I knew going to the races would be different than watching at home; you get to smell the rubber, see the smoke, blow out your eardrums from the thunder, eat lousy hot dogs that cost more than a steak and the beer! What I didn’t know was that there is even more waiting when you are at the track but there is plenty to see and lots of stuff to spend your money on.
We arrived at the track on Saturday about 3 pm, just in time to see Jake Owen take the stage
Whoa! What about NASCAR or at least some cowboy boots!
He was lots of fun, I had a spot about 20 feet from the stage so it was really entertaining watching him. He was definitely enjoying his JOB! Someone handed him some moonshine from the front row and he had to take a moment to recompose himself! I really enjoyed when he brought his mom up on stage who he said had never been to a NASCAR race. He was such a hippy, fun guy.
Paul standing at the entrance from pit row onto turn 1
So you arrive at the track at 3 pm, we watch a 1 1/2 hour concert, make our way to our seats, watch the stands fill while listening to another concert with TRAIN. Not my favorite, it mostly sounded like noise! We were seated a ways away but they were not nearly as entertaining.
When they got done there was a break and then finally the qualifying laps! This is very entertaining as each of the 21 drivers took to the track seperatly, made a warm up lap, a full speed lap and then a full speed lap where they finished in their pit for a 4 tire change and back onto the track to finish. They qualified with the 3 laps including the pit stop!
Darius Rucker sang the National Anthem
Several drivers missed their pit as they are going full speed and had to back up. The drivers I was rooting for all made their pits, had good runs, started the race well and Kasey Kahn, the #5 almost won the race! Actually he hit the wall after leading at least 1/2 of the race and he was done. The driver that won is not a big name but a very happy guy and won by staying out of trouble, making a couple of great moves in the pits and racing hard. Congratulations to Jamie McMurray, the #1 driver and his team.
We had a great time but it was really long. The race didn’t start until almost 10 pm, was over by 11:30 and we were in bed by midnight!