NASCAR Fan Since..

SlicedBread22

SlicedBread22

#TeamJL
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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?
 
First race I ever watched the whole way through was the '86 Daytona 500. Geoff Bodine won that race in the yellow & white #5 Levi Garrett car, in what was the first of many "heartbreaker" finishes in the 500 for Earnhardt.

I was a Harry Gant fan up until '94 when he retired, mainly because my dad was a fan of his as well. When he retired, I latched on to Dale Jarrett for the next decade or so until his retirement. Since then I've just kinda been pulling for all the Toyota guys (because I have two as personal cars, and because it irks the xenophobes when they win ;) ), but Bowyer and Truex are my favorite from the bunch.
 
I first read about NASCAR in the monthly car magazines in the '60s. I could only watch NASCAR when it was on broadcast TV. When cable came into my area in the late 80's I could watch NASCAR on ESPN and I've been watching ever since. There are now at least twice as many drivers who can win any given Sunday from when I started to follow NASCAR.
 
Since I could walk and talk, my Dad was a huge fan and I've been watching for as long as I can remember (born in '86). I followed it so closely as a kid that my Dad depended on me to keep up with all the car/driver changes at the start of the season from the time I was four years old on up to now.
 
I was living in Miami, a friend came into the bar Friday night with four tickets to the Firecracker 400. Off we go to Daytona, as we got closer we got noticed very little traffic. Get there and the place is empty,,look at the tickets. We were a week too late.:rolleyes: Oh, 1971
My Dad was a big fan of the local tracks and we went most weeks. It wasn't until cable came around in the mid 80's that I really became hooked on Nascar.
 
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I know the first race I remember watching was the Daytona 500, IDK the year honestly probably 86' or so. My first favorite driver was Bill Elliott. My dad and brother were big Earnhardt fans so I went for Bill. Growing up I was able to watch Jeff climb the ranks from open wheel to stock cars so when he went Cup he became my #1 guy. I guess when he retires I'll be going for another Elliott.....Chase.
 
I've been following NASCAR for approximately 20 years, since I was about 5. The first race I REMEMBER seeing was the 94 Brickyard 400. My family really doesn't care for Motorsports much and I assume my dad was just curious what these cars looked like at Indy, in the process his 4-5 year old got totally addicted to racing and it was out with power rangers and in with 1:64 die cast. Growing up my dad used to tell me, "If you put in half the effort in school as you do following racing, you'd be a gotdamn genius".
 
DUN24 said:
Growing up my dad used to tell me, "If you put in half the effort in school as you do following racing, you'd be a gotdamn genius".
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Haha, heard this all the time growing up as well.
 
about 20 years or more.. I'm 28 and while living in Connecticut, you wouldn't think of Nascar but we have three local tracks and my dad would take me to stafford speedway all the time when I was a toddler. My first memory of the cup series is going over my neighbor's and watching with an old lady. She would have a Miller Genuine draft in her hand and taught me to love Rusty..

Still don't have a number one since he retired.
 
I don't remember not being a race fan, my Dad was a fan that took me with him from when I was a baby. I don't remember much of the early years, the races seem to jumble together in my memory but I do remember the first Daytona Beach road coarse we went to around 1949 or 1950. Mostly in the early years, up until the mid 1970s, it was local tracks within 2 or 3 hours drive when all of the greatest drivers traveled the local track circuits.
 
I wish sooo bad that I would have gotten interested in it waaay earlier in my life.. I missed out lol... But being in Canada we dont have a lot of options to go to races its too far to travel and a hassle to get across the border. We always went to Merrittville Speedway, a couple miles out of town its the oldest dirt track in canada.. thats my earliest memories of racing in general.
 
Man I don't even remember my first race it was sooo long ago. My best friend at one point lived right next door to me & his dad was a huge Dale Earnhardt fan, it was about 1983 or so cause I remember him asking me if I watched NASCAR. I didn't even know what it was, all I knew was Cale Yarborough was always at Hardee's giving away free toys of his car & signing autographs so apparently he must've been pretty good, he was always on the Hardee's commercials & more so he lived right up the road from me. Then I remember thinking how lucky these guys were that they were driving racecars as a job & why wasn't my dad doing it. My friends dad gave me the NASCAR yearbook to read over, I remember opening it & in one of the first few pages was the garage area shot with all the cars being prepped, on jackstands with trunks & hoods open. I read that book cover to cover & when I took it back a couple days later his dad asked if I knew about NASCAR & I said yes sir. He then said there would never be any talk of anything not involving Dale Earnhardt in his house. I didn't start watching NASCAR as a religion until 1989, my first race that I saw from start to finish was the 89 Southern 500 which Dale won, then I watched the Dover 500 miler & he won that one too. I said then that my buddy's dad was right, this guy is really good plus he drives a cool looking all black car & he was a true blue collar cowboy type driver, this will be my driver. Even though i'm from South Carolina, my first race that I actually got to attend was the 1994 Save Mart Supermarkets 300, this is because my father is a huge hater of all sports other than NFL football. It's been great, my dedication to the sport wavered only once briefly after the passing of Sr but other than that it's been my life...
 
