“Makes Me Proud as a Race Fan”: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Lauds Ben Kennedy for Going the Extra Mile for NASCAR

At Darlington this weekend, NASCAR took a hard look in the mirror. Ben Kennedy, Executive Vice President and Chief Venue & Racing Innovation Officer, joined a group of senior leaders for a “secret shopper” run through a race weekend, trading VIP passes for a normal ticket and stepping into the shoes of the people in the grandstands. Their aim was to walk the same path as fans, identify snags, and note where the experience falls short.

Fixes will not land overnight, but the effort drew praise from Dale Earnhardt Jr., who backed Kennedy’s decision to go through the front gate like everyone else and experience the whole process first-hand.

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“They did it. They did everything. They experienced everything, all while taking a lot of mental notes….” Dale Jr. said on Dirty Do Media.

“He (Kennedy) said to me, he’s like, there’s a lot we can do to make it easier to buy a ticket. There’s a lot we can do to make it easier to find where you’re supposed to park. All of those things he thinks need to be improved.”

“And I think it’s really, really cool that he himself tasked him, you know, him and his team to go through this experience and this process… But I told him I said, ‘Man, this is the kind of stuff that makes me proud as a race fan. This is the kind of stuff that I think his family was very, very good at.’ This is not rocket science. This is not hero. The dude, but it’s just cool that he goes he cared enough,” hecontinued.

The group ran the full route, from purchase to parking to the seat, without leaning on access or perks. It was a ground-level check of how the sport meets its audience on race day, with an eye on the points where the process slows down or breaks down. Behind the scenes, Kennedy and his team bought tickets through various public channels to test how the system holds up under normal use.