By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
PHILADELPHIA — For the fourth straight year, Comcast and Xfinity converged with NASCAR to bring the sport into the streets of Philadephia, Pennsylvania, for a day of fun.
With 17 Xfinity Series drivers making the trip to the historic city, the day began with a streetside autograph session followed by a two-car parade around City Hall. Here, Chase Briscoe and Austin Cindric piloted the stock cars while 11 drivers took in the sights from the double-decker bus.
The drivers in attendance were Briscoe, Cindric, Justin Allgaier, Zane Smith, Vinnie Miller, Noah Gragson, Tyler Reddick, Cole Custer, Gray Gaulding, Christopher Bell, Brandon Jones, John Hunter Nemechek, Matt Mills, Joey Gase, Chad Finchum, Kaz Grala and Brandon Brown.
A city-wide tour along a hike up the “Rocky” stairs and a quick lunch at Chickie and Pete’s capped off the day for Xfinity, Comcast, Dover International Speedway, Pocono Raceway and NASCAR.
Briscoe, driver of the Xfinity No. 98 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, had a blast throughout the day, especially seeing race fans show up in Philly.
“The race fans up here seem to be really passionate,” Briscoe said. “Even today, you see people coming with Xfinity shirts and Xfinity driver shirts, they had the diecasts and everything. There are a lot of good fans up here. It’s good to grow that fan base.”
In a traditional stick-and-ball city in terms of sports, Briscoe was pleased at the turnout.
“Philadelphia is a huge sports town with the Phillies and 76ers. It’s pretty wild how many race fans there are,” he said. “A lot of the time, I forget that Pocono and Dover are as close as they are. It’s really nice for Philly fans because they do have two really good tracks, very diverse tracks, really close.”
Cindric, who drove the second stock car Wednesday, enjoyed the event and his first day at the Comcast Technology Center, the tallest building in Philadelphia.
“This is my first time really being able to see what all [Comcast} does,” Cindric said. “Obviously, Xfinity and Comcast are huge supporters of our series and what we do on race weekends. To be able to see the scope of all that support coming here, and then to see the reception of the fans promoting through social media, it’s awesome.”
Throughout the day, the drivers handed (and sometimes threw out) tickets for the Pocono Green 250. Cindric took notice of NASCAR’ involvement with the fans as one reason the sport stands out from the others.
“Some people know this event happens every year — come get tickets, talk to the drivers face-to-face,” he said. “It is a sports town, but I don’t think any other sport has that kind of access to their star performers. It’s a pretty casual experience.
“I’ve driven a lot of race series in my career and had a lot of different entitlement sponsors and I think Xfinity does the most for their communities and race fans. on the military side, to watch future airmen and women to be sworn in before we started, that doesn’t happen too many places. The amount they do is heads-and-heels above any other race series I
Christopher Bell appreciates title sponsor Xfinity for laying out the Xfinity Takeover in a city like Philadelphia.
“Xfinity and Comcast do a lot for us
Noah Gragson was among the more comedic drivers (as usual) throughout the day. Perhaps he had the most fun riding atop the double-decker bus during the parade.
“I was trying to touch the street signs,” Gragson joked. “I think it was cool.”
Justin Allgaier was the veteran of the group of 17, and he lacked no gratitude for Xfinity’s involvement with NASCAR. He threw the first pitch of Tuesday’s Phillies game before the Xfinity Takeover on Wednesday.
“To go last night to the Phillies game, throw the first pitch, that’s just stuff as a young kid you say that would be a great opportunity,” Allgaier said. “To do that in a sports town like Phill was very special.
“The