This past weekend I went to Fort Worth, Texas for a guys weekend trip. This was my third trip to the city of Cowboys and Culture; which has become my favorite city in Texas. The whole weekend was a blast but one of the highlights was the Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. This is a pretty big race on the NASCAR circuit and it was won by Jimmie Johnson-the best driver of this generation. I don’t pretend to be a huge NASCAR fan at all but the experience of going to the Duck Commander 500 was well worth it!

Last year, I went to the Indianapolis 500; which was really fun so I was really excited about going to the Duck Commander 500 in Fort Worth. By the way, it’s called the Duck Commander 500 because the people from the show Duck Dynasty sponsor it. In fact, the whole clan was at the race. I have never and will never watch the show but I am well aware of how popular it is in much of America-much like NASCAR.

To me that’s the best part about going to car races-people watching. If you’re from the northeast like me or basically not from the South or Midwest, then NASCAR is kind of foreign to you and you just don’t get it. But after experiencing the Duck Commander 500, I get the appeal.

First, NASCAR and car racing in general is extremely fan friendly. You can literally go on the track seconds before the race, shake hands with drivers, check out the cars and the garages, pits and meet the crews. It’s really quite shocking the access you have to the race itself. I was even able to write my name on the track-you can’t do that at any of the 30 best stadiums in the world!

The infield is packed with concerts and events to entertain people; some of whom have been camping out at the track for a week-seriously people do that! Don’t ask me where they shower because I don’t know but it is definitely a subculture. NASCAR is the second most popular sport in America behind the NFL-again shocking to many non-NASCAR fans but each race gets like 200,000 people attending!

Texas Motor Speedway is the second biggest track in America, holding over 200,000 people and it also boasts the world’s largest HD video board and its name is Big Hoss-again seriously!

But that’s the fun of going to a NASCAR race. You see things you never see in normal life. People live for NASCAR and the Duck Commander 500 is a huge cash cow. NASCAR just prints money and their teams and drivers make a fortune. Make no mistake-this is a very profitable business.

After watching the driver introductions from the track seeing some of the top drivers up close like Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Danica Patrick, Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart plus the aforementioned Duck Dynasty people, we headed up to the Visit Fort Worth suite to watch the race.

The suites at Texas Motor Speedway are pretty nice and the views are spectacular of the whole racetrack. Aside from hanging out with some friends from Visit Fort Worth, I was able to meet the Mayor of Fort Worth herself, Betsy Price. She couldn’t have been a nicer, more down to Earth person and it was a true pleasure to meet her. I told her she should run for mayor of New York City!

So after all was said and done and the race was won, I learned that I am not a huge NASCAR fan by any means. However, NASCAR and its legions of loyal fans fascinate me. Not to mention the city of Fort Worth does a great job and the people couldn’t be nicer! So to me, the Duck Commander 500 was a huge success and an experience I won’t soon forget!

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