Make a week of it: Texas Motor Speedway

Texas Motor Speedway broke ground in 1995 and opened its gates for its first race in 1997. It’s a 1.5-mile oval sitting on 1,500 acres in Fort Worth built with the kind of ambition that only makes sense if you grew up somewhere that considers anything else undersized. The backstretch is home to "Big Hoss," the largest high-definition video board in the world. Thanks, Texas. The winners' ceremony involves a cowboy hat and a pair of six-shooter revolvers, because of course it does. At Texas Motor Speedway, subtlety is an under-appreciated concept.

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The track has been a fixture on the NASCAR Cup Series calendar since its opening weekend, and it has produced the kind of racing that the sport does best — late restarts, overtime finishes, and historic wins. It is, in the truest sense, racing through a very Texas lens. But here is the thing about making the trip to Fort Worth for race weekend: the DFW Metroplex can get a bad wrap, thanks to its endless sprawl, but if you are only showing up for the green flag and leaving at the checkered, you are leaving a lot of good stuff on the table.

Derby Restaurant

Derby Restaurant is designed by people who love cars as much as they love food. At first, you might be tempted to think this is just a cool-looking kitchen blending elevated Southern comfort cuisine with a polished, modern edge, serving everything from wagyu burgers to brunchy egg dishes and craft cocktails and local beers. However, there’s more here than meets the eye.

What makes Derby special, worth the detour during a NASCAR weekend, aside from a break from fried track food, is the atmosphere: you’re dining steps away from a rotating collection of exotic cars and motorcycles. This restaurant doubles as a thriving car club, where members keep a wide variety of motoring treasures on display for your pre-lunch pleasure. There’s even an area that typically has members’ cars for sale. Derby Restaurant seems well worth the stop in. 

DFW Car and Toy Museum

This place kind of sells itself. Oh? You’re not sold yet? Ok. Well, DFW Car and Toy Museum is the largest car museum in Texas, which, while you’re in Texas, means “the largest car museum in the world.” 

This absolute unit of a museum spans over 150,000 sq. ft., over 200 cars, and over 3,000 toys. Here’s the kicker: it’s free. How often do you see that nowadays? The museum hosts a number of events on most weekends of the year. The weekend of the upcoming race, the museum is hosting an Italian car event and a heritage roadshow with racer Johnny Rutherford. 

Deep Ellum

Every great city has a neighborhood where people go when they are looking for a night out. For Dallas, that’s Deep Ellum. This entertainment district is teeming with boutique shops, bars, restaurants, and concert venues. I’m not being hyperbolic either; the tourism board cites over 400 businesses, 100+ bars and restaurants, and at least 25 concert venues. You can get some lunch, a tattoo, a haircut, and catch a show all before noon in Deep Ellum. This is a properly Texas-sized entertainment district. 

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Fort Worth Zoo/Dallas Zoo

This entry might be less helpful than some of the others. I’m sorry for that. The truth is, the DFW area has two fantastic zoos. Between the two of them, there are nearly 1,000 species featured. The Dallas Zoo is technically the largest in the state, but it has fewer unique species than the Fort Worth Zoo. I include them both because the Dallas/Fort Worth metro area is bigger than many care to explore. With that said, maybe you can pick the zoo nearest to where you’re staying. They are both huge and wonderful. 

Haas Moto Museum

Walking into the Haas Collection, the curation and variety of motorcycles will hit you in the chest. Spread across the Museum and the adjoining Dragon Gallery, its 230-plus motorcycles trace a living timeline that stretches from the earliest, gas-powered bicycles to boundary-breaking machines that look dreamt more than engineered. The scale alone is staggering, but it’s the individuality of each bike that lingers, a sense that no two stories ever quite repeat themselves here.

And then there’s the custom collection, over 60 one-off creations. Custom motorcycles are such a massive part of the culture that their inclusion here proves the scope the Hass collection covers. Taken together, the collection doesn’t just document the evolution of motorcycles; it celebrates the restless, creative spirit that drives motorcycle lovers all over the world.

Meow Wolf

If you really want a departure from a high-octane racing weekend, Meow Wolf will do you just right. This is one of the strangest, most beautiful, and mind-bending places in all the world, much less Texas. 

I won’t try to overexplain Meow Wolf. This place must be seen, touched, heard, and experienced in order to fully appreciate it. In short, imagine tumbling through passageways and secret corridors designed by a bunch of installation artists that are best described as the cosmic tunnels that Alice must traverse to get to Wonderland. There are scavenger hunts, secret passageways, color, light, and beauty soaked in every inch of the place. Inject a little whimsy in your life, and go to Meow Wolf.