On a visit to the Charlotte/Kannapolis/Concord area to visit all of the NASCAR Team…read moreGarages/Headquarters, the RFK Racing Museum and Gift Shop was our second stop.
We visited RFK this past summer, on a Thursday afternoon in July. It was not busy, but there were a few other groups in the museum and store while we were there. The building is located in a quiet area in Concord, and there is plenty of private parking just steps away from the front doors. It was easy to figure out we were in the right spot with the water feature and signage outside.
The museum and gift shop are essentially one and the same - you walk through the lobby area of the museum to go into the gift shop. The shop is a normal, one-room sized area. The museum is sizable, having several rooms full of items to look at. The woman staffing the museum and gift shop when we visited was very friendly, conversational, and helpful with answering our questions.
The review is further broken down into categories below:
Displays/Museums/Historical Items - 5/5 Rating
The museum and displays at RFK are all very good. A lot of it was interactive, especially compared to other racing team's museums. They allow you to get up close to cars here - they are not behind ropes or glass. In addition to the displays about current and past drivers, there was some history with the different aerodynamics of the cars that RFK implemented and different engines. The overall mix of displays - historical, current, stock car, mechanical aspects - was great and interesting with the diversity. There is a good amount of items, and depending on how long you wish to browse, you could spend an hour plus looking at all of the displays.
Team Store - 3/5 Rating
The gift shop here had a lot of options for Brad Keslowski, but not a ton for their other two drivers. In terms of sale items, there were not many. Most of the items were full price. The selection of die casts was good - there was a full peg board display for these. For the hats, they were mostly sponsor-specific instead of driver specific. There was not a lot of variety in color for the hats, either.
Garage Access - 0/5 Rating
Unfortunately, there is no garage access for this team. The museum and gift shop are not connected to the garage, like they are for many other teams. I do not believe there is any public access to their garages, but I would presume they are on this property.
Overall Access - 2/5 Rating
The access here is limited to the museum and the team store. As stated, there is no garage access for this team. However, there is enough to see and interact with in the museum portion that makes this a positive experience for the fans. This score could be higher if there was some garage access added for this team in the future.
Extras - 5/5 Rating
One of the nice "extras" here is the Racing Simulator that is located at the front of the museum. It is free to use for anyone visiting. We did not see one of these at any of the other racing team's locations, so this was cool to use and partake in. It would be great for kids going to visit here as well. They have the Fastenal Theater, which according to the signage and things I read online, showed a season highlight film that anyone visiting can watch free of charge. Again, this is a unique aspect of RFK that we did not see other places. Unfortunately, it was not running the show during our visit, and it seemed to be used for storage instead. The Hero Cards are also located in the lobby/entrance, and the selection was good!
Overall, we enjoyed our visit to RFK. The fan experience at this shop, for what is there, is wonderful. There is something for young and old, and enough where you can spend a good amount of time looking at everything. The museum is free of charge, and all of the "extras" that make this place unique from other teams are also free. The gift shop could use some additional items and diversity in inventory. This is a must-stop on the tour of all of the racing teams for both the history and uniqueness it offers.