NASCAR Cup Series

Bristol track hosting carnival, rides

Published Jul. 25, 2011 1:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

Bristol Motor Speedway’s Fan Appreciation Day will be held Saturday and will feature rides around the track – and rides of a different kind just outside the track will mark the week leading into the event.

A carnival has been added to the festivities and opens Tuesday. It will run through Saturday. The carnival will be free from 1 to 5:30 p.m. on Fan Appreciation Day for anyone with a ticket to Thompson Metal Monster Truck Madness that evening at BMS.

Fan Appreciation Day is being held in honor of Bristol Motor Speedway’s 50th anniversary. The first NASCAR Grand National race, as the series was called then, took place in Bristol on July 30, 1961. The carnival will be set up at the main entrance of the Speedway, just off Hwy. 11-E. Hours are 4 to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday.

The Fan Appreciation Day in the BMS infield begins at 1 p.m. with track laps, which will take place until 3 p.m. Free hot dogs, chips, drinks and ice cream will be provided, while supplies last, and several prizes including a four-day Caribbean cruise, as well as a big screen television, groceries/gas for a year from Food City, Irwin tools, suite seats and tickets to the Irwin Tools Night Race weekend.

One fan who signs up that day for the Bristol Golden Giveaway will be one of three people selected who will win a trip to BMS for the Aug. 26-27 races, which includes suite seats for the NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide series races, along with pit passes, parking passes and BMS 50th anniversary merchandise. All three fans will attend the prerace show for the Irwin Tools Night Race and each will receive a key.

The fan with the key that starts the pace car, which will have led the field for all NASCAR events at the track in 2011, will win the 2011 special edition Ford Mustang.

The infield will be cleared at 4:30 p.m. in order to prepare for the Thompson Metal Monster Truck Madness, which features Grave Digger, along with Avenger, Brutus, Sampson, Gunslinger and War Wizard.