FORT WORTH, Texas (NewsNation Now) — Texas Motor Speedway is the latest mega site to pop up, and thousands are rolling through to get vaccinated and because it’s a vaccine hub, it means anyone from across the country can get vaccinated there.
“We’ve been told, and it was confirmed that we are the largest mega-site in all of the U.S., and we’re very pleased about that,” said Denton County Judge Andy Eads.
Early Tuesday morning, the gates opened up at Texas Motor Speedway to welcome the thousands of people eager to roll up their sleeves.
“We entered the parking lot and it was 6 minutes from the time we entered to the time we got the shot,” said one man who got vaccinated.
“A lot of people have said this is Chick-fil-A efficiency right here in Denton County,” Judge Eads said.
One of the largest sports venues in the country and this month, all eyes are on its parking lot. Four tents, 16 lanes, 400 first responders and volunteers cranking out doses of the liquid gold.
“Today is Moderna. We’re going to run through Moderna today and later in the week, we’ll have Pfizer. People cannot select,” said Dr. Matt Richardson, Denton County’s Director of Public Health.
People in Phase 1a, 1b raced to sign up for their appointment online.
“So we’re going to be doing 10,000 today, about 1,100 per hour for a total of 30,000 this week. It’s a huge amount of vaccines,” said Judge Eads.
The waitlist has more than 140,000 names. People like Barbara Skinner, who NewsNation spoke to, shed happy tears to be one shot closer to her six grandchildren.
“The most thing is being around the grandkids again, I’ve missed that a lot. We’ve had to postpone a lot of holidays,” Skinner said. “We’d like to be around to watch them grow up!”
And John Flynn, who said he’s already daydreaming of that first safe vacation.
“First, being locked inside the house has been just like it is for everyone. You forego a lot of activities over the summer. And so I’m grateful to have the shot so that maybe next year we’ll be more normal,” Flynn said.
The site saw mass success on its first day. Unlike horror stories of long waits across the country, patients are in and out of the speedway in half an hour.
Health officials said the site will be open for more than a month to ensure everyone can get their second dose.