NASCAR Fan Since..

Watched my first races on tv when I was 15 or 16(2004), got my dad into it too. The next year went to my first races, first race was the Truck Series at Mansfield, OH. Went to both full weekends at Michigan (Busch, Trucks, ARCA x2, Cup x2) and the fall Toledo ARCA race. Have been going to many more every year since then. Glad I got into NASCAR, would be boring being around here with no race trips.
 
sloggie said:
In a way, this thread makes me sad. Where are all the new fans?
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We are the new fans, just smart enough to not breed yet.

toledo47 said:
Watched my first races on tv when I was 15 or 16(2004), got my dad into it too. The next year went to my first races, first race was the Truck Series at Mansfield, OH. Went to both full weekends at Michigan (Busch, Trucks, ARCA x2, Cup x2) and the fall Toledo ARCA race. Have been going to many more every year since then. Glad I got into NASCAR, would be boring being around here with no race trips.
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Damn dude, with all the races you attend, I thought you were a seasoned veteran. An old timer. Good on ya for a relatively new fan. That's bitchin.
 
DUN24 said:
We are the new fans, just smart enough to not breed yet.


Damn dude, with all the races you attend, I thought you were a seasoned veteran. An old timer. Good on ya for a relatively new fan. That's bitchin.
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Oh yeah, I became an addict real quick!! Wish I would've known what I was missing out on earlier! Although, starting in 2005, i'm on my way to becoming a veteran, 2013 is the 9th year i've been going. Time flies by wayyyyy too fast, feels like it was just a couple of years ago that I went to my first race!
 
For Christmas 2006, my parents got me NASCAR 07 for the PS2. I had no previous interest in NASCAR, so it kinda came out of nowhere. I gave it a shot, and soon found myself staying up extra late to advance my career within the game. I was hooked on NASCAR from there on out.

The first NASCAR race I ever watched was the 2007 Busweiser Shootout (I was 13 at the time). I will never forget the 2 crazy finishes at the duel and the 500 that year! I even remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I was watching the first California race that year and David Reutimann had his big wreck (I was peeling potatoes in front of the TV). I've been a huge fan ever since, and haven't gone a single week without either watching or listening to a race broadcast. I sometimes have to get race updates on my phone due to my weekend work schedule, but I still make the effort to keep up!
 
toledo47 said:
Watched my first races on tv when I was 15 or 16(2004), got my dad into it too. The next year went to my first races, first race was the Truck Series at Mansfield, OH. Went to both full weekends at Michigan (Busch, Trucks, ARCA x2, Cup x2) and the fall Toledo ARCA race. Have been going to many more every year since then. Glad I got into NASCAR, would be boring being around here with no race trips.
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That makes you what? 24 - 25 yrs old ? How do you afford to go away to those great races every weekend ? I take it you're not married.:)
 
ted@economy said:
That makes you what? 24 - 25 yrs old ? How do you afford to go away to those great races every weekend ? I take it you're not married.:)
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25 this weekend actually. I run an online business, which also gives me the time needed to go to these races! Not yet married, no!
 
ted@economy said:
Yeah :( enjoy going to the races while you can.
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Yeah, i've got an on and off GF. She does not care for me going to so many races. And always says "You like NASCAR more than me". I know I definitely cant keep up doing this many races forever so I might as well do it while I can!

I go to most of the races with my dad, so these hundreds of races we went to together are some of the best memories we have together! Great road trips!
 
toledo47 said:
Yeah, i've got an on and off GF. She does not care for me going to so many races. And always says "You like NASCAR more than me". I know I definitely cant keep up doing this many races forever so I might as well do it while I can!

I go to most of the races with my dad, so these hundreds of races we went to together are some of the best memories we have together! Great road trips!
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Say yep that's true baby, time for a new girlfriend, see ya.
 
