Let’s talk about the Darlington tailgate scene! We kicked off our 2021 Tailgate Tour and new video content series with Garage Guy Chase and Dale Tanhardt, from Garage Guys Fantasy Sports, on our 10 stop NASCAR Tailgate Tour promoting the new American Cornhole League Pro Shootout Event Series on CBS Sports.
Each week we’re bringing you the lowdown in a Weekend Wrap-up and introducing Tales of the Tailgate, where we chat with fellow tailgaters and industry pros while tailgating. Whether reminiscing about best tailgate experiences or providing tips and insights or showing off skills, we’re highlighting the best things about the tailgating lifestyle.
Check out the videos and keep reading as we break it all down for you:
DARLINGTON TAILGATE WRAP-UP
The weekend in general was great! The races still aren’t at full capacity, so there weren’t a ton of people attending large tailgate events. We did, however, hold a tailgate event inside of the Richard Petty Campground and it was by far the largest tailgate event of the weekend. If you want to be in all of the action and have a really big tailgate party, we highly recommend the Richard Petty Campground.
We arrived on Friday and set up, but Saturday was by far the biggest day. A lot of people love the ACL integration and joined us for cornhole. We had a great time and met so many amazing people in Darlington. We can’t wait to be back for the Southern 500 in the fall!
The Goodyear 400 marks the 120th Cup race hosted by Darlington Raceway in the series’ history. This was the first race of the season at Darlington. The 1.33-mile oval located in Darlington, South Carolina has an asphalt racing surface with 25 degrees of banking in turns 1 and 2, and 23 degrees of banking in turns 3 and 4. With 3 degrees on the front stretch and 2 degrees on the backstretch, this track has unique characteristics that require drivers to race against the wall. As a result, drivers will earn their “Darlington Stripes” from grazing the wall through the infamous turns. The track first opened in 1950, the Cup Series held its inaugural race then and Johnny Mantz won.
Darlington TAILGATE FULL VIDEO: NASCAR Goodyear 400 Weekend Wrap-Up
Tales of the Tailgate: Darlington
Introducing Tales of the Tailgate, where we chat with fellow tailgaters and industry pros while tailgating. This is the first episode with Garage Guy Chase, from Garage Guys Fantasy Sports, and Ty Freeborn, CEO of Steakhouse Elite while at the Goodyear 400 in Darlington, SC.
The Goodyear 400 marks the 120th Cup race hosted by Darlington Raceway in the series’ history. This was the first race of the season at Darlington. The 1.33-mile oval located in Darlington, South Carolina has an asphalt racing surface with 25 degrees of banking in turns 1 and 2, and 23 degrees of banking in turns 3 and 4. With 3 degrees on the front stretch and 2 degrees on the backstretch, this track has unique characteristics that require drivers to race against the wall. As a result, drivers will earn their “Darlington Stripes” from grazing the wall through the infamous turns. The track first opened in 1950, the Cup Series held its inaugural race then and Johnny Mantz won.
Tales of the Tailgate: Darlington GOODYEAR 400 FULL VIDEO
Tales of the Tailgate: Darlington Goodyear 400 Full Transcript
Chase Holden:
All right, Darlington is over. I’m sitting here with Ty Freeborn, CEO of Steakhouse Elite, and they sponsored the Xfinity race.
Chase Holden:
First and foremost, thank you for being on the Tales of the Tailgate with Inside Tailgating. Have you had a good time this weekend? That’s the main question.
Ty Freeborn:
Darlington has been a great experience for us. We’ve been involved in a lot of racing and a lot of different avenues, it’s been a great track. Throwback Weekend’s a lot of fun. There’s a lot of tradition here in Darlington and yeah, the staff, the track, everything. It’s our first year here and it’s been a lot of fun to be part of, even with what we’re going through it was a little bit back to normal. And just all around a good time.
Chase Holden:
Yeah, I’ll say the same man. So this is our first time actually being at Darlington as well. Out here with Inside Tailgating sponsored by the ACL, American Cornhole League. Now, you’re kind of a fan of cornhole yourself. Talked a little bit about that over the weekend as well, so that was really cool.
Chase Holden:
And like, just to kind of see the atmosphere and the vibe and everything kind of like build up together. But what caught the interest was, the big thing was when you came over the first night, we got to talk a little bit. Came over, showed the hospitality, literally everything that like NASCAR camping is about it is just meeting new people, sharing experiences, came over, gave us some new burgers to try out.
Chase Holden:
Which we’re still going to get to try, that’s a promise. Promised you on that. But it really interested me, I always love to meet new campers and things like that. And especially somebody like you being out here sponsoring your race, and it just shows the interconnectivity no matter where you come from, your life, what you do, everybody is just kind of like altogether one. So being here at this tailgate in specific, is this the only NASCAR race you’ve attended?
