Texas Motor Speedway will open Tuesday morning as the biggest vaccination hub in the state. Denton County received 30,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine this week, and Judge Andy Eads approached the speedway to open as a hub.
"We're really proud to be able to do this," says Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage. "We're, by far, the biggest sports venue in the State of Texas. We've got lots of room, and back when this first broke last spring, we let everybody know if they need us, we're here."
Texas Motor Speedway hosted 30 high school graduations last spring. This week, Gossage says 400 police, firefighters, paramedics and members of the Texas National Guard will assist at the speedway with traffic control and administering the vaccine.
"I've got to give credit to the Denton County Sheriff, the fire departments, the EMTS. Even some military folks are going to be out giving vaccines. That's just a great sense of community cooperation," Gossage says.
Reservations are required. People can sign up through Denton County at DentonCounty.gov/COVID19vaccine . Denton County is also asking for volunteers to sign up a tthe Denton County website.
Vaccinations will be distributed at 2401 Petty Place, Fort Worth, Texas.
The speedway will be able to vaccinate 10,000 people per day Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Gossage says he is prepared to stay open as a vaccination hub past this week.
"I'm sure we're going to learn some things in the days ahead. Once we do that, we're going to be able to serve more down the road, too," he says. "We're willing to be a hub as long as they need us. I don't think people realize how large the speedway is, but the one parking lot we're using can park 26,000 cars.
The vaccine will be distributed in 16 lanes. People will be told to open their door, and the vaccine can be administered to up to 32 people at a time; one person on each side of the car. People will then pull into an observation area for 15 minutes.
Gossage says speedways in other parts of the country have offered space as vaccination hubs as well.
"All the race tracks are more than happy and wanting to help out, but it's been hard for the various agencies to get the number of vaccines they need," he says.
Through Monday, the Texas Department of State Health Services said 1,947,164 people have received one dose of the vaccine; 499,436 are fully vaccinated.