When I awoke on the morning of Sunday, November 3, 2024, I could not say that I’d ever attended a NASCAR race.
By the time my head hit the pillow after a day of watching 37 drivers make a series of left turns that was no longer the case.
When I sat out on this post-retirement quest of traveling Around the World in 80 Sporting Events I was excited for the myriad fresh experiences that lie ahead of me whilst on this journey. Attending the Xfinity 500 NASCAR Cup Race – the season’s semifinal, no less! – was the first such event I’d had no prior experience with.
To be clear, I’d been to auto racing events before. When I was much younger, our family attended a Time Trial Day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in advance of that year’s 500 race. As teen, I used to accompany my older neighbor Dave occasionally to the old Mt. Clemens (MI) Race Track to watch his friend Scott race in whatever circuit was running. Also, through a client of my dad’s, we wound up with pretty good seats and pit passes for an Indy Car Race at the Michigan International Speedway.
But NASCAR? Nope. Never.
And, to this point through eight events, there were no new sports I’d attended. I’ve seen live golf before, the same with baseball and football. Shoot, I’d even been to the Pro Football Hall of Fame previously so, while it had certainly been updated and exhibits are constantly evolving, I’d at least been inside the building before.
As a newbie to NASCAR, I relied on others to help formulate when and where I should attend. I’d previously spoken to NASCAR-fan friends Frank and Kevin on “Conversations with Sports Fans” (find the episode here) and inquired off-line what races and/or tracks they’d recommend a NASCAR neophyte like myself visiting. They coalesced around three: the Daytona 500 (February), Bristol Motor Speedway‘s Night Race (September), and the fall race at Martinsville Speedway (late October/early November).
In building out my travel spreadsheet, the first of the three suggested races that fit was Martinsville.
Going All In for the First Time
Clockwise from upper left, eventual race winner Ryan Blaney’s Discount Tire Ford sits in the pits pre-race; rookie driver Carson Hocevar signs autographs has he makes his way to the track; Brad Keselowski’s Kings Hawaiian Ford along pit road; Martin Truex Jr’s Auto Owners Toyota was on the pole for his penultimate race as a full-time driver; fans sign the start/finish line on the track; race fans gather to hear from drivers pre-race such as Denny Hamlin; a look up at the press box from track level; and the start/finish flag tower.
With a desire to immerse myself in the event, I decided to splurge on this first-ever NASCAR race. As such, I made the decision to buy the Pre-Race Experience in conjunction with my reserved grandstand seats in what is known as Martinsville Speedway’s Old Dominion Tower (situated along Turns 1 & 2).
Perhaps it was my fond – though foggy – recollections of having pit and paddock access those many years ago at the Michigan Indy Car race, but whatever the reason I was hopeful having an opportunity to be on the track, hear from drivers and other dignataries, and see the vehichles up close would help enhance whatever experience I was about to have.
In addition, not being fully familiar with all the drivers or the various mathematical equations and outcomes with NASCAR Playoff implications (two more cars would advance to NASCAR’s Championship 4 the following week), I decided renting the radio scanner and headset was money well spent. I figured the scanner would allow me to follow the broadcast (and eavesdrop on driver/crew communications) and the headset provided the necessary ear protection.
Suddenly, the cost of attending the Xfinity 500 was rivaling (or even exceeding!) that of the four golf events I’d already attended. I’m unsure why, but I wasn’t expecting that to be the case.
Calling an Audible
The plan for Event No. 9 was for Frank and I to travel from Michigan to Roanoke, VA, on Saturday where we’d meet Kevin and spend the night before making the hour long commute to the track Sunday.
Frank contacted me about two weeks prior to let me know that due to a medical procedure scheduled that Friday with a family member he wouldn’t be able to join me.
Kevin and I both ran through our virtual Rolodex to no avail searching for a suitable replacement (e.g. someone who enjoyed racing and would appreciate the experience). Finally, I recalled conversations from Thanksgiving’s past with my cousin’s husband, also named Kevin, who I remembered enjoyed racing.