Johali said:
Say yep that's true baby, time for a new girlfriend, see ya.
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LOL, yeah, although she has a point sometimes. I spend all of my money on races! I don't save enough! She has mentioned she wants to start a family young, and of course that takes a lot of money!
 
toledo47 said:
I go to most of the races with my dad, so these hundreds of races we went to together are some of the best memories we have together! Great road trips!
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Treasure those memories , they will always be with you.
 
toledo47 said:
... she wants to start a family young, and of course that takes a lot of money!
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It doesn't take near as much money as you think with two of you pulling together . One of the best values you will find in this short life.
Just sayin.
 
ted@economy said:
Treasure those memories , they will always be with you.
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I'll do that for sure! I remember most of the trips like they just happened.
ted@economy said:
It doesn't take near as much money as you think with two of you pulling together . One of the best values you will find in this short life.
Just sayin.
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Ah yeah, just don't feel ready for that stuff yet!
 
I've been a fan since 2003. My first race was a Busch race at PPIR outside of Colorado Springs and that really got me hooked. It's so cool seeing how big an event each race is, even a standalone Busch race as that was. I don't make it to nearly as many races as I'd like to but I love going when I get the chance.
 
Long time for me I'm an old timer. Long time fan is somebody that is old and not dead. I remember around 61 when I was just a pup seeing pictures of Nascars and reading the articles in motor trend and popular mechanix, and hot rod, they had some really good technical articles, the manufacturers were behind all the publicity, so they had the factory Ford backed Woods brothers team, and Smokey Yunick Chevys, and Junior Johnson's stuff showcased. I ate it up.
 
Side story since lots of people are mentioning their first race..

Like I said earlier in the thread, I never had a family member really endorse/embrace the racing fanhood.. In about the 4th or 5th grade I had an after school uhh.. Babysitter. Anyway, another child had a dad who's family was super into NASCAR and he knew how into it I was.. They decided to invite me camping in the infield at California speedway for the 500 miler in April of 99'.

Showed up on Friday afternoon, the first thing I saw coming into the infield, under and out thru the tunnel was my favorite driver(Jeff Gordon) shooting through turn 4 during practice. What are the chances?! It was like a religious experience, seriously. He proceeded to get the pole, dominate the race, and win.. It was like they knew I'd be attending. Lol..

AND the first real memory of titties was that weekend as well!!! Great times and memories to last a lifetime.
 
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I was born in '86, so my earliest memories of NASCAR begin sometime around the '91 season. My dad was a Rusty fan and my two older brothers liked Earnhardt and Martin, so I wanted to pick my own driver. I liked Ernie Irvan because he consistently ran well, he drove a Chevy, and for whatever reason I thought the yellow Kodak car looked really cool. When Irvan left Morgan McClure for Yates (I think it was late '93?) I didn't want my favorite driver in a Ford. So in '94 I started following Jeff Gordon, and by the end of that season I was starting to become a hardcore racing fan. I was hooked.

I remember the offseason leading up to '95 like it was yesterday. I rented a bunch of NASCAR books from the library and bought some racing magazines. I saw the new Monte Carlo at an auto show and they were giving out all kinds of cool Chevy Racing merch. I remember how excited I was during Daytona speedweeks, Gordon was a popular subject and a lot of analysts were saying he was going to be a threat for years to come. I watched every single lap of every race that season! Not just Cup, but Busch and SuperTrucks as well. I was in elementary school at the time so when I wasn't outside playing football or riding bikes with friends, I was inside glued to my TV whenever anything NASCAR was on. I will never forget that 1995 season.

I continued to watch every race up until the early 2000s. The loss of Dale was a huge bummer, and I worked every weekend in high school and missed a lot of races. I still followed Gordon and watched when I could, but wasn't the hardcore fan I was as a kid. The past few years I've started to follow it closely again, even when I'm too busy to see every race. DVR certainly helps!

Cool thread.
 
Not really a "fan", but have watched NASCAR on and off since the mid 80's but more often now with the TV coverage, almost always a race every weekend when there's no other sport on TV that I'm interested in. Been watching the NFL, NHL and F1 before that since 1979.
 
