Is This (Redneck) Heaven?

Here's the rundown from the Nationwide race. After stopping at the gas station for an unsuccessful attempt at finding a ticket (evidently I didn't tap my feet enough times in the bathroom stall), I pulled into the parking lot about 4 PM. Keep in mind, when you're parking the cars of 80,000 people on a 500 acre field, a parking lot becomes a parking spree rather quickly, but more on that later.

I got out and headed for the souvenir trailers and other trackside displays. It wasn't long before I ran into a guy trying to sell tickets. He had one he could sell, and he wanted $60 for it. I told him I'd find one later and ended up getting it for $40. I probably could've gotten it for $30, but didn't have a 20 and 10 and didn't want to ask for change. This is my second time being at one of these events, and it's always a great place for people watching. I did see some middle-eastern folks who looked strangely out of place. Anyway, there's a huge paddock area with all kinds of sponsor displays and free giveaways. It's nice to go through the trailers because they're air conditioned. Who knew the travelling Abraham Lincoln library would've been such a hit among the NASCAR faithful? I got to the US Border Patrol, they sponsor a car in the Nationwide Series, display and found Kenny Wallace signing autographs. I didn't really know too much about Kenny until I started watching him this year on Speed with Jimmy Spencer. The line was short, so I got in line for an autograph. He seems to be a nice guy, as I'm sure they all do. I found the souvenir trailers and did some shopping for the girls...and me. Tony hasn't had too much success this year, and we've taken to cheering for his teammates as well. Nora has demanded that she have a Tony Stewart shirt, while Maggie volunteered for Denny Hamlin's FedEx and Grace took Kyle Busch and the M&M's car. I was pleased to see people at Kyle's trailer despite all the boos he's heard lately. I made a couple of loops and picked out what I would get for them. $100 later, we all had new t-shirts.

A friend of mine recommended I rent a scanner, so for another $30, I got a scanner and some nice noise-cancelling headphones. The thing was pre-programmed with all the drivers' channels. You could listen to your favorite driver, the radio or TV broadcasts, or let it scan all the channels. I went back to the car, dropped off the shirts, grabbed another bottle of water. By this point, I could feel my face starting to burn, so I put on my Cubs hat and headed back toward the gate. I ran into several other Cubs fans along the way, so we had to stop and talk about that day's Cubs victory, the Rich Harden trade, and anything else that popped up.

I stopped by the Miller Lite pit stop on the way back. They had a live band and refreshments. That's where I saw this guy. I call this little video "Hope for the Rest of Us". Take a look, and you'll see why. Another thing I noticed while in that paddock. The sexy companies like Jack Daniels, Crown Royal, Skoal, Best Buy, etc, have the best looking "Marketing Assistants". The ladies handing out free samples of Tums just didn't quite measure up in terms of physical beauty. As marketing prowess goes, I'm sure they were every bit as, if not more than, capable than the others.

I got in the gate, located my section, and began the trek to my seat. You see, at these things, higher up is better because you can see more. My seat was in row 55. It was a 55 step climb to the second level, then another 30 or 40 steps up to row 55. There was a good crowd, and we settled in for a nice evening. Our section was already in the shade; and after the sun went down, it got even more comfortable. To my left, there was a mother at the race with her young daughter. To my right, there were 2 couples who, from their expressionless faces and sunburned bodies had been enjoying the festivities all day. The race got started, and it was quite impressive. The cars really did make quite a commotion on their way to get the green. The race itself wasn't that exciting. Reutimann drove out to a big lead, but his car went away when the sun went down. Tony was on the front row but missed a shift on the start. He had the fastest car in the field at one point but never did much with it. Kyle Busch took the lead on lap 94 and didn't give it back except during the round of green flag pit stops around 50 to go. On lap 177, I heard Busch's spotter tell him that his lead was seven seconds, and the second place car's last lap was 3 tenths of a second slower than Busch's. It was pretty much a blow out. Bush did his burnout, took his bow, and went to victory lane. I filed out with the other 80,000 people, turned in my scanner, and went out to the parking spree with everyone else. You can read more about that below.

All in all, I had a pretty good time. I saw some stuff I'd never seen before as well as some stuff I hope I never see again. I'm sure I'll go back for more.