Now the engines can really be started.

That was a wake-up call for a lot of people.

When people ask, 'So what do you do in Charlotte?' the hall of fame will help us answer that question.

We're paying for some of the sins of the past. But we have made great strides, and some of that hard work is going to show up in the coming years. And we also have some ideas in place to shore up short-term business as well.

It's totally up to NASCAR. All we can do is just wait. (NASCAR is) wading through the proposals.

When we come up with a plan here, this is our one shot. We want to make sure we use good planning.

With the support of the hotel community, we were able to bring this incredible dream to life. I'm thankful for and proud of our colleagues in the hospitality industry.

We anticipated strong corporate participation, but we have been pleasantly surprised at the response. And we think there is room to grow.

The trends are very strong. We're making up ground. We expected some of that, but the numbers now are better than I thought they would be.