My brother took me to the old Charlotte fair ground in the early 50s, bout the only thing that I remember is Buck Baker won.
 
My first race was the 1994 Miller Genuine Draft 400 at Michigan which was won by Rusty Wallace......Been watching since the early 90's but really didnt start paying attention until 2001...Rusty is my all time favorite...my current favs are all the toyota drivers,smoke happy, and mcmurray
 
1995 Bristol Night Race. Been a Labonte fan ever since, especially after my mom said they were from our home town. More of a SHR/Harvick fan now. I am also a huge Hornish fan.
 
SuperTex14 said:
Wide World of Sports. Chris Economaki. Petty's car was ALL blue.
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Same here.

As a kid, I got into NASCAR watching black & white taped highlights on Saturday afternoons on ABC's Wide World of Sports back in the 60's.
 
fan since...I think '95....can't remember exactly what race.....was a Gordon fan at the start lol...
 
Brand new eh? No wonder you get so excited over so little. Its like a new toy. You'll get use to it.
 
Watching victory lane just now I found out that in that first race I ever watched in its entirety. Brian Vickers started from the pole and won. How fit is it that 4 years later my driver who I've hyped up so much and called to win this race, did the same thing.
 
I have no idea about my first race. I started watching with my dad when I was around 8 years old. So that would have been 24 years ago. My first favorite driver was Davey Allison. Of course, we all know how that turned out. When Davey passed I then became a Rusty Wallace fan. Die hard Ford guy. When Penske switched from Ford to Dodge in 2003, I just couldn't follow suit. I could never root for a Dodge driver. So then I became a Kurt Busch fan. Once again, we know what happened there. Kurt left Roush to go to Penske to drive the #2 Dodge. My wife threatened that she would kill me if I switched drivers with all the money I had tied up in Kurt memorabilia. By then, I wasn't much into the Ford, Chevy, Dodge thing. I didn't care. I was a Ford guy, but Ford TRUCK guy. Didn't give a damn what it was, and I figured hey, it's come back full circle. Back to rooting for the #2 Miller Lite car. I was growing tired of Kurt's antics at Penske, and finally, the Jerry Punch incident was the last straw. I'd had enough. I was no longer going to support him. So then I became a Kyle fan. Lol
 
1983...Ole "IRONHEAD"....and all things RCR..."Here hold my watch,,,let me kick this Busch kids ARSE"..(my all time favorite RC moment)
 
Mid to late 60's, My dad worked for a team. They took me to all the races. As I got older I was a David Pearson fan, then Bill Elliott, then Davey Allison, Now I pull for several drivers. Also used to go to many short track races like asheville and greenville.
 
First race I watched was the '01 Daytona 500. First event I ever attended were the '02 Twin 125s .
 
Honesty can't remember but I know I've been a Gordon fan my whole life. Moms got pics of me when I was at least 5 sleeping under a Jeff Gordon blanket. First race I ever went to was the 2001 UAW-GM 500. Sterling Marlin won. If I remember right it was actually the first race after 9/11 and the security was insane. They didn't even allow Marlin to do a burnout because of the smoke.
 
I remember collecting diecast cars, the 1:64 scale, when I was 10. Think I had Kyle Petty, Ken Schrader, Davey Allison, Cale Yarborough and Geoff Bodine etc. Had the Days of thunder diecasts and became a Rick Hendrick fan from there. I liked Bodine, cause he was from Chemung, NY. near where I lived. My best friends dad would take my to the Glen every year and Geoff was the local hero. '93 Gordon came along and everybody hated him, including my best friends dad, who is a diehard Earnhardt fan. From there started liking Gordon, then Jimmie in '02. All in all, been into the sport for about 23 years
 
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Became a fan in 2007 during college. Bunch of buddies and I would play NASCAR Thunder 2004 a ton so I decided if the game can be this fun then the actual sport has got to be fun. Attended the Dover spring race that year and I have been hooked ever since.
 
