041124 400 The Best Damn Sports Segment Period

General Manager of Texas Motor Speedway Mark Faber joins us to preview the Echopark 400!  

Episode Transcript

(00:05):
All right, they've gone final notat the ballpark. Today, the A's
beat the Rangers one to nothing.Boo, this was disgusting. Boo.
This was a terrible, terrible loss, a terrible game for the Razors.
But we got other things to talkabout in here right now, because they're

(00:30):
gonna be racing this weekend. Theyare and this is uh, this is
like racing. Actually, yes,this is about my third year. It
started with a group of friends wherewe do blind drawing of names. We
break down the field into sections ofthe top six qualifiers, next six,
next six, next six, andwe blindly assign who has what driver.
Action makes stuff so fun. SoI'm locked into every stage of a NASCAR

(00:54):
race trying to see if I'm gonnaget my five Bucks's incredible and we are
going to walk for us. Oh, it's so good. This weekend will
be the Auto Trader Echo Park Automotivefour hundred at Texas Motor Speedway. So
we wanted to pop on the generalmanager of TMS, and that is Mark
Faber. Mark, thanks for thetime, and hello, thank you for
having me on today. It's greatto have you. I love going out

(01:17):
to TMS and I think it's justan awesome venue to enjoy NASCAR at.
And we used to talk to crapbrain fart, Eddisage, Eddie Gossage,
all the Eddie Gossage all the time. And it's been a while since we
talked to anybody out there at TMS. How long have you been out there?
And what led to you being theGM at TMS. You know what,

(01:40):
We're going to change that, Sowe're going to talk as much as
y'all want to. I've been twentymonths on the job. We came back
to Texas August of twenty twenty two. I moved here in the late eighties
to work for the Dallas Cowboy asI was with the Cowboys eighty nine to

(02:00):
ninety five, back when Mike wascalled mister Reiner and had met him back
in the day and worked at multitudeof companies. Left here and went to
AEG and Shoots Entertainment Group, partof the development team for Sprint Center in
Kansas City. Halfway through went toVegas and we developed t Mobile Arena and

(02:23):
we couldn't get back. As Itell people that the great state of Texas
fast enough. So we're excited tobe back home. My family and I
are. So you've been away fora while, I guess you kept tabs
on the great success that they've turnedthe speedway into over the years and just
how successful a venue it's been.And is that keeping with what you see

(02:47):
from for NASCAR everywhere these days.Yes, and that was appealing for me
to come back. First one,to come back home, Like I said,
Secondly, Texas Motor Speedway is iconic. You know, we look at
as a sports and entertainment venue.The Smith's family is great, It's a
wonderful organization. We have fantastic peopleworking here, you know, many of

(03:13):
them and some have been working heretwenty seven years. We've had some people
working here that are due for amonth. And as I sit here in
the office looking out here on theoval and the infield, the campers are
rolling in. This is just somethingthat's really really special, and we're looking
forward to this weekend and you know, we're picking up on the momentum of

(03:37):
riding the wave of NASCAR that hasshown the first quarter of this year.
And I think obviously the help,you know, moving us to the spring
helped a lot. As you allknow, we had one hundred and five
degree temperature in September, it wasjust oppressive heat for the fans, the
drivers, the media, the teams, et cetera. So we have triple

(03:59):
header weekend. It is beautiful weatherout here, blue skies, and people
are rolling in and we're excited forthe weekend. This is Mark favor the
GM of Texas Motor Speedway. Ijust want to go back to what you
said of sitting in your office andlooking down at the oval. How badass
is it that you sit in youroffice and just look down on TMS.
Well, I'll tell you like Isaid, you guys come out here.

