‘We do not take NHMS for granted’

The following is a letter written by Jeff Pelletier, general manager of the Holiday Inn in Concord, and signed by 46 other New Hampshire businesspeople, urging Bruton Smith, owner of New Hampshire Motor Speedway, to keep both NASCAR races at his track in Loudon. Smith is expected to find out shortly whether NASCAR will sanction the move of a race from one of his tracks, possibly New Hampshire, to another NASCAR track.Dear Mr. Smith:After reading several articles and listening to the commentary about the track recently, we felt it necessary to reach out to you to express our sincere appreciation for all that New Hampshire Motor Speedway does for New Hampshire.The two NASCAR races, and to a lesser degree the many other smaller events that take place at the track each year, bring hundreds of thousands of people to the area. Many of those people stay in our hotels or campgrounds, eat in our restaurants, and shop in our stores. These events have a tremendously positive impact on our businesses and allow us to provide more jobs to the people of New Hampshire. These events put a national spotlight on our region, which certainly attracts even more visitors throughout the year.Additionally, your many charitable contributions to our community – Children’s Hospital of Dartmouth (CHaD) and to the children of our community through Speedway Children’s Charities, to name a couple – are admirable.We welcome back the Indy Car race scheduled to take place in July 2011 and hope that we will continue to host two NASCAR races for many years to come. Their impact on our local economy is not lost on any of us and we do not take it for granted.Thank you again for all that you have done for our businesses, our families, and the people of New Hampshire. Please let us know if there is anything that we can do to help you to continue to make New Hampshire Motor Speedway successful and continue to grow.Sincerely,Jeff Pelletier and 46 others