I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: October 7, 2018] The Gander Outdoors 400

I have never cared about car racing of any kind.  I didn’t know that fans of one kind of racing might actively dislike other kinds of car racing.   It has always puzzled me that people get so invested in guys driving fast in a circle.  It has puzzled me even more that the fans tend to be poor while the drivers/owners are be multi-millionaires.  The branding has always puzzled me as well.  Basically everything about it has puzzled me.

So when my son’s Boy Scout Troop ran a trip to Monster Mile for a NASCAR playoff (they have playoffs??) race, I thought it was time to see it first hand.  Our trip included some time on the track before the race and a Q&A with Jimmie Johnson who I learned is a very successful racer (worth about $120 million).

As the date drew near I was very excited to be around the roar of the engines and the excitement that so many people clearly felt.

We had to leave home at 7:30. I was happy I didn’t have to drive because I was already sleepy.  We arrived at the stadium around 10AM and were allowed on the track, which was pretty neat.

Since I know literally nothing about racing I didn’t know anything about this track.

So here’s the Wikipedia summary:

The track features one layout, a 1 mile (1.6 km) concrete oval, with 24° banking in the turns and 9° banking on the straights.  The track, nicknamed “The Monster Mile”, was built in 1969 by Melvin Joseph of Melvin L. Joseph Construction Company, Inc., with an asphalt surface, but was replaced with concrete in 1995. Six years later in 2001, the track’s capacity moved to 135,000 seats, making the track have the largest capacity of sports venue in the mid-Atlantic. In 2002, the name changed to Dover International Speedway from Dover Downs International Speedway after Dover Downs Gaming and Entertainment split, making Dover Motorsports. From 2007 to 2009, the speedway worked on an improvement project called “The Monster Makeover”, which expanded facilities at the track and beautified the track. After the 2014 season, the track’s capacity was reduced to 95,500 seats.

S. watched some of the race on TV to see if she could spot us (she couldn’t), but she said it looked like there were a ton of people there.  Interestingly, from our point of view the place seemed really empty.  So I guess we were both right if it can hold 95,000 and it was half full, that’s still about 50,000 people.

I have heard all of the stereotypes about NASCAR fans, of course.  But I have to say that this was a really friendly bunch.  Everyone was super nice.  The crowd was no crazier than any other place with 50,000.  They were generally friendlier than say, the crowd at Judas Priest.  Most people were wearing [insert driver here] shirts.  There were a lot of aggressively patriotic shirts as well.  It amuses me that you would wear a shirt that says “if this flag offends you, I’ll help you pack” to a place full of 50,000 of the most pro-America people out there–your posturing is pretty untested in this crowd.  The one surprise was the African-American guy walking around with a trump flag.  But that was the only trump support I saw all day.

The strangely cool thing about this even was the cost.  We had a special deal, but I found that this playoff race weekend, the prices weren’t all that high (and all kids were $10 or less).  The food vendors were of course overpriced but much of the money appeared to be going to local organizations (school clubs and the like) so I didn’t even feel bad about paying for that.  You were even allowed to bring in any kind of cooler with food or drink (no glass bottles) into the place.  Maybe since a race is basically looking at ads for 3 hours, it defrays the cost.

We went out onto the track and looked at cars from over the barrier.  We got to see them pushing the cars onto the track  and then we listened to Jimmie Johnson talk.  He was remarkably well-spoken and came across as a genuinely nice person.  He didn’t really say anything that I found interesting but what was I expecting?

The one real drag was that time between the Q&A and the race was two hours.  Normally I would love to take this time to wander around and look at all of the sights–there were a ton of things to see.  It was supposed to be a mild overcast day, but it was quite hot in Dover and with all of the concrete and metal (and cars) and humidity, it was really rough going.  I was surprised at how much I was flagging.  So mostly we just sat in the shade for a while.

At 1:20 we went in for the announcing of the drivers, which sounded like it would be a big deal.  And I guess it was if you were near the starting line.  We were in turn number 4 and couldn’t see a thing.

They had 12 minutes to kill before TV came on and it was painful watching them try to full 12 minutes.  The announcer dude was trying to talk to drivers but they were all bust trying to get ready.  And he kept saying “let’s walk over here,” a clear sign that you have nothing to say.

Then came the national anthem when they sang “rockets red glare,” red fireworks went up and they all sizzled during the “bombs bursting in air” part.  That was pretty cool.  A couple of jets flew overhead at end of the song.  It was aggressively patriotic.  Even the prayer was aggressively patriotic.   I didn’t think there would be a prayer, of course, but since the preacher basically blessed all men and women in uniform(s), I guess it wasn’t much of a prayer.  The fact that he ended with “In Christ’s name Amen.  Shalom,” was certainly a little weird, too.

