April 10, 2025 • 19 mins
"What makes a NASCAR weekend unforgettable for both diehard fans and newcomers?" Enjoy this tremendous interview as Ben Rogers sits down with Mark Faber, the President and General Manager of Texas Motor Speedway.
They explore the upcoming NASCAR tripleheader event coming to DFW, packed with nonstop action and family-friendly fun. Mark Faber shares exciting details about the four-day extravaganza, including dirt track racing with top drivers like Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell, the speedycash.com 250 truck race, Andy's Frozen Custard 300 Xfinity race, and the Wurth 400 NASCAR Cup race. He paints a vivid picture of the expanded fan zone, featuring trapeze artists, pig races, Lucha Libre wrestlers, and interactive military exhibits.
Faber also highlights the affordability and family-friendly nature of the event, with free parking and affordable ticket prices, making it accessible for everyone. Laugh along with the hosts as they discuss Faber's nickname "Darth Faber" and imagine Darth Vader as a fearless NASCAR driver.
They explore the upcoming NASCAR tripleheader event coming to DFW, packed with nonstop action and family-friendly fun. Mark Faber shares exciting details about the four-day extravaganza, including dirt track racing with top drivers like Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell, the speedycash.com 250 truck race, Andy's Frozen Custard 300 Xfinity race, and the Wurth 400 NASCAR Cup race. He paints a vivid picture of the expanded fan zone, featuring trapeze artists, pig races, Lucha Libre wrestlers, and interactive military exhibits.
Faber also highlights the affordability and family-friendly nature of the event, with free parking and affordable ticket prices, making it accessible for everyone. Laugh along with the hosts as they discuss Faber's nickname "Darth Faber" and imagine Darth Vader as a fearless NASCAR driver.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right. Joining us now on the Ben and Skin Show,
(00:02):
it is the great Mark Favor, President and General Manager
of Texas Motor Speedway.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
How you doing today, Mark, great, thanks for having me today. Ben,
It's wonderful to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Yes, thank you for joining us. Now, you guys have
something really fun that's coming down the pike. It's going
to be joining us here momentarily a NASCAR tripleheader. Tell
our listeners exactly what it's all about.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
We're really excited about it. And three weeks from today
we open up our campground, so we will have several hundred,
if not a few thousand people rolling into Texas Motor
Speedway to start that camping experience. And then we'll roll
into dirt track racing on May first. At our dirt track,
(00:40):
Kyle Larson, who's one of the top drivers in the sport,
is part of a high limit racing, so we expect
a big crowd Thursday night at the dirt track. Friday
is our speedycast dot Com two fifty truck race and
that will be under the lights at Texas Motor Speedway
on Friday night. Saturday afternoon is our Andy's Frozen Custard
(01:03):
three hundred Exfinity race and then we roll into the
Worth four hundred presented by Liquemalley NASCAR Cup race on
Sunday afternoon, so we have a full four days of
activity for our fans. And that dirt track also will
have racing on Saturday nights, so there's NonStop action going
(01:24):
on for four full days.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
So there's some of these guys that race on Sunday,
they'll be in town, but it won't just be a
race on Sunday. They may participate in some of the
other days.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Huh yeah. I mean we've had that before where Kyle
Busch is racing the truck race on Friday night and
we have some of the top drivers that are going
to race on Saturday afternoon, which is really a cool deal, right,
I mean, so you have you have the big drivers
on Sunday and they say, you know what, I'd really
like to try Exfinity and I'd like to try truck.
(01:54):
Truck's a lot different, you know, driving than on Sunday.
It's a different machine obviously, and it's a different strategy.
But look, drivers are drivers, and you'll have Kyle Larson
driving on the dirt track with Christopher Bell on the
first and the third. So the big drivers will do
a lot of different types of racing. The racers their
(02:16):
drivers at their cores, so they want to participate as
much as they can.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
So I want to ask you about a couple of
different things. I want to ask you about what the
expectations should be for people that are very familiar with
racing in all those different leagues, and then for the
people that aren't familiar but are looking for some fun.
So let's start with the people who are experienced. What
type of an experience will this be for them? If
you're a diehard racing fan.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Well, we're really excited because last year we moved from
the fall to the spring, and so we moved off
of football number one, right, and so NASCAR is really
important and racing is really important in the state of Texas,
but we all know what football is for people right
all the way down to grade school level, so we
moved off of that. Plus it was really oppressively hot,
(03:00):
and so for our fans and Brutent Smith, our founder,
had many sayings, and one of his sayings was, we
work for the fans. We do extensive surveys, you know,
pre race, post race, and so we moved the race
to April. So what we did last year is we're
going to move this now to the first weekend of May.
