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

. 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.
View from the seats
View looking towards turn one from the end of the concourse. The front stretch is HUGE!
LET'S GO RACING!!!
"What Turn 4?"....... More like "What Turn 1, What Turn 2, What Turn 3, What Backstretches, and What Tornado?"
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.