Told you so.

Right from the start of the process by which NASCAR selected Charlotte, N.C., as the site for its hall of fame, I said the winning city would be the one that came up with the best deal.

“Having the NASCAR hall of fame (in Charlotte) does make sense,” I wrote in August.

“… But this whole process isn’t necessarily about what makes sense. It is, in fact, entirely about what makes cents, as in dollars and cents.”

OK, so I did also write that practically everybody in the racing world thought that deal would come from Kansas City, Kan. Here, in a sense of fairness, is the passage by which I hung myself out on a limb that officially got sawed off Monday.

“Maybe I am wrong, and I really hope I am,” I wrote. “Maybe the people I talk to about this process have become jaded. … But what those people tell me is that this is, and has been from the start, a done deal. The NASCAR Hall of Fame? Kansas City, here it comes.”

So, yes, I was wrong about the outcome.

I also apparently was wrong when I said I feared it was a rigged game, but I reserve the right to take that back if something fishy comes at us down the road.

And no, I won’t claim that declaring Kansas City the favorite was some kind of ruse. I wrote what I was hearing and what I was convinced was the case.

But I was not wrong about how this decision was made.

NASCAR looked at offers from five cities, three of which made it to a final cut, and picked the best deal. The surprise is that it was Charlotte that came up with that deal.

I’m just a sportswriter who owes everybody money, so I’ll let people who’re a lot smarter than me pass judgment on the financial aspects of the deal. In a big-picture sense, though, I agree with what H.A. “Humpy” Wheeler, president of Lowe’s Motor Speedway, said the other day.

“The thing that pleases me is how the leadership of Charlotte and this area have come through on this thing,” Wheeler said. “Everybody in the motorsports industry should thank them a dozen times over.”

Rick Hendrick, who is one of dozens of people who deserve credit for pulling the deal together, said after Monday’s news conference that he believes the city leaders worked harder and more effectively to bring the NASCAR hall to the city than they did back when Charlotte got its first pro sports franchise, the Charlotte Hornets.

Despite the misery the Hornets eventually caused, that was a watershed moment for Charlotte. It put the city in the national sports consciousness.

Some say Charlotte should have been a clear winner from the start of this race, but that’s an oversimplification. Had either Atlanta or Daytona Beach, Fla., the other two finalists, been selected, I believe the hall would have been a success in either place.

Charlotte did not win this race by default. The people who worked on this bid went out and made this happen. They deserve credit and congratulations for that.

And from me, an apology.