So for our hardcore fans and even the new fans,
(03:22):
we're going to be Cinco de Mayo weekend, which is
really going to be a lot of fun. So we're
going to have a Fiesta flavor. We're always going to
promote NASCAR the Great State of Texas with a little
Fiesta flavor. And then for the Star Wars fans, there's
a few of us out there, we're going to have
May the Fourth be with you on Sunday, so you
might see some Star Wars elements, like maybe some Stormtroopers
(03:46):
out there, in addition to mariachi bands and sombreros, and
of course the Mexican food fair that we're going to
have with nachos and churros and special things for the fans.
So that's really cool there. The second thing is our
fan zone has expanded, and so we're gonna have a
robust fan zone, so when people come to the track early,
(04:08):
we're gonna have close to a mile long fan zone,
you know, five thousand feet of interactive so it could
be trapeze artists to what we call the Globe of Death,
which is the motorcycle riders inside the ball to swine races. Yeah,
pig races. I mean, we've had armadillo races before, so
now we're gonna have pig races. We're gonna have Lucha
(04:31):
libre wrestlers, and it's really kind of a fun thing, right,
It's fun thing for family. We're family oriented. We also
have Fort Cabasos Military Base coming up and they're gonna
have equipment out there with our service men and women.
Gives people an opportunity to meet them as real people, right.
They use that as a recruiting tool. They also swear
(04:54):
in new recruits. But how cool is it to see
a tank up close, some of the hum v's drones,
some of that stuff that you know, kids really see
on either YouTube or they play in their games, but
now they get to interact with that. And so we're
gonna have really a fun time for you know what
we call the smoke and sizzle.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Okay, so even if it's somebody who's never been to
a race, it sounds like there's massive amounts of fun
and entertainment for the whole family. And so what how
would you if you bumped into somebody and they're like, hey,
I've never been to a race, what should I expect
with that whole weekend? What would you say?
Speaker 2 (05:29):
What I would first say is that we're family affordable,
and so I work for the Dallas Cowboys when Jerry
Jones bought the team. So I was a part of
those years which we had a lot of fun. Right,
you go to a Cowboys game or you go to
other events in the area, and depending on the time
of the year, it can be fairly pricing, and so
(05:50):
one of the things that we do is we monitor pricing.
And so what we do is is that we have
children twelve and under get in free on Friday night
and Saturday afternoon for our races. Great, they're ten dollars
on Sunday, so a family of four can get in
for a very affordable rate. The second thing is we
(06:10):
have free parking. So how many places do you go,
you know, besides your studios here where you can get
free parking. And the third thing is you can bring
in soft sided fourteen by fourteen coolers, so you can
bring in your food and beverages on your own. Wow,
really about that? Okay? About that. So we're family friendly.
(06:32):
Our ownership has spent over twenty million dollars, invested twenty
million dollars the past three years for the fans. So
we've expanded the leg room for fans. We've created drink
rails in the stands. You come in, you sit, expanded
leg room, you put your cooler down there, you can
kind of spread out. The second thing is we have
(06:52):
the world's longest belly up bar in the grand stands
from turn four to turn one right, so it's the
length of ten football field. Wow. I mean, so you
can come up as a fan and you can get
up there. You can belly up outside and watch it
if you prefer to be covered. We have constructed three
I call them islands of entertainment, but there are concourse
(07:15):
bars totally seven thousand square feet, so fans can belly
up to the bar. We took out seating so that
when you're at the bar you can literally belly up
look outside, you can see the action on the track.
And then we have the largest single board led in
the world, well I say the world, but let's say
North America. To be safe. Single board in Big Hoss
(07:38):
and our ownership renovated that a year and a half ago.
It's really the clarity is so much better. It's twenty
two thousand plus square feet. So as a fan, you're
just walking around. If you've never been there, it's pretty cool.
You hear the sites, the sounds, the smells, but you
get to go to a fan zone. Something's good appeal
(07:58):
to everybody. Drivers will be out there and autographed, selling
merch track side live. You can get interviews over here,
you can go to pig races over here, Luchah lebray
wrestling over here. I mean, it's really a fun deal.
