Greetings from Bristol, Tennessee
From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt oval Original Lifetime Track #2,689 THE EVENT Editor’s note: I LOVE the idea of NASCAR Cup racing on dirt. I love dirt stock car racing. I love NASCAR Cup racing on dirt at Bristol. Any questions? Remember…I travel this way so you don’t have to…even though secretly you probably want to. How does that work? I tell you how I travel and then you get to decide if that’s a good idea for you. Welcome to my 2022 trackchasing season! I AM A TRACKCHASER. What’s a trackchaser? What is trackchasing? Trackchasing is a hobby of mine. With trackchasing I do just three things. Each one is of equal importance to me. I travel the world watching auto racing on ovals, road courses and figure 8 tracks. I seek out “Trackchasing Tourist Attractions” during my travels to keep myself entertained when I’m not at the racetrack. I’ve been able to see the world doing this. If you’re interested in exactly what I’ve been able to experience all around the U.S. and the world I recommend you click on this link. Trackchasing Tourist Attractions I plan airline, rental car and hotel accommodations to get me from my home in Southern California to racetracks located in the United States and all over the world. Just the planning part of my hobby is as much fun as anything. I am known as the “World’s #1 Trackchaser”. How did I get that title? I have traveled to 85 different countries and seen racing at nearly 2,800 tracks…that’s how I got that title. If you’re interested in looking back and seeing where I’ve been the following link is for you. If you’ve got a question, comment or whatever please leave it at the bottom of this report. It’s very easy to do. Or you can visit me on Facebook. Thanks! FOREWORD A cold day with the Easter Bunny at Brands Hatch. Easter Sunday, April 17, 2022. I grew up watching stock cars race on dirt at the Peoria Speedway in Illinois. I didn’t see my first race on asphalt until I ventured up to the Rockford Speedway during my high school years. Rockford had some outstanding stock car racing on their paved quarter-mile oval. I didn’t see my first sprint car race until I went to the Queen City Speedway just north of Cincinnati. I saw a USAC sprint car racing featuring Jan Opperman. I was 25 years old. To this day, decades later, my favorite class to watch is dirt late models on dirt tracks. I also like midgets, modifieds and non-wing sprints on dirt tracks. I guess I’m a dirt track fan. I am also a NASCAR fan despite the fact that virtually all of their racing is done on asphalt tracks. I prefer the short tracks with NASCAR including Martinsville, Bristol, and Richmond. I also like racing at Talladega. I’ve been to all of those tracks many times. In 2021 when NASCAR announced they would be covering the Bristol Motor Speedway with dirt I was over the moon. There was no way that I would miss that race. Then my favorite college basketball team, UCLA, started doing well in the NCAA tournament. Wouldn’t you know it? They had a tournament game on the same Sunday that Bristol was racing on dirt. I was committed to going to the UCLA game in Indianapolis. However, the racechasing gods were smiling on me. Bristol rained out on Sunday allowing me to go to the basketball game. Then I made a seven-hour drive from Indianapolis down to Bristol to catch the rain date on Monday. Finally, I made another seven-hour drive back to Indianapolis to see UCLA play on Tuesday night. It was nice that my longtime racing buddy Jim Sabo joined me for the Bristol dirt race. We both had a great time. That was what made Jim’s untimely death just a month later so difficult to accept. With regard to the NASCAR dirt race at Bristol, on the inside I couldn’t stop smiling knowing that I had seen all of my favorite well-known NASCAR drivers race on dirt. This was NASCAR’s first dirt race in 50 years! When NASCAR announced at the 2021 race that they would be repeating the “experiment” in 2022 I was all over that. I was going to be there on Easter Sunday, April 17, 2022. Did I immediately go online and buy my tickets to that race? I did not. I do not do foolish things like that. I will now take just a moment to tell you about my experience with “Bristol-Dirt” in 2022. I will tell you in advance I had another great time. I plan on going again in 2023. I had seen racing on the asphalt version of Bristol four different times. Counting last year’s Bristol dirt visit I was making my sixth race at Bristol today despite the fact that I live more than 2,000 miles from the track. On Friday and Saturday night I went trackchasing in first Oklahoma and then North Carolina. Saturday evening, I stayed