ICYMI: Brantley Gilbert: It’s Crazy That My Name Is On The Brickyard 400
The Brickyard 400 is one of NASCAR’s biggest annual races, and if you’re a Brantley Gilbert fan, this year you might argue it’s even bigger.
This go-round (see what we did there?) the race is actually named after the “Bottoms Up” singer, thanks to some behind-the-scenes wheeling and dealing on the part of Brantley’s record label boss and racing fan Scott Borchetta. Needless to say, the singer is pretty stoked. “We know a fella named Scott Borchetta who can pull some crazy things off,” Brantley says through his label. “I mean, hell, I’d have been happy with tickets, but he put some ideas together and said he was gonna work on some stuff. I figured we’d may be able to play a song or attend a race like we have in the past, and he came back with this and I was just blown away.”
Heavy on Brantley’s mind for the occasion is his late grandfather, however. “My mom’s side of the family is from Indiana and my grandfather just loved NASCAR and loved the Brickyard,” Brantley continues. “And so this one, my heart is kind of for him.”
The 400-mile Brantley Gilbert Big Machine Brickyard 400 happens Sunday (7/23). Between now and then, Brantley’s fielding phone calls from his race-fan friends. “I’ve got friends calling me going, ‘Hey man, your name’s on the race,” he quips. “‘How does that even work?’ It’s pretty neat and I’m more than stoked.’
Teddy McDonald is a fun-lovin’ country music fan man living in Nashville, Tennessee.
