Vacation: Day 3 (Race Day)

I’m very lucky that my friend is hooked up in the NASCAR way. The race on the 14th was a night race, it started at 7pm. However, we must go early, so we got up and going by 10.00 am, stopped at Starbucks to caffeine up and hooked up with the others. We got to the track about noon, traffic was a bitch. For miles surrounding the track it is nothing but RV’s and trucks and all decked out in their favorite drivers colors and number. Many of the people camp there for days before and just make a week of it.

Since I’d been before we didn't have to do the tours. We mostly stayed in “the holler”, where all the motor coaches are for drivers, team members and family. It’s pretty cozy and has many amenities (TV, food, and beer). Pretty much everyone in the coach I knew from last year, my friend’s family, the driver’s family and team members. The only new person was Buddy Baker, a retired NASCAR driver. He raced for over thirty years. He is hilarious and really nice and super chatty. He used to have a gun that Elvis gave him, but it was stolen. I checked on Wikipedia and turns out he was in an Elvis movie, Speedway. Awesome.

The best part is how close we are. We get to stand in the pit with the team, wear a headset, part so we don't go deaf from the noise and part so we can listen in on the banter between the driver and the Crew Chief. You can’t get a better seat in the place and all the sounds and action are pretty infectious. The race started off with a bang, lap two there was a hit and a caution. We started out pretty good (yes, I have to say “we”, it’s what you do), but then there was an oil leak and long story short after the repair was made we were 62 laps down. It wasn’t going to be a happy ending. Anyway, the race is 500 laps and should end around 11.00 pm or so, but there were many many cautions and the race didn’t end until nearly midnight.

Kasey Kahne won, you can see his burn-out below.

















After it ends the track is packed and all you can do is go back to the coach, eat some meat and drink some beer for at least an hour. Then you try to leave the track and end up in the worst traffic you have ever seen for at least another hour. If you have a coach there (as the driver and his parents do) you stay until morning, it is just easier.

We got home at 2.30 am. All in all it was a fun day for me, but not so much for the team.