overnight in Winston Salem, North Carolina. With race time scheduled on Easter Sunday evening at 7 p.m., I had plenty of time to sleep in and still make the comfortable drive over from Winston-Salem through Virginia on into Bristol, Tennessee. As I left on early Sunday afternoon it was a beautiful blue-sky sunny spring day. That was all fine and good but rain was in the forecast for this evening. The rain might or might not come in time to disrupt the dirt race. I knew I was going to need a race ticket. The Bristol Motor Speedway seats 153,000 people. NASCAR used to get bigger crowds 15-20 years ago than they do today. The financial crisis of 2008 and the advent of streaming and the internet and about one million other things have dampened the enthusiasm for the race fan to attend these events on a live time basis. It’s a lot easier and much less expensive to sit home on the sofa and watch the race on TV. I go to a lot of Los Angeles Angels major league baseball games. I see the same phenomenon affecting attendance at baseball games as well. UCLA basketball can be ranked in the top five in the nation and not sellout a relatively small arena. I knew the place would not be sold out tonight. I also knew that if push came to shove, which it never does, I could buy a ticket at the box office. I checked for tickets online. One ticket broker showed the lowest available ticket to the race was $96. I knew that I could buy a ticket for much less than that at the event from someone who had a “extra”. How would that “someone” with an extra ticket know that I needed a ticket? They would see my neon-colored “Need one” sign. They would look at me and see that I look like pretty much a “normal” person that they wouldn’t mind doing business with. They would reach into their pocket, possibly their electronic pocket, and sell me or possibly even give me their extra ticket for a more than reasonable price. NASCAR offers free parking at each of their race tracks. They also allow fans to bring in their own food and drink if they like. That’s the most generous fan policy that I know about in professional sports. As I approached the speedway, I was looking for the free parking lot. Then I noticed that there was a special “Toyota” parking area that offered free parking for anyone driving a Toyota-made product. That was me! I was driving a Toyota Camry rental Car. The Toyota sign was directed at me! I pulled in and a young woman wearing bunny ears, remember it was Easter, handed me a certificate for free parking as well as a very nice Toyota carry bag with a free plastic drink cup inside. Things in Bristol were starting out very well. I parked my car and got everything situated. What was “everything”? First, I had my NASCAR race scanner. That’s a must to listen to the radio broadcast as well as the communication between drivers, crew chiefs, and spotters. I also made sure that my noise-canceling headset was in my clear plastic bag before I entered the track. I’m on a special diet right now which includes a lot of fruits and vegetables and Nutrisystem-made products. I was pretty sure the selection of concessions at Bristol was not going to include much of anything I wanted to eat. I stuffed my plastic bag with all of those provisions and left everything in the car while I ran an “errand”. What was my errand? I needed to buy a ticket to the race! Remember the cheapest ticket selling online were selling for $70. I almost immediately ran into some scalpers who had a sign that read “I need tickets”. That sign was somewhat misleading. The scalpers also had tickets they were willing to sell me. Scalpers are like banks. They pay people willing to make a contribution in this case, a race ticket, a very small amount. Then they take that contribution and resell it to people willing to pay a much higher price. The “margin” is the scalper’s profit. I have nothing against people trying to make a profit. That’s the American way. I just don’t want them making profit from me. Each scalper asked me how much I would like to pay for my ticket. I told them that I would be paying $20 at the most. The scalpers reacted like I expected them to. They told me I was absolutely crazy. They said there was no way that I would be able to buy a ticket for $20 or less. I knew they were wrong. I’ve done this hundreds of times. In less than five minutes I came across a group of four fellas who had come down to the race all the way from New Hampshire. One of the fellas was wearing a Tide racing T-shirt. Of course, Tide is made by Procter & Gamble. I am retired from P&G. We had a very short conversation. They asked me how much I was willing to pay. I told them $20 was the most I could