NASCAR and me
October 10, 2010 Leave a comment
An empty victory lane.
When there is the prospect of not having to spend much money to attend an event, I’m usually not opposed to attending. Last weekend was no exception. Stephanie has a friend from college who works for NASCAR’s primary sponsor, Sprint. When we were asked if we would like to go with them I didn’t have too many reservations about wanting to go. I used to watch NASCAR with a friend of mine, but more or less because of the social aspect.
The activity (like my wife I refuse to call it a sport) is impressive from the standpoint of 43 vehicles capable of hundreds of horsepower and hundreds of miles per hour on a track no bigger than a mile and a half around. The noise factor wasn’t quite as bad as I thought it would be. We were 14 rows from the action and didn’t need my earplugs I brought with me in my pocket. Although it didn’t stop the ingenuity of the gentlemen in front of us from using cigarette butts in their ears to filter out the noise.
Unfortunately, some of the stereotypes are true. You can’t believe the amount of confederate flags in the field surround the outside of the speedway. I’m sure most do not agree with what it stood for, but you have a hard time believing everyone there doesn’t disagree, either. Of course every sporting event has it’s fair share, however it is not on display quite like this.
I did like the idea of being able to bring in my own cooler with my own beer into the speedway. I have the ability to buy a six pack of beer for the cost of one draft beer at an NFL or Major League Baseball game, which is nice. The organization does a great job of making the day interactive, but not without a price. For $49.99 ($29.99 if you are a Sprint customer) you can get headphones and some sort of device which allows you listen in on the communication between driver and crew chief. It’s creative, but a little pricey for someone not really into the idea of listening to what is said.
The first few laps did have a level of excitement I didn’t expect, but it didn’t last long. After the initial wow factor, it is cars making left hand turns and making an effort to avoid running into each other, albeit at a very high rate of speed. For us, it was more about the experience of seeing the sites of a speedway and racetrack up close. I’ll give a link to my wife’s blog which has more pictures on it, but we did get to walk though a tunnel under the track while the race was going on and walk around the infield. I will concede being in close proximity to pit lane as pit stops went on was interesting and sorta cool.
A lot of people find NASCAR, and it’s top flight of racing the Sprint Cup, fun and intriguing and I understand why they do. I’ve made it clear on here I’m not really one of them, so I’ll spare you. The edge and appeal NASCAR had in the 80′s, 90′s and before has been lost in a quest for expansion. It has brought stock car racing to the masses, however the drivers and their personalities have been watered down for the most part in the grasp for the American sports fan’s dollar. For a glimpse into the past, no better article has been written than Tom Wolfe’s piece on NASCAR pioneer Junior Johnson from 1965. It’s long, but worth the read no matter your opinion of today’s NASCAR.
