Hosting a NASCAR race weekend may seem like an easy task. Put people in their seats, sell them some food and make sure they are entertained. But the behind-the-scenes activity for a race weekend actually begins about six months before the first NASCAR hauler enters the gate.

From the food to the entertainment -- those involved with making sure a fan's experience at the track is perfect takes months of planning, sleepless nights, and the ability to think on your feet in times of pressure.

I had the opportunity to witness first-hand at Atlanta Motor Speedway what it's like to keep the fans happy and, most importantly, entertained. It's not an easy job, but for those who make it happen, the smiles on the faces of fans both young and old make it all worthwhile.

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From the infield to outside the gate, Brandon Hutchinson and his team have a plan for every parking spot at AMS.

Ingress and egress

The first step in making sure the fan's experience is a pleasant one begins outside the track, as tens of thousands of vehicles make their way to Atlanta Motor Speedway. The speedway offers more than 870 acres of free parking, and it's up to Brandon Hutchinson, vice president of events at Atlanta Motor Speedway, to make sure every car, truck, RV and bus gets to its parking space in a timely, and safe, manner.

"We have a plan that basically says if you're coming from a certain direction, you're going to park in specific parking lots," Hutchinson said. "There are some 'UFOs' that get into wrong parking lots, it never fails. But the forced parking method has proved to be exactly what Atlanta Motor Speedway needed. People come in, they park, they leave in the same direction and it works, it works really well."

Hutchinson, along with Eddie Greer of the Georgia State Patrol and the Georgia Department of Transportation, have worked together to put a system in place that expedites the "ingress and egress" of cars to and from the track.

How it works is simple: Every road coming into the speedway has an assigned area from which the cars will park. For instance, if a car is coming from Georgia state Route 20, that car will park in the Orange and Weaver lots located on the southwest side of the track. Once those lots fill, traffic will be diverted to the Purple Lot, which is north of the Orange Lot.

When the race is over and the parking lots empty, the Orange and Weaver lot cars go out the same way they came in, on Route 20, leading to a smoother exit for everyone.

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Traffic used to be a word that rang out when you talked about AMS, but now our ingress and egress times are phenomenal, definitely no more problems here. Even with the Labor Day crowd, we had people out of here in under two hours and that's really what we strive for.

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BRANDON HUTCHINSON

After creating and implementing the "forced parking" method, Hutchinson is pleased with the results.

"Traffic used to be a word that rang out when you talked about AMS, but now our ingress and egress times are phenomenal, definitely no more problems here," Hutchinson said. "Even with the Labor Day crowd, we had people out of here in under two hours and that's really what we strive for."

But that's not to say the system is perfect.

"We are very confident in the plan that we have now, but that's not to say we're not always learning, we're not always trying to act like a sponge and soak up as much knowledge as we can from each event we go through," Hutchinson said. "One of the things is to not grow complacent; that's when you start to skin your knees."

Just because the fan has found a place to park doesn't mean Hutchinson can exhale. Hutchinson also oversees the event assistance program, which includes the trams and buses that take fans to the entrance. AMS has a fleet of 126 buses, eight trams and 28 golf carts. Their job is to take fans from the lots and transport them to the gates.

Once a fan is at the gate, he or she may need help finding their seat, which again, falls in the lap of Hutchinson, who runs the usher program and all of the security at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

While Hutchinson is proud of how the track handles parking, he's even more pleased with the security side of things.

"There is a lot of activity [for law enforcement and AMS security] but that's only to make sure that there's not a lot of activity from a criminal or a disturbance standpoint," Hutchinson said. "We are very fortunate, we have great crowds. We very rarely have significant issues."

Of course, law-breakers are bound to pop up every now and again.

"We have very little activity in the way of disturbances or criminal activity, but that's not to say we don't have it -- we certainly do, just like any other small city in America or the rest of the world," Hutchinson said. "We do have the 1 percent that comes out here and wants to spoil everybody's good time. Our biggest issues seem to be just disagreements, which is not surprising when you put the amount of people we put in close proximity to each other for sometimes up to a week.

"I think we do a very good job of making sure we keep that to a minimum. Just like with the traffic, it's about the people that we put into place and that's why were successful."

On top of parking and security, Hutchinson also oversees camping, monitoring Perimeter Road and credentialed parking lots, and he's the liaison between NASCAR and the track.

To say Hutchinson's plate is full is an understatement. Obviously, he can't be everywhere, so he leans on his team of about 2,000 to make sure the fans have a safe and enjoyable experience.

"I have a handful of supervisors that I rely on to head up each of the different operations," Hutchinson said. "I rely on all the good folks to make it happen. I just basically put out fires for lack of a better term."

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It takes 17 haulers full of product and supplies for Levy Restaurants to feed race fans.

Providing a service

If there's one smell -- aside from tire rubber -- that permeates the grandstands at Atlanta Motor Speedway, it's the food. From hot dogs to hamburgers to nachos -- food is everywhere.

