NASCAR All-Star Pre-Race Fan Experience
Photo: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images
Last night was the All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, which I didn’t attend this year. However, Lebo from The Sports Chief and myself spent most of the day at the speedway yesterday and had a great time. All day long just outside of the track were plenty of things set up to make for a fun fan experience before the race actually started. While I’m sure the All-Star race was a good time, many people probably did the same thing as us and enjoyed the pre-race festivities before going home and watching the race on tv.
After parking, we began the long walk to the speedway, but got lucky and a golf cart shuttle happened to be coming by and asked if we wanted to ride. So we got shuttled all the way to just outside the track, where the fan fest was set up. There were many, many tents and canopies set up with things to do, see, and eat. One of the first things we noticed was a special area with Toyota stuff all around. This was like a VIP section for anyone who could prove they drove a Toyota vehicle. Luckily, Lebo had his Toyota key and we were granted access. We were able to enjoy shade, new Toyota vehicles to look at, and even a free lunch.
We wandered around for a while going from canopy to canopy and winning all kinds of free gear and merchandise. We left with a free t-shirt, water bottle, cooler, bag, and an encased Hot Wheels 2018 Camaro SS. There were so many vendors set up with things to do and look at. The Air Force had a flight simulator set up for fans to enjoy, which was a cool experience. There were plenty of trailers for fans to buy NASCAR merchandise and food trucks selling all types of food/drinks. Whiskey River had a food truck set up and also sold a good selection of beer.
The coolest part of the fan fest was the Monster Energy sponsored dirt bike event. Held at three separate times throughout the day so all the fans could enjoy it, dirt bikes and West Coast-style motorcycles put on a show for fans. The motorcycles started it off and did different stunts including wheelies (that were straight up in the air) and burnouts. All four of the motorcycle riders even raced each other around two cones that were set up just about 50 feet from each other. It was cool seeing the stunts and being just 20-30 feet away. Next a Camaro was brought out and did burnouts and donuts all around the parking lot for a few minutes.
The dirt bikes were the main event of the show, however. They had a big ramp set up for the riders to jump over a long trailer onto the landing ramp. They brought out four or five free-style riders, including gold medalists, Jeremy “Twitch” Stenberg and Axell Hodges. They were each introduced and did different free-style tricks one at a time for about ten minutes before ending by all going back-to-back-to-back and doing tricks in the air at the same time. They did all different types of tricks, which I can’t name. They did backflip-tricks and superman-like tricks. That was the first time I had ever seen a free-style dirt bike event in person and I was very impressed at how easy they made it all look. We enjoyed the dirt bike show so much, we waited around another hour to enjoy it all over again. They also served everyone free Monster Energy drinks to enjoy the show with.
The fan fest was a great way to spend a Saturday. And one of the best parts was we didn’t spend a dime. We were able to park for free, eat lunch for free (courtesy of Toyota), and enjoy everything inside for free, including the awesome dirt bike show. I would recommend anyone to go and enjoy the pre all-star race experience, even if you don’t actually attend the race. There’s plenty to do for fans of all ages. And if Monster Energy decides to put on the free-style dirt bike show again, I would consider that a must-watch considering it’s free of charge to see big-time names perform really cool tricks. There also may be a short video posted of these events as well. I brought a new camera intending to shoot a “test run” video for future videos, but think I may have enough footage that’s good enough to publish a video of a few of our experiences, including the dirt bikes. We will see.
Garett