NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- There's something almost indescribable about standing 25 feet from the well-worn boards of the stage at the Ryman Auditorium, the mother church of country music.

"Goose bumps" might be the right words.

From the hallway to stage right, there's an unobstructed view of the house band, which provides instrumental backing for the multitude of artists who parade through the spotlight, as stagehands change out equipment with the precision of a Sprint Cup pit stop.

You might pass backup singer Carolee Cooper, who is offstage for Kyle Petty's set during Friday night's Sprint Sound & Speed charity celebration, or Opry regular Jeannie Seely, fresh from a throaty, soulful performance of one of her standards.

Headliner Hank Williams Jr. is there, doing a meet-and-greet in the hallway a half hour before his four-song performance. Williams sports an Alabama T-shirt under his jacket and a 'Bama baseball cap on his head, reminders of his most recent success at picking winners in college bowl games.

"I got seven of eight bowl games," Williams confides. "It's been the best year ever. Northwestern plus nine -- thank you!"

Williams may be the biggest draw among the country stars, but other artists of substantial magnitude are there to perform in front of a packed house at the Ryman, donating their time to raise money for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Victory Junction Gang Camp.

Sharing the stage with Opry staples Little Jimmy Dickens and Bill Anderson are American Idol Season 8 finalist Danny Gokey, along with Vince Gill, Chris Young, Jason Michael Carroll and Petty who, like Gokey, was making his Opry debut.

"Here's the deal," Petty said. "I got one shot to go over there and do this. I said it [Friday] night. It is an incredibly humbling place. I grew up on country music. Beating it up and down the highway with my father in station wagons, old cars, going to race tracks all over the country, listening to Floyd Cramer and Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Merle [Haggard], people like that on 8-track.

"That's just the way it was. We used to come here. I told it out there. We would come here, and Marty Robbins drove a race car, he would bring us over, you'd stand here and see these people perform here. It's an incredibly humbling place to be. I figured you never have a shot to do something like that. If I was going to go do it, I was going to sing and do my own stuff because then I can say I sang a song I wrote at the Opry. That's how cool it was."

Greg Biffle, Jamie McMurray and Michael Waltrip took turns as guest announcers, an affirmation of the natural affinity and overlapping fan base between racing and country music. The following morning, at Nashville's Municipal Auditorium, a longer roster of drivers and many of the country stars reassembled for autograph and question-and-answer sessions with fans.

As much as Petty downplayed his Opry debut, he stressed Sound & Speed's importance to Victory Junction, which he and wife Pattie Petty founded in memory of their son Adam, who died in a crash during practice at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on May 12, 2000. Each year, Victory Junction serves children with chronic conditions and serious illnesses at no cost to a child's family.

"For us, this event probably in the last five or six years has sent 300 or 400 kids to camp, which is a phenomenal, phenomenal stat just off this event," Petty said. "So I think for us it's become one of our mainstays -- it's become one of our main fund-raisers. We have to raise in the neighborhood of 6 to 8 million dollars a year because it's totally free.

"We bring kids from all over the United States and pay for them to come to camp so we're not a financial burden on their family. It's a heavy undertaking. To have events like this, have guys come out like this and be a part of it, it's a lot bigger thing for us than I think they even realize it is."

To learn more about the Victory Junction Gang Camp, click here.