SlicedBread22 said:
This weekend it will be 4 years since I watched my first full NASCAR race. I always looked at NASCAR as bunch of guys going in circles and could never undertand why my dad loved it so much. Until I watched it. That weekend my dad went to his first race live. I pretty much watched just to see if I'd see him on TV lol.. I ended up watching the whole race. Jimmie Johnson lead for most of the day, and toward the end of the race it became a fuel mileage race and Brian Vickers ended up winning it. I was hooked.. I was so pumped up by the end by the way everything had changed last minute and the surprise finish, I never realized how great NASCAR really is. 5 years ago you couldn't get me to watch a race now you'de be hard pressed to see me miss one.

My dad was an Dale Earnhardt fan, and after his death a Tony Stewart fan. I pretty much spent my teenage years saying "GO TONY!" on my way out the door to hang out with my friends. When I became hooked on NASCAR, I decided I needed to pick my own driver to make it more interesting between me and my dad, which it has. We have this rivalry thing goin with about 5 of us, makes races more interesting. So anyway, being a new fan, who had been a Stewart "fan".. I decided to pick the guy that replaced Stewart in the 20 car. He was young and new, so was I. The rest is history.

Soooo my point is (other than I'm bored and want to make conversation) .. I'm wondering about you guys...

When did you become a NASCAR fan? What do you love about NASCAR? What was the first race you ever watched(live or tv)? Who won that race? Who is your driver? Why did you choose that driver?
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I became a Nascar fan back in 1965, I was attending my first race with my dad, at Stafford Motor Speedway, which was the last year it was dirt. I was 4 years old and didn't make much of the race before I was sleeping, but what I can remember of it was awesome. The dust, the loud Modified Coupes racing into the corners, the people cheering and awing when there was a crash.....I was hooked. Then my dad took me down to the garage where he worked part time, and where he drove a charter bus out of. Back in the corner of the garage was one of his buddys' working on his Modified, now this was late 1965 mind you. The guy was adjusting the carb on his v-8, adjusting the mixture and trying to get it tuned. My dad started shooting the **** with the guy of course and I just looked around at the car, my first real close up of a genuine modified. The guy said that I could sit in the car and press the gas while he adjusted the carb, well I just about jumped out of my shoes when he said that. There I was 4 years old , sitting in a modified, revving the engine for this guy. If I wasn't completely hooked after the Stafford race, I sure was after that! That is just a few of the many memories of my dad and all his racing buds, something I cherish and smile about whenever I think of them. Nascar is in my blood and has been since 1965.
 
I don't remember how old I was when my dad took me to the races. It's been as long as I can remember. Saugus Speedway, Ontario, Riverside, Mesa Marin, Ascot. I remember my dad taking me to the drags, too.
He took me to my first race and I took him to his last. My dad was real sick in 2006. We were sitting in the stands, I think it was the September race, he said, "This is great. I hope I'm still here to go next year, too." My dad died the following January. I held his hand as he took his last breath.
I'm glad I had the opportunity to take him to his last NASCAR race.
 
I've been a fan since the late 90's, I was just a teenager then but I thought Jeff Gordon was pretty cool in all those Pepsi ads :)

It wasn't until mid 2000's when I started getting real serious, I even got my dad into it (he's a big Smoke fan now). Living all the way up here in Canada, NASCAR doesn't get nearly enough press so I don't run into too many people who follow it like I do. I'm lucky enough to own a condo in New Smyrna Beach so I've been going to the 500 for 10 years running now. It's one of my true joys in life, leaving the snow and -30C temps to go down to beautiful, sunny Florida and watch the Great American Race.
 