(04:21):
We'll just we'll have some fun inmy office. But we're gonna have fun
talking today. So you come here, we'll have some fun in my office
and we'll have a good time.But it's really cool. Yeah, you
know, we're in the cool funbusiness out here. We've got big Hoss,
which is now bigger Hosses I liketo tell people, And it's twenty

(04:42):
two hundred square feet greater in size. Now it's twenty two thousand square feet,
which is just unbelievable. It's better, it's brighter, it's got greater
resolution, and we teeeded up lastnight for our campers and we threw out
Days of Thunder for them to watchlast night. And we've got movies every

(05:03):
night through Saturday, culminating with Talladeganights on Saturday night. So it's pretty
fun out here. I just tellpeople, look, you know, we're
in the fun business. We're havinga good time. That's super cool.
What is the process of before therace weekend is actually here though, Like
if you're showing movies on Big Hoss, what is that process like for people

(05:24):
who want to see it? Isthat buy a ticket, come out to
TMS and you can see it orhow does all that work? We did
primarily for our campers that are herein the infield. But you know,
if the speaks who wants to loadup and come on out here and come
to the South Tunnel, they're goingto let you in. They're going to
let you watch it. And bythe way, I talked about speakeasy,

(05:46):
what we've talked about is developing aspeakeasy out here as well. Maybe there's
something we can do to work withyou all in the freak about developing a
speakeasy here in the infield. Butyeah, that's that's what is. We
want to be fan friendly brute atour founder and you all had met him
and talked to him in the past, and God rest his soul. But
one of his you know mottos,was we work for the fans, and

(06:09):
that's what we're doing. We wantto be, you know, fan friendly,
and so we've got everybody rolling in, like I said, and people
are coming out here and they're watchingmovies and having a good time. Yeah,
speaking of having a good time outthere and different types of entertainment.
I was actually out there, Iguess it was a few months ago for

(06:29):
the Highway thirty concert and we sawDirk Spentley and a few other people,
Brothers Osborne, We missed Zach Bryan. But I just thought it was so
cool that there's big, giant countrymusic festivals going on out there. And
when I was there, it waslike I had a whole different kind of
comprehension of how huge the places andhow many different things you guys have to

(06:51):
offer. Is there are a lotmore types of music festivals and things like
that ahead there are, And I'mglad that you all you came out.
So next time you come out,let me know so we can you know,
take care of y'all. Yes,you so that was really special for
us and Dirk's, Bentley Brothers,Osborne Ashtony McBride. Again. You know,

(07:11):
we're in the event business and we'rein the entertainment business, and motorsports
will always be at our core,no doubt. But when a promoter comes
and says I want to do afour day country music festival, we certainly
want to try to do that.And you know, with Zach Bryan,
we probably had thirty thousand people forZach Brian, thirty five thousand people on

(07:33):
that Friday night. We had coWetzel, We had you know, hometown
boy Cody Jenks from Decatur one night. I mean, it was a it
was just an awesome lineup. SoGordy you know, says he's coming back
for that festival. We have otherfestivals. We have bands and trucks in
May, Bondastrocus, which is youknow, a car show, Hispanic show

(07:56):
that has Bonda ms coming in May. We're also working on some other festivals
for late summer early fall out here. You know, we want to program
as much as we can out here, and it's a destination, right We've
got plenty of parking obviously for people. We've got great ways to set up.
So you know, if you guyshave an idea about a festival and

(08:18):
you want to bring it out here, we'd love to talk to you.
You know, in the natural courseof things, sports, every sport kind
of waxes and wings from time totime. And I remember back in the
day when Dale Earnhard was the bigguy in NASCAR, and it was that
was the height of its popularity forme. But even though you know a

(08:39):
few people like me may have fallenaway from there are a whole lot of
others who have not. So tellguys like me who are kind of like
day trippers, who's who are thebig dogs in it? Now? Who's
going to be racing out there?Well, you know we start talking about
gray wolves and stuff like that.We actually had a legend coming back.

