2019 O’Reilly Auto

Parts 500 Storylines

Off-Track News/Sports Angles

Raceday Readers
During pre-race ceremonies Sunday, March 31, for the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500, the
2018-19 Speeding to Read champions will be crowned on the frontstretch Pre-Race
Stage at TMS. Nearly 50 honorees will share the stage for a photo op, replacing the
student assembly hosted in May in recent years.

Awards will be given out to the top readers, classrooms, and schools in TMS’ award-
winning outreach program. In eight years at TMS, the Speeding to Read program has
included more than 70 schools and 40,000 children who have combined to read
more than five million books.

Representatives of the program will be available in the Media Center before the
ceremony, including the top student and administrators from the winning school.




Pint-sized Picassos
Thursday, March 28, two DFW elementary school students are in for a big surprise
from Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Rookie Matt Tifft and Lionel Racing when
they’re announced as winners of the Lionel Design-a-Diecast competition in at-
school assemblies.

The students, Ivan Herrera from Fort Worth ISD’s Diamond Hill Elementary and
Anebelle Ung from Lewisville ISD’s Homestead Elementary were part of a group of
K-5 Graders who were challenged in February to come up with a NASCAR paint
scheme of their own with a story behind it. Ung is the Grade 3-5 winner, and
Herrera is the K-2/Overall winner, the first overall winner to come from the
younger grade group.

Both students will receive 1:24 scale models of their design from Lionel, and as the
overall winner, Herrera’s design will eventually be on the shelves in Target and
Walmart as part of Lionel’s official NASCAR line of cars.

This event is open to media, and a schedule of events will be provided.
Accelerated Artistry
Blue walls won’t be the only paint getting noticed at TMS on race weekend. The art
of painting logos on the infield is one that’s become more and more precise through
the years. This year’s version at TMS features 15 hand-painted logos, headlined by
the massive O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 logo in the center.

Interestingly enough, those logos are all marked out in the grass with a GPS-
powered robot. Then, the paint’s sprayed in using good old-fashioned manpower.

We’ll send a time-lapse video of all the logos being painted so you can share that
process with your audience.




Cowboy Couture
Texas Motor Speedway isn’t just part of the community. It’s a partner in North Texas
with some of the most iconic parts of our Victory Lane celebration originating out of
DFW.

The Milano cowboy hats given to every Texas Motor Speedway race winner come
from Hatco in Garland, the same famous hat maker that provided a custom Stetson
for President Trump’s inauguration and has been working in our area since 1938.
Hatco sends out more than a million hats each year (108 of those to TMS), and it
employs more than 400 people.

Meanwhile, the final touch to the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 famed boot trophy is made
just down the road in Fort Worth at KO Trading. The equine tack supplier, which
was founded in 1994, provides the spurs that make the boot trophy a true Texas
cowboy replica.

The full-leather spurs include four different TMS brand marks, including a buckle
with the Speedway Motorsports, Inc. globe logo and “Texas Motor Speedway
Winner” written on it. KO Trading has provided the boot trophy spurs since 2006.

Torchy’s Turn Up
Combining No Limits, Texas
with Torchy’s Tacos pretty
much signals a party anyway so
the two sides decided they
might as well deliver on their
reputations. That’s why
Saturday night, March 30, from
7 p.m. – Midnight any race fan
is welcome to invade the TMS
infield for a DJ-fueled party we
call No Limits After Dark. The
Xfinity Series My Bariatric Solutions 300 is at noon so fans need something to help
them party the night away, right?

Passes, credentials, race tickets? Out the window. Anyone who wants to be part of
this action is welcome as long as they’re willing to walk in. Bring your own libations
or get some from Torchy’s. There
will be all kinds of competitions,
including ax-tossing and cup flip.
And how will TMS get the message
out to our thousands of outside-the-
bowl campers? Obviously a parade
of race vehicles ranging from a
bathtub to a WWII-era motorcycle
with side car.

No Limits After Dark is something
fans won’t want to miss.





No Limits Next
Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage unveiled the Turn 1 Terrace
project during this year’s Media Day (Feb. 27), the first step in a multi-year
renovation called No Limits Next meant to upgrade the speedway and make every
aspect of the race day experience even more fan friendly.
Turn 1 Terrace is an 11,639 square foot viewing deck between Turns 1 and 2 under
The Speedway Club. It’ll seat 1,200 fans comfortably. The luxury location gives fans
room to move around and allows them access to the 4th Floor of The Speedway Club.
That access provides an indoor-outdoor experience, catered food and beverage, and
other amenities you wouldn’t see in a grandstand seat.

Turn 1 Terrace itself is a lot like the No Limits Next program. It’ll be a wide open
viewing deck for the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 weekend, but what it will eventually
morph into will be completely dependent on fan needs and feedback.