pay but I didn’t want that offer to offend them. I mentioned that the benefit of selling their extra ticket to me was that I would sit elsewhere giving them more space in the stands. The fellow immediately came back with, “if we don’t sell our ticket, we will already have more room” as if this was some sort of rebuttal to what I had said. I then reminded them that if they didn’t sell the ticket that yes, they would have more room, but they wouldn’t have the money from me. This 100% full-proof logic seemed to resonate. They sold me the ticket for 20 bucks. Then they told me that they wanted me to sit with them after all. They had plenty of beer. I would be welcome to consume my share of the beer as part of the price of my ticket. I told them that I would likely see them inside. Now with my just bought ticket in my back pocket, I decided to “reinvest” some of the money that I hadn’t spent on my ticket or on my parking at the track or on any of the concessions that I wouldn’t be buying at the track on a souvenir event T-shirt. I got a great one that will remind me for years that I was at the Bristol dirt race in 2022. I hung out in the car for a while because I was early. I had everything packed that I would be bringing into the track. I had my race ticket. I wasn’t in much of a rush. On the way in a threesome of folks that were from Idaho and Tennessee noticed my red Los Angeles Angels jacket. I stopped to talk for a while. They were pretty impressed with what I do. A lot of racing fans are. As I walked into the stadium, I tried to enjoy all of the ambiance that I possibly could. These trips are about ambiance as much as anything else. I noticed some black guys selling anti-Biden shirts. I wondered if they really felt in support of what their shirts were saying or if they were just doing it for the money? I was just in time to see one of the Fox TV pre-race TV shows. This featured Chris Myers, Jamie McMurray and Larry McReynolds. It looked to me like Chris and Jamie were having a good time and talking with each other and other folks nearby. Larry McReynolds came in and sat down in the middle chair. He didn’t say a word to anyone until the broadcast began. That all seemed a little bit unusual. I just happened to be standing nearby when Darrell Waltrip and Clint Boyer came strolling by. They are the NASCAR TV color commentators. They’ve got a pretty good gig going. Darrell did it for many years and now is appearing as a one-time-a-year guest analyst. I like Clint’s enthusiasm for his job even though I have seen he gets some criticism, which I feel is unjustified. It was now time to enter the “Last Great Colosseum”. That’s the slogan Bristol uses for what is one of the largest sports spectator stadiums in the world. If you were to Google “what sports stadium in the world seats the most fans” the answer would most likely be “Norendra Modi Stadium (above), a place where they play cricket and seat 132,000 in India. Why isn’t Bristol Motor Speedway listed as the biggest with a seating capacity of 153,000? I have no idea. They have played Division 1 college football games inside BMS! My thoughts on buying NASCAR tickets from fans who have an extra… Someone on Facebook asked me, “Don’t you care where you sit when you buy one of these cheap tickets?” Often times when someone asks a question the question itself indicates the lack of understanding of the topic. This person had a lack of understanding of the topic. My Bristol ticket did say that the seat location was in the Allison grandstand, row 55 seat 13. I had no idea where that particular seat was located. It didn’t really matter. I consider the printed seat location on any ticket I have as a recommendation by the people who run the show as to where they might like me to sit. Unfortunately, I almost never follow that particular recommendation. That’s just me. Other folks might do this differently. For me…I sit where I want. My ticket had a face value of $135. I paid twenty dollars. Did I feel badly about that? No, I did not. I actually helped the person with the extra ticket out as I see it. If I don’t come along with my “Need One” sign they walk into the race with that extra ticket and NO money from that ticket. My responsibility is to my shareholders (family) and me (CEO) I mentioned I was a short-track dirt oval racing fan. I also mentioned that I am a big NASCAR fan. Some of the NASCAR “haters” seem to think that you can only be one or the other but not both. I couldn’t disagree more. I like short track racing and I like NASCAR. One racing fan told me that he didn’t care for NASCAR because they were too “politically correct”. I’m not sure what he meant by that. Possibly he thinks