2015 Food City 500 Bristol Motor Speedway

For my birthday my brother took me to the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. The race was actually on my birthday. As was the case with the race I went to at KY last year, lots of rain causing the beginning to be delayed and multiple red flags due to rain as well. It was a very exciting race and they DID get to finish after 511 laps.
We got to the track at 7am for some shopping and tailgating (which never happened due to rain). I got to explore the haulers and Chevy fan zone.my brother bought me a Dale Call, I bought a Chase Elliot 2014 Nationwide champ car, 2014 NCSC Harvick champ car (unfortunately they gave me the Budweiser when I asked for Jimmy Johns, hoping i can exchange that at Charlotte in a few weeks), I also picked up the program and event car, they were handing out some kind of Jeff Gordon Bristol memories thing as well. At the flea market venders I picked up a 1/7500 Dale Jr. mini helmet for myself. We had walked around a lot and collected as many free items as we could before the vendors all shut down around 1. I was able to get 2 chevy shirts, 7 auto trader Logano coozies, a event car from the 2nd Charlotte rasce last year (for my son to play with), a shirt from a car auction vendor, and 3 pins from past Bristol events. For my son I also picked up a Larson rookie car, a 2015 Chasde Elliot camaro, and some Harvick tshirts.
Matt Kenseth won the pole and after a LOOOONG day was able to win the race as well. (BOO Toyota).

Dale Jr. 1/7500 mini helmet

Elliot 2014 Champion camaro, Harvick 2015 NCSC Champion Budweiser, 2015 Bristol Food City n500 event car

Bristol Food City 500 2015 event pin

Food City 500 2015 program

Bristol Jeff Gordon hand out

Dale Call

Monta Ellis TTM

Monta Ellis as is the case with all other Dallas Mavericks returned my card signed. When I saw he was traded to Dallas I immediately sent a card, it has taken about 3 seasons but yesterday I recieved my card signed in the mail.

Ellis 2010 R&S

Harvick 2015 Jimmy Johns Hero Cards

About 2 weeks ago I asked Jimmy Johns for a 2015 hero card, they responded they would send it out right away. Took a little over a week, I received a 2014 card but also the 2014 Sprint Series Champion card, and also like last year they included a free $10 geft card.

2015 Harvick Hero Card

2015 Harvick 2014 Sprint Series Champion Hero Card

Free $10 gift card

Boston Red Sox fan pack

When I found out about through the mail signatures I came across fan packs. These are little things sports franchises will send out to fans, not all franchises have them, not all send anything good.

One of my favorite to send an email for is the Boston Red Sox. It has stayed pretty consistent with what they send and I usually get multiple a season, I've even given some of them as gifts. I just send an email talking about how I'm a fan and politely ask for a fan pack to any team I want.

 

Here's a typical Red Sox fan pack.

 

a letter (same every time)

B strong sticker from the green monster, logo sticker, pocket schedule, and a small pack of stadium dirt

In the past a few items were included that no longer come in the pack.

player pictures (postcard size with fake signatures)

 

For the franchises 100th season they included a 100th season sticker

stickers and pocket schedules from my past packs

this pack always includes a very small pack of stadium dirt (crushed clay)

 

stadium dirt packs

Kevin Harvick fan club 2015

My first NASCAR hero card of 2015 comes from the Kevin Harvick fan club. I bought the $4 pack which comes with the membership card (which includes the discount coupons that I got last year), A new sticker, an autographed hero card, the newsletter with what the club membership includes, and a coupon for a free bloomin' onions order at outback steakhouse. You could also purchase an $18 package that includes a tshirt with the sticker image on it.
I personally like this years hero card because it is a bunch of Championship memories from last season, but I liked last years sticker better.

2015 membership card

 

2015 club sticker

 

2015 autographed fan club championship hero card

 

2015 newsletter

 

free bloomin' onion coupon

1/64 diecasts

I found these at Target for about $6 a piece, I received these 2 for Christmas and bought my son a few to play with.

Dale Jr. National Guard 1/64

Harvick Jimmy Johns 1/64

RedsFest 2014

So after being snowed out of RedsFest last year, this year I got a 2 day pass as an early St. Nick gift. I didn't have as many things as previous years to get signed but I've also started trying to get people I haven't gotten instead of just getting as many as possible. SO instead of just hawking autograph lines I browse for free handouts and possible walking autograph opps.

For example every year they have 2 Harlem Globetrotters at RedsFest, this year I was able to catch up to them and get them to sign blanks. 

TNT and Buckets of the 2014/15 Globetrotters

I also found Bob Castellini, CEO of the Cincinnati Reds, as he was coming out of the Season Ticket Holders Lounge area. I also had him sign this blank.

Cincinnati Reds CEO Bob Castellini

On Friday I was too late to jump in any autograph line I was interested in, so I browsed to vendor booths and found the Dayton Dragons booth, I filled out a raffle for free tickets and received a free hat (I regret getting signed, dont really want to wear it now) and also a 2014 team set of cards. ( a whole set of players I've never had sign anything!) Still waiting for the ticket raffle results.

Dayton Dragons hat signed by Kyle Waldrop and Michael Lorenzen

2014 Dayton Dragons team set

I was able to get a few cards of the set signed

Axel Garret, Phillip Ervin, Nick Travieso, and Robert Stephenson (blank)

I was able to get a few Reds I've never gotten before, I asked Simon to inscribe 2014 AllStar and it came out 2014 Star (LOL)

David Holmberg 2014 bowman (rookie), Tony Cingrani 2013 Topps (rookie), Alfredo Simon 2014 Topps

I have been trying to get this card signed for a few years now and was finally quick enough to jump in Bruce's line before all the fangirls this year. I ordered this card off eBay a few years ago it is a canvas print, (I had gotten a few basketball cards styled like it and hunted for Reds ones). I knew getting it signed would make it look even cooler. And its a rookie card (from when Bruce had some kind of I'm going to cary this team to victory no matter what magic in him).

Jay Bruce 2008 UpperDeck Masterpiece (rookie)

There were a few other free giveaways I picked up, like the drawstring bag (1 each day) with a RedsFest/AllStar Game ornament (weirdly made from a stress ball) (it also had some cool coupons this year), spring training sunglasses, slim jims, and a lame poster I gave away (extreme regifting). I picked up a few things from the KY speedway booth (an old friend was running it). I also signed up for a few raffle drawings.