Texas First
In an effort to hammer home the “home track” appeal of “The Great American
Speedway,” Texas Motor Speedway is implementing a Texas First policy in its
business practices.

That can be seen both on the track and behind the scenes this race weekend.

• Vankor – The Vankor 350 NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series race is
sponsored by Vankor, a company specializing in the trade and transport of oil
of gas. Vankor is headquartered in Rockwall, Texas, and it has a major
presence in both TMS NASCAR weekends, sponsoring the Truck Series race
in the spring and the dirt track races in November.
• Wise Health System – The My Bariatric Solutions 300 returns for the third
straight year thanks to a committed partnership with the largest employer in
Wise County, Wise Health System. They have hospitals, primary care and
specialty clinics, physical therapy and rehab centers, imaging centers, and
bariatric surgery program offices. They’ll even go on the road at TMS. The
Fit-n-Wise mobile unit will offer treatment of all kinds to NASCAR teams
throughout the weekend.
• 7-Eleven – The Irving-based national convenience store chain is back in the
Texas Motor Speedway outfield for the second race weekend after opening
last November. The full-size store, the first of its kind in a US sports venue,
opened Saturday at 9 a.m. and will stay open until close-of-business the
Monday after the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500.
• Fletcher’s Corny Dogs – TMS offers a wide variety of concession stand
items, and it just so happens to be one of the only places you can eat a
Fletcher’s Corny Dog outside the State Fair of Texas. And if there’s any doubt
about TMS caring about its Texas roots, we’ve been serving corny dogs since
the track opened in 1997.
• More to Come – A new addition to the Texas First policy will be unveiled in
the media center Friday shortly after lunch is delivered at 11 a.m. The new
partner is headquartered in Austin so do yourself a favor and stop by to see
who it is.

On-Track Sports/News Angles

Hometown Hero
North Texas knows Prosper native Chris Buescher has been the hometown boy at
TMS for the past few years, but he’s joined on the 1.5-mile tri-oval this weekend by
Carrollton native and Hebron High School grad, Jesse Iwuji.

Iwuji, currently in the United States Navy Reserves, made history last year as the
first current-serving Naval officer to race in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck
Series. He was already the first US Naval Officer and Naval Academy grad to
compete in NASCAR back in 2015.

This weekend, though, marks the first time in his budding career that Iwuji’s had the
opportunity to race at his home track, Texas Motor Speedway. Houston-based
FUELTRAX continued a partner relationship with Iwuji to make the trip to TMS a
possibility, posting Jesse’s reaction to the news on Twitter.

Iwuji, a Nigerian-American, has won the NASCAR Diverse Driver Award twice
already. He played football at Navy for four years.

He will be available early in the race weekend and competes in Friday night’s
Vankor 350.

Warrior Wheelmen
NASCAR may be the main course of the race weekend, but the appetizer is going to
be a tough act to follow.

Thursday from 9 a.m. until Noon, Falci Adaptive Motorsports is welcoming amputee
veterans from Carrollton’s Adaptive Training Foundation Gym to Texas Motor
Speedway and offering them the drive of a lifetime.

Joe Garone, former president of Furniture Row Racing, helped bring Falci’s one-on-
a-kind program to NASCAR, and now North Texas veterans are the beneficiaries.
Many of these veterans have lost the ability to drive because of their injuries, but
here they’ll have the chance through technology that allows them to drive a former
NASCAR race car hands-and-foot free by a mere movement of head or mouth. Those
simple movements will control the car’s steering, accelerator and braking systems.

NASCAR driver Ross Chastain will be on hand to drive the Adaptive Car with the
veterans. Chastain will compete in all three races this weekend at TMS -- No. 45
Chevrolet Silverado in the Truck Series for Niece Motorsports, No. 4 Chevrolet
Camaro in the Xfinity Series for JD Motorsports and the No. 15 Chevrolet Camaro in
Cup for Premium Motorsports.

Al Niece, the owner of the No. 45 truck team is scheduled to be at the event. He is a
Marine veteran and resides in Austin, Texas.




Rowdy’s Round Numbers
Kyle Busch has made big news already in 2019 and for good reason. He got his 200th
career NASCAR win, joining a two-man class with Richard Petty and he had his
1,000th career start last week at Martinsville; and now he sets his focus on
something he hasn’t accomplished in 2019: a three-race weekend sweep.

Busch is running in all three NASCAR series at TMS for the first time since 2014
when he won the Truck race and the Xfinity race before finishing 4th in the Cup
Series. He’s never had a three-race sweep at Texas, though he did get a
doubleheader sweep in both 2013 and 2016 with Cup/Xfinity. There were no Truck
races those weekends.

Along the way, expect him to reach another round number: 3,000 laps led at TMS.
He needs 127 to do it and it’s a safe bet with him slated to run 681 this weekend.
Even more impressive? No one else has led even 2,000 laps in No Limits, Texas.



