Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Race Weekend in Charlotte

On Memorial Day weekend of 2005, after being a fan of NASCAR for around ten years, I went to my first race weekend. I say weekend because you don’t go to a race like you do a football game. This year I got to enjoy my second race weekend at Charlotte.

Friday May 26

Upon getting up we made our trek over to Concord Mills Mall. I know shopping on race weekend at a mall. This is a huge mall though. As we walked around we stumbled across the Holiday Inn show car. Now if you know me I work at a Holiday Inn so it was kind of cool to see it there in the mall. We got to talk to the people that travel with the car, and take some pictures. A quick lunch and it was to the souvenir trailers parked outside the track. Dinner followed and then traffic to get to the World Premiere of CARS. Read the post on the premiere.

Saturday May 27

It was not an early morning but it was a short trip to what has become our favorite parking place near the track. After setting up our canopy tent we relaxed some before buying at the trailers. We grilled shish kabob for lunch. After more relaxing, we packed up our coolers and headed to the track. We watched NEXTEL Cup practice, and then enjoyed the Carquest Auto Parts 300 Busch Series race.

The race itself was pretty good. It is very different seeing a race live. Number one there aren’t any commercials and I’m sure during the long green flag run Fox probably showed a lot of commercials. It did make the race go by rather quickly after seeing Jamie McMurray and Tony Stewart hit the wall early. It did get exciting toward the end though. Casey Mears made his fuel last longer than anybody expected, but when the green flag waved the final time, Mears' car struggled to get up to speed. Edwards slipped by and pulled away. It did make for Edwards first Busch win of the season.

Sunday May 28

This was an early morning. Why do you ask? Because in order to get a good spot you have to be there early. It was a good thing too. We did get another good spot. After setting up again, we cooked breakfast. You read that right breakfast. Some lounging around and lunch was not that far off. Soon after that we packed up the coolers again. It was hot and our main goal today was to get up to an area in the shade close to our seats. We then took time to visit the vendors set up outside the track. This is where you get all the free promotional items.
The green flag dropped and we were going racing. I didn’t even hear a Boogity either. Kasey Kahne stopped Jimmie Johnson's streak of wins by taking the lead with 29 laps to go, then pulling out to such a huge lead that Johnson never had a chance to catch him. This was greeted by an outpouring of appreciation from the fans. Last year after Johnson won the stands emptied. It was actually pretty amazing how over 150,000 fans can leave a track so quickly, this year however people at least stayed to see Kasey do his burn out and get his car to Victory Lane. Tempers flared late in the race when Casey Mears lost control of his Dodge, bounced off the wall and into Kyle Busch while the two were running second and fourth. Mears suffered slight damage, but Busch's night was ruined. As NASCAR officials tried to coax Busch back toward the garage, he angrily tried to break free so he could get at Mears as he passed by. He only managed a feeble, left-handed toss of a safety device that failed to hit Mears.
It was not a good night for Tony Stewart. He would wreck early after spinning in turn two. Gingerly getting out of the car he was taken to the hospital where they discovered a break in his shoulder blade. The best part of the evening was Jeff Gordon’s late race wreck as he got loose in turn 3, spun and managed to drag his car across the front stretch. He blamed it on the Goodyear tire but it was a break problem on his car that really caused the spin and wreck. My other favorite part of the evening was the gentleman sitting in front of me who is obviously a Junior fan and managed to watch him the entire race. I know this because every time Jr. would pass someone I would hear him clap. It was a great update system.