Race pics and experiences

Almost the Last batch from Daytona
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TexasRaceLady said:
Great pics, sdj. Thanks for sharing. :) :)
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Your welcome, we had a blast.:D

I really miss the individual Souvenir Trailers. The tent city thing is ok, but, unless you are a Big Jr fan, which took up at least 1/2 the tents, the rest are pretty slim pickens. This is the only complaint I have with the new venue. Don't get me wrong, I like Jr and I understand the volume, I just do not like how the other drivers are short changed.
 
Great Pics! It's amazing how different it looks since the renovation! Getting back is definitely on my bucket list!

I'll post pics from Kentucky when I return.
 
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sdj said:
I really miss the individual Souvenir Trailers. The tent city thing is ok, but, unless you are a Big Jr fan, which took up at least 1/2 the tents, the rest are pretty slim pickens. This is the only complaint I have with the new venue. Don't get me wrong, I like Jr and I understand the volume, I just do not like how the other drivers are short changed.
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Ditto. I've posted the same thing.
 
sdj said:
I really miss the individual Souvenir Trailers. The tent city thing is ok, but, unless you are a Big Jr fan, which took up at least 1/2 the tents, the rest are pretty slim pickens. This is the only complaint I have with the new venue. Don't get me wrong, I like Jr and I understand the volume, I just do not like how the other drivers are short changed.
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Johali said:
Ditto. I've posted the same thing.
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I agree (I still get nostalgia from the smell of diesel thanks to the smell of souvenir row), but it has made things a lot less cluttered. Back then, if you had a Danica trailer across from a Jr. trailer, you couldn't even think of going down that isle. That's been fixed as good as possible with the new trailers, as the tent sizes are proportional to the amount of fandom that driver gets (Jr gets 4 tents, as an example). I also love how you can touch everything, and that's really cool.

I do miss that smell, though.
 
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CokeTastesGood39 said:
I agree (I still get nostalgia from the smell of diesel thanks to the smell of souvenir row), but it has made things a lot less cluttered. Back then, if you had a Danica trailer across from a Jr. trailer, you couldn't even think of going down that isle. That's been fixed as good as possible with the new trailers, as the tent sizes are proportional to the amount of fandom that driver gets (Jr gets 4 tents, as an example). I also love how you can touch everything, and that's really cool.

I do miss that smell, though.
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Great post. I miss standing in line with like minded fans waiting for my stuff. Seriously, that was such a cool experience. If you get to the tent early, you're fine, but by Sunday, lots of stuff has been touched, and it looks a little rough. Not a horrid set up....just not the good old days.
 
I've been to Daytona a dozen or so times because I used to live in Tampa.
And I've been lucky enough to have visited all of the tracks this side of the Mississippi except Atlanta and Talladega
I've also been to Phoenix a couple of times.
But my favorite track happens to be the one closest to my house.

I love Martinsville !

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Wake up: 5am
Arrive at track: 9am
Played the waiting game till 11am. Never minded though, always love time at the track. Honestly, I love every minute of it. When you see the first race fan at the rest area 100 miles from the track on raceday. The bumper-to-bumper traffic getting in with "Welcome Race Fans" signs all around. Hiking from the car to the track (cooler with wheels was one of the best investments I made over the off-season). Played cribbage with my race crew under a nice pavilion till they rolled the cars out.

Race was great. I floated around a bit. Very easy to move around. Walked to the end of the concourse on the turn one side of the stands for the Paul Menard craziness restart...holy sh!t I didn't think they'd make it! Lot's of room for jumping and yelling when Larson battled Dillon :D. Great racing all around. Cars are visibly able to close up on one another even with dirty air. Weather was absolutely crazy. There were times in the fog delay when you could not see ANY of the turns or the scoring pylon. We held out though, till the "tornado" warning BS. Easy egress.

A couple impressions...first time at Pocono...
Our seats were awesome...imo get as close to turn 1 as you can. Lot's of walking, but you're rewarded with what are essentially private concessions and restrooms compared to the more-packed in sections. Much better view of turn 1, pit exit, the tunnel, and there's a large video screen if you miss anything. Better sightlines than I was expecting...just bring binoculars!

A lot less of a "FanZone" than other tracks I've been to. Used to be I cared about that stuff. Now I'm older and find it kinda BS'y. I like the atmosphere, but know not to stop at any stalls or else I get sold on something that ruins the mood. Great to see the young'uns into it and the display cars are cool but none of it's really for me. Take me in the track! I can walk up and down the midway all day!

