Here is what is on the NCM web site.
Some Caravan Home Pages do not give as much information as others regarding the exact route, departure & arrival times, stops, etc. In large part this is due to pending track events along the way which cannot be finalized till December 31st. NASCAR has agreements with many facilities which prohibits the tracks from signing agreements with anyone else for the following year till December 31st. The date at the top left of each Caravan's page tells when it was last updated.
HOTELS:
There has been a tremendous amount of rumor and misinformation regarding hotels in Bowling Green. Here are some facts:
1. There are about 2,600 rooms in Bowling Green and another 2,000 available in our immediate regional area (less than 30 minutes).
2. Some hotels are fully spoken for, while others actually are not but they are not taking any more block or room requests at this time.
Their computer systems cannot handle reservations more than 50 weeks out. Expect to find there are rooms to be found about two weeks after this Labor Day.
3. Some Captains do have room blocks set aside for their participants in Bowling Green as well as Nashville.
4. We have been publicizing Caravan '09 for several years and there are a large number of groups, clubs, individuals, etc. who have been proactive and contacted motel/hotel sales departments for blocks of rooms. As these groups fail to FILL their blocks - the balance of rooms will go back into inventory. Expect to see numerous rooms right in town open up during the last 4 to 6 weeks before caravan.
5. In 2003 we had over 11,000 caravan participants, assuming 2 per car (and room) that would be 5,500 rooms and everyone found a place to stay and there WERE empty room in Bowling Green.
6. Since the 2003 Caravan there have been a number of new hotels constructed in Franklin, KY (exits 2 & 5) with another scheduled to open late this fall, so the room inventory will increase even more.
7. There are always a number of people who prefer staying down in Nashville, particularly at the huge Opryland Hotel.
8. This caravan is no different than the previous 3 caravans - there should be no issue with everyone finding rooms.
It is recommended that you secure a reservation wherever you can as soon as you can. Then check periodically with the Bowling Green Convention & Visitors Bureau:
http://www.visitbgky.com/caravan/ The CVB is coordinating with all of the hotels, including those in Franklin, and can be helpful to you especially as time shortens, to locate and offer rooms from those blocks that weren't fully used.
Seeing that we are at the 50 week mark, this maybe the time to try and see if the hotels in and around Bowling Green are opening up for room blocks.
