The Unique Glamping Experience You Must Try: Glamping at NASCAR

Glamping is by far my favorite way to enjoy the outdoors and still have elements of comfort. So when I was invited to check out the brand new unique glamping experience to stay in luxury glamping tents in the M&M Glampground inside the infield of a NASCAR race, it was an adventure I knew I had to have.

Just to clarify, that’s M&M, the candy, not the rapper Eminem. When I told people about the glampground they thought I meant Slim Shady. LOL

This was a sponsored trip, but my reviews and opinions of the event are my own. See full disclosures.

What is this glamping you speak of?

So what exactly is glamping? In short, it’s glamorous camping. It can be in a luxury tent, an airstream RV, a yurt, a cabin, or even a treehouse. It’s an accommodation that marries elements of traditional camping with modern creature comforts and elements of “glam”.

I have a very high standard for what I consider true glamping, which you can read all about in my essential glamping tips guide.

I must say the M&M Glampground at NASCAR exceeded my expectations in almost every way.

What makes glamping at NASCAR unique?

The M&M Glampground was an idea that set out to bring racing fans a unique, one-of-a-kind experience that they couldn’t recreate themselves.

Racing fans flock to the speedways across the country to camp in tents and RV’s of their own in allotted campgrounds on the outskirts. Staying for an entire race weekend is something that is already a part of racing culture.

But camping in the infield of the racetrack is definitely an experience that your average fan won’t get.

Staying in the M&M Glampground offered glampers a private, secure campground in the midst of all of the action and roaring engines. It also provided unique once in a lifetime memorable moments to truly make the M&M glampers the envy of the speedway.

The first glamping campground in the infield was held at the Kentucky Speedway during the weekend of the Quaker State 400 of the NASCAR Cup Series this summer.

You may be wondering why is M&M sponsoring the glampground? Well they are the sponsor brand for the #18 Kyle Busch car. I may be biased but I personally think it is the cutest car in the series right now!

How can you not love a car that looks like a bag of M&Ms on wheels. It’s adorable.

Accommodations

The most important part of any glamping experience is the accommodations. Right away as you drive into the campground, the M&M branding is completely and appropriately over the top!! I loved it.

There was literally M&M EVERYTHING everywhere. There was no mistaking that this unique glamping experience was a special place.

From our credentials to our tents, everything was branded with the familiar and colorful rainbows of M&M logos.

Every tent had a beloved M&M character on the outside. There was also a custom branded welcome mat, blanket, bathrobe, shower shoes, and plush M&M character on the beds.

Our tent had 2 twin size air mattresses but some had 1 full size mattress. This wasn’t your typical flimsy camping air mattress. These mattresses were raised to the height of a normal bed and reasonably comfortable.

Each tent also had end tables, a sitting table and chairs, a hanging caddy for storage, a fan, a solar battery pack to provide phone charging and plug in overhead lights at night.

Lux Bathrooms

The bathrooms were luxury individual bathrooms in a trailer. No port-o-potties here! They were equipped with sinks and mirrors. What I appreciated most was that there was someone that cleaned them throughout the weekend so they never got really gross.

The showers were in a separate trailer with shower curtains and sinks to use. They also provided Oil of Olay liquid bath soap for our use which was a nice touch.

Food

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Breakfast, lunch, and dinner was provided for glampers. Examples of meals were breakfast burritos, sandwiches, ribs, brisket, and taco night.

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It was pretty good catered food but definitely heavy on the meat. If you’re a vegetarian be warned that you won’t have a ton of options.

Special NASCAR Fan Perks for Glampers

The access we were granted for the weekend was beyond amazing. Even as someone that is new to the NASCAR Racing Fandom, I realized just how special the glampers were being treated.

In addition to the special celebrity visits, glampers received other VIP perks:

• Celebrity visits from the M&M Racing team
• Catered Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinners for 3 days
• Private garage tours
• Two Kentucky Speedway Bluegrass Club weekend tickets
• Two Cold Passes for access to the Kentucky Speedway garage
• One FanVision and two headsets, allowing you to listen to race and driver communication
• Dedicated shuttles to transport you around the race
• M&M RV to cool off in A/C and rooftop seating with views of racetrack
• Campground games’
• Movie Nights with snacks
• All the M&Ms you can eat!!!

The big highlights for the weekend was definitely the celebrity visits. We were treated to Q&A sessions with some of the young up and coming racers that are part of the Joe Gibbs racing family.

Other visitors were Kyle Petty, Joe Gibbs, racing team owner of the Joe Gibbs Racing and former NFL Coaching legend. We were also treated to visits by Samantha Busch, wife of race car drive Kyle Busch, who shared some really interesting insight into family life in the racing world. Kyle Busch also came by for a Q&A and provided us all with autographed hero cards right before his race.

Getting to talk to the race car drivers definitely put a face with the cars you see on the track and I found myself emotionally invested and rooting for them all in their races.

Because I had media access for the weekend, I did get a few other awesome perks like riding around the racetrack at 120 mph in the Toyota pace car, hot credentials that got me into Pit Row during the races, a chance to sit up in the Pit Box with the racing family, backstage access during the racer intros, and standing trackside with Kyle and the M&M team during the opening ceremony.

Watch the video to see footage from the pace car ride, a walkthrough of the glamping tent, and pit row action.

Closing Thoughts

Yes, this was completely out of my wheelhouse since I’ve never been an avid race fan, but I’m so glad I went. I’ve been to one NASCAR event before but I didn’t get to actually enjoy the race. This unique glamping experience definitely peaked a new interest for me.

Being up close in the action, smelling that burning rubber in the pit, watching how hard the pit crews work and truly understanding up close what it takes behind the scenes to be successful on the track was such an eye opening experience.

Talking to pit crew guys and learning more about the production it truly is to put on these big races gave me a whole new appreciation for the sport. I felt nothing but welcomed throughout the weekend and though I’m a complete novice, my fellow glampers were more than happy to fill me in explain things to me!

I can honestly say experiencing NASCAR this way definitely gave me a new appreciation for the fandom as a whole. In fact, Outdoorsy Diva will now proudly proclaim her spot in the racing fandom and I have the hat to prove it!! I’m Team Rowdy #18 all the way baby!!

Staying up close like this, glamping in the infield, is most definitely an option that any racing fan would enjoy! It has spoiled me for future racing events. If you are a racing fan and you get a chance to do this you will not regret it!

This was their first one but I was impressed overall. This was definitely no Fyre Festival disaster.

The only things I hope to see them improve for the next time is adding a few more big fans preferably with misters throughout the campground because it was very hot.

I also hope they can find a way to have larger fans or portable A/Cs in the tent. During the day the tents were too hot to be inside. At night it was comfortable. Thankfully we could cool off in the air conditioned eating tent area or inside the RV.

The only other con was the way the tents were arranged put some of us directly on the other side of the fence from some of the large RVs. They run generators all through the night and it was very loud and hard to drown out.

How can I go NASCAR Glamping too?

This was such a popular event at the Kentucky Speedway that they sold out very fast. The next one is slated for the night race at Bristol Motor Speedway in late August but it sold out within the first hour that it was available for purchase.

Keep an eye out for the other remaining races this season to see if any other races will get the M&M Glamping treatment. If you see it announced don’t hesitate!

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