Very nice track overall. Very nice employees. Had some issues getting in on Sunday (security/ticket line) but nothing one couldn't handle (shame on me for writing the race off, getting up late, and then scrambling to the track when everyone else was as well).

Again...love me my big race days. A Wendy's 90 minutes fromt he track was PACKED with race fans and we patiently waited for food and chatted it up. Cup races are about so much more than the race...they're literally 12 hour festivals with xx,000 of your favorite friends.

Next race: Dover in fall if the pieces come into play. Very serious about bringing the race buddies to Bristol in August next year. I hint about it occasionally, but they're still in the "there he goes again" eye-roll phase. :)


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View from the seats

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View looking towards turn one from the end of the concourse. The front stretch is HUGE!
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LET'S GO RACING!!!
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"What Turn 4?"....... More like "What Turn 1, What Turn 2, What Turn 3, What Backstretches, and What Tornado?"
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Cool shot on pit road with Chris Buescher, who I think deserved that win. They knew something the other guys didn't...and that's how racers have been winning races since the idea that "I can beat you over there" came about. Rookie had a few good runs the past few weeks as well.
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KodiakRusty89 said:
A few from Pocono...

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So out of the 1 linear mile of grandstands and ten(s) of thousands of people there today you were 50-100 feet away from me...lol.

I was the crazy one with Tony Stewart pants around his neck like a scarf/cape. I would come down to row 20ish on the restarts so I could stand without blocking other people's views.
 
Speedbowl you right near me! Nice!

I agree about turn 1. I love sitting down there! The mile plus walk back to the car from that part of the grandstand is worth it.. For a Monday race very few people venture down that far for that reason. I think it gives you best view of the track. Plus, it's awesome to see the cars fan out on restarts and that area gives you a better sense of speed as the haul off into turn 1.
 
Great reports, guys, thanks for posting. Brings back memories from when I raced motorcycles there in the 1970-80's, mostly fond memories but not all. Fogged out races there are nothing new. One rainy weekend at Pocono was one of my rare times when I was really "in the zone" with fastest time in Sunday morning's wet warm up session. Then the fog rolled in and shut us down, and ultimately the races were cancelled. Bummer. Pocono was also the track where I got my very first broken bones from a race crash, infield turn 2.
 
We were in 219, the first section to the turn 1 side of the chairback seats so that last photo is similar to the view I had. I retain these and we've had them for four or five years now. Did you guys get the feeling that they really cut down on caution laps and hustled it up like they knew it was going to be close getting it in? Driving home west on 80 I can understand the tornado warning, seriously. It was bad and a tornado would not have surprised me.
 
Bob said:
We were in 219, the first section to the turn 1 side of the chairback seats so that last photo is similar to the view I had. I retain these and we've had them for four or five years now. Did you guys get the feeling that they really cut down on caution laps and hustled it up like they knew it was going to be close getting it in? Driving home west on 80 I can understand the tornado warning, seriously. It was bad and a tornado would not have surprised me.
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Oh yeah they picked it up. Three pace laps after a rain delay was very unexpected. They didn't even bother drying the upper lane of pit road.
 
PhillyAndroids said:
I live 7 miles from Pocono and was lucky to be able to be up on Kyle Bucsh's Pit box for the race and had garage passes all weekend. Truly once in a life time experience AMAZING. Been a NASCAR fan since the early ninety's as a young kid and still am to this day.

William Winning Saturday Our view at victory lane
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Great pics! Thanks for sharing.
 
TexasRaceLady said:
I usually sat in that grandstand to your left -- first one after the main grandstand. Loved watching them exit pit road.
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I was thinking if I come back next season I will move further down. Would be nice to get the view of the corner and pit road.
 
KodiakRusty89 said:
I had a great time yesterday despite the brutal heat! Michigan is a first rate facility! From the time I arrived until I left it was a great experience. The tram system (somehow I ended up parking at Graves Farm Campground) worked perfectly. Having one of the stops right next to my section really helped. I'd love to return next year!

It still feels like there's more than 71k or so seats. I know they eliminated everything from turn 3 through the main grandstand but that didn't seem like half the capacity. It was listed at 136k when I was there in '03/'04...