And then once you're inside you get these entertainment options
that are really fun, and then the racing is really
spectacular and it's going to be a great weekend for us.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
That is incredible. We are talking to Mark favor Of,
the President general manager of Texas Motor Speedway. So since
you're the top guy, are you allowed to just sit
out there in front of Big Hoss with a remote
and just flip through the channels.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Yeah, that's a great question.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
You should do that.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
It's really a great question. Here's here's the deity the
renovation and the refurbishment of that before it it was
like an Act of Congress to turn it on. Now
you can just turn it on with an iPad. And
so to your point, what we started with that was
we started showing movies. Oh and so we have all
(08:55):
of our campers coming in in the infield and the
teams and all that, so we start showing movies. So
we'll have movies every night that will be showing out
there on this and you turn into your car radio
and you can watch the movies and it's like a
drive in movie theater. Right. So we have some, you know,
really fun movies that will be featuring this year. And
(09:17):
so for Big Hoss, yeah, and then we'll get out there. Yes,
we've done some fun things with Big Hoss. But it's
really cool to see people when they come in and
they just go, my gosh, look at that. That is unbelievable.
And for our race fans, what's really neat is you're
you're watching the cars on the track, then you get
to see it up there and then we have an
l bar that'll show you the leaders of the race, right,
(09:39):
And so we really maximize that. And so we're also
going to have some movie nights throughout the year. We're
going to bring that back, you know, knock on wood.
But we do have a group coming in next month,
well actually this month that's going to have a family
night out there with probably a thousand people and they're
going to show a movie and they're going to have
an entertain for their employees. So you can come out here.
(10:02):
You can have an employee night popcorn so does coch
et cetera. And you can watch a movie on Big Haws.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
So, man, I did not know that you worked for
the Cowboys back in the day. So are you from
Dallas Fort Worth? Originally?
Speaker 2 (10:15):
No, My mom was born in Dallas, raised in Kansas City,
So I grew up in Kansas City, went to the
University of Kansas undergrad grad school, worked in a bank briefly.
Always wanted to get in sports and entertainment.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Did you hoop a little because you're talk a little?
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Yeah, hoop a little? What are you six fix two
six to two?
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Come on, I'm gonna say six five six.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Eight six eight reverse three sixty jam right right right.
My Jayhawks suffered this year in basketball, but we did
win the title three years ago. Okay, that's how the
portals really changed things, right, Yeah, you win the title
three years ago and then you you know, don't even
get out of the first round. Right. My wife went
to Baylor, so the Baylor Bears one as you know
(10:56):
recently as well. We're hoping sheelse went to Texas Tech
on grad. We're hoping, you know, Texas Tech would make
a run and you know, the whole area Houston. Unfortunately,
the Big twelve didn't win. But you know, so I
went to Miami as an intern at the Orange Bowl
quite a while ago and then became ticket manager, and
(11:17):
so that was my break to get into the industry.
And when Jerry hired Jimmy Johnson to be had football coach,
I was a part of the Miami group that came
over and our first season was one in fifteen, and
so I always joke with people that I had people
call me things and say things to me my own
family doesn't say to me. As you recalled, that was
(11:41):
a tenuous time back there with Jerry and Jimmy for
a lot of different reasons, right, and we just pushed
through it, you know, we pushed through it. You know,
we always say you're not measured by how you handle success.
You're measured by how you handle adversity, right, and so
we pushed through it. We started making playoffs, we started
winning world championships, and all of a sudden, you know,
(12:02):
we're having a lot of fun, and people say, hey,
the Cowboys are pretty great, right, Yeah, And then now
you go to AT and T Center, which one of
the taj Mahals and ninety three thousand, five hundred every
football game, and they're doing a great job and they
have other events out there. So that's how I got
to the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex. I met my wife
on a blind date January of nineteen ninety and we've
(12:25):
been married thirty two years and our kids were born
at Baylor Medical. She graduated from Baylor Nursing School there.
So yeah, we're texting through and through.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Okay, so that blind date, let's go back to the
blind date you first see each other. Did you was
it instant chemistry? How strong was your game? Did you
immediately step up and say, all right, we're going to
sign a lifetime contract here? I can I know it?
Did it take a while?
Speaker 2 (12:50):
I was it's funny, it's funny, she's going to kick
them in at the table. But she had just gotten
out of a long term relationship. I had a girlfriend
in Miami, and I said, well, I'm than the Dallasport War.
So we probably had a date around and a mutual
friend of ours set us up on this blind date. Right,
so I go pick her up. The story is, you
know her story as I was two hours late. My
(13:14):
story is that I was thirty to forty five minutes late.
So we worked at the Old Valley Ranch. Yeah, the
old headquarters, right. So a couple of the offensive linemen
were playing racquetball, right, and they said, you guys want
to play? So me and another guy that our players
said yeah, we'll play it. Why not? I mean this, look,
this is a pretty cool deal. You know. We got
(13:36):
players asking us to play. It's almost like the Tom Cruise.
If you think about the volleyball scene right top gun
where he's looking at his watch and he's gotta get going.