I sent off the text equivalent of a Hail Mary pass and Kevin pulled in the reception. He would join us! Instead of over 11 hours in the car on Saturday, I’d spend a few hours in the car Friday to my dad’s place in Indiana and then Kevin and I would travel from there to Roanoke.
The only issue any of this posed was having two Kevins with me. My solution was dubbing my cousin’s husband Front Seat Kevin and my buddy Back Seat Kevin.
More Sights & Sounds
Some of the scenery in the NASCAR Experience included, clockwise from upper left, an opportunity to sit in a car; the ability to hear from The Petty Family; and a chance to review the NASCAR Playoff participants.
I’ll say this for NASCAR (and maybe it’s true of other motor sports), it attempts to create fan accessibility to its product whenever possible.
In most instances, this behemoth rolls into towns for activities Friday through Sunday, and the drivers seem to understand being available to the fans is an important part of both maintaining and growing interest in their sport.
To wit, the NASCAR Experience is a free quasi-street fair that set up shop just outside Martinsville Speedway. Each racing team has its own merchandise trailer and many offered driver meet ups/signings with a purchase.
I don’t know about you, but if I was a couple hours away from strapping into a car that will top out at about 120 miles per hour, make a couple thousand left turns on a half-mile track with 36 other drivers all doing the same thing, I’m not sure I’d feel much like meet-and-greets. I’m having a hard time envisioning the starting quarterback of your favorite NFL team doing this?
Nevertheless, that’s what I witnessed.
This movable festival also included a mobile stage that, while we passed through, featured a discussion with The Petty Family. Richard Petty, now 87, was a second generation stock car driver. His father, Lee, won 1959’s first-ever Daytona 500. Richard’s son, Kyle, was also a longtime driver and Kyle’s son, Adam, was a driver who died in an accident at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in 2000. The Petty family was the Xfinity 500’s Grand Marshals and they reflected on their 75 years of involvement at Martinsville.
The Martinsville Speedway is one of the oldest paved oval tracks in America. It was constructed in 1947 and has been hosting NASCAR races since the circuit’s inception in 1948. It’s also the shortest track on the circuit (just 0.526 miles in length) and it’s also currently owned and operated by NASCAR.
A Word or Two About the Famous Martinsville Hot Dog
Martinsville Speedway Hot Dog look like coming out of its foil wrapper.
So I began hearing about this concession item – the Martinsville Speedway Hot Dog – a couple days before arriving in Martinsville. Alledgedly “famous” and dirt cheap, it was the one food item not to be missed when visiting the Speedway.
What’s the hullabaloo?
Well, to begin it’s a Jesse Jones Red Hot Dog which is red in color and doesn’t look much like anything on my grocer’s shelves here in Michigan. The secret, I’ve since read, is Red-40 dye. (I’m unsure how healthy that might be for me, but then again I’m considering eating a hot dog … you can check out the Cleveland Clinic’s listed side effects here.)
It’s served on a steamed bun and topped with chili, southern style slaw (think vinegar base), mustard, and onions.
All of that goodness for $2 a dog. By comparison, a bag of chips (the kind you’d get out of a bulk box at your local Costco) were $2 a bag. And, get this, if you bought a sack of four it was $7 and a sack of eight was $15. Yes, people were buying lots and lots of sacks when I paid the concession stand nearest me a vist pre-race.
Since it looked petite, I chose two and, before I get any grief from those who know my anti-onion proclivity, I told the young fella taking my order I wanted them fully loaded.
Six bites later, I sort of wish I’d bought that sack of four:-(
The Race
There was, in fact, a race that I witnessed during my time at this pseudo-carnival.
Perhaps contrary to conventional thinking, the Xfinity 500 is not a 500-mile race, but rather a 500-lap contest. With the track just over half-mile in length, it meant the 37 cars would be driving about 263 miles. For context, that’d get me from my garage to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, with some miles to spare.
