We just returned from an 1,860 mile road trip to historic North Wilkesboro Speedway and back. It may be the only professional sports venue to come back from the brink of extinction to host a successful event again. The story is a great one about the track – a track that pre-dates the formation of NASCAR.
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We’re big motorsports fans, and especially like to attend unique events – this time it’s the resurrection of a track that last held a NASCAR race 27 years ago in 1996. Our trip covered 10 days, 3 Marriott hotels and 7 races. We tailgated for 5 days and put 1,860 miles on our ’22 VW Tiguan SEL R-Line.
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Our 1st day of travel was a long one – 650 miles from CT to Winston-Salem, NC. The area was busy with weddings, sports events and graduations, so we needed to stay our 1st night at the Winston-Salem Fairfield Downtown. I’ll post a separate review about this property, but would not stay there again.
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On Tuesday we moved to the Winston-Salem Marriott for 6 nights. It’s an older Marriott property that appears to have had a recent modernization, with updated rooms, M Club lounge and common areas. We showed up early at the Marriott on Tuesday – well before check in time, and the hotel was clearly busy with checkouts, as well as some other early check ins. The FDA was very pleasant, informed me of a few packages I had delivered (they were ready behind the front desk), and was able to get us into a King room on the 15th floor.
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I booked this trip late, and on points – booking a King room for 151,000 points ($1,576 cash price, 0.01 redemption). I didn’t ask about upgrades – this is downtown convention hotel, they don’t appear to have many, and most of our time was going to be spent away from the hotel anyway. Our room was a comfortable King room, a bit limited on drawer space for a week stay – but we made it work. The bathroom was good sized, shower with wand, small fridge and safe. Our room had a nice view of the countryside beyond Winston-Salem.
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We valet parked the car every day. The cost is $25/day, but upon reviewing my emailed folio on the morning of check-out, I was not charged. That was nice. The valet team is really good here, friendly, remembers you by name, and does take good care of your vehicle. They seemed to like our Tiguan enough to keep it parked out of the way during our week there 
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The hotel is very well situated in downtown, walkable to a lot of food options, shops and more. We walked, and ate at downtown restaurants a few nights, and most days got up too late for the lounge – so walked to different places for breakfast.
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The hotel does have a remodeled M Club on the ground floor, next to the front desk. It was open for breakfast and evening snacks and dessert. It is open 24 hours and the staff does an excellent job of keeping the lounge VERY well stocked with beverages and sweet & salty snacks throughout the day. Even when lounge access is heavily abused by parents allowing 6, 7, 8 kids shadow them in and raid the fridge and snacks 
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I mean, we’ve NEVER seen the entire range of Bubly water in the lounge. It’s usually just the Lime flavor. We’re not soda drinkers, so having options with Bubly was refreshing
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Overall, a very good stay. The hotel was about 45 mins from our destination and is less than an hour from other tracks we might come down here to visit if we don’t take our RV. It’s certainly a location we recommend and would return to.
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