I'm nowhere near Tom Cruise, don't get me wrong, but
you're playing, you're having a lot of fun. The guys
are saying, no, don't you need to go? Come on,
(13:56):
what are you doing? Well, I got a blind date.
I gotta get going. Fast forward. So we have this
blind date and she was with a girlfriend of hers,
and she still was at her apartment when I showed up,
so two hours, thirty forty five minutes. But I had
more fun with her on that first blind date than
the girl that I had left behind in Miami, so
(14:19):
I knew something was something was there. I think our
biggest time was the Paul McCartney and Wings tour was
April of nineteen ninety at Texas Stadium, and that was
my birthday. So my birthday's April eighth, yesterday is my birthday,
(14:40):
So thank you. And we had so much fun at
that event, so I said, Okay, we've got something going here.
And then we got married in nineteen ninety.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Two, thirty two years. That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
I'm blessed.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
That's really awesome. That's really awesome.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Okay, so you're a Star Wars guy. Yes, hardcore, like
pretty hardcore because I like Star Wars two and I
couldn't pass a test on it in Star Wars Trivia necessarily,
but I love Star Wars so and you're if you
if one Star Wars character had to be a NASCAR driver,
who would be the best and why?
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Well, here's the deal. My nickname in Vegas h so
as a T Mobile arena, an MGM Grand Garden arena. Right.
My nickname in Vegas was Darth Faber. I was just
telling Anna this, you know, with bowing them, because I
know she's a huge Star Wars fan. Right, So my
(15:33):
nickname was Darth Faber. So for a longer story than
we have time for here. So, so Darth Vader around
our family is what the gifts that I get from
either that or friends, right, And it could be a lightsaber,
it could be the helmet, it could be the key chain,
you know, I show you and all that. So I
(15:56):
think he would be an awesome NASCAR driver, right, I
think he would be great because there's really no fear
in Darth Vader, right, and he can control the dark
side of the force and that racing. Racing can be
really tough, and people say, you know, it's really no
big deal to drive four hundred miles turning left four times?
(16:19):
Come on, how hard can it be? If you look
at the drivers and it's changed a lot. So Dale
Earnhardt Sr. Right, half of the crowd liked him, half
of the crowd didn't. So half of the crowd, you know,
well like it. You've got to you've got to have
the white hats and the black hats and a lot
of sports and a lot of racing. Everybody knew Jeff Gordon, right, Yeah,
(16:42):
everybody liked Jeff Gordon. But everybody knew Jeff Gordon. But
it's changed. If you look at the drivers, they are
so physically fit and if you get in a card,
you're driving one hundred and ninety miles an hour, pulling
significant g's throughout a race day. It wears on your body, right,
And so they're very they're very conscious of their nutrition
(17:04):
and what they do. But they're specimens. So when you
see them, they're specimens. But I think Darth Vader would
be awesome, cause you see a Luke Skywalker Darth Vader
driving around the track at Texas Motor Speedway. Yeah, maybe
one day, maybe one day we'll have that. We're going
to have some stormtroopers out there, and I don't know
(17:25):
if Darth Vader will be out there, we'll have some
stormtroopers out there at a minimum, to celebrate it.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Oh that sounds great, all right, Well, you've you've painted
an incredible picture of what is just going to be
a phenomenal weekend and it sounds family friendly, it sounds
incredibly affordable. There's so many different things to do, and
you've actually taken the time to look out for us
as consumers, to say how can we save you money
and make this whole event more approachable. So if somebody's
heard all this and they're like, Okay, you got me,
(17:52):
I'm in where do they go to get tickets?
Speaker 2 (17:54):
It's easy. Texas Motor Speedway dot Com is the place
to go, so you can get tickets, you can get
track passes to get close. I know some of our
price levels have sold out. We've had a really really
strong reception from fans for this weekend year over year,
so even from the April to now, we are pacing
ahead on ticket sales, camping partnerships, suites, et cetera. We
(18:18):
expect a full crowd. We're going to celebrate for the fans.
We're going to celebrate the United States of America, the
Great State of Texas, obviously, NASCAR Fiesta Flavor. We're going
to celebrate the Armed forces. We're going to celebrate veterans.
Don Graves, who is an Ewo Jima survivor, turns one
(18:39):
hundred years old on May third. He's going to sing
our national anthem on May fourth. It'll bring tears to
your eyes to see a man that sacrificed so much
for our country singing the national anthem. We're going to
celebrate educators, We're going to celebrate first responders that day,
So we celebrate a lot of the people that give
(19:01):
us the ability to live the lives that we do right,
and so we're gonna have a lot of fun. We've
got a country artist named Ernest who's gonna be singing,
and so some people say, well, who's Earnest. Well, he
writes songs for Morgan Wallen. Jelly Roll has known jelly
Roll a long time. I liken it to Chris Stapleton.
