Hours before the Nationwide race bearing the name of his grit chips product, Jeff Foxworthy, the self-proclaimed “King of the Rednecks,” was a bit sheepish to admit that he’d never been to Bristol Motor Speedway prior to this weekend.
“It’s cooler in person than I thought – and I thought it would be cool,” said Foxworthy, prior to Saturday’s Jeff Foxworthy’s Grit Chips 300. “TV just doesn’t do it justice.
“A couple years ago, my wife and I, on our 25th anniversary, got to go to Italy – try the spaghetti, by the way, if you get to go — and we got to go to the Coliseum. Standing down there on the infield, that’s all I could think of was the Coliseum in Rome and gladiators doing (battle).”
Foxworthy, who hails from Alpharetta, Ga., says that Bristol is one of the big three in terms of tracks for rednecks, ranking it along with Daytona and Talladega. He said it’s an honor to be associated with a race.
“I think, for a redneck,” he said, “the No. 1 thing that you want is to go to heaven. No. 2 would have to be to have your name on a race at Bristol.”