3wideinturn1 said:
I've been a fan since the late 90's, I was just a teenager then but I thought Jeff Gordon was pretty cool in all those Pepsi ads :)

It wasn't until mid 2000's when I started getting real serious, I even got my dad into it (he's a big Smoke fan now). Living all the way up here in Canada, NASCAR doesn't get nearly enough press so I don't run into too many people who follow it like I do. I'm lucky enough to own a condo in New Smyrna Beach so I've been going to the 500 for 10 years running now. It's one of my true joys in life, leaving the snow and -30C temps to go down to beautiful, sunny Florida and watch the Great American Race.
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I spent four or five Februarys in Daytona Beach and enjoyed many cold mornings sitting in the stands for free , watching practice and qualifying for the different divisions . Thank heaven for the nice warm Hooters across the street .:D
 
ted@economy said:
I spent four or five Februarys in Daytona Beach and enjoyed many cold mornings sitting in the stands for free , watching practice and qualifying for the different divisions . Thank heaven for the nice warm Hooters across the street .:D
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Yeah some folks like to go down and sit on the beach and soak up the sun. I'm much happier to go to the track and soak up the burning rubber and fuel vapors. That's my paradise right there and when I leave behind 2 ft of snow on my front lawn, those chilly Daytona mornings feel like the middle of summer to me. :)
 
The earliest NASCAR memory I have is of Terry Labonte pulling his crumpled Kellogg's car into victory lane at Bristol in 1995. I was 7 years old when I started watching the races on TV with my Dad and I've been hooked ever since. He was a diehard Jeff Gordon fan and I started rooting for Dale Jarrett ever since his start in the #88 up until his retirement. Don't have any driver loyalties anymore but I've been following Formula 1 about as long as NASCAR so I've always had a soft spot for Montoya. Even though the guy's a total d-bag it's neat to have been able to follow his entire transition from F1 to stock cars.

I'm also a fan from up north of the border and it wasn't until 2005 I had a chance to attend my first race live. I can't tell you how envious I am of you guys in the States; due to work/time/money restraints I'm lucky if I can even make it to one race a year. I started bringing some pals on NASCAR roadtrips and every guy I've taken to see it in person has been instantly hooked. TV really doesn't do it justice at all and this is hands-down the best sport in terms of letting the fans really get up close and personal.

I was lucky enough that one of the guys I brought on the last roadtrip to Martinsville had a girlfriend at the time whose father knew someone in the NASCAR marketing department who hooked us up with four hot pit passes. Absolutely blown away walking down pit lane and standing mere feet away as drivers are kissing their wives and getting into their race cars. Quite possibly the highlight of my life was bumping shoulders with Jeff Burton and wishing him good luck after standing on pit road with all the pit crews during the national anthem. The fact that fans can literally get so immersed in the sport is why it'll always be #1 for me.
 
Looks like I'm a little late to the party in this thread.

I've been attending races much longer than I've been a NASCAR fan. My dad started taking me to races at Texas Motor Speedway in the early 2000s when I was a child, and gradually over time I became more and more interested in NASCAR. Haven't really been a hardcore fan with knowledge of different tracks, drivers, rules, etc. until the past few years.
 
JacklegJack said:
The earliest NASCAR memory I have is of Terry Labonte pulling his crumpled Kellogg's car into victory lane at Bristol in 1995. I was 7 years old when I started watching the races on TV with my Dad and I've been hooked ever since. He was a diehard Jeff Gordon fan and I started rooting for Dale Jarrett ever since his start in the #88 up until his retirement. Don't have any driver loyalties anymore but I've been following Formula 1 about as long as NASCAR so I've always had a soft spot for Montoya. Even though the guy's a total d-bag it's neat to have been able to follow his entire transition from F1 to stock cars.

I'm also a fan from up north of the border and it wasn't until 2005 I had a chance to attend my first race live. I can't tell you how envious I am of you guys in the States; due to work/time/money restraints I'm lucky if I can even make it to one race a year. I started bringing some pals on NASCAR roadtrips and every guy I've taken to see it in person has been instantly hooked. TV really doesn't do it justice at all and this is hands-down the best sport in terms of letting the fans really get up close and personal.

