We left the craziness of the speedway on Tuesday and I have had a very relaxing, almost boring week!  We found a campground north of Stateville, North Carolina that is a small, private park with lots of grass, a pool, no noise and they like dogs!

No mountains, or rivers but lots of green lawns!

Beautiful

At least I think they like dogs!   When we arrived I was greeted by a black lab that kept his distance and barked a little, and then I was soon met by the owner and a yellow lab mix that was very friendly.  The owner took me to our site on his ATV type golf cart and never spoke to the dog.  Duke got out of the RV and he never spoke to Duke either!  We never got a list of “Rules” and no waivers about pet owner “Rules”    Today, I went to the office to pay for another night with Duke (off leash) and the owner still never acknowledged Duke!  Hmmm.  I guess the dogs are welcome just like people!

Relaxing in the grass after a round of fetch!

This place is almost like home!  No rules that no one is enforcing!  We like it a lot and wish we could stay longer!

One last NASCAR post!  We took the tour where you get to see all the suites, VIP boxes, a drive through the garages, in the media center.  It was all very nice however I think we had better seats than the VIP’s although I am sure the booze was flowing much better up there!  The tour was nice but the ride on the track was really fun!  Paul was in the front seat and thought the van was going to tip over!

Coming into turn 1

24 degree bank thru turn 1 into turn 2

And the winner is?

I have made some observations over the past two weekends.

#1.  NASCAR is truly a sport but not like the others;  you have 40+ drivers, so basically 40+ teams playing at the same time with fans for each one sharing beers in the stands.  I never saw a fight, or argument.  I did get a photo of one fan flipping off a driver that I guess he knew was better than his guy and was going to beat him today!

#2.  NASCAR has lots of rules for the fans but they are loosely inforced.  We learned this at Talledega but it was reinforced here.

a. Quiet hours are 12 am – 6 am – or somewhere there abouts if you are celebrating a big win!

b.  Smoking is in designated areas or if you really have to, go ahead and light one up while sitting in your seat.  No one will report it.      although one cranky guy might pop you on the shoulder with his cap and tell you to put that thing out!  (yep, Paul did just that!)

c.  There is no dress code, but please wear your team colors!

#3.  Everybody here knows lots about the history of their sport!

#4  Red neck comes in all socio economic platforms and once they get to the track you have no idea who is which!

#5  NASCAR is all about friends, family, beer and a good time!  All at the same time!

#6  BOOing is encouraged!!!!

600 miles takes about 4 1/2 hours if we are lucky and we were if you don’t count all the time  we wandered around the pits looking up close at the cars, watching the teams prepare for the race

Checking out the pits, those are tires for just one car!

Gluing the lug nuts on the wheels

Standing in front of the #5 pit stall!

Number 47 being wheeled into position

#5 in position

Today we are fans of #47 AJ Almendinger because he is from Los Gatos, and #5 Kasey Kahne just because I think he is cute!  About 1/2 way thru the race I changed teams!  I didn’t venture far as I began cheering for #24, and #48!  They were doing good and it was more exciting watching them!

Watching crazy fans on the infield:

Crazy infield fans!

They come and stay for the weekend in tents!

Kurt Busch the #41 driver was setting some sort of marathon record today,  he  drove 500 miles in the Indianapolis 500, finishing after 4 pm our time and flew here, arriving by helicopter to race at 7 pm in the Coca Cola 600!  He did great for his first time in Indy cars, finishing 6th but in the NASCAR race he blew an engine about 300 miles into the race.

Kurt Busch the #41 arrives

Then we took our seats about 5 pm to watch driver introductions, opening ceremonies:

My driver, Kasey Kahne #5

One more shot

AJ riding away after his intro

#48, the winner of the pole for this race

Then about 7 pm they finally got all the crap off the field and got the race underway!

