NASCAR

When opportunity knocks…you open that door –right? Well, it knocked and we found ourselves with free tickets to the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Speedway. Not ones to pass an opportunity to do something new and different- we and about 100,000 other people (no joke) descended upon the speedway Sunday afternoon. 

Actually I think most arrived (measure by the state of drunkenness) that morning or days ahead of time. Wow. Tailgating, pick-ups and  camouflage are taken to a whole level at these races. And the pot smoking. Alec got his first sniff. What’s that funny smell?

 

Things I learned about NASCAR:

1. LOUD does not cover it. It’s is more like FREAKEN’ LOUD. (we pulled out the trusty and now very rusty sign language to communicate with Alec- please, thank you, pee, water and eat- we still have the basics)

2. NASCAR fans are loyal to their driver. And that is putting is mildly. Holy cow. Bobby Labonte crashed his car and was out of the race and pretty much an entire section left the race. Jeff Gordon was boo’d very loudly. These folks have intense feelings about this sport.

3. 300 laps is 300 hundred miles. I don’t care how fast the cars are going- it’s not that interesting to actually watch the race unless there is a crash (see #4).

4. Crashes are better on TV – where you can actually see it because they will replay is 500 times. In person- if you miss it- you’ve missed it and then all you you get to watch is the street sweepers clean the track. One is infinitely more interesting than the other. Can you guess which one?

5. No one actually watches the race (see #3). They spend their time going to get food, beer and standing in the smoking section.

6. The bathrooms are ridiculously clean for that many people and that many people who are drinking copious amounts of alcohol. No lines –no waiting.

7. NASCAR fans seem to have deep pockets. They bought their tickets, they buy lots of beer, and they still have money left over for extremely expensive souvenirs.  And they like their souvenirs. Deep pockets- I tell you.

8. Quite a few female and some male fans have no modesty. They should.

I could go on…..

We watched about 2 hours of racing- that’s 200 hundred laps with a couple of accidents thrown in and we were done. A little too loud, a little too monotonous and quite frankly we just didn’t care who won.

It was a good time though, just hanging out as a family experiencing something new. I would definitely recommend going if nothing else than for the people watching.

Another item scratched off the ‘ol  list of things I never thought I would do.