Emily Williams, director of operations for Levy Restaurants, oversees all aspects of food service at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway and it is truly the definition of a full-time job.

From concessions to the suites -- Levy Restaurants makes sure every taste bud is satisfied.

Williams started at Levy Restaurants 11 years ago as a forklift operator and moved up the company ladder to her current position. She's seen everything, she's done everything; and when talking to her, you realize she is in complete control. Getting ready for Atlanta weekend actually started in 2009.

"We've actually got this down to quite a science," Williams said. "We start the ordering process anywhere from four to six months out because we are buying such large numbers of individual products. Some of our largest suppliers, they wait for [the order] because they know we are going to be spending $2 to $3 million dollars with them in a single year per race track, if not more.

"We order products about six weeks out, and then four weeks and then two weeks and then week of and then finish up with our specialty items. Our deliveries don't arrive until usually Monday prior to the event. And then everything is produced and provided within that week's time period all to be ready by Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday."

And if you thought race teams had an impressive hauler collection, you haven't seen anything yet. Levy brought 17 semis to Atlanta Motor Speedway. Three to four trucks are for production while the rest hold all of the equipment and supplies. Levy Restaurants also caters to all the luxury suites and the sponsor tents.

"For this race alone we have more than 40 vendor locations, we have more than 30 individual Levy locations, and then we service the suites -- including Bruton Smith's [SMI's chairman] and Ed Clark's [president of AMS] -- and multiple outside catering areas including the Kobalt Tools tent, Bank of America, UPS and a smattering of guests in between," Williams said.

To handle this enormous load of food distribution to the fans and VIPs, Williams oversees a small army of workers dedicated to feeding the masses -- anywhere from 1,250 to 3,000 people, depending on the race.

But Levy's employees aren't your typical workers. Most come from the Atlanta area in the form of a non-profit group looking to raise money for their cause. It's a system that Williams loves seeing in action.

"Around 65 percent to 70 percent of our employees here at AMS are local, not-for-profit groups raising money for their local foundations or community events," Williams said. "We have churches, universities, military groups and sports teams.

"Some of our groups will make more than $10,000 to $15,000 for their individual fund-raiser per year. It's a huge involvement and there's a lot of dedication because of the amount of training they have to go through, but they realize that it does pay off for them.

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We have core Levy items that we consider some of the best for racing and we have regional items that are preferred. Not only do we [serve specialty items] in the suites, we do them in the concession stands, as well.

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EMILY WILLIAMS

"And it really does for us because we have groups that have been coming here for nine, 10, 11 years to work the two races a year and they consider this their main staple of income for their fund-raiser.

"Everyone is important in our operation but our not-for-profits are so vital because not only are we supporting our business and our ability to service the guest, but we're supporting the local communities by being able to return all those funds back to the areas that support these NASCAR facilities."

And then there's the food.

For the Atlanta Cup race alone, Levy Restaurants sold 1,000 pounds of hamburger patties, more than 11,000 soft drinks, almost 500 pounds of potatoes and enough pretzels to cover more than half of pit road if they were stretched out (about 700 feet).

In addition, Levy's food menu stretches much further than most traditional sporting events. Gourmet dishes are the norm in the suites and sponsor tents, and the chefs at Levy have a working relationship with the tracks to make sure all taste buds are accounted.

"We have core Levy items that we consider some of the best for racing and we have regional items that are preferred," Williams said. "Brunswick Stew is a very highly requested item. Not only do we [serve specialty items] in the suites, we do them in the concession stands, as well.

"We really try to feature regional and local items that are preferred by the guests at AMS. Those are decided at the regional level by our chef and then we work with the track to make sure we are meeting the guests' preferences."

For Williams, the hours are long and the ground she covers is exhausting, but for this former Marine, she wouldn't have it any other way.

"We have a high profile and time constraints, so there are definitely high stress points, but that's the draw to this kind of career," Williams said. "Knowing that you're part of something so large and successful and being able to deliver such a great experience to the fans makes it all worthwhile.

"I'm a serviceperson and I provide a service. And that's what our team is here to do."

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JHE has about seven minutes to get the stage on the track and ready to go for the Truck race.

'Controlled chaos'

NASCAR is a sport, but first and foremost, it has to be entertaining. And while the on-track action is what the fans at Atlanta Motor Speedway are there to see, there is a lot of time to fill before the green flag. That's where the JHE Production Group comes in.

The concert on the start/finish line -- courtesy of JHE; driver introductions -- also JHE; the pre-race activities including the invocation, the national anthem and the fly-by -- all JHE. In fact, up until the cars are rolling off pit road, this is JHE's show.

Brent Wilson keeps a close eye on the stopwatch as he communicates with the fly-by team, guiding them into position over the speedway just as the anthem ends.

Brent Wilson, one of three event producers for JHE, heads up 24 pre-race events, including the Budweiser Shootout and the Sprint All-Star Race, that make up NASCAR's 38-race Cup schedule. Much like the catering and concessions, pre-race planning happens months in advance.