The lead car heading down pit road to start the Coca Cola 600

They have to do some pace laps to get everyone in line and ready to go

This is how I keep track of who is doing well!
This is the starting line up for this race

And after several potty breaks and lots of banter with other fans, the winner is:

Congratulations Jimmy Johnson! He started the race first, led most of the laps and was the first to see the checkered flag!

By the end of this weekend we will have watched over a 1000 miles of Go Fast, Turn Left from seats only about 70 feet away from their tires!  I think Paul is excited, it is hard to tell but he is watching more of it on the TV this morning so I guess this was worth it!  Thursday night we watched the qualifying for the big race on Sunday. Friday we went to the Dirt Track to watch the Outlaws race.  Saturday we watched the History 300 which is the Nationwide Race which is like the little league for the Sprint Race which we will be watching on Sunday!

The Driver I’ll be cheering for on Sunday.

Kasey Kahne did really well in the Allstar race until he hit the wall and qualified 3rd for Sunday’s race so hopefully I get to cheer all through the 600 miles!  Go Kasey!

Huge Coke Logo in the middle of the infield

Danica spotting!

It seems she is the easiest driver to spot from the stands, or she is just  out there more than the others! She also did really well in the qualifying and will start 4th in Sundays race – hopefully she can stay up front for awhile!

The Nationwide History 300 race started with a Firetruck Parade!  Those guys in the trucks looked like they were having a great time!

Fire truck parade

Just before they take off

I didn’t find the race all that exciting, there were on accidents!  Although watching this young guy, Kyle Larson race past Brad Keselowski and take the lead and then win the race handily was fun!

Kyle Larson

I think this guy will be one of the big stars within the next couple of years!   And he is from Elk Grove CA!  Thats my newby, NASCAR fan prediction!  I’ve learned a lot this year about this unusual sport and I like it!

A bonus!  We also got to see the Outlaw Showdown!  Dirt track racing.  Only a couple of hours and one really cool crash right infront of our seats.

Just starting

I think they look like cartoons!

We have seen these kinds of cars many times and I have to say this time was really fast!  We also got to see the Late Model cars race.  Not even sure why they are late model.

Nice looking car

Dirt track is fun to watch.  It is fast, short and they are fun to watch sliding around the corners!

No racing, no tours, no practice, no events, what shall we do?

Crowders Mountain SP Lake

We took a drive and found this cute little lake.  A nice short walk around the lake and a picnic lunch, thats a welcome change to the action we have been enjoying.

A cool picture of the lake

So quiet, so peaceful.

And so it goes……

and,  I saw this while shopping yesterday and thought of home and girlfriends!

Sunday was a day of rest!  We didn’t even hardly watch TV!  And today we were up early for a tour of 3 of the NASCAR big teams garages.  Mostly what you see is the area where they are building the shells and their museums of there winnings and of course the gift shop!

We saw Hendrick Motor Sports,  Home of the #5, #24, #48 and #88!  I love these guys and really hope #5 starts having a better year!

We also went to Roush and Stewart/Haas Motors.  They all have lots of cars on display and this is one we saw at Roush!

OUCH!

#10, Danica Patrick

I wish she would do better so I could become a Fan!  She drives ok, but I would hope she would put the petal to the metal and show these boys how to drive!

The most interesting thing on this tour was we met a coach for the Hendrick Motors who trains the athletes that are the pit crews.  The actually recruit from college campuses, have training camps and lower divisions just like other sports.  The guy was really informative and said he tried it but the coaching side is what he is best at!

This is an area that is a replica of a pit road that they use for practice and training.  They brought the car around while we were there.  Paul is sitting on the wall that they have to stand behind until the driver comes to a stop!

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!

Finally!  We decided to do this in December, bought our tickets and paid for our camping in January and today we sat in the stands to enjoy wildcard qualifying for the Allstar Race on Saturday and the Campingworld Truck Series race.  Great seats right near the start/finish line and midway up so we can see the back stretch!  (I’m learning the lingo!)  The big weekend race is Saturday night and A.J Allmendinger and Clint Bowyer won a spot in the race with the Allstars.

