Everyone signs a waiver when they enter the pits as far as I know. If there has to be a fee, which I'm having a hard time understanding why, $1 would work for me. Does the water truck guy and pit stewards sign a waiver and buy a pit pass???

Regarding returning the entry and pit pass fees: An Owner/driver could potentially walk away from the track with more money in his pocket than someone who qualified to race for purse money.

Interesting that there are tons of promoters that read the posts on IOW and not one of them has stepped forward to tell us why they are charging drivers/owners a fee to enter the track. I can think of a few prominant race execs that only come out of hiding to comment on posts that are in their favor. I invite the big box execs to come on here and tell us why they are charging, for example, an entry fee. I'm looking forward to reading it.

Why is a pit pass more money than the gate admission? Most pit areas at tracks are the "pits" literally, especially the ones with dust storms. These track owners need to visit places like Paducah International Speedway ( a dirt track ) that have a dustless and attractive pit area. Heck, they even have a guy paid to just hose down the dirt entrance area to the track. If we have to pay a pit fee, they can at least make it tolerable to be there.

Seems to me that the promoters can still make money form the back gate from all the rest of the people in the pits. Owner/drivers probably make up only a small portion of the people who buy a pit pass.