You can’t host an official throwback weekend without some cool retro T-shirts to commemorate the moment.
A limited number of special-edition Food City 500 Throwback T-shirts featuring NASCAR legends Kyle Petty and Kenny Wallace will be available only at Bristol Motor Speedway during the race weekend and guests can obtain them in a couple of ways during the race weekend.
* Limited quantities will be sold exclusively at BMS merchandise haulers and at Speedway World inside the Bruton Smith Administration building.
* Lucky St. Patrick’s Day guests may be able to capture one that is tossed from the Food City Fan Zone Stage, especially during Kyle Petty’s 10:20 a.m. appearance and during Trackside Live at noon featuring Kenny Wallace.
Each legend, which has been involved in NASCAR racing both on the track as drivers and off the track as television hosts and entertainment dignitaries for decades, developed his own T-shirt design around a significant past moment at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Wallace created his T-shirt around his 1994 Xfinity Series victory at Bristol, the Food City 250. It was Wallace’s only victory at Bristol and he held off a host of tough customers to get the win, including Ken Schrader, David Green, Ricky Craven and Dick Trickle in the top-five. Mark Martin and Terry Labonte were among the top-10 finishers in the race.
“I grew up on tracks like Winchester and Salem and when I got to Bristol I was at home with these high banks,” Wallace said. “I loved racing at Bristol and winning that Food City 250 in 1994. I love Bristol, that’s really all there is to it, it’s such a bad-ass racetrack and I’m proud to be a part of this program.”
Petty, who had an impressive 50 career starts at Bristol during his lengthy Cup Series career, which spanned from 1979 through 2008, designed his T-shirt around the 1992 and 1993 seasons, arguably the best of his career, when he posted his personal-best Bristol finishes of a third-place in the 1993 Food City 500 and a fourth-place in the 1992 Night Race at the controls of his famed No. 42 Pontiac.
“I thought back to that time and especially since it is the Food City 500,” Petty said. “I can’t tell you how many Food City stores I’ve been in from Knoxville to Abingdon during my life. They were a huge partner with our partners and I’ve spent so much time with Steve (Smith, president and CEO of Food City) and his family over the years. We took colors from the Hot Wheels car, took colors from the Mello Yello car and from some of our other cars. We slapped ‘em on that old Pontiac and put it out there.
“Everything from the early 1990s was tacky, gaudy and in your face and that’s what we tried to come up with here and they did a great job with it. I am so happy to be a part of this especially this year with it being our 75th anniversary. Bristol has always been a fun place for us and to be a part of this with Kenny especially is pretty cool. To top it all off the Kyle Petty Ride Across America is coming through Bristol and Kenny Wallace is going to be a part of it, so it just all ties together really well.”
You will want to collect both of these limited-edition T-shirts while you can. And you will need to act fast, because they will be selling fast. And if you are into getting things autographed, both Wallace and Petty are expected to be in attendance during the race weekend.
The Bristol race weekend will feature action in the NASCAR Cup Series with the tradition-rich Food City 500 on Sunday afternoon, March 17 (3:30 p.m., FOX and PRN Radio) with current champ Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, Daytona 500 winner William Byron, Joey Logano, Atlanta winner Daniel Suarez, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin leading the way.
Saturday afternoon’s (March 16) Bush’s Beans Practice and Bush’s Beans Qualifying for both the NASCAR Cup Series and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will set the starting lineups for each race and precede Saturday night’s WEATHER GUARD® Truck Race. NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series stars Ben Rhodes, Grant Enfinger, Nick Sanchez, Las Vegas winner Rajah Caruth, Corey Heim, Ty Dillon and Christian Eckes, among others, are scheduled to take the green flag at 8 p.m. ET for the 250-lap thriller (FS1, MRN Radio).
To purchase tickets for the Food City 500 or the WEATHER GUARD® Truck Race, please visit the BMS website, or call the BMS Ticket Sales Center at (866) 415-4158.
-BMS-
