Speedway Children's Charities Sets New Fundraising Benchmark for 2025

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BRISTOL, Tenn. (WJHL) — In a remarkable achievement for 2025, the Bristol Motor Speedway Chapter of Speedway Children’s Charities (SCC) announced a record-breaking fundraising total at their Night of Smiles event.

SCC revealed that they successfully raised $1,251,669 to support children in need across more than 18 counties in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia.

The Ice Rink at Bristol Motor Speedway is now open for the season.

Claudia Byrd, the executive director of the Bristol Chapter of Speedway Children’s Charities, expressed her gratitude in the release: “The outpouring of generosity from the people in this region, coupled with the incredible fans who attended events at Bristol Motor Speedway, has been phenomenal during Bristol Motor Speedway’s ‘Major League Year.’ Our supporters have enabled us to award a record number of grants this year, and we are deeply thankful. A special thanks goes to our volunteers, BMS staff, and dedicated board of trustees for their unwavering commitment to improving the lives of children in our community.”

Among the beneficiaries, Feeding Southwest Virginia received a $50,000 grant, which will aid in feeding 26 counties and assist in distributing over 19 million pounds of food throughout the region.

“So, this is absolutely amazing,” he said. “To be able to update our equipment so that we know that the efforts that we put in next year will be going directly towards the children and not towards fighting aging equipment throughout the year.”

Betsy Holleman, Development for Speedway Children’s Charities, said the organization gets to “empty the bank account tonight.”

SCC said this is the third year the organization has exceeded $1 million in fundraising. The release said the new record sum is more than $22 million since the organization began in 1997.

Night of Smiles is the annual kickoff event to the first day of The Food City Speedway in Lights on Friday. For more information, click here.