Years ago, if you knew me really well, you might have known me to be somewhat of a NASCAR fan. Now when I say that I know you get the visions of me fully clad in racing apparel, speaking to my buddies through a CB radio, and having the unique ability to count to 10 by means of car drivers (because each car has a specific number, you know). Well, that was not me, but I did love to break out the cheetos and waste away a good Sunday evening watching cars go around the track. I dont have a reason why, but I did.
For whatever reason I have lost the appeal. The race is fun to watch every now and again but it just seems like all the cars are different, the drivers are different, and to be honest I just didnt care enough to keep up.
Then it popped up! An e-mail at work for available Bristol Motor Speedway tickets. They werent for the big race on Sunday but for the lesser circuit race Friday night. I then scrolled down the page. 56 dollars. Fifty-Six hard earned dollars per ticket. (btw. Sundays race was $110 per ticket!) The idea was quickly abandoned. Apparently it was abandoned by a great majority because a few hours before the end of the day another e-mail popped up. CLEARANCE $20 per. I could concieve that.
This, I thought, was the opportunity. Maybe I have just lost the NASCAR bug because I have never been to a live race. Certainly that was it. A packed cooler, some ear plugs, and a full tank of gas later my wife and I were off. For the record, my wife has never been a fan of NASCAR, ever. but... she is a fan of shared experiances and I thought there would be plenty of those. You have no idea.
After the 2 hour car ride to the race I was blown away. I think I drove into a new world. I'll call it "NASCAR world". A world flowing with beer and cigarettes. Kindof like a redneck promised land. I elbowed my wife "here we go. you ready?" She was. I commend her for that.
The way it looked, forget parking anywhere unless your willing to walk (or transit) 2-3 miles away. I have learned that with will power, men can stumble an increadible distance...no joke. We arrived to a loud, 'I'm proud I'm a redneck' colloseum where the haze of pork rine's and high octane fuel filled the air. Street venders are selling coozies, two-way radios, and all sorts of NASCAR parafenalia and I am thinking to myself "either these people have a lot of money or they are going to be broke as a joke after this weekend" I think the latter is correct.
Bridget and I finally push our way though the weaving mobs and into the race stadium and quickly realize that for the next couple hours we could forget about ever having a conversation with eachother. I'll put it this way, constant...loud...noise. But we were at a NASCAR race doggone-it and I am going to enjoy it! 15 laps into the race and I have quickly realized why everyone is wearing radio headsets because I have no clue what is going on. My strategy quickly turned to just picking a favorite car and following it around the track. Whoo-hoo.
All of a sudden excitement overwhelms the stands, everyone jumps up and starts flailing their arms. I am caught off guard but I realize that something happened. I look around...dont see anything...keep looking, nothing. I realized I am just out of the loop because everyone has a radion on. I go back to watching my car go around again. its all about the experiance right?
Eventually the race comes to an end. I am expecting a grand hoop-la, but without the assistance of a radio-headset the race conclusion is very anti-climactic. Lets put it this way. loud, loud, loud, then quiet...done. In the books. I have now just experianced my first NASCAR race. Just the accomplishment allows me to swell up a little bit with pride. Naturally, I decide to let the stadium filter out so we would not be caught in the rampage of exiting fans. By the way, if you ever enjoy the hobby of 'people watching' you would LOVE to go to a race but that is beside the point. That part, ashamedly, was fun.
So after about 90% of the race fans had left the stadium and the cars are being put back into their haulers we decide to go down to the track and have a look around. It was there where we met our friends from Minnesota, thats right, Minnesota. They traveled down to Bristol TN for
this? Way to go guys, I hope their work does not miss them this week. For a visual of what I am talking about see the attached photo...priceless. After that, I guess it was time to head on back. Little did I know the "shared experiance" Bridget and I would have had just begun.
this? Way to go guys, I hope their work does not miss them this week. For a visual of what I am talking about see the attached photo...priceless. After that, I guess it was time to head on back. Little did I know the "shared experiance" Bridget and I would have had just begun.As we were filtering out of the stadium, we noticed a really, really long line of people. Confused, we just kept walking heading to where our bus should be to pick us up and take us back to our vehicle. Then it hit me, that is the line for the bus! Rediculus...simply rediculus. So we decided "heck fire! why dont we just walk? it's not that far." and it was'nt...if you go the right way. After some confusion about which intersection we turned on and this and that, Bridget thought we should take a right and I, of course, definatly thought we should take a left. We took a left. Should've gone right. Basically, I just followed a crowd of people and somehow, someway found myself in the middle of a campground/trailerpark resort in the middle of the night at a NASCAR race. We'll just cut through here I thought. I need to learn how to let Bridget do all the thinking.
Let me paint a picture. Here we are. Bridget and I, cooler and seat cushions in hand, strolling through chaos together. We had 4-wheelers flying by us, bonfires scattered throughout, Beer cans stacked (not kidding) 3 feet high all the way around a bonfire, people hollering, and inflatable swimming pools everywhere. Where am I??? I'm just trying not to get us killed. Bridget, for some reason, is taking it real well. I'm glad of that because it might have been horrible otherwise. After weaving our way through the neon glow of the tiki lights from the trailers we made it to the end of the campground only to find everything surrounded by barbed wire fence. Needless to say we squezzed through the fence and made our way another mile or so until we found our parking lot. I was relieved.
It was about 11:30 by then and we were exhausted. I think we must have walked 5 miles. Traffic was not too bad leaving because I think everyone left while we were wondering around all night. I then realized that I have to drive home 2 more hours and we have a church meeting at 9am the next morning. ugh. After multiple pinches, rolling the windows down, and listening to loud music, we arrived back at home safely. 1:49am. A full day, a NASCAR dream accomplished, and a wife not feeling to hot when we got back home. The question is though, was it worth the 20 bucks a ticket?............I'd say so.
