Each year in late April or early May and again in mid September NASCAR invades Richmond, Virginia at Richmond International Raceway. There are four total races each taking place under the lights which makes it even more exciting. It is a huge event for the city and over 100,000 fans come out to eat, drink, camp and watch some racing.
I have had the pleasure of going to these races for many years thanks to my sister Michelle Williams, who at the time of this writing has six successful restaurants and our good friends at Jim Beam who until recently sponsored Robby Gordon’s race team. As you can imagine the Beam crew knows how to throw a party and having a suite overlooking the start finish line is hard to beat.
It is also really enjoyable getting to take someone to their first race because they either have expectations from television or what their friends tell them, but until you are there it does not compare. Rozlyn was my victim and she got to hold Dale Earnhardt Jr’s lug nuts in his garage after the race. How is that for a first time experience? We were also able to attend a private Q & A session with NASCAR rookie Travis Pastrana thanks to Rich Denzler, Senior Manager of New Media & Communications at RIR.
On Friday night Kurt Busch edged Denny Hamlin to win the Virginia 529 College Savings 250 in an exciting finish. Then on Saturday Kyle Busch won the Capital City 400 Presented by Virginia is for Lovers beating Dale Earnhardt Jr by a few seconds. We were in Gatorade Victory Lane for all the celebrations and even got up close to Joe and J.D. Gibbs the car owners of Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch. Joe Gibbs is also very well known for winning three Superbowl Championships with the Washington Redskins in the 90’s.
Dennis Bickmeier, President of RIR and Rich Denzler took us on a little tour of some of his favorite fan camp sites following the Friday night race. All I remember is eating a huge brownie and drinking some delicious concoction.
Good times are always had at RIR. I am looking forward to September already.
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