Out at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, they were expecting 120,000 fans today and Saturday for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and the IZOD IndyCar Firestone 550 races. The big excitement about tonight’s truck race—more properly called the WinStar World Casino 400—was the expected appearance in the race of Plano’s James Buescher, who’s the defending truck series champion.
Typical of the fans enjoying the run-up to tonight’s race was the family shown here, who drove up from Granbury in their 1986 Ward school bus. “It’s really a hard-sided tent with an engine,” joked Rebecca Pierce. Pierce and Ronald Ramsdell, who are season ticket-holders at TMS, typically attend with half a dozen of their 10 kids. But this weekend only Dylan Elliott and their dog, Sadie, came with them. Dylan turns 13 on Tuesday, so they brought candles and his favorite cheesecake along to celebrate.
Before that, they’ll chow down on bratwurst and hot dogs. The family paid for two, 20-foot-by-40-foot camping spots near the Speedway for the weekend, at $75 per spot. “I like the trucks,” Ramsdell said of tonight’s race. And, what about that Ward school bus, decked out with a rebel flag and a bumper-sticker reading, “Hillbilly Haven”? “It does all right for our redneck as***,” Ramsdell said, laughing. Jump for a few more shots of fans at Texas Motor Speedway this afternoon.