"It all starts with finding out what the client is looking to do for the pre-race show and then organizing it for them and coming in and implementing the plan once we get on the ground," Wilson said. "Most every show has driver intros for which we bring out the pre-race stage. We coordinate the fly-bys in coordination with the anthem on TV. We've done various pre-race concerts, stunts, different stuff like that."

After getting an idea for what the track is looking to do, Wilson gets to work. When it comes to the musical acts for any pre-race concert or national anthem, there are a couple of ways that is handled.

"Sometimes tracks will come to us and say, 'Hey, we want this band for pre-race, go out and make it happen.' We'll call the label and see if they're available and negotiate the price," Wilson said. "There are times when tracks say, 'We want to do a band, this is our price range,' and we'll present them with a list of 10 or 15 acts that are available and they may pick one and we'll sign them and bring them in."

After getting all the entertainment in line, Wilson has to secure the flyover, because I don't think anyone could imagine a NASCAR race without a flyover. That process is a little more intense.

First, Wilson fills out a DD Form 2535 -- four pages of questions regarding the flyover and everything it entails. That form gets sent to the track for approval, and then to the flight standards district office which controls the airspace in that area. Once they approve it, and put air regulations on the flyover, the form goes to the Pentagon to get signed off by the Public Affairs of the Air Force. Now that Wilson has permission to have a flyover, he has to find a unit to perform it.

"We have contacts with several pilots in different bases and we know a lot of pilots," Wilson said. "So we start calling our contacts saying, 'We have this fly-by available and are you interested?'"

With all the entertainment wrapped up, it's time to head to the track.

The first chore is getting JHE's massive pre-race stage to the facility. The interesting thing is, you've probably driven past it on the freeway and not even known it.

"We have a mobile stage. It folds up and goes down the road just like a tractor-trailer -- normal height, width of a tractor-trailer," Wilson said. "When we put it on the track and we fold it out, it's 48 feet long by 24 feet wide. It has two 8-foot hydraulic sides that fold down and up. We have a structure in the center of it that we hang vinyl banners on to get the track sponsors and NASCAR and race sponsors their signage.

"It's kind of like a transformer. Going down the road it looks like a regular truck but when we park it and start pushing buttons and levers and raise it up it becomes a full stage. It goes to every single race that we produce. We have one main pre-race stage that goes to every race."

It takes about six people, two to three hours to get the stage ready for pre-race. For Truck and Nationwide series races, it takes between seven and 10 minutes to get the stage fully operational once it rolls onto the track. For Cup races, Wilson and his team set up the stage before the gates open.

With the stage in place, it's time to follow the intricate schedule Wilson and his team have put together.

"Everything is dictated by TV," Wilson said. "TV basically gives us a time on when they are coming trackside and from there we just work the timing for how long it takes to introduce the color guard, introduce the invocator and how long he prays for. We usually try to tell him to keep it around 25 or 30 seconds, then intro the anthem and depending on who's singing, how long the anthem is."

The schedule is down to the hundredth of a second, and for good reason. The entire time the pre-race is going on, that fly-by we talked about earlier -- those planes are circling about five to 10 miles away from AMS. The schedule is so detailed, each line of the anthem is measured to the second. All so that when "home of the brave" is sung with conviction, the fly-by is overhead of everyone in attendance.

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The part you have to get used to is talking to so many people because they are all integral to putting the show together. It's a lot of controlled chaos. There are people everywhere and we are trying to hit everything down to the second.

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BRENT WILSON

During the pre-race festivities, Wilson is in constant communication with five different groups. He's talking to the NASCAR tower, the person in control of audio for the speedway, the FAA, his own team, and a Forward Air Controller.

The FAC is up on the roof at Atlanta Motor Speedway and is provided by the Air Force. It's job is to communicate to the pilots how much longer until they need to be over the speedway. For the Atlanta race, the FAC's call sign was "Patches."

"We give [the pilots] a TOT which stands for time over target and we back time from there. Basically it's a two-and-a-half minute package for the anthem," Wilson said. "As we're introducing stuff, I'm giving Patches a countdown. Three minutes out, two minutes out, and we'll just count the plane in. If it's a few seconds off, the pilot will just adjust his speed."

For Wilson, the flyover dictates success or failure.

"It's all about the flyover," Wilson said. "We could have a perfect pre-race, but if we miss the fly-by, it will bother me until I get a chance to do it again."

Once everything is complete, there is no time to pat each other on the back. Wilson and his team have five minutes to get off the track for the command to start the engines. They've got the system down to two minutes.

And that really is no surprise after you spend an afternoon with Wilson and JHE. Their attention to detail is meticulous and it shows every race weekend.

"The part you have to get used to is talking to so many people because they are all integral to putting the show together," Wilson said. "It's a lot of controlled chaos. There are people everywhere and we are trying to hit everything down to the second.

"Leading up to a pre-race, it's basically just figuring out what the track's vision is and just organizing everything, bringing everything together to put on a show. At the track, it's executing that vision."