If you’ve noticed a substantial uptick in the amount of Bristol Motor Speedway content on your social media feeds the last few days it’s not a coincidence. For the first time in track history, the iconic NASCAR short track held an official Influencer Day and Pit Party for a VIP guest list of some of the most influential content-creators to visit the track and take it all in.
Many of the Influencers who were here on Wednesday will return for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race weekend, September 17-19, where NASCAR will conduct rounds of its Chase postseason in each of its marquee categories.
“This was such a fun way to showcase Bristol ahead of the Bass Pro Shops Night Race,” said Drew Bedard, vice president of marketing for Bristol Motor Speedway. “We were fortunate to have some really strong creators here, and we look forward to doing more things like this in the future.”
The group toured many key areas of the track, like the infield Media Center, Victory Lane, the infield Garage Bar and also some of the special skybox suites such as 1961, the Turn 1 Tavern and the 360 Bar. They were also able to grab a ride for some track laps and get interviews with a NASCAR Cup Series driver, and meet track president and general manager Jerry Caldwell.
Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain met with the Influencers, held a media availability session for the local and motorsports media in attendance and gave lots of pace lap rides in the BMS Corvette pace car. FOX Sports’ Kaitlyn Vince, who also has a large social following, was also on hand to moderate some on-stage Q&A sessions and she also took advantage of the pace lap opportunity and explored all that The World’s Fastest Half-Mile has to offer. ARCA driver Logan Misuraca did several interviews, took a memorable joyride in the gigantic Food City Shopping Cart hot rod, and she also gave some track lap rides herself in a NASCAR Racing Experience stock car.
Some of the top content creators participating in the day included a Nashville-based Influencer Julia Cole. She has a whopping 1.1 million followers on TikTok, more than 1 million on Facebook and 601,000 followers on Instagram. Also attending from Nashville was NASCAR fan Chase Wright, who has 316,000 followers on Instagram and more than 520,000 friends of Facebook and 817,000 on TikTok.
“I’ve performed the National Anthem at Bristol before but that’s it,” said Cole, who has opened for Jelly Roll, Jon Pardi and Dierks Bently, among others. “I haven’t been in a car doing hot laps before. I’m freaking out. This is a perfect fit. Country music and NASCAR go hand in hand.”
Some of the other notables attending included Haley May Campbell, Vanessa Krombeen, Dacey Triplett, Leighton Hart, Heather Montgomery and Josh Mancuso.
Meanwhile, local journalists also came out and had a long interview session with popular driver Chastain, whose early exit at New Hampshire ended his quest this season for the Chase for the Championship in the Cup Series. Chastain, a Florida watermelon farmer, says it’s always tough when you have a tough season. The driver of the No. 1 Chevy says despite being out of the Chase, he can still come to Bristol and make one of his dreams come true by winning the crown jewel race.
“I want to win at Bristol, I dream about that and I can still do that in a few weeks,” Chastain said. “That’s our goal and our mission. But not making the Chase is a failure for us. There’s just no way around it. If I could do a redo I would and make some better decisions along the way. We’ll definitely try to be correcting so many of the things we failed on this year for next year.”
Chastain says Bristol Motor Speedway is the perfect place to bring Influencers to learn about the sport of NASCAR. He was happy to give them a little taste of what it’s like to take a lap around the high-banked short track that races like a superspeedway.
“Just driving the race car around here by it myself in practice is high heart rate,” Chastain said. “The G forces, like that sensation of speed, is high for as short as the track is, and I love it.”
He says the atmosphere is just as intimidating at first, with the full stadium built up around you.
“Walking through those grandstands the first time is something I will never forget,” Chastain said. “It’s been incredibly humbling at times to race here and I’m still chasing a win here. But it’s still a place I love. I will continue to work to get better here.”
Once Chastain said goodbye to all the Content Creators, he headed to nearby East Tennessee State University for a visit to tour the ETSU Esports arena and meet many of the Esports athletes. The group fitted Chastain with one of their jerseys and he also did some iRacing on their virtual simulators. At the end Chastain was part of a meet and greet and autograph session for some students on the campus. He talked about the similarities between iRacing and competing in a car on the track. Chastain told the students and he and his competitors utilize iRacing as part of their pre-race preparation procedures and Chevrolet provides him with state-of-the-art simulators with layouts of every NASCAR Cup Series track.
The race weekend features the crown jewel Bass Pro Shops Night Race on Saturday night, Sept. 19, a 500-lap post-season race in the NASCAR Cup Series and also the Food City 300 on Friday night, Sept. 18, a Chase race in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. The NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series opens its Chase at Bristol with the UNOH 250 presented by Ohio Logistics in what promises to be a thrilling Thursday night double-header with the ARCA Menards Series, which will open the racing that afternoon with the Bush’s Beans 200 as the future stars of the sport take to the track. For more information or to purchase tickets, please visit the Bristol Motor Speedway website or call the BMS Tickets Sales Center at (866) 415-4158.
