Massive red Coca-Cola trucks sat in the parking lot, packed to capacity with cases of water and soda. Forklifts roamed around. Pickup trucks zoomed past. 

With just a couple of days before NASCAR weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, it’s all hands on deck and full speed ahead.

The only NASCAR event held in New England, fans remember it for its thrilling races and boundless sources of entertainment. But what happens behind the scenes to prepare for the weekend? How long does it take to set everything up? How many concession items are brought in? How quickly does the site get torn down?

Wayne Norris and James Pierson, chefs for Levy Restaurants who supply concessions for race weekend, and Nick Duggan, New Hampshire Motor Speedway’s senior operations manager, peeled back the curtain to provide a glimpse of how the biggest NASCAR party of the year in New Hampshire comes together. 

Food, drinks and...ice

Last year at Martinsville Speedway in Ridgeway, Va. Pierson, Levy’s regional chef for the southeast, had a problem: There were no more hot dogs. At least, that’s what his boss called him in a panic about.

Martinsville is known for its signature hot dogs – chili, slaw, mustard, onions and all. Attending a race and not buying one is akin to going to Hershey Park and not buying a chocolate bar.

At their speedway, the concession stand set up near the infield part of the track ran out of hot dog buns. Because it’s so loud in the surrounding area, the vendor put up a sign: “We are out of hot dogs.” 

The race, televised on Fox, cut to a commercial with a shot of the sign and perhaps some disappointed fans. Pierson’s phone started to ring. “How could they be out of hot dogs?” he thought.

But they hadn’t run out of hot dogs, he found out; they were just out of buns at this one particular concession stand. 

Alas, running out of food is an issue none of the Levy staff want to have to deal with. In preparation, they’ll receive ticket sale information from the track to get a sense of how many people will be attending. They’ll also look back at their history to see what demand for certain products was like in the past. The weather also becomes an important consideration. If it’s scorching hot like it was at Atlanta Motor Speedway last weekend, when temperatures approached 90 degrees with crushing humidity, they’ll also need to stock up on ice.

The estimated numbers for several items for NHMS in Loudon this weekend break down as follows, per Norris and Pierson:

Hot dogs: 8,000

Hamburgers: 8,000

Bottles of water in Wednesday’s delivery alone: 24,000

Pounds of ice: 62,000 (more than two tractor trailers’ worth)

The good news is if their estimates are off in any way and they run out of items, they can call up their local distributors in Concord and Manchester and have more of whatever they need quickly sent over.

“If we run shy, say on Miller Lite, they’ll put it on the back of a pickup and get it to us,” Pierson said.

They have some experience with this, which helps, too. Norris has worked at this event since 2008; Pierson, for more than 20 years.

Though they still knocked on wood when mentioning that they’ve never had anything go terribly wrong at NHMS, it’s not usually just because of luck. Meticulous planning takes place for the weeks and months, and in some cases, the entire year, leading up to the event to ensure the weekend is a smooth operation on all fronts.

“Behind the scenes, it’s a really nice facility here,” Norris said. “It’s a great atmosphere. It’s a really family-friendly oriented racetrack. There are things to do for everybody.”

Setup and teardown

For Duggan, the senior operations manager for NHMS, concessions are just one area he has to concern himself with. He’s also making sure cracks and holes on the racetrack are filled, lines are painted, camper check-ins are located properly and bathrooms and dumpsters are appropriately placed.

The week leading up to race weekend is the craziest, by multiple orders of magnitude. On Tuesday, the TV production crew arrived from Atlanta to start setting up all of their equipment. Duggan also welcomed folks from Charlotte Motor Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway and a few of their other sister tracks to help with preparation. By the end of the week, he said, he’ll have 25 or 30 people working in his department.

“One of the key things about all of our race weekends for Speedway Motorsports is the fact that we’ll pull in people from almost every different track, which is 12 tracks now,” he said. “We’ll have somebody with the sales team, with events, operations, ticketing. That’s one of the neat things that people don’t realize with where we pull people from.”

They also have to set up the Fan Zone – the central location for entertainment – which includes The Groove, an open bar-type set up where some of the NASCAR drivers will take questions from fans.

And – most importantly – NHMS awaits the arrival of Loudon the Lobster, awarded to the victor of the Crayon 301 NASCAR Cup Series race on Sunday. Makris Lobster & Steak House, which has housed the trophy crustaceans for nearly 15 years, expects to receive their 2023 prize at 4 p.m. on Thursday.

Then on Sunday night, after Loudon the Lobster stuns a championship driver with its gargantuan claws and freakishly long antennae, the teardown of everything occurs at maximum speed. 

All the TV production trucks move out by Monday, and all the rental equipment gets returned. The concessions and carnival rides disappear as well. For an event that in some areas receives a year’s worth of planning, everything vanishes within a couple of days.

“By Tuesday,” Duggan said, “it’s pretty bare around here.”

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