Chris Tapleton used to write songs for a lot of people,
(19:22):
then came out of his own and you know where
he is, right. Yeah, So Ernest is really fun. It's
gonna be a part of the bush Light Concert Series.
We've got our new partner in Worth presented by Liquimaly,
So we're gonna have a lot of fun out there.
And again, it's family friendly. That's what we're trying to do.
It's family friendly, fun for the whole family.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Man, I'm impressed, and I gotta say, Darth Faber, thank you.
Appreciate your time. Brother, Thanks for.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Having me, Ben appreciate it. Take care, Texas Motorspeedway dot
com
All right. Joining us now on the Ben and Skin Show,
(00:02):
it is the great Mark Favor, President and General Manager
of Texas Motor Speedway.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
How you doing today, Mark, great, thanks for having me today. Ben,
It's wonderful to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Yes, thank you for joining us. Now, you guys have
something really fun that's coming down the pike. It's going
to be joining us here momentarily a NASCAR tripleheader. Tell
our listeners exactly what it's all about.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
We're really excited about it. And three weeks from today
we open up our campground, so we will have several hundred,
if not a few thousand people rolling into Texas Motor
Speedway to start that camping experience. And then we'll roll
into dirt track racing on May first. At our dirt track,
(00:40):
Kyle Larson, who's one of the top drivers in the sport,
is part of a high limit racing, so we expect
a big crowd Thursday night at the dirt track. Friday
is our speedycast dot Com two fifty truck race and
that will be under the lights at Texas Motor Speedway
on Friday night. Saturday afternoon is our Andy's Frozen Custard
(01:03):
three hundred Exfinity race and then we roll into the
Worth four hundred presented by Liquemalley NASCAR Cup race on
Sunday afternoon, so we have a full four days of
activity for our fans. And that dirt track also will
have racing on Saturday nights, so there's NonStop action going
(01:24):
on for four full days.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
So there's some of these guys that race on Sunday,
they'll be in town, but it won't just be a
race on Sunday. They may participate in some of the
other days.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Huh yeah. I mean we've had that before where Kyle
Busch is racing the truck race on Friday night and
we have some of the top drivers that are going
to race on Saturday afternoon, which is really a cool deal, right,
I mean, so you have you have the big drivers
on Sunday and they say, you know what, I'd really
like to try Exfinity and I'd like to try truck.
(01:54):
Truck's a lot different, you know, driving than on Sunday.
It's a different machine obviously, and it's a different strategy.
But look, drivers are drivers, and you'll have Kyle Larson
driving on the dirt track with Christopher Bell on the
first and the third. So the big drivers will do
a lot of different types of racing. The racers their
(02:16):
drivers at their cores, so they want to participate as
much as they can.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
So I want to ask you about a couple of
different things. I want to ask you about what the
expectations should be for people that are very familiar with
racing in all those different leagues, and then for the
people that aren't familiar but are looking for some fun.
So let's start with the people who are experienced. What
type of an experience will this be for them? If
you're a diehard racing fan.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Well, we're really excited because last year we moved from
the fall to the spring, and so we moved off
of football number one, right, and so NASCAR is really
important and racing is really important in the state of Texas,
but we all know what football is for people right
all the way down to grade school level, so we
moved off of that. Plus it was really oppressively hot,
(03:00):
and so for our fans and Brutent Smith, our founder,
had many sayings, and one of his sayings was, we
work for the fans. We do extensive surveys, you know,
pre race, post race, and so we moved the race
to April. So what we did last year is we're
going to move this now to the first weekend of May.
So for our hardcore fans and even the new fans,
(03:22):
we're going to be Cinco de Mayo weekend, which is
really going to be a lot of fun. So we're
going to have a Fiesta flavor. We're always going to
promote NASCAR the Great State of Texas with a little
Fiesta flavor. And then for the Star Wars fans, there's
a few of us out there, we're going to have
May the Fourth be with you on Sunday, so you
might see some Star Wars elements, like maybe some Stormtroopers
(03:46):
out there, in addition to mariachi bands and sombreros, and
of course the Mexican food fair that we're going to
have with nachos and churros and special things for the fans.