(09:01):
Jimmy Johnson's going to race here thisweekend. He's going to race in a
few cup races. As matter offact, our Victory Lanes, you know,
named after Jimmy. He won sevenraces here, so he's obviously a
big name. But the new ones, and you know, what I encourage
people to do is investigate NASCAR muchlike a lot of us did during the

(09:24):
pandemic when we were stuck in ourhomes looking for stuff to watch on TV
and drive to survive with F onebecame the hot thing in Formula one right
on Netflix. So I encourage peopleto go to Netflix and look at Full
Speed, which is a sixth episodesession about NASCAR, to learn about some

(09:45):
of these up and comers. Toyour point, So, William Byron is
one of those that was featured onthat. He's won three races here.
He won our race last fall atTexas Motor Speedway. He won six last
year. Rick Hendrick Motorsport Swartz isa part of that Greek He's a part
of that group, and also KyleLarson and Chase Elliott and they finished one,

(10:07):
two three last week. So thatteam is really hot. That group
is really hot. Yeah, Larsonand Elliott, Larson and Elliott, Bubba
Wallace who you know. Michael Jordanis another hot one. Joey Lagano won
the series championship two years ago.Ryan Blaney won the championship last year.

(10:31):
We have you know, I alwayssay local boy, but he hasn't lived
here in fifteen years. Chris Busherfrom prosper Texas is coming back and he
grew up out here on the dirttrack that we have out here before he
moved to North Carolina when he wasfifteen, but you know, he's coming
back. And then Tyler Reddick wonour race two septembers ago out here.

(10:56):
I mean, there's a lot ofthese young up and comers that are really
making an impact on the sport.I was talking about this earlier. You
know, Tony Stewart, you know, did dirt track racing, and a
lot of them did dirt track racingand then evolved up to the next level,
right, So you go dirt tracksprint car, and then you go
up to you know, trock Extinityand Cup and then you have the new

(11:20):
wave like William Byron who learned howto do it on I Racing and simulators.
I mean, that's it's phenomenal whattechnology enables these people to do to
come through. And so we've gota lot of the young ones coming.
We're going to have autograph sessions outon the fan Zone Saturday and Sunday,
and that gives fans a chance tomeet some of these stars that are coming

(11:43):
out here and get personal with them. I would like to thank Martin Truex
Junior and Denny Hamlin, who haveboth won me money this year. I
just want to tell them that Iappreciate them. This is Mark Favor the
GM of Texas Motor Speedway on withus right now. I was so I
read an interview that you did inD magazine that I thought was really interesting.
So you've been with Texas Motor Speedwayfor twenty months, so we're kind

(12:05):
of, I guess, out ofor coming out of the pandemic as you're
taking over out there and people hadkind of gotten used to do. You
do everything at the house, Youwatch all the stuff at the house.
What was it like trying to orwere you on the tail end of trying
to make sure to drive people backout to venues and two events and what
does that entail? Yeah, that'sa great question and a great point.

(12:28):
And you know we dealt with thatat Team Mobile Arena when I was in
Las Vegas because that building was shutdown for a year. You know,
Texas reopened a little earlier, butwe were shut down for a year.
So no Vegas Golden Knight hockey games, no UFC, no boxing, And
so what you have to do isyou have to give people an incentive.
We call it decouching. How doyou decouch How do you get people to

(12:52):
come off of their couch? Andone of the things that I mentioned earlier
that the Smith family did was themulti million dollar renovation of Big So imagine
you get to watch the action livein the grand stands or on the concourse
or suites out here, and thenyou look up and you get to see
the Fox broadcast on Big Hoss TV. So this is the biggest TV that

(13:16):
you can watch this on. Socome on out actually watch the action live.
But then you can watch the TV, and we give folks, you
know, you know, that incentiveto do it. We've also done some
expansion in the grand stands. I'mlooking at it right now, where you
have wider leg room, you havedrink rails. You know, our fans
can bring in soft sided coolers thatneed the specs so you can come in

(13:41):
here, you can kind of spreadout a little. And we also built
concourse bars, and the Smith familyinvested in about seven thousand square feet of
concourse bars. We call them islandsof entertainment, and so you can literally
belly up to the bar. Wetook out seats and you can watch the
action on the track from the concourse. And so those are some of the

(14:05):
incentives that we, you know,encourage people to come out. Look,
we've got fun things going on,it's free parking, it's affordable to come
out here. Thirty eight Special isyou know, our pre race concert.
We have acrobats, we have greatflyovers. We're gonna have three flyovers this

(14:26):
weekend, which is really unheard of. Helicopters Friday Saturday from Fort Cabasos and
then the Air Force is sending aBig C three on Sunday. And we
have barbecue contests. You know,the smoke and the sizzle, So you
can't get that at home, right, So we want to try to get
people the opportunity to come out andhave fun and interact. Do you have

(14:48):
are you allowed to have at yourposition? Are you allowed to have favorites?
Do you have a favorite driver orteam or Because for us doing radio,
I tend to like the guys whohave the best personalities because I want
to put them on the air.But do you have do you have guys
that you pull for or that you'vemet that do you like a lot?

