O
OtisCampbell
Guest
Just got home last night from our first ever NASCAR race. My 13 year old son races karts on dirt ovals, and is a HUGE #88 fan. So for his birthday this year, we took him to Dover. I bought seats in turn 4, but then a friend of a friend hooked us up with HOT passes, so our seats went un-used. Anyway, we left home at 3am Sat night, and drove just under 4 hours to Dover. We stopped and ate breakfast at the little Bob Evans just outside the track. We got to the track around 8am, signed-in at NASCAR Credentials, got our HOT passes, and walked into the infield.
This is where things got really awesome, really fast.
The Sprint Cup Garage was just waking up. We walked through the garage, got lots of photos with the cars. Only Hendrick had their stuff roped off. Still snuck behind the ropes for a few pics. Don't tell Rick Hendrick.
We then found a shady spot just outside of the NASCAR inspection tent. We sat there in the shade and watched all the cars as they rolled off the scales, and got lots of amazing photos. We then took a walk up pit road, got our photos in our favorite pit boxes (#43 for me, #88 for my son.) Talked to a lot of pit crews, shook a lot of hands. Then we walked around the motorhome lot, and saw King Richard sitting on his golf cart. Got a nice smile and wave, but no autograph
I guess he was busy. Did get a few good photos, though.
Next we left the infield and walked out to the merchandise area. My son got a few 88 shirts, some die-cast cars, and a raceday program. We picked up our race scanner/headset/intercom from RE, and headed back in to pick our spot to watch the race. We sat in the grass right behind The Biff's pit box, with Tony to our right, and Kyle 18 to our left. We were about 5 yards from their pit box. During the race, we all used the same porta-potty as the race teams. As I stood in line, I would talk to the pit crews from various drivers. All the pit guys were VERY friendly, would talk to us like we were actual people. They shared their cold drinks with us, treated us really well.
Then the race. The only way I can describe it is that it was a religious experience. When they took the green for the first time, every hair on my body stood on end. I was just dumbfounded. I couldn't speak. It was a thing of beauty. We sat there watching, a listening to various drivers, spotters, and the MRN broadcast on our headsets...a few feet from pit road. It felt like we were part of the event. We saw a lot of drivers: Tony, Larson, Carl, Biff, Aric, Dillon, and I'm sure a few others. The drivers are a LOT harder to find than I expected. I guess they don't like being pestered at work. I don't blame them, I guess. We got autographs from Roger Penske, Coach Gibbs (walking together after the race), Mike Helton after the driver's meeting, and blown off by The King and Tony. At least The King smiled and waved. Tony just kept walking. I guess he has a lot on his mind, so he also gets a pass.
NOTES:
Victory Lane at Dover is a lot smaller than it looks on tv. We stood there at the iron gates while Jeff celebrated, we caught a bunch of the confetti.
Rick Hendrick arrived at the race in a gold colored Chevy Tahoe with a motorcycle-police escort. A lights-flashing, sirens-blaring, get-the-hell-out-of-the-way police escort. I guess he's a VIP at NASCAR events. Maybe?
HOT passes are amazing. You can go anywhere, see anything. Well, we can't go inside the haulers or motorhomes, but you get the point.
They don't enforce COLD passes, as long as you bunker down before the race. LOTS of kids inside during the race. We watched the entire event from pit road.
NASCAR is 10x louder than I expected. Without our headsets, it was deafening load.
The MRN guys are pretty funny when they are not live on-air.
We tailgated after the race, had a bbq and waited for traffic to die down. Saw a man get hit by a car. The driver plowed him and took off. Cops and security took off after the driver. I hope they got him. The victim left in an ambulance. Pretty scary.
Dover will now be on our schedule every fall. It was that much fun. Loved it.
Does anyone want to see photos?
This is where things got really awesome, really fast.
The Sprint Cup Garage was just waking up. We walked through the garage, got lots of photos with the cars. Only Hendrick had their stuff roped off. Still snuck behind the ropes for a few pics. Don't tell Rick Hendrick.
We then found a shady spot just outside of the NASCAR inspection tent. We sat there in the shade and watched all the cars as they rolled off the scales, and got lots of amazing photos. We then took a walk up pit road, got our photos in our favorite pit boxes (#43 for me, #88 for my son.) Talked to a lot of pit crews, shook a lot of hands. Then we walked around the motorhome lot, and saw King Richard sitting on his golf cart. Got a nice smile and wave, but no autograph
I guess he was busy. Did get a few good photos, though.Next we left the infield and walked out to the merchandise area. My son got a few 88 shirts, some die-cast cars, and a raceday program. We picked up our race scanner/headset/intercom from RE, and headed back in to pick our spot to watch the race. We sat in the grass right behind The Biff's pit box, with Tony to our right, and Kyle 18 to our left. We were about 5 yards from their pit box. During the race, we all used the same porta-potty as the race teams. As I stood in line, I would talk to the pit crews from various drivers. All the pit guys were VERY friendly, would talk to us like we were actual people. They shared their cold drinks with us, treated us really well.
Then the race. The only way I can describe it is that it was a religious experience. When they took the green for the first time, every hair on my body stood on end. I was just dumbfounded. I couldn't speak. It was a thing of beauty. We sat there watching, a listening to various drivers, spotters, and the MRN broadcast on our headsets...a few feet from pit road. It felt like we were part of the event. We saw a lot of drivers: Tony, Larson, Carl, Biff, Aric, Dillon, and I'm sure a few others. The drivers are a LOT harder to find than I expected. I guess they don't like being pestered at work. I don't blame them, I guess. We got autographs from Roger Penske, Coach Gibbs (walking together after the race), Mike Helton after the driver's meeting, and blown off by The King and Tony. At least The King smiled and waved. Tony just kept walking. I guess he has a lot on his mind, so he also gets a pass.
NOTES:
Victory Lane at Dover is a lot smaller than it looks on tv. We stood there at the iron gates while Jeff celebrated, we caught a bunch of the confetti.
Rick Hendrick arrived at the race in a gold colored Chevy Tahoe with a motorcycle-police escort. A lights-flashing, sirens-blaring, get-the-hell-out-of-the-way police escort. I guess he's a VIP at NASCAR events. Maybe?
HOT passes are amazing. You can go anywhere, see anything. Well, we can't go inside the haulers or motorhomes, but you get the point.
They don't enforce COLD passes, as long as you bunker down before the race. LOTS of kids inside during the race. We watched the entire event from pit road.
NASCAR is 10x louder than I expected. Without our headsets, it was deafening load.
The MRN guys are pretty funny when they are not live on-air.
We tailgated after the race, had a bbq and waited for traffic to die down. Saw a man get hit by a car. The driver plowed him and took off. Cops and security took off after the driver. I hope they got him. The victim left in an ambulance. Pretty scary.
Dover will now be on our schedule every fall. It was that much fun. Loved it.
Does anyone want to see photos?