So that's really cool there. The second thing is our
fan zone has expanded, and so we're gonna have a
robust fan zone, so when people come to the track early,
(04:08):
we're gonna have close to a mile long fan zone,
you know, five thousand feet of interactive so it could
be trapeze artists to what we call the Globe of Death,
which is the motorcycle riders inside the ball to swine races. Yeah,
pig races. I mean, we've had armadillo races before, so
now we're gonna have pig races. We're gonna have Lucha
(04:31):
libre wrestlers, and it's really kind of a fun thing, right,
It's fun thing for family. We're family oriented. We also
have Fort Cabasos Military Base coming up and they're gonna
have equipment out there with our service men and women.
Gives people an opportunity to meet them as real people, right.
They use that as a recruiting tool. They also swear
(04:54):
in new recruits. But how cool is it to see
a tank up close, some of the hum v's drones,
some of that stuff that you know, kids really see
on either YouTube or they play in their games, but
now they get to interact with that. And so we're
gonna have really a fun time for you know what
we call the smoke and sizzle.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Okay, so even if it's somebody who's never been to
a race, it sounds like there's massive amounts of fun
and entertainment for the whole family. And so what how
would you if you bumped into somebody and they're like, hey,
I've never been to a race, what should I expect
with that whole weekend? What would you say?
Speaker 2 (05:29):
What I would first say is that we're family affordable,
and so I work for the Dallas Cowboys when Jerry
Jones bought the team. So I was a part of
those years which we had a lot of fun. Right,
you go to a Cowboys game or you go to
other events in the area, and depending on the time
of the year, it can be fairly pricing, and so
(05:50):
one of the things that we do is we monitor pricing.
And so what we do is is that we have
children twelve and under get in free on Friday night
and Saturday afternoon for our races. Great, they're ten dollars
on Sunday, so a family of four can get in
for a very affordable rate. The second thing is we
(06:10):
have free parking. So how many places do you go,
you know, besides your studios here where you can get
free parking. And the third thing is you can bring
in soft sided fourteen by fourteen coolers, so you can
bring in your food and beverages on your own. Wow,
really about that? Okay? About that. So we're family friendly.
(06:32):
Our ownership has spent over twenty million dollars, invested twenty
million dollars the past three years for the fans. So
we've expanded the leg room for fans. We've created drink
rails in the stands. You come in, you sit, expanded
leg room, you put your cooler down there, you can
kind of spread out. The second thing is we have
(06:52):
the world's longest belly up bar in the grand stands
from turn four to turn one right, so it's the
length of ten football field. Wow. I mean, so you
can come up as a fan and you can get
up there. You can belly up outside and watch it
if you prefer to be covered. We have constructed three
I call them islands of entertainment, but there are concourse
(07:15):
bars totally seven thousand square feet, so fans can belly
up to the bar. We took out seating so that
when you're at the bar you can literally belly up
look outside, you can see the action on the track.
And then we have the largest single board led in
the world, well I say the world, but let's say
North America. To be safe. Single board in Big Hoss
(07:38):
and our ownership renovated that a year and a half ago.
It's really the clarity is so much better. It's twenty
two thousand plus square feet. So as a fan, you're
just walking around. If you've never been there, it's pretty cool.
You hear the sites, the sounds, the smells, but you
get to go to a fan zone. Something's good appeal
(07:58):
to everybody. Drivers will be out there and autographed, selling
merch track side live. You can get interviews over here,
you can go to pig races over here, Luchah lebray
wrestling over here. I mean, it's really a fun deal.
And then once you're inside you get these entertainment options
that are really fun, and then the racing is really
spectacular and it's going to be a great weekend for us.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
That is incredible. We are talking to Mark favor Of,
the President general manager of Texas Motor Speedway. So since
you're the top guy, are you allowed to just sit
out there in front of Big Hoss with a remote
and just flip through the channels.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Yeah, that's a great question.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
You should do that.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
It's really a great question. Here's here's the deity the
renovation and the refurbishment of that before it it was
like an Act of Congress to turn it on. Now
you can just turn it on with an iPad. And
so to your point, what we started with that was
we started showing movies. Oh and so we have all
(08:55):
of our campers coming in in the infield and the
teams and all that, so we start showing movies. So
we'll have movies every night that will be showing out
there on this and you turn into your car radio
and you can watch the movies and it's like a
drive in movie theater. Right. So we have some, you know,
really fun movies that will be featuring this year. And
(09:17):
so for Big Hoss, yeah, and then we'll get out there. Yes,
we've done some fun things with Big Hoss. But it's
really cool to see people when they come in and
they just go, my gosh, look at that. That is unbelievable.
And for our race fans, what's really neat is you're
you're watching the cars on the track, then you get
to see it up there and then we have an
l bar that'll show you the leaders of the race, right,
(09:39):
And so we really maximize that. And so we're also
going to have some movie nights throughout the year. We're
going to bring that back, you know, knock on wood.
