as many people as, as maybe there was in, in texas, but I guarantee you they'll be triple the number who said I was there, um, or who wanted to be there and thought it was a tremendous experience because it's gonna be really cool and I want to applaud dale JR for, for his vision and his passion for just the short tracks, the lost speedways. Um, he brings that link to the past that we haven't had. Um, and, and candidly we've lost our way a little bit, but you're seeing that come back and this is going to be a tremendous, tremendous event. Um, and you look at technology and how that's played a role in this, which is, which is really interesting. The only reason we were able to race in Chicago is because of eye racing and we went out there, we map the course and were able to say this can be done. And you heard it today that I racing is what really started this conversation and delivered again. And so that technology, I think is going to be used over and over again. Um, not only for North Wilkesboro, but there's a lot of other tracks we can pursue. Um, but just want to say thank you on behalf of everyone at Nascar for embracing us for embracing this event. I can't wait to get. There was my second cup race I ever attended. Might or might not have sampled a little moonshine. So I'm looking forward to, to going back and having some fun, but it's gonna be a tremendous event. Um, can't wait to get going and really appreciate all of you being here as well. Thank you. Thank you. And now I'd like to invite Kannapolis, north Carolina, native Nascar team owner NBC analyst and winner of the 2000 All Star Race at CMS and a big fan of North Wilkesboro deal Earnhardt, Jr appreciate it. Um, it's hard to believe we're actually standing here doing this. And uh, you know, I've had a lot of conversations with Marcus over the last couple of years about north Wilkesboro and um, I don't think either one of us really uh, expected us to be at this place today and making these types of decisions for the racetrack, but I'm just excited. I'm excited because I feel like that the racetrack can be so much for the community, so much for Western North Carolina, not as just a racetrack. Um, uh, you know, there's so many other opportunities as a multi event space for, for that place. And we wanted to really benefit the community as much as possible. And racing is a small part of that pie. Um, I will say that, um, when I went to the race last Wednesday and we had an amazing event over there and I know some of you were there, I felt something at a racetrack that I hadn't felt in a long, long time and it was the, the true joy and the love that you just have for being there, whether you're a competitor or a fan, you can see it on everybody's face. Um, we got Marcus uses the word grace. We got a lot of grace because of the amenities, uh, weren't up to par or up to up to our standards, but it was okay. Everybody there didn't mind a little traffic, they didn't mind. Uh, you know, some of the situations that we had to experience, but everybody had thrown so much joy and happiness for just being there and, and I think that that will be the experience that I have every time I go back to North Wilkesboro, there's something about it. It's just got a special place in our history and um, I'm so excited to, to, to see what can happen beyond this. Not with, you know, the all Star race is a great thing, but going forward, but North Wales borough can continue to contribute to our lives and into our family's lives. So, uh, I know that a lot of drivers will be excited to know that the intention is to keep the original asphalt. Um, that was one thing, as soon as people started hearing rumblings about this, that was the number one question that I got. It's a lot of fun to race on that old surface. That original surface really makes for a great race, e uh, experience. And um, I can't wait to get behind the wheel of the car again there one day and I know that that's got a real possibility now with this, with this revival. So thank you all. Thanks for everybody that had anything to do with this. I mean, Marcus, uh, a lot of people are sitting here today, sitting out here in the crowd, but we did have a ton of volunteers that put a lot of effort in to get the racetrack ready for this this past month. There'll be a lot of work that needs to be done going forward and there'll be a lot of people that will be, um, uh, I need to be credited for that, uh, progress, uh, so that we can raise the standards and we can give the fan the experience that they expect when they come to Marcus racetracks. Um, North Wilkesboro is going to remain, um, historic and it will remain authentic, but it will also be modern and that would be a great thing to see. So, I'm excited to see the progress. All the things that will be happening there over the next couple of months. Um, the, the rebuilding and so forth is gonna be a lot of fun to watch and, and then to finally go there and may just, uh, can't get here fast enough. Thank y'all thanks tim. As Marcus mentioned earlier, there's a lot to be done to get ready for next May. Um, but we would not be here if it wasn't the vision and the leadership of the legislature, the state of north Carolina. Um, when this opportunity and window opened up, um, there was, you know, Marcus comes to my office and says, Hey, I've got an idea and there's a window that, that we could make this happen and then make several calls to, to the legislative offices and, and, and talk about the vision and what's possible and possible for that community and to see that moves so fast. It's just, it's humbling and amazing. Um, the General Assembly has agreed in principle to provide $4 million in economic grant to support additional improvements needed for the all star race and the key here is future events over the next several years. Um, we believe big in North Wilkesboro, We believe in Wilkes County and we believe what tourism that can bring for the state of north Carolina. Thank you. Thank you for your leadership. So don't get lost. It's not just one race. It's a weekend of activity. We'll have a activity on saturday things on friday. So this is gonna be a whole weekend package, the schedule of entertainment on track. We're still working through that right now. It will be released at a later date. But I do want to make this note here and that is starting tomorrow at noon. If you go to North Wilkesboro speedway dot com, The 1st 1000 people who are able to go there, put their name in and we ask for a $25 donation and that money will go to affect the lives of Children in Wilkes County. So the 1st 1000 people who go and register, they'll be on a preferred list for tickets because we expect this race to sell out very, very quickly. Um, you can information for about what's going on with north speedway dot com and following all the race tracks social channels. Thank you. It is a great day for the state of north Carolina and to be on these steps and making history once again scott. Thank you very much Greg and thanks everyone again for attending our program today. Just a couple of quick housekeeping notes, especially for our media. We're going to take a couple of pictures with our special guests up in front of this banner. Um, and then following that. What I'd like to do is invite all of our media to come up here to the steps and the platform area. We're going to separate our special guests and giving some opportunity to get 15-20 minutes with them to ask some questions to follow up um about what you've heard today. So for all of our guests that are seated, um we'd ask for you to kind of keep this area clear for us for about another 20 minutes and then we'll be able to wrap up everything on the back side. So once again, on behalf of Greg Marcus, all of our guests up on stage, thank you so much for being here today. Um it's not often, it's not every day that we get to be a part of, not just history.