Landed Hot Pit Passes for Richmond!

Have a buddy who is the IT guy for Hendrick Motorsports. He got me a hot pit pass for this weekends races. Being the huge NASCAR fan that I am, I feel like I just found the golden ticket to the Wonka Factory! Anyway, has anyone every experienced a race with the hot passes? If so, any pointers or heads up you can give me?

 

I had VIP tickets one time I got from Butterball, and got to eat with Greg biffle and hang out in the pits. Pretty cool meeting all the drivers. Rent headphones to listen to drivers talk for sure

 

Git-r-dun ....juuuuuunior!

Lol...NASCAR..

 

My budd told me, and emphasized to bring memoribilia and a sharpie. He said chances are I'll be meeting drivers left and right, especially on Friday. I had already bought tickets for me and my gf. I'm wondering how the view would be from down there or if I should go up and sit in the grandstands once it starts. And I have my own scanner, I should be good to go there.

 

The headphones are noise canceling but either way...you'll be good. I couldn't see Shit in the pits. But its still sweet. we were walking the track earlier that day, and allot of the drivers were walking around. I'm not a huge Nascar fan but it was awesome.

 

I have had garage passes before and I can offer some pointers. Please feel free to PM me with anything else

1) Rent scanners and headsets (the headsets should be the muff type that you use at a shooting range. Things get REAL loud). They will come preloaded with the teams communication frequencies. Why, you may ask. This is a great way to find out who is where and when. For example, you may hear the 88 team say something like "lets push the car to inspection", so you will know that the 88 car will be outside of the "garage" (which you cannot enter) and get some great pics.

2) Many of the bigger name drivers are experts at avoiding the fans, if they want to be. They are usually more willing to sign if they have a good practice or qualifying. If they dont, they typically hang out in the hauler

3) If you see a media person (tv personality) hanging outside a hauler, its a sure bet they have an interview scheduled for a driver, and usually they will sign a few things as soon as they wrap up.

4) Respect the drivers and the crew members. Dont throw crap in their face. Say please and thank you. It goes a long way.

5) Dont try and get 4 things signed at once. I had 2 things that I asked Jeff Gordon to sign and after the first he said "isnt one enough?" I then explained that the other was for my handicap friend in the back of the pack who couldnt fight to get to the front.

6) DONT TOUCH ANYTHING. You can get as close to the cars as you want when they are lined up for tech inspection but dont touch. Take all the pictures you want, they are very cool about that, but I have seen passes ripped up on the spot for touching or leaning on the cars.

7) If your in the pits during the race (waste of time) be careful around the entrance and exit of the garage. You never know when a crashed up car with an angry driver is going to come flying in.

8) Just because the garage opens at 8am (I just picked a time) doesnt mean there will be any activity. On race day most teams are scarce until a few hours before the race. On practice and qualifying days its a good idea to get to the garage when it opens. It may be a lot of standing around and doing nothing but if you do see someone, it will be much easier.

9) Make sure you bring and carry around ID. I got stopped twice and asked to prove who I was. They match the name on the ID to that on the pass. Also, you will need ID just to enter the infield.

 

Thanks for all the tips. That is what I was looking for. My biggest concern is whether to watch the race in the pits or at my seats. I'll have to watch it from the pits for the Nationwide race since I only have tickets for the Sprint series. But I'm not sure of I should have someone go with my girlfrien in my place or just go up there when race starts. It's Richmond so I would think I could still see a lot from the pits or anywhere on the infield.

I plan on getting there around noon on Friday. That's when all the practice starts. But the garage doesn't open until 1:30 on race day anyway. I'm hoping to get some autographs at some point but we will see.

 

Your pit passes allow you into the garage ALL weekend, not just raceday (unless you have something different than I had). I would suggest watching the race from the grandstand for 2 reasons. 1) Nothing is happening in the garage during the race, so why be there? 2) Richmond is a small track and there is a lot of "crap" packed on the infield. Haulers, RV's tv's etc, so you will only be able to see the cars while they are directly in front if you, and thats if you can see the track at all.

You can grab last minute tickets for the nationwide race on the day of for real cheap. Actually, when I was in the garages at Pocono we walked right from the garage across the track and into the grandstand, so we didnt even have a ticket. I did the same thing at Louden, NH, but we ended up getting rained on.

 

Well the schedule I got I pretty much have full access on friday and saturday which are race days. the haulers don't even get there until tomorrow evening. i'll be at the nationwide race alone, but my mother and girlfriend are driving up saturday. mom is taking my seat in the grandstand but i may try to sneak over to their section during the race if i want to.

my hot pass is a special guest pass through Hendrick. i am pretty sure i am allowed right up behind their pit boxes just not in the way.

 

Oh and fyi, if you are staying in a hotel, make sure you don't get the hotel all the cops are staying at...I'm assuming they were for the race the next day. But you'll have a boring night lol.

 

If I go to Daytona this year I am going to try for a hot pass. That would be so cool! But if not, the excitement of going to the biggest race in the world would be enough for me. I've been to Vegas twice and that was a total blast, but my dream is Daytona. If you can, take some pics!

 

My brother in law went to the bristol races for years, he said back in the day you could walk in the garages, pits wherever you wanted.