My 1st Trip to a NASCAR Race

Saturday April 4th was my first trip to a NASCAR race. I was glad I prepared for the event that was louder than you could ever imagine. I wore my shooting earmuffs over a set of Walkman-style earplugs. I programmed some frequencies I found on the web into the police scanner and luckily some of them were the correct ones. I listened to Carl Edwards (#60) for most of the race although I did switch over to #29 and #18 later on. The camo hat was me blending in with the crowd. ;-)



We had awesome seats. They were located down near turn one. As the race started the sun went behind the stadium so the sun didn't beat down on us. At the beginning they lined up trucks on the track...



...and used them to take the drivers on a parade lap. The drivers rode in the bed of the pickups.



This is my attempt to use my Olympus 770SW point-and-shoot camera, set to it's maximum optical zoom setting, and aim it through a pair of binoculars. The pic didn't come out as bad as I thought it would. It's of some of the officials looking over the pace car, a new Chevy Camaro...



Another camera/binocular mashup. This one showing the where the drivers left the stage and hopped in the trucks for their parade lap...



Here's a video showing the track. The lady singing and the fiddle player made it a good time to try out the hearing protection! ;-)



But afterwards they had a lady who won a radio contest sing the National Anthem. She was much better. Please forgive the "Mr Shakey-cam" I had especially in the beginning of the video. Watch the video until at least 2 minutes into it for the fly-over.



There were no big wrecks during the race just a spinout and one guy sliding into a wall. Here's a video showing the cars as they restart after a caution...



The winner was Kyle Busch (#18). Here's the pic of him crossing the finish line...



And here's a picture of him passing by our seats seconds later...



I've gotta say I had fun. I may very well try attending another NASCAR race in the future. Imagine that!