Did you ever think NASCAR and Glamping would be uttered in the same sentence? Neither did I, but here I am about to tell you about my experience at the first ever M&M NASCAR Glamping experience. This is another sort of camping all together!
Stepping out of the rental car from the airport was like entering a steam room. Temperatures were in the nineties and the humidity was so thick you could carve it up like a Thanksgiving turkey. My friend Nick and I had flown in for our first NASCAR experience, and a birthday weekend I won’t soon forget.
The advertisements say they melt in your mouth and not in your hands, but in these conditions everything melts everywhere. M&M, yep the candy company, had invited us out to experience a first of its kind NASCAR Glamping weekend on the infield at the Kentucky Speedway. You heard that right, our first taste of NASCAR would be a three night camping experience inside a 1.5-mile race track in rural Kentucky rubbing elbows with die-hard race fans.
Some of our fellow campers could have cared less about the racing however, as collecting M&M merch for their dedicated home collections, or just getting drunk with their friends, was way more important. Much respect was given to all things racing however. Especially to the the team owner, driver, driver’s wife and racing royalty who all stopped by our “Glampground” to talk NASCAR, life and fame. Signed merchandise and selfies were hot commodities!
M&M Glampground
There were about fifty people in our little tent village inside the race track. Canvas tents, like the ones I remember from Boy Scout summer camp, were setup in rows. The air mattress was tough on my old man back, but seemed to hold air better than the ones I slept on at relatives houses for the holidays as a kid.
Each tent also came setup with an area rug, some teak patio furniture, a battery operated fan and a small battery charging station. No one could have survived without their phones being charged!
Upon arrival each person found a full host of M&M branded shwag inside their tent. This included slides, a neck gator, a fanny pack, a fluffy blanket and a plushy. I know, fanny packs stuffed toys just scream NASCAR to me too!
We also got a bathrobe, which was important because we didn’t get a towel. It was a bit see through, so some campers got to see more of me than they might have wanted. Our luxury shower and bathroom trailers were popular to not only rinse off the copious volumes of sweat each day, but because they were one of the few air-conditioned areas to hide from the heat.
We also had a big comfy hospitality RV to hide in out of the heat, which also had the benefit of a roof top deck to take in the sights from an elevated perch. The enclosed awning structure off one side acted as our dinning hall. Finger lickin’ good BBQ was on tap for many meals. As you’d expect there were also tons of sweets and M&M’s at every meal. The new hazelnut spread M&M’s are worth a try!
The dominant structure in our encampment was a huge inflatable M&M branded shade structure. It was by far the most popular area in camp, with Skittles-colored plastic lounge chairs scattered about in the shade.
The Glampground crew kept us entertained when there wasn’t racing, garage tours or talks from NASCAR’s elite with games and nightly movies. The most popular game in camp, by far, was corn hole. Corn hole has to be the game of NASCAR, as no matter the size of the camp, tailgate or otherwise situation you came to the race with you probably had a corn hole game or two going at all hours. Each night an inflatable screen appeared and played a few classic movies in our camp. Days of Thunder and Talladega Nights where truly surreal to watch while surrounded by the sights and sounds of a busy race track. Who can forget; “And rubbin, son, is racin.’” and “If you ain’t first, you’re last.”
While sleep was welcome after long days outside in the heat amongst massive throngs of people, it wasn’t necessarily going to come easy in a tent on the infield of a NASCAR race track. While there were big parties, and a few fights, happening all around us, the M&M Glampground was a relaxing oasis away from the crowds. Sure the massive grandstand lights lit up our tents like jack-o-lanterns, but at least we had competing generators on each side of our camp to drown out the drunken shenanigans happening all around us.
NASCAR People
I got up each morning and went for a run around the track and through the campgrounds. Yes it was a horrible idea, as it was hot as hell, but I’ve found no better way to experience an expansive place than to take it all in during a run. Running is a fast enough pace to get a broad picture of a place, while being slow enough to smell the morning bacon and exchange a friendly hello. I got lots of waves and hellos, but also more confused looks than I could count. Fitness activities didn’t seem high on anyones list on a hot muggy race day morning.
The NASCAR crowd fully lived up to every stereotype you’d expect. Much of the crowd was made up of rednecks, cowboys, retirees and a whole lot of republicans. Many were overweight, many had teeth missing and smoking and drinking cheap beer were activities for all hours of the day and night.
All that was true, but in the end it was mostly a bunch of hard working blue collar Americans who have a massive passion for NASCAR and use race weekends as a release valve from their daily hardships. Above all, every person I met, no matter how intoxicated, was extremely friendly, welcoming and full of life. Our fellow NASCAR glamping campers were the cream of the crop when it came to salt of the earth friendly people, no matter our many differences.