Martin Truex Jr. earned the pole position for his qualifying runs the day before and one of the contenders for the Championship Four, Denny Hamlin, was starting in the 37th and final spot due to an accident during qualification. In between that pair were 35 other drivers I had varying degrees of knowledge about. Much of which I learned by watching the Netflix series, Full Speed, which followed the journey of several drivers during the 2023 season.
The one driver I was, perhaps, most familiar with was Brad Keselowski. He’s a Michigan native and, actually, went to school in Rochester Community Schools, the district I retired from this summer. His father and uncle were also race car drivers and I’d actually written a story about the family when I worked at The Oakland (MI) Press in the mid-1990s. Brad would have been – maybe – 10 years old at the time.
Keselowski was not part of the six drivers racing for a berth in the Championship 4, but I was still going to keep an eye on his salmon-colored King’s Hawaiian No. 6.
Of the drivers in the mix to advance to the NASCAR finals the following week in Phoenix (Hamlin, Christopher Bell, Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Chase Elliott, and Kyle Larson) the two I favored – purely from what I learned about the drivers from the aforementioned “Full Speed” – were Blaney (the 2023 Cup Champion) and Byron (who honed his skills driving in simulators before earning his chops in actual cars).
Clockwise from upper left, Ryan Blaney’s No. 12 visits pit road during Stage 3 of the Xfinity 500; Brad Keselowski’s No. 6 leads during Stage 2; the view from our seats in the Old Dominion Tower at Martinsville Speedway; the Petty Family was the Grand Marshals of the race and have a grandstand tower named after King Richard; autumn colors glow to the east of the track as the sun began its descent.
With that, from my perspective, the Xfinity 500 played out to perfection.
Through some strategic pit decisions and strong racing, I was able to see Keselowski win the race’s second stage. The broadcasters on my scanner informed me it was his first stage win of the 2024 season. (I figure his people will be in touch with my people about tickets for the entirety of the 2025 NASCAR season;-)
Then, during the race’s third stage, Blaney methodically moved forward from the middle of the pack after falling back in the field following a green flag pit stop and wound up easily edging Elliott and Larson who – like Blaney – needed to win to advance.
The real racing to finish occurred a bit further back in the pack where Byron maintained sixth place which allowed him earn enough points to advance to the Championship 4 as well.
It turns out, however, there was controversy about Byron’s finish, as a pair of fellow Chevy Camaros (Austin Dillon and Ross Chastain), provided interference for Byron to hold his position over the (seemingly) faster Ford Mustangs of Keselowski and Joey Logano. And then, a bit further behind that action, Bell took a high line to pass Bubba Wallace, opened the throttle, and rode the wall (a now illegal move after Chastain did something similar at Martinsville in 2022; see video of Chastain’s move here) around Turn 4 to advance a position and move into a points tie with Byron.
Shortly after the race, officials penalized Bell and awarded the fourth spot to Byron.
I wouldn’t have known any of this had I not sprung for the scanner and headset.
Which, I suppose, is my biggest takeaway from my maiden NASCAR voyage. As someone who is a casual fan, who isn’t good with the mathematics behind calculating such things as playoff positioning, and is basically just watching 37 fellas drive in circles, the ability to have someone with the requisite knowledge in my ear to help me understand all of it was money well spent. (Note: If, at some future point in time, I became a regular attendee of races I’d purchase my own scanner and headset because the rental cost [over $70 for the day] is pricey!)
Similarly, having two Kevins with me that were more familiar with the drivers and the races enhanced my overall experience. Sure, Back Seat Kevin was flashing hand signs to me throughout the race that I could not follow, but that’s on me for not having a pre-race meeting with him to understand how best to communicate during the race.
In short, the weather was perfect, the outcome was to my liking, there was intrigue, the hot dogs didn’t have a lasting impact, and Martinsville Speedway’s fall race lived up to its advanced billing. There’s 71 more events on my Around the World in 80 Sporting Events and I’ve no doubt another NASCAR race or two will comprise some of those remaining spots.