 All-Access
NASCAR is making changes. Their goal?
Give the media the best access they’ve
ever received from the sport’s top stars
and stars in the making.

That starts with the chance to talk to
every Monster Energy NASCAR Cup
Series driver following Friday’s 6:40
p.m. Qualifying session. A bullpen will
be set up near pit road where each
driver is required to stop after his qualifying period ends. Then, of course, the pole
winner will be available as usual in both Victory Lane and the Media Center.

The traditional press conferences on Friday are getting a makeover also. There will
still be four Cup Series drivers making stops on the broadcast set for press
conferences (between 4:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.), but there will also be three more
doing breakout sessions (between 3:55 and 4:30) for anyone interested.

On-set press conferences for the Xfinity Series and Truck Series disappear this year
in favor of the breakout model (3 Truck Series drivers at 11:15 a.m. Friday and 3
Xfinity Series drivers at 1:15 p.m. Friday).

With realistic access to the entire Cup field and three drivers from each of the lower
level series, you shouldn’t be left wanting for more.

Schedules are below:

Friday, March 29
11:15 a.m. NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series Breakout Session
-Jordan Anderson, Tyler Ankrum, Stewart Friesen, Todd Gilliland

1:15 p.m. NASCAR Xfinity Series Breakout Session
-Cole Custer, Noah Gragson, Kaz Grala, Brandon Jones

3:55 p.m. Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Breakout Session
-Landon Cassill, Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Daniel Suarez

4:30 p.m. Brad Keselowski Press Conference
4:45 p.m. Parker Kligerman Press Conference
5:00 p.m. Kevin Harvick Press Conference
5:15 p.m. William Byron Press Conference


Guns Up
Ryan Blaney’s not a Texas Tech guy, but he (and every other Cup Series driver) is
hoping to go “guns up” in Victory Lane after Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500.
Blaney mentioned at Texas Motor Speedway’s Media Day that the Smith & Wesson
six-shooters that go to the traditional winner at TMS are the last remaining piece to
his Halloween costume.

And he’s bounced back-and-forth between if that costume is a cowboy or a sheriff.

Blaney earned a Milano cowboy hat for winning last year’s Xfinity Series My
Bariatric Solutions 300, and a Henry Rifle for taking the pole in last fall’s AAA Texas
500, but he says the six-shooters are the true prize.

Chances are pretty good he’ll get them too considering he’s got the best average
starting position at Texas of anyone on the circuit (8.5), and he finished runner-up
last November.




Feeling Blue
What’s got 263 stars, a red stripe, and is blue all over? It’s not a joke, that’s for sure.
It’s the crash wall at Texas Motor Speedway. For the first time in track history, the
traditionally white walls have gone blue with a patriotic makeover. The blue walls
feature 190 stars on the outside wall, another 73 on the inside (all 25 feet apart),
and a red stripe across the top.

And don’t think Texas Motor Speedway would do anything without a reason. The
263 stars represent the number of days it took from November 28, 1994 when
Bruton Smith announced he was bringing big-time racing to North Texas and August
18, 1995 when track construction officially began in No Limits, Texas.

The NTT IndyCar Series won’t return to Texas until June, but defending champion
and three-time Texas winner Scott Dixon complimented the change after a recent
test session at TMS. He said the contrast of the blue against the track color makes it
more obvious for the drivers just how far they are from the wall, allowing them to
get as close as possible without crashing.

Free Pass
The fans have called on NASCAR to provide a car that provides more passing and
cars racing closer together, and in a sport that prides itself on listening to the fans,
they’ve tried to provide just that in 2019.

With a new car that cut horsepower, added an 8” spoiler, and inserted special
aerodynamic ducts (among other things) that’s the desired goal. It debuted at Las
Vegas Motor Speedway in March with a surprisingly caution-free race, but the
numbers on passing were night and day compared to a year ago.

There were 3,345 green flag passes and 47 green flag passes for the lead compared
to 2,379 and 9 in the same race in 2018. So will the change translate to a faster track
with even more grip at Texas?

Up Close and Personal
For parts of the race weekend, fans with infield pit passes will have the chance to do
something they likely never have before: get in the garage with the cars.

NASCAR and TMS have teamed up to allow fans’ garage access for all three series
throughout the weekend, giving them the chance to look under the hood, watch the
pit crew wrench and adjust up close, and even talk to teams who are in there.

Open Garage times are:
• Friday:
o 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. – Truck Series
o 4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. – Cup Series
o Check in outside the garage gate at the red Texas Motor Speedway
tent
• Saturday:
o 8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. – Xfinity Series
o Check in outside the Xfinity Series garage gate off of Allison Ave or the
infield camping side of the garage at the Texas Motor Speedway tent