Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!

Sunday was the day of the big race - NASCAR Nextel Cup 400! Although the race was great and we enjoyed it, there were a few things that let the day down.

We arrived about midday and it was really really hot. The rednecks and hillbilly's were out in force! Before any major sporting event, the popular thing to do is set up a tent out in the car park, cook a BBQ (or grill as they call it here) and get pissed. In fact, some of the people doing this at the NASCAR went for this reason only and didn't even attend the race!

When we finally arrived at the entry gates (2 shuttle trips later), we were told we couldn't enter with a backpack. The man on the gate suggested we either took the bag back to our car or threw it out! We weren't prepared to do either, so we emptied the contents into a plastic bag, rolled up the backpack like a jacket and threw a shirt over it and walked through the gates!

The seating arrangements were a series of massive grandstands full of bench seats (no chairs). Over 100,000 people then had to squash onto the bench seats like sardines, with a lot of overweight people, in the heat with no shelter covering anyone. There was also no pre-race entertainment what so ever. That was the crap part of the day.

This is a shot of the grounds and our view for the day

There were just so many people there, and everyone was squashed and hot

The 4 of us packed in like sardines

And racing!

The race took about 3 hours, with the drivers completing 200 x 2 mile laps. There were drivers named Ward (he didn't place at all), Kurt (i think he won or came second), Dale Jnr (the crowd favourite), and Ryan (he didn't place either). There were a few crashes, 2 of which happened right in front of us.

The centre of the track was crammed with RV's, caravans and old school buses, where people camped out, then watched the race from the roof of their vehicle

Clean up's - after a crash

Overall, we had a great time. We stopped at a restaurant on the way home called Frickers, where they boys all enjoyed some 'big fricken beers' and 'big fricken burgers'.