Octane Fueled Excitement
As I’m not a NASCAR fan, follower or even occasional watchers I had a lot to learn about how things work. As expected, the cars only turn left and keep going around and around in a circle. Not continuously though, as there are “stages” in each NASCAR race. Between stages teems all pit and the field bunches back up. While this is mostly for commercial breaks for the TV audience, it also creates more high octane rubbin’ is racin’ action.
The other thing I had to figure out was what the deal was with the three different races, one each night. The thing to know is that the Truck race on Thursday and the Xfinity Race on Friday are just warm ups for the massive NASCAR Cup race on Saturday. Sure the truck race is the most fun to watch, as it is short, full of crashes and we even saw drivers trying to brawl each other at the finish line. The big show is the 30+ car NASCAR Cup race on Saturday night with around 100,000 people at the track. It’s a 400 mile race, but on this night the pro drivers and teams kept things pretty tidy without any big mishaps, crashes or brawls.
It’s hard to say where the best place to watch the races really are. All the Glampers had access to the “Bluegrass Club,” which is a prime area dead center in the stands and at the perfect height to see the whole track. A lot of the infield camping spots are right up against the track fencing, so platforms atop RVs in this area might be the ultimate seats in the house.
Racing Isn’t The Draw
Maybe some hard core fans are there to watch cars go really fast around in circles for a few hours. Or maybe they’re there to see the big crashes in person. I’d wager a bet that most attendees are really there to camp, bbq, party and generally have an excuse to hang out with friends away from home. Racing is just the excuse to let loose.
Maybe the best kept not-so-secret happenings at the track are the fan run bars. These bars are put together by long time die-hard fans that pay for extra camping spots and go all out with music, lights and full bar structures. While they can’t charge you for a drink, they do encourage “donations.” Dancing to nineties hip-hop dance music while downing a few horrible shots and chasing them with crappy beer at the aptly named “Turn 2 Tavern,” until the wee hours of the morning on my birthday, had to be a highlight of the weekend. Sure it’s not something I’ve done in over a decade, but is there a more NASCAR thing to do?
Journalist Privilege
Nick and I had to lug around heavy camera gear and race around like madmen to each shooting location to capture the action. Sure we had to get the shots and take notes along the way, but while this was work it was also an amazing opportunity to see a race in ways very few ever do. I had to continually remind myself that no matter how much I didn’t really care about the racing, there were millions of fans out there that would sacrifice their first born for the opportunities I was afforded with my press credentials this weekend. Three of these opportunities really rose above the rest.
The first was ride-along laps on the track. Sure we were being chauffeured around the track in a Toyota Camry pace car, and not a proper race car and not behind the wheel. We were however doing over 120 MPH around steep banked turns, in an unmodified family car. While I yawned a bit at the opportunity at first, I’m thankful I never miss a unique experience, as the perspective from that passenger seat was eye opening. The NASCAR Cup cars get up over 185 MPH at Kentucky Speedway, and hold extremely fast speeds through steep banked turns, sometimes three cars wide. Seeing the wall whiz by at a fraction of those speeds, in full daylight and with no other cars to run into on the track brought into focus the dangers and intensity of racing NASCAR.
Our press passes also got us into the spotters tower, the highest point for miles around. Look up at the blue box high atop the grandstands, and the spotters stand on top of that. The perspective from up there during the big Cup race was impressive. With over thirty race cars on spin cycle on the big “D” shaped track and about 100,000 fans filling the grand stands and infield the noise was deafening. From this perspective the whole scene looked like a toy slot car track, with the spotters at the railing controlling the action.
We finished off the weekend of firsts and unique experiences by sitting in the pit box during the race. This is an experience usually reserved for team management, owners, driver’s wives and high dollar sponsors. Each team has a fancy rolling pit box that holds all the tools, parts and telemetry data computer systems to help them complete a successful race. Atop this rolling race support cart is a shaded seating area where two people manage the entire race team, with a few prime seats behind them. There is no other perspective at a NASCAR race that allows you to feel more entrenched in the race than these seats. The drivers seat of the race car might get you even deeper, but even the driver isn’t seeing and hearing all the information you are from these seats.
NASCAR’s Glamping Future
There has only been one other glamping experience on the NASCAR calendar, and it was another M&M Glampground experience, this time at Bristol Motor Speedway. It sold out in a matter of hours a few months ago, was double the price of the Kentucky Speedway program, and still an amazing value at $500 per person. While there aren’t any more NASCAR Glamping experiences on the calendar, I’m sure with the success of these two events we’ll see more like it soon. There is quite possibly no better way to immerse yourself in the NASCAR experience and/or sample it for the first time.
PS: Earplugs are a mans best friend race weekend, both to drown out the party and generator noises each night and to survive the thunderous roar of the straight piped V8 race cars doing circles around you during race time.
