Bass Pro Shops

Bass Pro Shops (Outdoor World) is a privately held retailer of hunting, fishing, camping and related outdoor recreation merchandise, known for stocking a wide selection of gear.

History

The majority owner, John Morris, began his career in sporting goods with a fishing section in the back of a Brown Derby liquor store owned by his father, located in Springfield MO on the road to Table Rock Lake and Branson, Missouri. That small fishing department sold homemade bait and worms, proving popular enough that Bass Pro Shops was incorporated in 1971. These homemade baits were so popular that many people wanted the opportunity to buy these when they had returned home. Thus began the Bass Pro Shops catalog, first mailed in 1974. Soon, it became the world's largest mail order sporting goods store.

In 1975, to meet the burgeoning demand for Bass Pro Shops exclusive products, American Rod and Gun was established. Acting as a separate wholesaling entity ARG serves more than 7,000 independently owned retail stores worldwide. In 1977, Bass Pro Shops introduced the first fish-ready complete boat motor and trailer package with the Bass Tracker. In 1984, construction began on the Outdoor World Catalog Showroom in Springfield, Missouri. Big Cedar Lodge opened in 1988 on Table Rock Lake.

Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500

The Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 is a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stock car race held at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia. The race is sponsored by QuikTrip, along with the nonprofit organization Folds of Honor, and is run in March as the second race of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season.

This race was originally Atlanta's second race of the season and was run as a late season event for much of its history. From 1987 until 2001, the race was scheduled in November as the final race of the NASCAR season. From 2002 until 2008, the race was moved to October in favor of awarding the final race weekend to Homestead-Miami Speedway and became part of what is now the Chase for the Sprint Cup in 2004. In 2009, Atlanta swapped fall race dates with Auto Club Speedway and the race was moved to Labor Day weekend. From 2011 onward, this has been Atlanta's only race date as its spring race was moved to Kentucky Speedway and run later in the year.

In the most recent round of schedule changing, NASCAR elected to move the Labor Day weekend race back to Darlington Raceway, which hosted the Southern 500 on that weekend from 1950 until 2003, and moved Atlanta's lone date back to the early season.