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Looks like pretty good seats, thanks for posting. Good crowd. How was traffic getting out?
 
sdj said:
Looks like pretty good seats, thanks for posting. Good crowd. How was traffic getting out?
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Traffic was a non-issue. I got back to my car, started it up and literally pulled right onto M12 then M50.
 
KodiakRusty89 said:
Traffic was a non-issue. I got back to my car, started it up and literally pulled right onto M12 then M50.
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Same here. Best traffic experience of any race I've been to. Maybe because they're dealing with 55,000 cars instead of 120,000...
 
29-4 said:
Same here. Best traffic experience of any race I've been to. Maybe because they're dealing with 55,000 cars instead of 120,000...
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I'd be intersted to know what the actual attendance was. I'd say it was about 2/3 full. If the actual capacity is 71k (which I don't buy) then the crowd was probably in the 45-50k range?

There seemed to be more people than that. I feel like there's still 90-100k seats...
 
KodiakRusty89 said:
I'd be intersted to know what the actual attendance was. I'd say it was about 2/3 full. If the actual capacity is 71k (which I don't buy) then the crowd was probably in the 45-50k range?

There seemed to be more people than that. I feel like there's still 90-100k seats...
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I agree, it seemed pretty busy. But I don't see a reason for the track to say there are fewer seats than there are, do you?
 
29-4 said:
I agree, it seemed pretty busy. But I don't see a reason for the track to say there are fewer seats than there are, do you?
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I'm not sure what the reason is. Other than they didn't want to deconstruct THAT many seats incase popularity increases again. I don't see how they removed 65k seats from the last time I was there.

This is what it looks like with a 136k capacity. All they did was take out those individual sections between 3-4. They did the same in 1-2 but replaced them with more seats (it's now basically one big section instead of broken up ones) imo.

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My buddy who goes to Talladega feels the same way. The capacity there went from 175k to 80k but he's convinced only 25k or so seats were removed. I know you can adjust seat width (that's what Pocono did) but that doesn't eliminate another 70k seats. Both Michigan and Talladega are ISC tracks...
 
KodiakRusty89 said:
I'm not sure what the reason is. Other than they didn't want to deconstruct THAT many seats incase popularity increases again. I don't see how they removed 65k seats from the last time I was there.

This is what it looks like with a 136k capacity. All they did was take out those individual sections between 3-4. They did the same in 1-2 but replaced them with more seats (it's now basically one big section instead of broken up ones) imo.

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My buddy who goes to Talladega feels the same way. The capacity there went from 175k to 80k but he's convinced only 25k or so seats were removed. I know you can adjust seat width (that's what Pocono did) but that doesn't eliminate another 70k seats. Both Michigan and Talladega are ISC tracks...
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Did Michigan widen the seats too perhaps? I've never been to a track where space between seat numbers was so big. It was nice not to be crushed against my neighbors. I agree, it doesn't seem like enough removed from your pic.

It's either that or they were inflating the capacity during the good years
 
KodiakRusty89 said:
Traffic was a non-issue. I got back to my car, started it up and literally pulled right onto M12 then M50.
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Sweet! :D

Most all the tracks I go to, I do the same thing. After a couple of visits you learn where not to park.
 
As a member of the 'Parking Lot Party' I thank each and every one of you for your early exit from the parking lot. We usually bust out the grill. Throw a steak or two on the fire. Maybe a baked potato. Have a nice dinner and watch the show. We used to be part of the crowd that went back to our car after the race to try to get the heck outta there. Then we learned to relax. :cool:
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
As a member of the 'Parking Lot Party' I thank each and every one of you for your early exit from the parking lot. We usually bust out the grill. Throw a steak or two on the fire. Maybe a baked potato. Have a nice dinner and watch the show. We used to be part of the crowd that went back to our car after the race to try to get the heck outta there. Then we learned to relax. :cool:
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We do that unless the RV is close, which it usually is. In that case we go there and kick back. :D
 
Johali said:
We do that unless the RV is close, which it usually is. In that case we go there and kick back. :D
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Same here. Although, the only race that we attend these days is Martinsville. We don't camp @ that track so we have to drive to/from each time we go. When that race is over, we normally head down to the start/finish line for the victory lane celebration. Then, it's back to the truck for dinner in the parking lot. Less stress and we drive right out of there with no lane restrictions.
 
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