Discounted Bookings Open for Once-In-A-Lifetime NASCAR Driving Experience for Fans Despite Sour Controversy

Racing is one of those sports where the closer you get, the more you are attracted to it all. With all the thrill that NASCAR has to offer, watching on TV or listening on a scanner, barely scrapes the surface of it. To satisfy the urges of its millions of fans, initiatives like the pit pass were devised.

Unlike, say football or baseball, fans can’t indulge their NASCAR bug in the backyard. The only place they can get their choice of poison is on TV or in the grandstands; however, only vicariously. 

Up, close and personal

But initiatives like the pit pass and the NASCAR Racing Experience Program change that. For the uninitiated, the pit passes offer fans the chance to go down the pit lane and meet their favorite drivers. In recent times, they have come under a lot of unrequited controversies, but they will continue to operate in 2023.

On the other hand, the racing experience offers a step up from the pit pass. While substantially more expensive than the pit pass, these offer action from much closer up.

For instance, the NASCAR Ride Along, retailing at $215.99, allows a fan to “Sit back and hold on tight as you ride shotgun as a passenger with an instructor driving in this fast speed, 3 lap Ride Along around Daytona International Speedway.”

But if someone has money to shell out, they can pay $3099.99 for a 48-minute ride where they can drive a NASCAR car. The website reads: “Get behind the wheel and drive (6) 8 minute timed racing sessions all back to back with pit stops in between driving faster speeds every session. A total of 48 minutes of track time makes this the best experience offered in one day.”

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All these experiences, expensive as they may be, offer once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to fans. If they’ve got the money, they’d surely be spending it on these.

Tony Stewart believes NASCAR is still behind

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Those who only follow stock model racing might feel that a fan gets a lot of value for money through these initiatives. But it’s only when one explores what other formats of racing have to offer, that fans understand NASCAR is still far behind.

In the words of a 3-time Cup Series champion, NHRA drag races have far more to offer a fan. With much more affordability.

He told the hosts of The Skinny Racing Podcast, “To really experience it and do it properly, you need to be at an NHRA drag race and see what it’s like. To be able to go down into the pit area … to buy a ticket, be in the stands, and walk down to the pit area and watch them between runs, tearing the cars apart.”

He further explained, “You don’t have to buy a pit pass like you do at a dirt race or a NASCAR race that you can’t buy a pit pass to. You buy a ticket to the grandstand, that same ticket lets you down in the pit area…”

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Stewart is quite right when he calls out the NASCAR model of fan experiences. Far more expensive in comparison to its rivals, it is out of reach for most fans. But will that force NASCAR’s hand? Unlikely.