HENRICO COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — As NASCAR’s biggest stars descend on Richmond, a team of another kind is fine-tuning their culinary engines ahead of race weekend. 

Food preparations for NASCAR at the Richmond Raceway is underway as the culinary team works to serve fans their favorite stadium foods this weekend.

“We start our menu planning almost a year out,” James Pierson, Regional Chef with Levy Restaurants told 8News. 

Pierson, who travels from track to track throughout the NASCAR season, said part of his team shows up 10 days before race weekend, with the rest showing up about a week before. 

As for what’s on the menu, Pierson said they’ll have fan favorites. 

“In our concession stands, we do the whole gamut of hot dogs, of course, because they are our number one seller, chicken tenders, we do pizza, pulled pork, we have a King’s Hawaiian sandwich.”

The vanilla-scented chicken waffle sandwich to be featured in the menu at the three-day NASCAR event to take place at the Richmond Raceway starting Friday, March 29.

 Pierson also said they’ll be offering a very special chicken sandwich. 

“Then we have our specialty item right here,” Pierson said when showing 8News the chicken sandwich, “which is a vanilla-scented waffle with a deep-fried chicken breast, bacon, and provolone cheese with a little side of maple syrup dipping sauce.”