But then it was race time.  Almost.

They did all the track stuff and got everyone going and after another ten or minutes it was race time.  The pace car got out there and was driving slowly with the other cars.   And then Jimmie Johnson’s car began to smoke and he had to go into the pit before the race even started and he was pretty much out for the day.  He’s the only person I knew.

Then the pace car left and the race began and HOLY CRAP IT WAS LOUD.  I have been to many loud things.  I have been to many loud shows.  This was louder than anything I’d ever been to.  I had on big yellow hearing earmuffs (so did my son) so it wasn’t loud under there, but taking them off even for a second was just bad news.  And the noise was relentless.  It’s wasn’t the sound of cars zipping by, it was the sound of roaring engines echoing off of every surface.

The race started with a group of cars and empty space but after the first 20 or so laps, the first place driver had caught up to the last place driver and there was a  ton of overlap.  This made the race more interesting because he now had to navigate around other drivers, but also more confusing because you had no idea where the end was and now it looked like the guy in last place was actually in second place.

I suppose if you are invested in a driver the race is much more exciting but after 40 laps of these guys going around in a circle, it started to get really monotonous.  And they really didn’t seem like they were going that fast.

The cars drive super fast (apparently they can reach 185-195 MPH on other tracks, but top speed here seemed to be around 150. This means they do the 1 mile lap in about 20 seconds–which is pretty amazing. In fact, I have so much more respect for the science behind racing and the endurance of the drivers than I ever would have expected (it must have been a scorcher in those cars).  The force that they propel themselves around with and the very impressive reflexes they need to have not to crash or die is really something.

But even that couldn’t battle the elements for me.  It was hot.  I was already sleepy.  It was loud and I had on mufflers–making it a huge white noise machine  And after about 40 laps I was falling asleep.

It was the pit crew that really held my interest.  We were near the entrance to the pit and there were a few cars who went on the end for changes and the crew was amazing.  In about fifteen seconds, they could change four tires fill a tank of gas and clean the windshield (the windshield is apparently a series of plastic sheets so when its time to clean them, they just peel a sheet off and presto, clean!

15 seconds seems like nothing but at one point one of the cars was in first place.  He pulled in for a pit stop and we watched on the leaderboard as his number dropped.  Every time a car passes the starting line, some sensor updates what place he is in (like a super EZ pass).  So while this guy was in the pit we watched the other cars cross the starting line as his number dropped to 2nd, 5th, 9th, 15th and off the board. That was pretty neat.

After a while I saw that they were around lap 100 which meant that everything we had just seen had to happen three more times!

I grabbed my son and we went for some snacks and cold water.  He told me he wasn’t feeling great (festival food and super heat doesn’t mix well) and I was developing a headache.  The thing about this headache is that it was coming from all of the elements plus the ear muffs clamping on my head.  But I couldn’t take them off because the relentless noise was too much to bear. And the noise would not stop for another several hours.  When we got out to the midway it was still really loud and it was always really sunny (no shade out there).  Basically it sucked.

I came back up and saw that it was around lap 192 and realized that everything was exactly as I had left it.  One of the boys was reading a book and another had fallen asleep on the bleachers.

I asked the guy who drove us if he wouldn’t mind leaving early.  He was a NASCAR newbie as well and didn’t mind leaving so we left after about 225 laps and headed to the car.

On the way home we listened to some of the race and it turns out that the last 20 or so miles were really exciting.  Actually, the announcer at the race said that it was a very exciting race, which makes me have to question everything I saw.  The guys in first and second place were swerving around other cars to try to win the title.  With about ten laps to go there was crash (right where we had been sitting!) and that changed everything in the race.  Why??  I couldn’t imagine, since the two lead guys weren’t involved.  Well, when the pace car comes out everyone has to basically get in single file to zip around the track while the track is cleared.  So all of that confusion and chaos with the slower racers was now removed.

But the two front-runners (and several others) both went into the pit to gear up for those last 8 laps (which sounded nutty to me).  With thee guys in the pit, it meant that Chase Elliot one of the guys who was further back and was never in contention during the race got to move ahead.  He wound up winning the race–a total upset (Elliot is the guy that the family who organized the trip really liked so that’s cool).  There was also a big pile up with two laps left–so lots of excitement at the end of the race, but I’m still glad we got home two hours earlier than the people who stayed until the end.

So I have learned that I do not like racing for sure. But I have more respect for the sport and the fans, and tons of more respect for the drivers and the pit crew,