Every "Weekend for 2" figure is an estimate, not a quote. It's built from public prices captured on the date shown next to each line.
The basics
- Party size: 2 people.
- Nights: each event has a default (you can change it from 1 to 4). Days = nights + 1.
Lines
Tickets
2 × ticket price. Low = cheapest ticket, Typical = general admission, High = grandstand. We use the latest captured price of each kind. If none is captured, the line shows TBA.
Lodging
Nights × nightly price. Low = the lower of camping and the cheapest hotel night, Typical = median hotel night, High = 75th-percentile hotel night.
Parking
The latest captured parking price for one vehicle.
Food & drink
2 × days × the U.S. GSA per diem M&IE (meals & incidentals) rate for the track's locality. Low = 75%, Typical = 100%, High = 125% — the 75%/125% band is our convention, not a GSA figure.
Travel
On event pages travel is $0 ("local / not included"). On comparison pages we add driving: round-trip road miles × the IRS standard mileage rate, where estimated road miles = 2 × straight-line (great-circle) distance × 1.2. Drive time = one-way road miles ÷ 60 mph. Both are estimates.
Prior-year prices
2027 prices aren't published yet for most races, so lines marked "Based on 2026 prices" (or 2025) use the price published for the same race last year, adjusted for inflation:
- Adjusted price = last year's price × CPI-U (latest month) ÷ CPI-U (month the price was published). CPI-U is the BLS all-items index, series CUUR0000SA0 (bls.gov). If a month wasn't published (October 2025), we use the month before.
- Tickets: 2 × price. Low = cheapest way in, Typical = typical general admission, High = a typical reserved grandstand seat (not hospitality).
- Lodging: nights × the race-weekend nightly rate we found. Official camping, priced per stay, is used as Low only when it's cheaper and doesn't bundle race admission.
- Parking: one vehicle; "Free" means a free official lot.
- If we found only one price, Low = Typical = High and the line says "single data point, no range". Lines with a thin or indirect source are tagged "Rough estimate".
- Lines are shown rounded to $5; totals to $10. Each line links its source; extra sources sit behind "more sources".
Modeled lodging
For races where we couldn't find a published race-weekend hotel rate, lodging is Modeled: Low = the GSA lodging per diem for that city and month (a federal non-event baseline), Typical = baseline × 1.90, High = baseline × 3.75.
Where those numbers come from: at the four races where we did find a race-weekend rate, it was this many times the GSA rate for the same month: Daytona 500 $588 / $157 = 3.75, Miami $342.30 / $182 = 1.88, Las Vegas $241.72 / $126 = 1.92, Indianapolis 500 $210 / $133 = 1.58. 1.90 is the median of those ratios; 3.75 is the highest. If we found only a "from" price for race weekend, we keep it as Low and use the higher of it and the modeled figure for Typical and High.
Estimates built this way are from last year's published prices, adjusted for inflation. They are not quotes, and 2027 prices may differ.
Totals
The total is the sum of the known lines, rounded to the nearest $10. If any line is missing we show a PARTIAL ESTIMATE badge and list what's missing.
Sources
- Prior-year prices — the official, news and resale pages linked on each line ("Based on 2026 prices")
- CPI-U, all items (CUUR0000SA0) — bls.gov
- GSA per diem rates — gsa.gov
- IRS standard mileage rates — irs.gov ($0.76/mile, Jul 1–Dec 31 2026; the 2027 rate isn't published yet)
- Hotel prices — planned via Stay22 hotel maps (not active yet)
- Resale ticket prices — planned via StubHub (not active yet)
- Official series and track websites for dates, camping, parking and policies
Prices change constantly. Always check the seller before you buy.