Carl Edwards makes the end exciting!
View from our roof
Paul chose Talladega for the excitement of the race and we got it. We didn’t actually see the big one but we knew something big was going to happen. We chose the infield because you can see the track from your camping site and there is lots of places to sit and watch the race. We chose the most popular place where you could see a good portion of the track. From our vantage point we could see the lead change and then watch the leader board and watch the lead change again before they crossed the start line and then change again when they got to the back side again.
If you look closely you can see the Nascar Sprint Cup cars racing around the track. This was taken 1 lap before the first crash that took a favorite out, Jeff Gordon. He later returned to finish the race with a car that was missing most of its rear end!
Paul and I are not your normal Nascar fan; Most fans sit on this lawn with only an ice chest full of BudLight and maybe a chair, never an umbrella and usually no shirt.
The track is over 2 miles around so no way can you see the whole track from anywhere. There were 3 big accidents that took drivers out of the race, the first happening with only 6 laps of the over 180 laps of the race. This seems like such a waste to me but I guess it is part of the sport. The second accident started right infront of where we were sitting and if we would have ran to the fence like many of the fans we would have been able to see the wreckage. Pretty exciting to watch the fans -some were actually cheering when the accidents occurred once they knew no one was injured.
Talladega fans come prepared to party. Once you enter the infield on Thursday you cannot remove your vehicle until Monday and the only way out is a little train shuttle that takes you out the tunnel, then you have to go probably 5 miles to find a store so everyone comes in with some food and plenty of beer – BudLight in particular. If you look at my hand holding a glass of margarita I am demonstrating the pose that most every fan has from Thursday night until Monday morning! I am sure there will be injuries just from having their arms bent like that for 4 days!
The other thing that is mandatory is that you carry or pull an ice chest so that you are never without the beer in your hand!!!
Some of the fans feel a need to overdress!
And some do some really crazy things! This guy below drinks charcoal fluid and then blows his breath and lights his lighter! If you look close you can see the smoke but it was a huge flame – like Pete’s dragon from the movies!
Paul spent a lot of his time on Talladega Blvd. trying to get pictures of the girls showing their boobs for beads!!! We aren’t showing those, you will have to go and get your own!