But we do have a group coming in next month,
well actually this month that's going to have a family
night out there with probably a thousand people and they're
going to show a movie and they're going to have
an entertain for their employees. So you can come out here.
(10:02):
You can have an employee night popcorn so does coch
et cetera. And you can watch a movie on Big Haws.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
So, man, I did not know that you worked for
the Cowboys back in the day. So are you from
Dallas Fort Worth? Originally?
Speaker 2 (10:15):
No, My mom was born in Dallas, raised in Kansas City,
So I grew up in Kansas City, went to the
University of Kansas undergrad grad school, worked in a bank briefly.
Always wanted to get in sports and entertainment.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Did you hoop a little because you're talk a little?
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Yeah, hoop a little? What are you six fix two
six to two?
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Come on, I'm gonna say six five six.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Eight six eight reverse three sixty jam right right right.
My Jayhawks suffered this year in basketball, but we did
win the title three years ago. Okay, that's how the
portals really changed things, right, Yeah, you win the title
three years ago and then you you know, don't even
get out of the first round. Right. My wife went
to Baylor, so the Baylor Bears one as you know
(10:56):
recently as well. We're hoping sheelse went to Texas Tech
on grad. We're hoping, you know, Texas Tech would make
a run and you know, the whole area Houston. Unfortunately,
the Big twelve didn't win. But you know, so I
went to Miami as an intern at the Orange Bowl
quite a while ago and then became ticket manager, and
(11:17):
so that was my break to get into the industry.
And when Jerry hired Jimmy Johnson to be had football coach,
I was a part of the Miami group that came
over and our first season was one in fifteen, and
so I always joke with people that I had people
call me things and say things to me my own
family doesn't say to me. As you recalled, that was
(11:41):
a tenuous time back there with Jerry and Jimmy for
a lot of different reasons, right, and we just pushed
through it, you know, we pushed through it. You know,
we always say you're not measured by how you handle success.
You're measured by how you handle adversity, right, and so
we pushed through it. We started making playoffs, we started
winning world championships, and all of a sudden, you know,
(12:02):
we're having a lot of fun, and people say, hey,
the Cowboys are pretty great, right, Yeah, And then now
you go to AT and T Center, which one of
the taj Mahals and ninety three thousand, five hundred every
football game, and they're doing a great job and they
have other events out there. So that's how I got
to the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex. I met my wife
on a blind date January of nineteen ninety and we've
(12:25):
been married thirty two years and our kids were born
at Baylor Medical. She graduated from Baylor Nursing School there.
So yeah, we're texting through and through.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Okay, so that blind date, let's go back to the
blind date you first see each other. Did you was
it instant chemistry? How strong was your game? Did you
immediately step up and say, all right, we're going to
sign a lifetime contract here? I can I know it?
Did it take a while?
Speaker 2 (12:50):
I was it's funny, it's funny, she's going to kick
them in at the table. But she had just gotten
out of a long term relationship. I had a girlfriend
in Miami, and I said, well, I'm than the Dallasport War.
So we probably had a date around and a mutual
friend of ours set us up on this blind date. Right,
so I go pick her up. The story is, you
know her story as I was two hours late. My
(13:14):
story is that I was thirty to forty five minutes late.
So we worked at the Old Valley Ranch. Yeah, the
old headquarters, right. So a couple of the offensive linemen
were playing racquetball, right, and they said, you guys want
to play? So me and another guy that our players
said yeah, we'll play it. Why not? I mean this, look,
this is a pretty cool deal. You know. We got
(13:36):
players asking us to play. It's almost like the Tom Cruise.
If you think about the volleyball scene right top gun
where he's looking at his watch and he's gotta get going.
I'm nowhere near Tom Cruise, don't get me wrong, but
you're playing, you're having a lot of fun. The guys
are saying, no, don't you need to go? Come on,
(13:56):
what are you doing? Well, I got a blind date.
I gotta get going. Fast forward. So we have this
blind date and she was with a girlfriend of hers,
and she still was at her apartment when I showed up,
so two hours, thirty forty five minutes. But I had
more fun with her on that first blind date than
the girl that I had left behind in Miami, so
(14:19):
I knew something was something was there. I think our
biggest time was the Paul McCartney and Wings tour was
April of nineteen ninety at Texas Stadium, and that was
my birthday. So my birthday's April eighth, yesterday is my birthday,
(14:40):
So thank you. And we had so much fun at
that event, so I said, Okay, we've got something going here.