the banning of the rebel flag was a bad idea by NASCAR. Not every racing team was politically correct. I’m pretty sure the rebel flag is not thought of very highly in the African-American community. I don’t think that flag should be flown if it alienates a significant segment of the United States population. Would you feel welcome if that kind of thing was something that alienated you and your clan when you were trying to enjoy a sporting event? I am not a big fan of political correctness. I saw a lot of that working in the corporate world. Nevertheless, I think it’s a good idea that NASCAR took the initiative to ban the rebel flag. Secondly, in the bigger picture of fan attendance, I’m not sure that really matters. There are still almost no black people at a NASCAR race. There are rarely any black people at a short-track race either. For whatever reason, and I am sure there are many, black people don’t feel comfortable attending auto racing events. If they did about 13% of the fanbase would be black people at the track and not far less than 1%. There are lots of things that I like about NASCAR racing. I’ll tell you about them and in no particular order. NASCAR races start on time. NASCAR races, at virtually every location, have “features only” racing. They don’t waste a lot of time on meaningless heat races. NASCAR brings a full field of cars to the track. How many short tracks do you go to that start 36 cars in the feature? For that matter, how many short tracks do you go to that start 20 cars in most of their features? When I’m not at the track I can watch the NASCAR race on national TV each and every week. I can watch it on a recorded basis so when I have the time to see the race, I can watch it at my own convenience. NASCAR offers big-name drivers. I have followed virtually every driver in the NASCAR field since they were a rookie. I know their background before they ever made it to NASCAR. NASCAR drivers are brand names. Some people get a little bent out of shape when their favorite driver be that a Petty or an Earnhardt or a Tony Stewart or a Jeff Gordon or Jimmy Johnson retires. They think that the racing with the “newcomers” won’t be very interesting. When your doctor retires, as mine is doing next month, do you stop going to the doctor? Folks, this is how it works. The “newcomers” of the past decade like Joey Logano (my current favorite), Chase Elliott, Brad K and many others who have come on the scene don’t win many races until the folks in the above paragraph retire. Then these guys become dominant and the newcomers behind them wait their turn until THESE drivers retire. That’s just the way the “transition” works. Of course, NASCAR has a super friendly fan policy at the track of offering free parking, the ability for a fan to bring in their own food and drink and buy tickets inexpensively as I do. I know that when I plan on going to the NASCAR race, they aren’t going to change the date a week before or the night before or they’re not going to cancel on the weather forecast. Just like tonight they will do their level best to both deal with the weather and run the complete race if it’s at all possible. I thought tonight’s racing on the dirt surface of the ½-mile high banked oval at Bristol was outstanding. There were a number of lead changes. There was a lot of passing back in the pack. On restarts, the cars were driving four and five wide. There was consistent two-lane racing in both the low and high grooves. I loved the race. When I get home, I will watch the race again on TV which is my standard practice after I see a major live sports event if it is on TV. I told you that the Bristol Motor Speedway’s official seating capacity is 153,000 people. I’m not exactly sure of the crowd count tonight but I would say the place was more than half full which might make the crowd about 80,000 people. I would later come to find out they had another FOUR MILLION people watching the race on TV! Considering the weather forecast was iffy, the race was on a holiday, Easter, and the race was on a Sunday night and wouldn’t end until 10 or 11 p.m. and many people had to work the next day I thought the crowd was fantastic. I suspect it will be even bigger next year. When properly handled NASCAR cars and drivers on dirt at a place like Bristol is an excellent promotion. It did rain tonight. They red-flagged the race on two different occasions because of the rain. The rain was extremely light. I almost wouldn’t call it rain. It was more like a series of sprinkles. The rain looked harder under the track lights but that is always the case. It doesn’t take much precipitation to make a dirt track unraceable but tonight the race rain