The Pigeon Forge Racing Coaster, co-owned by BJ McLeod, held its grand opening on June 20. Nestled in the Great Smokey Mountains in scenic Pigeon Forge, Tenn., the alpine coaster is the first of its kind in the world, giving the riders the ability to control their own speed and race against friends and family to the finish line.
The coaster most recently appeared as the primary sponsor on McLeod’s Live Fast Motorsports No. 78 car for last Saturday’s (June 28) Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway. McLeod finished 16th, scoring his best NASCAR Cup Series result since 2022.
Frontstretch had the opportunity to interview McLeod on June 27, one day prior to the race, where he discussed the coaster, his on- and off-track endeavors and the long-term goals of Live Fast’s Cup operation.
Select quotes from the interview are used in this article. You can watch and listen to the full interview via the following YouTube video.
Stephen Stumpf, Frontstretch: How great has it been to build this, how did this opportunity come about, and what has the first week of operations been like?
BJ McLeod: Basically, when we sold the full-time part of our business — the charter for the Cup team in 2023 — we knew we were going to be part time, and we thought we might take some time off from starting anything new. And (my wife) Jessica and I were sitting at the lake house for two weeks, and sometime in that period we were like, ‘you know what, we need a new project.’
Jessica and I’s passion for Pigeon Forge has been growing since 2005. We’ve been visitors over there and we bought land there and a cabin in 2021 or maybe 2022. Just really enjoyed the area, and I’m the kind of person that wherever I have a home, I kind of want a business to check on and look at it. …
I said (to my friend Teddy) I want it to be something in the amusement industry, something that brings people in and people are smiling when they leave and have a lifetime memory. It could have been a go-kart track, it could have been mini golf, it could have been any of this stuff that goes on over there; there’s a lot of attractions. But I knew he had built coasters before and I told him I was like, ‘just so you know, if it’s a coaster I’ll be happy.’ …
So that’s how it started. Then fast forward a year and a half from that moment, and we’re opening — grand opening — and seeing people ride for the first time and being a part of it, knowing we’re part owners and bringing the racing aspect to it, being the first of its kind. Like, (it’s) truly special beyond words. It’s just an awesome business to be a part of, and for us, it’s about being a part of that community and making people happy that are coming there and spending family vacations there. It’s just been truly special.
Stumpf: Do you know what the time record, the speed record is in the first week? Have any other high-profile people — maybe NASCAR drivers — come to try it out?
McLeod: We haven’t had any other NASCAR drivers yet, but that is in the plans. … We’re going to make sure we get them there to have some fun.
None of those guys yet, but time wise, it actually gets really close. We have a very nice timing and scoring system. We had some issues first couple of days. We got it sorted out now, it’s really cool to get off, and you’re racing for tenths. I mean, you’d think it’d be seconds, but it comes down to tenths for the win depending on who you’re racing and what their comfort level is. You’re going fast around very sharp corners suspended over 80 feet in the air at some point. So it gets wild, but it is a safe ride.
Stumpf: Is the Pigeon Forge Racing Coaster going to be a sponsor for any of your races in the rest of the season?
McLeod: I’m running that because I love it, and it’s part of our companies, and I love the (paint) scheme, and it felt really good the first time we put it on (for the) Talladega Cup race. I walked in and saw it on the car and I’m like, ‘man, that just matches me.’ Like that’s, that’s my personality all the way around. …
I don’t know exactly what races we’ll have it on, but it will for sure be a mainstay in the sponsor side of the racing that I do.
Stumpf: You sold the charter a year and a half ago, you said that (the charter) was able to help fund this. What other projects have you been involved in that you’ve been able to do with that sale?
McLeod: We’ve been real estate people for two decades. We may take a year or two off, but we’re always messing around with real estate opportunities.
Stumpf: I assume that deciding to sell (the charter) was the right decision? No buyer’s remorse from it?
McLeod: Oh no man, not one second. … No regret at all.
Stumpf: Is there any other racing you do outside of NASCAR?
McLeod: No. I’m still focused on proving that I can do what I know I can do at the NASCAR level, and I have a lot of people that believe in me — more than I have proven — and support me. The fans that I had that reached out for the opportunity with the Spire truck at Charlotte, that gave me support going into the weekend and (they) all were so happy for me.
I actually wanted to do better in my mind. I definitely didn’t perform like I should have, and a lot of things that played up to that, and I didn’t get to do exactly what I felt like I’m capable of doing, but I’m going to work on figuring [it out], putting in the effort to making sure — as I keep making these attempts at trying to be in a competitive ride — that I’m prepared and more ready. Because on my side, I just didn’t perform to my 100%.
