By Mark Hansel
NKyTribune Managing Editor
Intermittent showers played havoc with Thursday’s schedule at Kentucky Speedway, but fans from Millionaire’s Row to campgrounds with far fewer amenities took it all in stride.
Jim Gillispie of Louisville has been parking his RV in a reserved spot high above the backstretch at the Kentucky Speedway for 15 years.
“It seems like it rains at some point about every year here,” Gillispie said. “It doesn’t bother us anymore.”
Gillispie met Matt Leitsinger of Cincinnati that first year when they ended up next to each other in the backstretch terrace. They have been friends ever since.
“We started out just meeting here, but we get together throughout the year now,” Leitsinger said.
Each of them takes all 14 tickets that are available with their spots and would neither confirm nor deny that there may have even be a few extra folks in some years past.
Kentucky Speedway General Manager Mark Simendinger said the backstretch terrace spots are among the most sought after at the track.
“People just love it there,” he said.
What’s not to love?
There is an unobstructed view of the entire oval and all the food and adult beverages or other refreshments a group can bring in. And, if the rain comes, the party can continue under an awning or inside a camper until it subsides.
“You’ve got great friends and great neighbors, you can’t beat it,” Gillispie said. “We’re not paying six dollars for a beer either.”
The weekend of NASCAR racing at Kentucky Speedway includes a Camping World Truck Series, which was completed Thursday night, followed by Xfinity races Friday and Sprint Cup series race Saturday.
While Gillispie and Leitsinger have become old buddies, some of the friendships struck up at Kentucky Speedway are more recent.
Tim Rader was with a group from Pineville that just met Lois and Craig Krueger from Two Rivers, Wisconsin, near Green Bay, Wednesday night.
By Thursday afternoon, however, the group was already sitting in front of Rader’s spot at the Bourbon Street Campground enjoying a friendship aided by a grocery cart filled with empty beer cans.
“They put the Dale Earnhardt Jr. flag up and that was all we needed to see,” Lois Krueger said.
All were NASCAR race veterans, but it was the first visit to Kentucky Speedway for the Kruegers.
Rader’s group of four has been coming “every year they’ve had the big boys (Sprint Cup drivers),” and it is one of their favorite tracks, along with Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama.
“There’s no bad seat in the house here,” Rader said. “They say it’s a little rough-and-tumble, and I’ve not driven it yet, but I like that in a track.”
Like most NASCAR fans, each member of the party has a favorite driver.
The group included Kasey Kahne and Kyle Bush fans, along with the Dale Earnhardt Jr. supporters.
They all shared one thing, however; a disdain for 2012 Sprint Cup Champion Brad Keselowski, who won the Quaker State 400 in 2014.
“We just don’t like him,” Rader said.
They admit that probably the only things that a middle-aged couple from Wisconsin and a group of down-home folks from Southeast Kentucky have in common is their love of beer and NASCAR.
But that is enough.
“NASCAR is like a big family and we all get along, most of the time,” Rader said. “It doesn’t matter where you’re from or what you do for a living, on race days we are all family.”
On the track
The rain kept the Sprint Cup Series drivers sidelined for the day and wiped out qualifying for the UNOH 225 Camping World Truck Series. The starting lineup was set by points, with two-time defending series champion Matt Crafton on the pole.
Sprint Cup teams and drivers, who arrived in Sparta Wednesday, have yet to get on the track.
Crafton captured the UNOH 225 Camping World Truck Series in a race that was stopped five laps from the scheduled finish after a late-race wreck damaged the catch fence in Turn 1.
The victory was the first career Camping World Truck Series race for Crafton at Kentucky Speedway.
No fans were injured in the incident and driver Ben Kennedy was checked out at the infield care center and released.