Ty Freeborn:
No, not at all. We’ve been involved in the NASCAR sport for a while. We started in the Cup Series cars and we’ve worked our way through the concessions and a partner of ISC tracks, we’re available at all the concessions. And then this year, we’ve tried our chance at the entitlement package. And that’s been pretty special but no, by all means, NASCAR is a great sport. Tailgating is obviously what it’s about. You’ve got a three-day tailgate at NASCAR.
Ty Freeborn:
As a burger company, we’ve always found ourselves drawn to the tailgating crowd. You’ve got the grilling season in the spring and then come fall you’ve got tailgating. And so, we’ve done the football thing. We’re official burger partner of the New York Yankees, and we’ve done that. But tailgating at NASCAR is a three-day deal.
Chase Holden:
Yeah.
Ty Freeborn:
And it’s a lifestyle, it’s tradition. And so, being part of Throwback Weekend here at Darlington just exemplifies what that tradition and that lifestyle is all about.
Chase Holden:
Yeah, absolutely. I’ll say the same too. Like obviously, I’m a big throwback guy in general. So I’ve got the other Sterling Marlin, Brooks and Dunn. He was just like ’01 or so, but good times as always, we had a great time with [inaudible 00:03:47].
Ty Freeborn:
You don’t see those everyday. That’s pretty legit.
Chase Holden:
No. No. It’s a huge market for it now so I think Throwback Weekend is like every weekend for us mainly, now. But the one thing I will say, kind of getting away from the tailgating aspect of what really interests me about, I love your logo of your company. And like I said, you sponsored the Xfinity race. Why burgers mainly? What got you into the food business? How did you get to where you are now?
Ty Freeborn:
Steakhouse Elite is an offshoot of a family business, it was a whole beef business. We handle all kinds of beef mostly food service, and we came up with the idea of a specialty burger program for retail that was focused on making the burger better. It wasn’t necessarily what toppings you can put on it, but like let’s start with the basics. Let’s make the burger better, you want a better burger, make the burger better.
Chase Holden:
Right.
Ty Freeborn:
And so, we went that route and it was zeroed in on just that. We used American Wagyu beef in a blend situation to make an everyday attainable supermarket burger and people loved it. And that was the flagship product, we’ve expanded since then.
Ty Freeborn:
We’ve got Angus products, we’ve got grass fed products, we’ve got brisket burgers, we got rib-eye burgers. We got a lot of different variations. But the core that started this business was we want to make a better light bulb.
Chase Holden:
Yep.
Ty Freeborn:
You know what I mean? Like we want to make a better tire. When you think that it’s all the same anymore, and then somebody comes out and creates the LED.
Chase Holden:
Right.
Ty Freeborn:
You’re like…
Chase Holden:
Oh.
Ty Freeborn:
Where’s this been the whole time?
Chase Holden:
Right.
Ty Freeborn:
Right? We do that for burgers. All of a sudden we made the burger better. And that’s where we’re at. We were first to market. People jumped on it and now you go to your grocery store and it’s a segment. Like there’s a portion of the meat case that is premium ground beef. It matters, people care. They want a [inaudible 00:05:53] product. And we were first to market in that and that segments not going anywhere, it’s just a matter of who’s going to live there.
Chase Holden:
Absolutely, yeah. Especially right now, like we’re in a time like you said, people are really starting to really care a lot more about the quality of their meat.
Chase Holden:
Organic food has kind of been on the up and up. I love the fact that you said your burgers have a 14 day shelf life. I know, me personally, like anytime I’m looking at any type of food I want to make sure that the shelf life isn’t super long. I want to make sure that I’m not getting something filled with preservatives and additives and things like that. So when you told me that, it’s like almost an immediately like, I trust your product, you know what I mean?
Chase Holden:
So it’s an incredible thing. And with tailgaters as well, too, most likely you’re not going to be tailgating longer than 14 days. So it’s like a perfect way to get people to have your products, to be feeling good about the product itself. Most people when they go, they try to buy cheaper things and stuff like that. And it’s like, you can spend a little bit extra, know that you’re getting good quality meat, that you’re keeping you on your diet. Cause like cheat days, right?
Chase Holden:
A lot of people had to go out and then sometimes they’ll just buy whatever. But this is a beautiful thing because there are some people that really do want those options and not even that, but taking that, the taste of the burgers, obviously, I’ve heard from a lot of people, burgers are phenomenal. When you add that factor in, it’s not going to matter about the price at that point because it’s all about quality. And that’s what really it comes down to in life that I’ve found in general at least. I know a lot more people in my age group, especially more of the millennial generation right now, they’re huge on that.