And then we got married in nineteen ninety.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Two, thirty two years. That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
I'm blessed.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
That's really awesome. That's really awesome.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Okay, so you're a Star Wars guy. Yes, hardcore, like
pretty hardcore because I like Star Wars two and I
couldn't pass a test on it in Star Wars Trivia necessarily,
but I love Star Wars so and you're if you
if one Star Wars character had to be a NASCAR driver,
who would be the best and why?
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Well, here's the deal. My nickname in Vegas h so
as a T Mobile arena, an MGM Grand Garden arena. Right.
My nickname in Vegas was Darth Faber. I was just
telling Anna this, you know, with bowing them, because I
know she's a huge Star Wars fan. Right, So my
(15:33):
nickname was Darth Faber. So for a longer story than
we have time for here. So, so Darth Vader around
our family is what the gifts that I get from
either that or friends, right, And it could be a lightsaber,
it could be the helmet, it could be the key chain,
you know, I show you and all that. So I
(15:56):
think he would be an awesome NASCAR driver, right, I
think he would be great because there's really no fear
in Darth Vader, right, and he can control the dark
side of the force and that racing. Racing can be
really tough, and people say, you know, it's really no
big deal to drive four hundred miles turning left four times?
(16:19):
Come on, how hard can it be? If you look
at the drivers and it's changed a lot. So Dale
Earnhardt Sr. Right, half of the crowd liked him, half
of the crowd didn't. So half of the crowd, you know,
well like it. You've got to you've got to have
the white hats and the black hats and a lot
of sports and a lot of racing. Everybody knew Jeff Gordon, right, Yeah,
(16:42):
everybody liked Jeff Gordon. But everybody knew Jeff Gordon. But
it's changed. If you look at the drivers, they are
so physically fit and if you get in a card,
you're driving one hundred and ninety miles an hour, pulling
significant g's throughout a race day. It wears on your body, right,
And so they're very they're very conscious of their nutrition
(17:04):
and what they do. But they're specimens. So when you
see them, they're specimens. But I think Darth Vader would
be awesome, cause you see a Luke Skywalker Darth Vader
driving around the track at Texas Motor Speedway. Yeah, maybe
one day, maybe one day we'll have that. We're going
to have some stormtroopers out there, and I don't know
(17:25):
if Darth Vader will be out there, we'll have some
stormtroopers out there at a minimum, to celebrate it.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Oh that sounds great, all right, Well, you've you've painted
an incredible picture of what is just going to be
a phenomenal weekend and it sounds family friendly, it sounds
incredibly affordable. There's so many different things to do, and
you've actually taken the time to look out for us
as consumers, to say how can we save you money
and make this whole event more approachable. So if somebody's
heard all this and they're like, Okay, you got me,
(17:52):
I'm in where do they go to get tickets?
Speaker 2 (17:54):
It's easy. Texas Motor Speedway dot Com is the place
to go, so you can get tickets, you can get
track passes to get close. I know some of our
price levels have sold out. We've had a really really
strong reception from fans for this weekend year over year,
so even from the April to now, we are pacing
ahead on ticket sales, camping partnerships, suites, et cetera. We
(18:18):
expect a full crowd. We're going to celebrate for the fans.
We're going to celebrate the United States of America, the
Great State of Texas, obviously, NASCAR Fiesta Flavor. We're going
to celebrate the Armed forces. We're going to celebrate veterans.
Don Graves, who is an Ewo Jima survivor, turns one
(18:39):
hundred years old on May third. He's going to sing
our national anthem on May fourth. It'll bring tears to
your eyes to see a man that sacrificed so much
for our country singing the national anthem. We're going to
celebrate educators, We're going to celebrate first responders that day,
So we celebrate a lot of the people that give
(19:01):
us the ability to live the lives that we do right,
and so we're gonna have a lot of fun. We've
got a country artist named Ernest who's gonna be singing,
and so some people say, well, who's Earnest. Well, he
writes songs for Morgan Wallen. Jelly Roll has known jelly
Roll a long time. I liken it to Chris Stapleton.
Chris Tapleton used to write songs for a lot of people,
(19:22):
then came out of his own and you know where
he is, right. Yeah, So Ernest is really fun. It's
gonna be a part of the bush Light Concert Series.
We've got our new partner in Worth presented by Liquimaly,
So we're gonna have a lot of fun out there.
And again, it's family friendly. That's what we're trying to do.
It's family friendly, fun for the whole family.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Man, I'm impressed, and I gotta say, Darth Faber, thank you.
Appreciate your time. Brother, Thanks for.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Having me, Ben appreciate it. Take care, Texas Motorspeedway dot
com
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