Today I wore my Jeff Gordon shirt. I have several shirts with different drivers I will wear this week. I just couldn’t decide on only one driver!

A.J. known as “the Dinger”  is who we were rooting for as he is from Los Gatos and so we think of him as a neighbor!  We even bought Paul one of his shirts that for now hangs in our windshield as our token NASCAR fan showing.  I am hoping Paul wears the shirt tonight but maybe not as he has a really bad case of poison oak again and has modified several shirts to reduce the rub!

Before the race can begin we have to have introductions!  Two drivers we will be watching,  not sure about rooting for them yet!

#10 Danica. She is a woman in a mans world. I wish she would do better. I really want to be a Fan!

The Dinger!

Back to the race!  The Allstar qualifying was not real exciting except when Boyer overtook A.J. after 18 of the first 20 laps.  The second half was all Boyer with A.J. right behind and the rest of the 20 or so cars way back.  There was only one caution in the 40 laps so as a fan it wasn’t much to watch.

The final pace lap on the back stretch

And they are off- this is the only time the #3 led the race, as A.J. overtook him near the first turn

And the winners are:

#15 Clint Boyer and the #47 A.J. Allmendinger

And then the fans vote one more driver in and the winner is….. #98 Josh Wise.  He is a very new driver and has embraced social media and it worked!

Just like any other sporting event NASCAR has filler stuff between events while you at home get to watch commercials.  Tonight they had a parade of very fancy Big Rig trucks.

A really big truck, with a big truck and another truck!

All lite up

Then the truck race.  There was some action and wrecks but mostly the #51 Kyle Busch was in the front for every lap and usually way ahead of any competition.  The closest anyone got was after cautions for maybe a lap.  The trucks do go pretty fast and we saw one car lifted right off the ground for a second.  No injuries, only some sparks and most trucks finished the race.

The trucks ready for qualifying

Today we get to see  Jake Owens perform on the track along with Train,  and then it is a couple hours of NASCAR’s best in the Allstar Race!

Being married 30 years has taken a lot of compromise and I find myself at one of those moments, Charlotte North Carolina for 12 days of NASCAR, or as those that are not fans say, the GO FAST, TURN LEFT, GO FAST sport!  Paul really likes this sport and tries to watch it on TV when we can get it.  He has worn the hat of each years Championship driver since we have been on the road.  We went to our first NASCAR race at Talladega Superspeedway for our 25th anniversary so being a very good sport I agreed to come to two races at the Charlotte Motor Speedway.  We will be seeing a truck race, lots of qualifying races, an allstar race, a Nationwide race and the Coco Cola 600!    We will also get to see lots more NASCAR stuff this week because this is NASCAR country!

Let the racing begin!

I could do this!

Charlotte Motor Speedway

We can almost see the entrance from our campsite!  I’m figuring we will be able to smell the smoke once the racing begins – oh boy!

NASCAR Hall of Fame

Our first event was to visit the Hall of Fame for NASCAR where they have everything race car!  This is an actual strip of race track that has the banking so you can step onto it and see how steep it is.  I had a hard time standing on it.

Trevor Bayne’s Garage

Too clean!

We thought we were going to see A.J. Allmendinger, the No. 47 but he shares the garage and they did not have his area open.

Dale Earnhardt Sr.

In the town of Kannapolis where Dale Earnhardt grew up they have a giant statue as he is the King of NASCAR.

Statues impress me!
Love a nice butt! You could see the stitching and the Wrangler Patch!

So far we haven’t seen any racing but it is getting very festive with lots of banners,  big trucks with drivers names painted on the sides and tomorrow promises lots of race track excitement!

A quiet evening before the excitement!

Now I’ve got to pick a driver, get a banner and start cheering!  Don’t tell Paul but I am actually looking forward to the experience!!!