Chase Holden:
So, that’s the number one thing. So I love the fact that you guys are targeting on that. Like I said, the branding in general, being a part of NASCAR, being out here with the NASCAR fans, just having a good time, tailgating is what it’s all about. And I’m looking forward to more of that. And I think that more companies could do the same thing that you’re doing out here. They could be out here and integrating kind of with the fan base and things, and just showing the human side and not where most people will think like, Oh, there’s a suit in a corporate room or whatever. You’re a real guy and you’re a great guy. You’re an awesome guy, we’ve hung out a good bit this weekend. It’s been real fun and I’ve enjoyed it. What’s been your favorite part about this weekend in particular?
Ty Freeborn:
You know, typically when we came to the track, I stayed off track. I came in, we had the race cars, we’re in the end field and it was really hard. I would come out to the campgrounds cause I knew this culture existed, and that was important to me and I wanted to be part of it. And I wanted to see it. We did a big grill out in Talladega a couple years back, and that was a lot of fun. And you kind of really get to see the culture of the racetrack and the fans and the people.
Ty Freeborn:
So one of the most special things about this weekend for me is I camp right here in the Petty Campground at Darlington, and I wasn’t in the end field and I was able to cruise around, and I was able to visit with the folks, and people were able to come and see the bus. It was just special to be right here in the middle of people, and that’s where I want to be. I mean…
Chase Holden:
Yeah.
Ty Freeborn:
You know, Steakhouse Elite has been a huge success. We’re very proud of that, but at the same time it wasn’t long ago that that wasn’t the case. You know. And so, we like it out here. We like being with people. We like being with the tailgaters. It’s about a lifestyle for us. We recognized that from the beginning, our motto to start was savor the moment.
Chase Holden:
Right. I like that.
Ty Freeborn:
And I think that says a lot about the company itself and our company culture of saying you know what, enjoy life, enjoy what it is. And the burger is great.
Chase Holden:
Savor the burger, savor the moment.
Ty Freeborn:
You know, we made a better burger, but what we did is we made a better experience. You know.
Chase Holden:
Exactly.
Ty Freeborn:
We wanted to be part of people’s memories.
Chase Holden:
Yeah.
Ty Freeborn:
So that’s what we’re striving for. And so, to go on and take that, and we’re in a little bit different phase now, well, we’ve realized that the burger is outstanding. So, we’ve kind of switched them out to taste the difference because we want customer trial. But you know, I think at the end of the day savor the moment still says a lot about the company.
Chase Holden:
Absolutely. And I love that about the company as well. Ty where everybody follow Steakhouse Elite on social media and what are some of the major stores they can buy the product in.
Ty Freeborn:
Steakhouse Elite is available at a lot of stores in the Southeast. Publix is our major player.
Chase Holden:
Okay.
Ty Freeborn:
So you can pick it up at your local Publix. You can find our store locator at steakhouseelite.com.
Chase Holden:
Beautiful. Easy.
Ty Freeborn:
And yeah. And you can find your regional grocer there that’s got the product available and follow their store locators, but you can get us at Facebook and get us on Instagram.
Ty Freeborn:
Yeah, we love it. We love it. We love the interaction with people. We love the fans, NASCAR’s huge about fan loyalty. We’ve done, like I said, we’ve done the NFL with What The Buc. We’ve done the Yankees, it’s the official burger of Yankee Stadium. And we’ve done NASCAR and it comes down to the fans. I mean, the sports are great. Don’t get me wrong.
Chase Holden:
Yeah.
Ty Freeborn:
I love the sports are all fun, but let’s be honest. Like the real memories are built before the game. Not after.
Chase Holden:
That’s right.
Ty Freeborn:
Or not during.
Chase Holden:
Yeah, exactly. A hundred percent. I got to ask too. So you said you’re doing stuff with the Yankees. Did you get to sit in the judges section while you were there? Did you get to go to Yankee Stadium at all? Did you get to be there?
Ty Freeborn:
I got to say I’ve been invited. My partner’s from New York so he’s been there, but I’m from Oregon. So I have yet to make it out to Yankee Stadium, but I look forward to being there soon and when I do it’s going to be great.
Chase Holden:
Yeah. It’s a hell of a time, man. We’ve had a great time up there when we went as well. So, that’s it. That’s the scoop. This has been the Tales of the Tailgate, the first episode of Tales of the Tailgate. So you heard it first again, Ty Freeborn, Steakhouse Elite, follow him, find him at Publix and I hope to see you as many more times as possible on this tour, man.
Ty Freeborn:
All right. Well, I appreciate the time. Thanks man. You guys are doing a great thing here.
Chase Holden:
Not a problem.
Ty Freeborn:
I wish you luck.
Chase Holden:
Oh, thanks so much. All right, we’re going to get burgers. All right.
Special thanks to the American Cornhole League and Duke Cannon for their sponsorship of our 2021 NASCAR Tailgate Tour. Share your Darlington tailgate experiences with us below and like, follow, tag us on your social tailgating posts for shout-outs. Don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel and email newsletter so you stay up to speed on all the tailgating insider info!
