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I love NASCAR and I am proud to say it. I was born and raised into one of the greatest sports America has to offer. I learned to count thanks to the numbers on the roofs of every little replica toy car that my dad bought me. I knew every driver, I knew every sponsor, and I knew every race track. I was raised to believe that Dale Earnhardt Sr. was one of the greatest men to have ever lived. I cried myself to sleep the day that he died and my dad even let me stay home from school the next day. My grandfather raced, my uncles raced, and my cousin races today. NASCAR is a big part of my life, and it’s time I stand up for what I believe in. Stop the NASCAR hate.
I’ve heard it all. “It’s boring.” “All they do is turn left.” “It’s a redneck sport.” “It’s not even a sport.” “I could do it.” What else? It doesn’t matter because you’re all wrong. Hear my plea, let me defend this beautiful sport that I love. Let me give you a glimpse of NASCAR so that you may see why it is a lifestyle for so many people. I want to give you a great snapshot of why NASCAR is worth watching, both at home and at the track.
Let’s start with watching NASCAR from home. Football is over. We won’t have any more NFL Sundays for over 6 whole months. Instead of spending your hungover afternoons watching football, you can spend it watching a race. Sunday afternoon races are perfect. You watch the beginning of the race, end up falling asleep, nap for a couple hours, and wake up right for the exciting end of the race. Check out yesterday’s photo-finish Daytona 500.
You have an excuse to make wings or order pizza, and you can drink all the beer you want. Or if you’re a die-hard fan like me, you can throw on the t-shirt of your favorite driver and watch the race from start-to-finish. You may even learn to hate the commentators (Darrell Waltrip is almost worse than Chris Collinsworth). Watching NASCAR from home can be a very enjoyable experience.
But your whole life will change when you go to your first NASCAR race. Everything you thought about tailgating or attending a sports event can be thrown out the window. Experiencing your first NASCAR race will give you a rush stronger than the rush you felt when you got your first OTPHJ.
The best races to go to are night races. The best experience is to take a camper or an RV, but at least get a cheap motel room for Saturday night. Get down to the track early Saturday morning, set up camp, start grilling, and start drinking. You will be surrounded by drunk rednecks and there will be horse shoes and cornhole everywhere. If you want to play a fun game, count how many mullets you see throughout the day. Just make sure you enjoy your day tailgating and pace yourself, because you won’t go into the track until at least 6 p.m. It gets better for all you alcoholics out there.
When you leave the tailgate, take a cooler. Fill it with ice and beer. That’s right, you can bring your own cooler into the racetrack. What sport lets you do that? You don’t have to pay $11 for a 25 Oz. Bud Light Lime when you can just crack open one of the Busch’s you have in your cooler. To really live in the moment, don’t bring any craft brews, only cheap beer. You should also bring a cooler full of food so you can keep crushing brats and potato chips the whole race. Since everyone can bring in coolers full of beer, there are tens of thousands of drunk people in one area, and it gets rowdy. The best part about being at a race isn’t the sound of the engines, or the screeching of tires during a wreck, or even being close and in the actual environment. The best part of being at a race is people watching. There are mullets, there are shirtless people with sunburn, there are old rednecks grinding on each other, and then there are the extreme drunk people. Like my guy who got half-naked and climbed the fence during the race I was watching in Richmond a couple years ago.
VIDEO: Shirtless fan climbs catch fence during #NASCAR race at Richmond | Autoweek http://t.co/eAMqzingXi via @AutoweekUSA #securityfail
— Mike Pryson (@AWmikepryson) September 8, 2014
You can’t tell me that guy doesn’t look like he knows how to have a good time. So quit the hate and be more open minded. Go give it a try. If you go to a NASCAR race and don’t have the time of your life, then I will pay you back for your ticket (not really). It truly is a once in a lifetime experience.
Raise hell and praise Dale..
Image via Daniel Huerlimann-BEELDE / Shutterstock.com
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I once got in a bar fight over making fun of NASCAR. You guys are passionate, among other things.
I need to know how this happened.
Since TFM probably won’t publish my submission, here’s the TL;DR:
Spent a summer in college working an internship in a little hick town. It was just me, my boss for the summer (a woman roughly 30-ish who was cheating on her then husband with a townie she met), and another chick about 25, surrounded by several thousand cowboys in the middle of nowhere. Three of us went out one night, the girls are immediately hit on by a group of locals out for a birthday / bachelor party or something. I get blackout, start talking to these guys since I don’t know anyone within 1,000 miles. Somehow NASCAR comes up and I start making the jokes that EmailKing covered above. One of the guys got really pissed so I just keep calling him Dale Jr., Kyle Petty, and whatever other names I could think of. Dude warns me to stop, I don’t. A while later I walk in to take a piss and he’s at the stall next to me. I look over and make another Dale Jr. joke and he says something to the effect of, “I gave you a chance to shut your mouth.” He waits for me to put my manhood away and proceeds to punch me twice. I’m so drunk / in such disbelief I just start laughing at the guy. His friends grab him and pull him out of the bathroom, we eventually apologize to each other over a round of shots, worst headache of my life the next few days.
I don’t even like NASCAR and I think you truly deserved those punches
I most definitely did.
*PGP Whoops
#PGPWhoopsie needs to be a thing.
Yeah you definitely deserved it
I’m probably gonna get a lot of shit for this, but I prefer Indycar racing over Nascar. That said, I thought Truex Jr. won that race on my first viewing, it took the line camera to change my mind
Indycar is the way to go. I find it more exciting and there are less races so the results matter a bit more each race. Also Indy 500 experience tops any nascar event in my opinion.
Indy and formula one are definitely more fun to watch. Sportscar racing (IMSA series/lemans) is a good watch too.
Me and the old college buddies get together and camp out for 3 days every year at the Coca Cola 600. Memorial Day weekend, America and great times.
Going to the Duck commander 500 at TMS with a few buddies. Will be our first race. Can’t wait. I will be wearing a Dale Jr jersey that I bought at a thrift store during undergrad. Any tips for tailgating there are much appreciated.
Make friends with whoever you tailgate next to. They’ll give you food and everything else when they find out it’s your first race.
I’ve been a big NHRA fan since I was 4. I’ve never been to a NASCAR race, but if it’s anything like the drag races, I’m on board. Love the passion PassiveAggressiveEmailKing.
Only downside to the actual race is that once it starts, it is so insanely loud you really can’t talk to anyone you are there with. Gets mighty boring.
But tailgating and bringing in your own food/drink is too much fun, just don’t be in a hurry to get to the actual racing part.
Never became a NASCAR fan, one main reason is that I don’t have a tie to a driver like I do a college team or a hometown team.
Just find a car that’s sponsored by one of your favorite brands and cheer that driver on. Or, if in doubt, cheer on the Chevys.
All hail Dale. But for real, it’s all about the experience. Any event you can bring in alcohol for and act ridiculous is fine by me.
Dale yeah
There’s nothing you can say to convince me people driving fast in an oval is entertaining.
Take me NASCAR tailgating