Rednecks, beer, and more importantly, NASCAR

 My family (my Dad in particular) have always been fans of NASCAR. I was never TOO interested in it but I would occasionally "watch a race," which usually consisted of watching the first and last ten laps, usually out of 300 or more. Well yesterday D took me to Atlanta Motor Speedway to watch the AdvoCare 500, and I must say I really enjoyed my very first NASCAR race. The crowd was a little rough around the edges, to say the least, but the enthusiasm for the race was genuine, and it can't really get any better than that.

Part of the campgrounds.... a lot of people got there Friday to watch the truck races and Nationwide series before the Sprint race on Sunday night. I have to say, driving through this and seeing all the tailgating fans was one of the most entertaining parts of the trip. One camping group even brought a small above ground pool and they were swimming in it when we drove by; unfortunately, I wasn't fast enough with my camera to get a pic.

D and I in our seats, we actually got lucky and got a pretty good deal (only $20 each) and could see almost the whole track.

As you can see, we were sitting right at the start of turn three. Even though we weren't sitting in the main grandstand by the start/finish, our seats ended up being great because we were able to witness the one wreck of the race. This was almost at the end of the race, after a caution re-start.... you can't really see the cars because of the brightness of the lights, and maybe because they're travelling around 200 miles an hour! 

I guess the saying "Don't knock it before you try it," is applicable in this situation, because even though I was excited to be doing something new, I was a little wary that I would get bored watching the same thing over and over again. But the race was not bad at all... even though it got a little "repetitive" at times, there was nothing more exciting than watching someone you didn't go for get passed or hearing the roaring of the cars driving by. This was such a fun experience and I definitely can't wait to to it again!