was extremely light. Carol pretty much forces me to bring a rain poncho with me on these trips. I think I might have used my rain poncho one time in the past 20 years. I used it tonight not so much for the rain but just to tell Carol that I did it. I had a great seat location on the backstretch coming out of turn two. That’s where I sat last year. This was a comfortable location with great views as you’ll be able to see from the photos I share and the video I made from my trip to Bristol. I love having a stadium that seats so many people with a crowd that doesn’t max out capacity. I get a real hoot out of the NASCAR haters who keep crying that NASCAR doesn’t get the crowds they used to get. I’m a race fan. I go to NASCAR races for fun. I love the fact that NASCAR doesn’t get the crowds they used to. Do I want to stand in line with 153,000 other people trying to get inside the stadium, find a restroom, and get a Coke and a cheeseburger at the concession stand? I used to have season tickets to the fall North Wilkesboro race. The traffic was so bad we would use a disposable grill to cookout and have a brewski for THREE HOURS until the traffic cleared a bit. At Bristol wouldn’t it be better to do all of those things with just 80,000 people? Mark me down as a strong supporter of the smaller crowds! It’s probably worth noting that NASCAR crowds are smaller but not small. With the rain delays, tonight’s racing ended at about 11 p.m. I was there for the checkered flag although I would say maybe as many as half the people left during the first or the second rain delays. I didn’t have to work tomorrow! It started getting a little cooler but wasn’t all that bad. I was there to see the fireworks going off above the Bristol Motor Speedway Bruton Smith building. I hope you’ve enjoyed my summary. If you think I love NASCAR racing and I love NASCAR dirt racing and I love NASCAR dirt racing at Bristol Motor Speedway you are absolutely correct. The money I saved on my race ticket and parking and concessions doesn’t really matter to me. I can easily pay whatever price any of these things cost if there is a cost. I just enjoy playing “the game” to see what kinds of favorable financial situations I can create. I’ve been doing this a long time. I don’t mind saying I think I’m pretty good at it. That’s it from Bristol. I’ll see you there in 2023. Just remember one thing. It’s Bristol baby! P.S. It just dawned on me that I wrote this entire Trackchaser Report and didn’t tell you who won the race. I guess that might tell you that I was most in awe of the “event” and not the race winner. In the last turn of the last lap of the 250-lap feature race the second place runner took out not only himself but the race leader. Chase Briscoe tried a classic “slide job” that didn’t work and crashed both himself and leader Tyler Reddick (above) out of contention. Kyle Busch (not a fan), sitting in third, came through the carnage to win his ninth race, first on dirt, at Bristol. I’m all for drivers trying to win races. No problem there. However, when one driver tries to WIN the race and crashes, not bumps, the leader out of the win that’s going too far in my book. Bad move Chase Briscoe! Bad move! Randy Lewis – 85 countries – 2,777 tracks. Thanks for reading about my trackchasing, Randy Lewis World’s #1 Trackchaser Peoria Old Timers Racing Club (P.O.R.C.) Hall of Fame Member JUST THE FACTS LIFETIME TRACKCHASER COMPARISONS The three most important trackchasing comparisons to me are: Total lifetime tracks seen Total “trackchasing countries” seen Lifetime National Geographic Diversity results Total Lifetime Tracks There are no trackchasers currently within 870 tracks of my lifetime total. Why is this noteworthy? Because it’s true. Total Trackchasing Countries My nearest trackchasing competitor, a native of Belgium, has seen racing in more than 30 fewer countries compared to my lifetime total. Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results That’s all folks! Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report Click on the link below to see the video production from the racing action today. NASCAR Cup on dirt! Don’t miss this video. See it in pictures! Click on the link below for a photo album from today’s trackchasing day. You can view the album slide by slide or click on the “slide show” icon for a self-guided tour of today’s trackchasing adventure. Each trip includes a lot of photos of the “trip” and not just the racing. From one U.S. senator, “I think if I wanted to see what this adventure was like and didn’t have all that much time, I would just look at the photo album.” All photo albums are fully captioned. What can I say? It’s Bristol, baby! 