I just really appreciate the support of everybody that I had. It was really cool to see how many people were excited after a decade and a half of racing in NASCAR and not ever being in what’s known as a winning ride. I had a chance to do that, and the people that supported me was incredible. So I’m excited to learn what I did wrong there, learn from it and work on trying to close that in and make it better for whatever’s next.
Stumpf: The No. 78 team is expanding; Katherine Legge is running six (races) this year. How did the deal come together, and what have you seen out of her so far in her first couple of races?
McLeod: For us, Jessica and I want to be the steppingstone with our Cup team to a winning Cup team, right? In the Cup Series now, there’s a lot of winning Cup teams, right? It’s extremely competitive, way more than even six or seven years ago, so we feel like we are a good organization with the infrastructure already in place, built and paid for to be able to get a Xfinity or a Truck series champion or somebody that’s racing for a championship in those series that needs to get Cup experience because Trucks and Xfinity drive nothing like Cup. Trucks (are) a little bit closer than Xfinity, but it just is nothing like driving a Cup car, and we know that; I know that from driving them. …
It takes a long time when you get in Cup to win your first race; It’s just difficult. So we’re hoping to be that steppingstone, and Katherine helped us get that off the ground by giving us a chance and coming to us. And when it was proposed to me, I was instantly in, because I follow Katherine. I’m an Indy 500 fan, and I actually was watching live — I think it was 2023 — when she made it. Barely scraped the wall a little bit (in qualifying) and still got in the race and I’m like, ‘man, that’s just insane.’
If you look at her career, she’s done a lot of cool stuff for over two decades; she’s a real racer. She’s hardcore, she never gets tired in a race car, she’s just physically fit. She works hard at what she does, and for us, that’s what I need.
Stumpf: To be that steppingstone up to Cup, are there any drivers you guys have tried reaching out to for an opportunity? And who are the most impressive drivers not in Cup that are working their way up right now?
McLeod: There’s a lot that are impressive, and I wouldn’t want to try to name them all. I have not reached out to anybody to try to do that yet because in 2024, we were kind of just doing our thing and laying the groundwork as a part-time team and making sure we had everything the way we wanted it.
(This year), it’s like, ‘OK, now we’re ready,’ and fortunately Katherine and we got together in March. We haven’t had to reach out to anyone and try to figure that out, but if she moves on or goes somewhere else or something like that, I would be looking for someone to have sponsorship to put with Jessica and I and keep doing this on a part-time basis, trying to develop someone. And I’ve told him personally and I’ve said it publicly, but Rajah (Caruth) is like the example of what I’m looking for because he’s a Truck Series winner he’s chasing a Truck Series championship and I 100% believe he’ll be a Sunday winner.
So if we could help speed that curve up by putting a good partner with him and getting him some seat time in a car he knows he doesn’t have pressure in. He knows the car is a 30th-place car on average, it’s really just about him going there and learning the nuances of a Cup race and how long they are and how hard they are to get physically fit for and all of the above. It’s somebody like that that we’re looking to work with.
Stumpf: Would (the team) run the full season if the sponsorship and drivers are to be found (in 2026)?
McLeod: No, I don’t want to do that. I’m not saying that we would never be back full time in Cup, but I don’t to dilute what we do right now when we go to the racetrack. We have solid cars; we have a very limited payroll. We don’t have failures — all people have failures, all teams have failures, but right now we’re at zero failures since we started doing the part-time thing.
And sooner or later that will bite us, but it’s the point of — with our infrastructure — I want to make sure whatever I offer, you’re getting the best that Live Fast Motorsports with our connections can bring to the racetrack. And we are not capable of doing that full time this year or next or the year after unless something big was to happen.
That’s why I say no way (for) 2026; I don’t care what fell on my lap right now. 2027, who knows. Maybe the right thing falls on my lap, we might do it. But my aspiration is to have Live Fast Motorsports at the track 10 to 15 times a year, that [the car] stays on the lead lap and is in position to jump to 20th or finish 25th or something of that sort.
Stumpf: And to reach that point, what results are you hoping to get at EchoPark and for the rest of your starts this season?
McLeod: I think what I do really has nothing to do with it. It’s more my guys have proven that they build solid race cars. …
I’m here because I love racing. I love the competition of the Cup Series, and I love the Next Gen car and I love the challenges that it brings.
And this is where I want to be. These weekends are more about fun for us and just have a good time, and then when Katherine’s in the car, we put our business caps on and make sure we take care of her.
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is “Stat Sheet,” and he formerly wrote "4 Burning Questions" for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Find Stephen on Twitter @stephen_stumpf