Rob and I made our now annual trip to Charlotte for the Coca-Cola 600 Sunday, and had a blast as usual. The race was one of the best of the season. Brian Vickers had a great car in the early going, but lost control, and lost a tire, which bounced like a tennis ball into the infield and brushed up against a pop-up camper. Then Dale Jr. had a good run for a while then brushed against the wall, and tore his ride, but managed to finish fifth. Tony Stewart looked to win, but he gambled on old tires and blew his right front with two laps to go, so Kasey Kahne took the win.
Our seats were similar to last year. We were between turn 4 and the start/finish line. But instead of concrete benches, we had chairbacks 12 rows off the track The colorful fans showed up in droves around us. We had the woman in the black tanktop and Tony Stewart pajama pants. Keep in mind, it was 80 degrees. Then there was the cluster of Dale Jr. fans with the cut off t-shirts, hats, and beer coozies. Then there was the drunk woman in the Kyle Busch M&Ms t-shirt who loved to get the Junior fans cranked up. They went back and forth with flipping the bird for a couple hours, then laughed about it later.
My favorite thing about NASCAR fans is they love to cheer for their guy, and berate the rival(s). When the cars come around the track, they flip off the guy(s) they hate, and fist pump their driver, and sometimes take off their hats and wave them around, as if to push the car around the track. Never mind that these cars are going 175-180 mph. "Go Dale, Go Dale, Go Dale Go! Woo Hooo!" Just picture 160,000 doing some variation of that. It's like a state fair and a college football game rolled into one.
Once again, it was a good move to rent the Sprint fanview miniature tv/radio, which you see me wearing, so we could listen to the radio broadcast, and get details about pit stops and strategies. On this mile and a half track, the cars could go about 50-55 laps on a tank of gas. I think tires could last 60-70 laps, but the inside tires wear faster. The fanview also gives you stats like who had the fastest lap, and who's made the biggest jump through field. And you can also listen to the team radio when the drivers talk to their pit crew. The best part of that is it's uncensored, so when Tony Stewart and Juan Pablo Montoya bumped each other, Stewart really "vented" about Montoya's wreckless tactics.
We stayed at a Ramada about 20 minutes away, and immediately had to take showers to get all the rubber off our arms and faces. Then we got up and left about 9:30 this morning. We've talked about going back next year and bringing a grill to make a whole day of it.
All in all, one of the more entertaining sporting events I've been to.
1 comment:
Great vergiage about what I think would be a boring time!
I went the three Indianapolis 500s, 1970, 1971 & 1972. Though it would be boring, but we had seats just across the track from the pits, so we watched the stops that lasted less than a minute for fuel and tires! Gordon Guess, Bill Dolan, Dick Iler and I had some good trips.
Pops
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