New York-based investment firm MG Capital Partners has purchased Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach from current owner Eddie Hennessy. The hotel has witnessed the first-ever meeting of NASCAR in which Bill France convinced multiple local stock racing series owners to join and race under one organization and set of rules. NASCAR’s journey from amateur moonshine runners race to the Billion dollar industry it’s now started there.
The NYC firm has purchased the hotel and assets in the property for a reported $6.65 Million. Hennessy, who has owned the Hotel since April 2014, might not have profited from the sale. He brought the property in 2014 for $950K. He later went on to spend a reported $6 Million on renovation over the years with the hopes of making the business profitable. He tried to sell the hotel in 2019 but decided not to do so before the auction.
It is reported that the takeover has nothing to do with NASCAR history and is part of MG Capital’s plans to expand its hospitality business. They have already purchased two motels in 2 miles radius of Streamline. The news might disappoint some fans as if the investors have plans beyond restoring the Hotel to its original glory, the sport is losing its birthplace.
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NASCAR has grown so much since Streamline Hotel
The first race after 1947 Daytona Bill France led to meet, fans had to wait till February next year for the first-ever NASCAR-sanctioned race. Red Byron, in his Ford, scored the first-ever NASCAR race win on February 15, 1948. The next year, Jim Roper became the first strictly stoke NASCAR race winner, and in October of that year, Red Byron was crowned as the first-ever NASCAR champion.
Ten years after the first NASCAR season, the Daytona International Speedway, one of the greatest race tracks ever in the world, was built on Daytona Beach. Hall of Famer Lee Petty became the first-ever Daytona 500 winner that year. By 1972, when Bill France Jr. was appointed as the sanctioning body’s president, Richard Petty was already establishing himself.
The sport marked yet another landmark in 1979 as that year, Daytona 500 became the first ever live-telecasted NASCAR event. Petty was the winner and champion of that season. CBS broadcasted the event, and it was just the start of many entertaining TV moments. The sports then witnessed the rise and fall of the great Dale Earnhardt, and his tragic death in 2001 changed the sports in terms of safety.
In 2006 the Chase for the championship was implemented when the sport peaked. The playoff format Chase was introduced in 2014, and between that time period, the sport witnessed Jimmie Johnson and his dominant exploits. The sport has entered a new phase now where it’s going throw a cultural shift while producing solid racing. A balloon dollar series that is parcelled by open wheel racing series F1.
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