I was lucky enough that one of the guys I brought on the last roadtrip to Martinsville had a girlfriend at the time whose father knew someone in the NASCAR marketing department who hooked us up with four hot pit passes. Absolutely blown away walking down pit lane and standing mere feet away as drivers are kissing their wives and getting into their race cars. Quite possibly the highlight of my life was bumping shoulders with Jeff Burton and wishing him good luck after standing on pit road with all the pit crews during the national anthem. The fact that fans can literally get so immersed in the sport is why it'll always be #1 for me.
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Welcome to the forum Jack . what great stories . Keep em comin .:cheers:
 
ted@economy said:
Welcome to the forum Jack . what great stories . Keep em comin .:cheers:
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Thanks for the warm welcome. :) I've been lurking as a guest for a few months now, but I've seen way too many heated debates that look like too much fun to keep watching idly by the sidelines LOL!
 
JacklegJack said:
Thanks for the warm welcome. :) I've been lurking as a guest for a few months now, but I've seen way too many heated debates that look like too much fun to keep watching idly by the sidelines LOL!
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Welcome Jack. Don't be too nervous about the heated debates. After your 100th post, you get access to the weapons locker.
 
Can't remember the first race that I watched on TV but the first cup race I attended was at Martinsville sometime in the early 90s. We'd been going to 311 speedway every Saturday for a year or two before that just to see how I'd do at a race (they weren't sure if I'd even pay attention). I loved it obviously so around six years old or so Dad finally decided that I was ready for a real cup race.

We'd usually go to the Spring race every year after that and it served as a good distraction since my father was going through a divorce and I was going through not having a mother around. He'd pull me out of school on Thursday and Fridays to go watch practice and qualifying. Sometimes we'd be the only people in the stands since we'd go even when it was raining. I got to spend a lot of time in the garage area too and even got to sit in a few busch and cup cars. Drivers were more approachable back then.

We even got to spend time talking with drivers on race weekends when we didn't go to the track. All the drivers and crews stayed in our little town instead of staying in Martinsville. It was cheaper to get a room here and they didn't have to worry about as many raving fans. When I was 7 or 8 years old I got to meet Morgan Shepherd by just randomly bumping into him while eating out for supper at a local hot dog joint called Spuds. I also met Harry Gant and a few other by just bumping into them.

I reckon I was lucky to grow up in the time that I did and in the area that I did. The Pettys and Earnhardts lived a short drive from my child hood home and the Wood Brothers built their cars just up the road a ways. Way back when big tobacco could still sponsor major sports, C-band dishes pulled down a race without any commercials and drivers wore open face helmets. NASCAR may be safer now and pull down more profit but they'll never be able to replicate what the sport used to be. I miss those days dearly.
 
Those are some awesome memories, hillbilly. thanks for sharing.

I grew up 2 miles from Islip Speedway. As a youngster I went to a few drag races and figure 8 events, but that was long after nascar stopped racing there. The only memory I have of those races is once a year the noise of cars getting on the gas and then off was tremendous. I would fall asleep to that rising and falling drone of engines, until one year I stayed awake and saw the fireworks. That may have been the last nascar race at Islip, because I can't recall hearing that noise again.

It wasn't until I became a regular nascar fan in the late 90's that I saw a picture of Richard Petty pressed up against a fence and signing autographs....at Islip Speedway, that I knew what was going on those summer nights way back when I was a child.
 
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Gee, fender, seems hard to believe you were ever child.;)

There was a time either channel 9 or 11 televised the figure 8 races from Islip. Had to be in the early fifties as we did not get a television until then. Anyone from the NY Metropolitan area recall those televised races?
 
Whizzer said:
Gee, fender, seems hard to believe you were ever child.;)

There was a time either channel 9 or 11 televised the figure 8 races from Islip. Had to be in the early fifties as we did not get a television until then. Anyone from the NY Metropolitan area recall those televised races?
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I remember seeing them, but it was on Wide world of Sports, I used to live for the times when they would have Nascar segments.
 
I'm like most people, every time I think of wide world of sports I see this burnt into my brain.

 
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