Back when I was a little kid (7 or 8), I was super into cars and natrully I had to browse the Tivo lineup for show that had to do with cars. I watched nascar and I became very into it. I belive my first race was 2007 Charlotte chase, cant remember exactly though. 2008 was the first season I watched in whole. When third grade begun for me, I discovered a kid at my school who had the same passion for nascar as me. He was a Dale Jr fan (also liked Kenseth and Kahne) who hated Kyle Busch, so naturally we had a little rivalry going. Nascar was pretty much all we talked about those days, whether it was to each other, or our parents, or whatever, it became our life. My mom was becoming worried about me and tryed to get me to cut back on nascar. Eventually my interested waned, dont remember what my last race was, but I do remember one of the last ones I watched -- the 2009 Coke Zero 400. I remember literally crying when Kyle Bsuch wrekced on the last lap. My mom was wanting to know why I was crying, but I didnt tell her and eventually she gave up. I told my nascar friend about how I cried, but he laughed at me. I was so embarassed that day...
 
pjmolo said:
Same here.

As a kid, I got into NASCAR watching black & white taped highlights on Saturday afternoons on ABC's Wide World of Sports back in the 60's.
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Same here . Wide World Of Sports , Southern 500. Eventually got out an atlas and started looking up where these tracks were . They were mostly in little towns that I had never heard of . One or two were close enough to drive to in a day , so I called a buddy and asked him if he wanted to make a road trip and go to one . We ended up going to several.
 
1975 or 76, when my neighbor moved in with a couple race cars. My mom had passed a couple years earlier, and they kind of took me as their own kid. Everywhere they went, races or not. Big David Pearson fans.
 
I loved racing from the time I could comprehend the idea. I pushed a lot of matchbox and hot wheel cars back in the day wanting to race.

The first two races I attended was in 1970 or 1971, Bobby Isaac won a 200 lapper at Greenville Pickens (I dont think it was the ABC wide world of sports covered event).
Around the same time frame Jack Ingram won a Late Model 200 lapper, I loved the brown # 11 1955 chevy he drove, I liked his effective no nonsense approach and the simple look of those brown cars.

I was hooked for life then, I am sure most here have felt the racing flowing through their veins. I listened to the Grand National races on the big Philco home stereo, until my dad gave me a good transitor radio (so he could nap on Sundays).

Petty was my favorite. I never wanted to root for Pearson as a result, but after attending the 78 World 600...
http://www.racing-reference.info/race/1978_World_600/W
... I realized that Pearson was just to good.
I liked Waltrip back in the day too, I wished young people could have seen him back in the day. He was a big mouth then as well, but honestly he was a great driver too.
Earnhardt became my favorite after beating the rocket Elliott had, at the Winston All Star Race.

It has been a lot of fun, the best hobby I have ever had.
 
not sure about nascar, but dad took me to the weekly local dirt track in the late 60's. hooked on racing from then on. subscription to the hawkeye racing news expanded my awareness to other places in the Midwest, both dirt and asphalt. always watched the wide world of sports highlights until I was old enough to work and didn't have free saturday afternoons.

like greg, my best toys were hot wheels and matchbox cars. had my own racing series with different tracks and point system, using all my friends as drivers. funny how may favorites always won!

my first Winston cup race was actually not until 1984. had a three year run of incredible trips to Michigan with a great bunch of guys. that was back in the good old days. too busy and broke to do anything until the mid 90's when I finally had the chance to pay back the guy that got me started. then took my dad on father's day, and finally my wife the next year. went to charlotte with a work buddy several years later. had a great time but the track experience had changed significantly from "the good old days". (think about this: walking through the IGA grocery in Brooklyn Michigan and running into geoff bodine buying bananas/harry gant pulling into the parking lot and signing a hat). plus the cost had become outrageous.

these days I can catch nascar on tv or the internet and use the money saved to hit every short track race around that time allows. maybe not the star power that most of you enjoy, but in my world the names moyer, bloomquist, birkhofer, o'neal, richards, owens, etc... are better than the johnson, busch, harvick, earnhardt, gordon of nascar.

still enjoy nascar immensely. but also lost a bunch of passion when the wall at Daytona claimed the life of my favorite driver. and I quit arguing with all the Gordon fans. :biggrin:
 
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