(15:09):
You know, there are several thatI have. I'm always cautious because I
have to speak at the drivers meetingSunday before the race, and I tell
people I don't want them to throwtomatoes at me or rotten vegetables when I
say I favor a driver. ButDaniel Fores is really a nice man.

(15:31):
We have a program here that welaunched called Daniel's Amigo's Program with our partners
here that actually NASCAR has picked upand has taken to other tracks around here,
and he is just really a niceperson. William Byron was what we
call our dep or our track designateddriver last year, so we got to

(15:54):
know William and we did some crosspromotions with PBR down the collisim in the
stockyards with him. Chris Busher isour deep this year, and he came
out and drove members of the mediaaround the track and did some things there.
So, you know, those aresome of the people that I've had
a chance to, you know,do some things with that I've gotten to

(16:17):
know on a personal level. Andthat's one of the things that I've charged
myself with is to get to knowthe drivers and some of the teams and
some of the owners you know betterand that just comes with time and familiarity
and getting to know him here inthe sport. This is Mark Favor,
the GM of Texas Motor Speedway.Thank you so much for taking the time.
We got the race coming up thisweekend. Is there anything else you

(16:37):
want to let people know before welet you go? Well, here's what
I'll tell people. We're trending veryvery well. We have great weather out
here, and we encourage people tocome out. We're sold out of nine
of our ticket price categories for theweekend. We have for Sunday, we
have tickets purchased in all fifty statesof the United States. We have three

(17:03):
Hawaiian islands that have purchased people therethat live there. We have six cities
in Alaska District of Columbia. Wehave fourteen international countries including Canada, Mexico,
as far away as Australia, Uruguay, France, the UK. So
this is going to be truly aninternational weekend for us, and we're really

(17:27):
really excited. So as fans thinkabout well what can I do? What's
fun? Well, come out fora truck raised on Friday night Exfinity Saturday
afternoon in a major Cup weekend raceon Sunday. So that's what we encourage
people to do. Go to TexasMotor Speedway dot com. Hey, can
we love it? Who's going toGrand marshall this thing? Coach Sunny Dykes,

(17:49):
TCU horn Frogs. There's going tobe some purple out here. Nice
and we're really excited that coach isdoing this. We couldn't do it last
year year because obviously September is inthe heat of football. But they had
their spring game on Saturday, andhe and his wife Kate and the family
are coming out Sunday, So we'rereally really excited that he's going to come

(18:11):
out here and do that. Thatis super cool. All right, well,
thank you so much, and weappreciate your time today. Appreciate you
all. Look forward to it.Thanks so much. There goes Mark Favor,
the GM of Texas Modus Speedway.I want to play Fortnite on the
TV on a big, big,big hoss. What would it take for

(18:33):
you to make that happen? Hesounded amenable to want to do stuff.
Yeah, he did. For sure. I could get out there and kick
Ben Rogers ass at Fortnite on areal big test. That'd be hard to
play. Video game where you turnyour head to look way over to the
other side of the screen. Wecan figure it out. I'd like to
see that match up. Yeah,it would be fair. Oh people,

(18:53):
Oh my god, the ratings wewould do Jeff versus Ben at Fortnite,
My god, big hoss. Yeah, get out there this weekend. NASCAR's
cool, it's fun. I'm backin. I'm having a great time.
I'm having a great in ever sincetwenty seventeen when they switched to stages,
because you don't just have to showup at the very end to see who
wins. Because there's three different stages, and you can win a stage and

(19:15):
you get points and sometimes money dependingon how you do it. That's the
best day of sports segment period.Coming up next, it's mister Dallas.
Let's get you ready for the weekend. We'll do it next