<p>I’m a pretty big auto racing fan but mostly the road racing type. Went to my first real NASCAR race this weekend.
It’s pretty expensive to go to–lots of people spent over $300 each just for tickets. Beers were not bad at $6 but an OK hot dog was $6 and a burger $8 plus fries at $5.
The level of attention given to the drivers far exceeds that of the various car models they race. I think this is far different from the old days where you had real live Chevy and Ford and Dodge cars racing. Now the cars are all virtually the same except for the engine which carries a car nameplate. I think NASCAR made a mistake going this direction.
The crowd drinks lots of beer–even on a cold windy day.
The sponsors have very elaborate displays of their products and you can fill bags with free stuff they give away–which many people do.
It’s very loud and very fast-the cars are hard to pick out in a pack and I got very lost over who was who.
Betting on the race makes it interesting
They need a halftime break. You hate to leave because you might miss a rare moment of excitement (wreck or pass) The wrecks are very exciting with lots of smoke and noise you miss on TV.
There are a whole of of people with nice RVs willing to pay $900 just to park it in a dusty parking lot with no hook-ups. It cost 10 times that to park on in the center area of the track. WOW.
Most fans seem to go to multiple races–very costly for a middle income family.
Every driver has his own concession stand selling stuf with his name/face on it. I’d like the weekend take for one of those.<br>
There must be an army of people traveling around doing this show. I’d estimate about 400 big rigs going to each event. Kind of like cleaned up versions of carnival workers as most of the workers seeemd pretty attractive and had teeth. Wonder how they got those jobs and what they pay.<br>
I am not hooked on it. I might go to one more in the deep south to see the crowd variation from the LV crowd.
The LV paper said the total value of the event is about $1 Billion for ther weekend excluding TV. That’s big business.</p>
<p>Matt Kenseth and Jeff Gordon which made the race very sad from my viewpoint. I actually left after JG wrecked MK just to beat the traffic out. I like it better on Tv as you can see the pit action which we could not see at all and get replays of all the good stuff. I would have won about $500 if either of them won the race. But the winner did have the fastest car at the end so I knew it was pretty much a race for second place. </p>
<p>We will go to Talladega someday for the full southern version.</p>
<p>Luxor was known to old and tired but has new owners who were going to renovate all the rooms. I would see if that is done as staying in a construction zone is no fun. Mandalay Bay next door is nice for the money. We used to stay on the strip but no longer like it much. We stay at Sunset Station which is the newest and nicest of all the Station resorts but very reasonable, clean, safe and quiet==very low Yahoo Singles factor. Mostly older couple and locals. Very good food, big sports book (me), and lots of loose slots (wife) compared to the strip. Also park right near the door easily all the time instead of way off in some huge garage.</p>
<p>Barrons - All in all, was it worth taking the trip to do this? I went to the Indianapolis 500 for the first time last year, and now I need to fit in a NASCAR race at some point. I was thinking that the LV race would be a good one to do, and since it is in Las Vegas how bad can the experience be?</p>
<p>At Indianapolis, I too was amazed at the amount of beer that was consumed. I saw people carrying in entire cases of beer. That being said, I did not see one obnoxious or drunk person the entire time I was at the race. I see more drunk fans at $7 a beer at Seahawks or Mariners games.</p>
<p>Yes, it was worth it because it was also a trip to LV which I like. I don’t think going to Fontana would have been worth it overall. I did not see many really bad drunks but the couples in our row were pretty tanked up and starting yelling and cussing a lot more as the race went on. They also smoked which is not allowed by the rules but ushers were not much around as the race went on. They spent most of their time chasing people away from the fence/wall area. No carry-ins were allowed unless you hid it well. All bags were searched. and carrying a six pack in your pants would be pretty uncomfortable. I’m sure you could smuggle in a pint or two of the good stuff but I realy don’t care to drink much at events. I’m really there to watch intently. So I would say go once but it’s pretty much what people say–lots of slow parts with a few seconds of excitement. To me it’s like baseball, an excuse to spend a few hours out in the sunshine eating too much bad food and people watching. I still prefer road racing sportscars on a nice track in the country like Road America or Virginia International where we are going next month for the Rolex Series.</p>
<p>I haven’t been to a Nascar race but wouldn’t mind it sometime. I used to go to stock car races up through high school. The figure 8 tracks were kind of fun. The most fearless usually won. The only track around here is too far away on the other side of the county.</p>
<p>Since you like road racing more, have you thought about going to the Nascar race at Infineon in the bay area?</p>
<p>Yes, I’d like to see them on the road courses–wish they would do Road America with those LONG straights and sharp corners. I’d spend half the day at Turn 5 and the last half at Canada Corner.</p>
<p>If you want to go to a good race for your first one - go to Richmond, Dover or Bristol. These are smaller tracks and you can usually see the whole track.
California is a boring race. Talladega is fun but so big you can’t see it all. The Brickyard is all about tradition and not a bad race, just can’t see the whole track.
I was fortunate enough to be able to go to Victory Lane in Phoenix last fall (friend is NASCAR official) be in the garage area and watch the inspections. It was a fun weekend!</p>