By Benjamin Shipp
NKyTribune reporter
While general interest in motorsports has been at a steady decline in recent years, the Kentucky Speedway is doing all it can to appeal to millennials with its official college tailgate area, Action Alley.
Fans in Action Alley watching the cars at the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Quaker State 400 enter Turn 1. Action Alley debuted last year in an effort to draw more college-age fans to the race (photos by Benjamin Shipp).
This is the second year that the Kentucky Speedway has offered college students between the age of 18 and 25, a chance to experience the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Quaker State 400 without breaking their budget.
For $30, eligible millennials secured a campsite on location at this year’s race with admission to Action Alley situated right along Turn One. Other amenities included a great view of the race, tailgating activities, live music prior to and after the race and $2 beers.
Gates opened at 10 a.m., and Action Alley is an all-day endeavor for those willing to withstand the heat. Ben Raider and Landon Willis made the three-hour trip from Indianapolis to attend their second consecutive Quaker State 400, but this time they chose to buy access to Action Alley.
“We got here right as the gates opened, found a spot along the tree line in the shade and have been enjoying ourselves since then” said Raider.
Willis, who spent his childhood just down the road from Indianapolis Motor Speedway was all too eager to point out that effort to lure a younger crowd to a day at the track is not individual to the Kentucky Speedway.
“Indianapolis Motor Speedway held a music festival called Snake Pit in the infield at the 2018 Indianapolis 500 with deadmau5, diplo, GRiZ, and Axwell /\ Ingrosso… it was the most people our age I have ever seen there,” said Willis. “Some of them weren’t even interested in the race but they came anyways because they wanted to say that they lived that experience.”
Just a few campsites down the row from Willis and Raider was a bigger and much rowdier group of college-aged NASCAR fans who had befriended one another. With beer in hand, music blaring, and ping-pong balls flying from one end of the beer pong table to the other, these campers were thoroughly enjoying themselves.
They did not hold back when talking about how much they appreciate the Kentucky Speedway for offering a bargain like Action Alley and the role it could play for the future of NASCAR.
“I am a proud Southern redneck and I’ve been going races since I was a toddler. NASCAR is a part of my heritage,” said Bradley Rush of Bristol, Tennessee. “I hate to see the sport go in the direction that it is going, but if they can appeal to a younger audience and get them out here, they will enjoy their time here. While I don’t want them to lose touch with their base, they need to do more things like this so the sport doesn’t die.”
Rush convinced some of his less-interested friends to make the trip to the Kentucky Speedway with him. While they were enjoying their time, they were hoping for a bit more action in Action Alley.
George Edwards of Nashville who made the trip with Rush said, “I think this is a cool and unique way to get a younger crowd here, but they could do more. We pulled in at 1 (p.m.) and were expecting it to be a struggle to find a spot, but instead, we got room to spread out.
“That may be what the older crowd in the other campgrounds want, but not us. We want it to be rowdy over here.”
Edwards did point out that the afternoon was a success as a whole, saying, “I can go spend $30 at a bar in a half an hour. So, why not make a memory and experience something like this for the same price?”
While many of those who attended Action Alley had to travel quite far to get there, the locals were out as well. Attending this year’s Quaker State 400 was recent University of Kentucky graduate, Brendan Holcombe. It was Holcombe’s first time attending a NASCAR race.
“I’m having a good time and meeting some new people… I just wish more people heard about it,” he said.
Holcombe made a comparison that could help Action Alley and motorsports in the future, saying, “I don’t know what Keeneland does to get a younger crowd out during the year, but if young kids are willing to go out and watch horses run around a track, they’ll be more than willing to come here and see cars go around a track at 180 mph.”
Benjamin Shipp is an intern at NKyTribune and a student at the University of Cincinnati. Contact the Northern Kentucky tribune at news@nkytrib.com
