This past weekend a group of us guys trekked down to the redneck capital of racing, Talladega, AL for some fun. We started our journey on Friday as Pops, Step-Dan and Little Harry swung by the house to pick me up for the long, ardous journey deep into the heart of racing country. Uncle Grizz and his buddies Joe Pesci and Dave were going to meet us later on in the day.
We all got settled into our “hotel” (yeah, it’s Pops’ house, sue me) and I spent most of the daylight hours tutoring the boy on algebra. Ahem, it only took me about 20 minutes to re-learn all that useless crap I learned almost 20 years ago. The hard part was trying to explain how all of this stuff is extremely important later in life. Then after a nice Mexican meal we settled in to watch the defending world champion Boston Red Sox continue on their quest to defend their title.
(Our hotel, or Pops’ house)
The next morning came early and we headed out to the track. We spent hours hanging around the parking lot socializing then collecting goodies and freebies at all of the truck haulers that are there promoting their particular products. Saturday is the best day to go walking around as the crowd is much smaller.
(The front of Talladega SuperSpeedway)
Little Harry got to sit in one of the new Dodge Challengers. These are really sweet cars…at only $42 THOUSAND bucks. I told him that if he graduated with all A’s in math that maybe ol’ Grampa would buy him one. Yeah, right.
I got to see my favorite driver’s car up close. For some reason they were letting fans sign it. I wasn’t about to wait in line to do that, though.
Some of the people around the track just love to show off their allegiances. This guy above obviously loved Dale Jr. This wasn’t the most crazed fan, however. I did notice some guy sporting a Dale Earnhardt, Jr. #8 Budweiser arm tattoo. Why is that crazy? Well, as you have seen, Mr. Earnhardt no longer drives the number 8 or Budweiser car. Oops! FAIL!
The Saturday race (NASCAR Trucks) was uber boring so we left early. Also, due to the heat and loud noise and whatever else, I began to work on a spectacular headache that would follow me for the next several days. Saturday evening also brought the amazing victory over the local boys of Auburn by our very own Vanderbilt Commodores! “The geeks shall inherit the turf!“
Sunday brought more of the same. Wake up early, get to the track early, sweat a lot and early. Actually, common sense prevailed and we put up a cover over the vehicle in the parking lot to help prevent the heatstroke!
(l. to r.: Pops, Joe Pesci, Uncle Grizz and Dave)
We had a good time drinking our beer/tea/soda/water, socializing and listening to music while we people-watched.
Little Harry uses his “signature pose” to model his new racing gear.
The race itself was awesome, of course. My boy Dale was by far the dominant car of the day. Unfortunately, Carl Edwards sparked the huge wreck at the end taking out my driver as well as many others, stopping the race for awhile.
During the weekend we saw several odd sights but my favorite had to be “Bud Light Guy“:
This character made a few rotations of the grandstands to amuse us thoroughly. I mean, how cool is a hat made from a beer case and a necklace of crushed cans? Yeah, too awesome for words!
Also, we saw familiar people from last year.
A couple from last year known affectionately as Spike & Fuschia were back in their same seats but something was missing. Oh yeah, the hair has changed!
Here they were last year:
The strangest part of all was that he changed drivers: from Jeff Gordon to Dale Earnhardt, Jr.!
Anyway, we got home just fine after Tony Stewart CHEATED (yes Grizz, he even admitted it on the post-race interview) his way to victory. I managed to remain crappy feeling enough on Monday to snooze the entire day away. Sorry co-workers. I can’t wait to do it again next year.
sour grapes dude. a win is a win.
Good point. I can’t fault Stewart for beating my guy when it was Edwarsd that caused his wreck.