World Wide Kate

NASCAR Coca-Cola 600

A few months ago Mom and I attended a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) luncheon with the Theta Alum group.  I was the youngest by 5 years at the minimum, 20 years at the average.  Coming into the dining hall we saw a few prizes you could purchase raffles tickets for.  Most were stays at golf resorts, Serenbe and the like… As I recall there was a picnic basket with nice wine in it and an offer to have a professional chef come to your house and cook for you and 5 friends.  The raffle that stuck out to me though was the one consisting of 2 tickets to NASCAR in Charlotte, 2 VIP Red Bull Energy Station passes and an autographed Matt Ryan football.

Now I’m not particularly a NASCAR fan but Peter (a sports freak to put it lightly) is, so the least I could do was try my hand at this prize (and at the very least if I was forced into a NASCAR weekend this one would be nice!)

So as the story goes I won the tickets and counted down every day until this past Sunday.

Here is the story of my NASCAR weekend…

We start the drive at 9AM and stop for breakfast at Waffle House around 11. Although telling Peter several times I would not be eating there he ignores my objections and pulls into Waffle House.  It’s the “proper” NASCAR breakfast.  Peter orders 3 orders of hashbrowns covered and a double waffle (which he does NOT finish[8 bites left... sissy]).  Still it is a ridiculous amount of food to watch one person eat, especially knowing that person has a six-pack despite consuming 4000 calories a day.  If Peter keeps eating like this after the Ironman we are anticipating he will weigh 200 pounds by August. I order hashbrowns super well cooked (nice and crispy!) double covered (that means 2 slices of cheese) and raisin toast with apple butter. 

We make it into the race traffic and somehow are coming from the opposite direction as everyone else so it only takes us a couple of minutes to find a lot not too far from the track (about half a mile) for $10.

 

We have VIP passes to the Red Bull Energy Station so we bee-line it over there to start in on our free drinks.  The place is pretty awesome and we soon decide we are very happy with our lives. Seeing as I hadn’t had a drink in 2 weeks it may have just been the alcohol but looking at the pictures I’m pretty sure it wasn’t.

Brian Vickers and Scott Speed come to the Energy Station and do short interviews.  Brian Vickers is short.  Scott Speed is silly.  I got his autograph and it’s up on my bulletin board in my room.

A Red Bull BMX rider came by and did tricks.  It was pretty sweet.

We sat outside on leather couches right next to the track.

We were served crab cakes and scallops on glass plates with real silverware and cloth napkins.  There were also about 10 pretty attractive Red Bull girls serving drinks.

When it rains the track is dried with the use of plane engines on the back of trucks.  It is very noisy and I think it probably consumes more gas than my Bronco. Just a guess…

Since you can bring your own beer, people go to their seats hours in advance even though they, unlike us, don’t have air conditioning for the hot HOT heat.

Before the race was scheduled to begin we hitched a ride through the infield where people were camping in motor homes.

The starting ceremony featured lots of flying things and American pride.

The seats we won were pretty sick. 

Though it would have been cooler if the race had ever begun.  Instead we sat and waited and drank for 2 hours until they had to call off the race for the day. 

Not finding food aside from a gas station on our hike back to the car we stopped at this tent.  Really I stopped and was welcomed in and then Peter came once I had gotten the okay.  We hung out with these boys for the remainder of the evening before we went back to the car and passed out for the night.  Or really, Peter passed out and I went to sleep. 

The next day we got up feeling dirty and walked around from 10 until 11 waiting for the Red Bull place to open again.  They had food and drinks but it wasn’t nearly as nice as it has been the day before and they were actually out of straight vodka so if you wanted a mixed drink it had to be made with citrus vodka which got me to stop drinking after about 1/2 a glass.  The plates today were paper as were the napkins and the silverware was plastic… We stayed for 70 laps and then made the decision to head back to Atlanta.  After 220 laps the race was called and some random guy won because he chose not to pit stop when a yellow flag was called and that yellow flag eventually turned into a red flag and the entire race was called. 

Overall it was a very fun weekend and I would enjoy to return to NASCAR someday.  But only if we have VIP passes.