02.12.2006, 01:10
Heading Out to the Track
Watching a NASCAR race is a total-body experience: the earth-shattering sound of a 790 horsepower engine roaring when a driver flips the ignition switch, the sight of 43 colorful cars flying around a track fender-to-fender as the grandstands shake, and the gritty smell of burned rubber mixed with gasoline. If watching races on television from your living room isn’t enough of a rush for you, it’s time to head out to the track. Here are several great races you may want to check out yourself (see Chapter 14 for more info on going to races):
V The Daytona 500: NASCAR’s annual Super Bowl, which is held in February and signals the start of the season. Teams spend several weeks at Daytona International Speedway getting ready for the year’s most hotly-contested event. Even past series champions say they don’t consider their resumes complete unless they have won the Daytona 500.
V The Brickyard 400: Long the hallowed ground of the Indy 500 (open-wheel) race, NASCAR has had no trouble packing the Indianapolis Motor Speedway stands with more than 300,000 spectators each August. Jeff Gordon is the event’s master, having won four Brickyard 400s since NASCAR’s inaugural race there in 1994.
![[Image: markmartints6.jpg]](http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/3475/markmartints6.jpg)
MARK SAYS
It’s hard to believe how many NASCAR fans buy racing paraphernalia to support their favorite drivers. Then again, as a driver, it’s even harder to believe how many fans root for me. I drove for a long time before that sunk in, but I’ll never forget the moment it did. In 1990, seven long years after my first NASCAR Cup race, I was driving at North WilkesboroSpeedway in North Carolina, battling Dale Earnhardt for the lead. At that point, Earnhardt had won three of his seven NASCAR Cup championships, and my goal was to keep him from winning his fourth title that year and to beat him in that race. It wasn’t easy getting by Earnhardt, but when I finally passed him, the crowd went wild.
Usually a driver doesn’t see the fans because he’s concentrating so much on the race. On that day, though, I could see the crowd out of the corner of my eye as soon as I began the pass. They were standing up, hooting and hollering as I pulled next to Earnhardt. They only got louder as we raced side-by-side down the frontstretch, between the first and last turns. (See Chapter 8 for more details on the layout of racetracks.) It created an even bigger stir when I passed Earnhardt for good and won the race. At that moment, standing in Victory Lane and seeing all those fans, I realized that the crowd was rooting for me and that I had a pretty big following. Even though Earnhardt won the championship that year and I was the runner-up, I still felt pretty good about that moment at North Wilkesboro. It was unforgettable.
V Talladega Superspeedway events: Both races at NASCAR’s longest track (2.66 miles) are hot tickets. Even with introduction of carburetor restrictor plates, which have kept average speeds under 180 mph, fans can’t get enough of the high-speed action. (For more on restrictor plates, see Chapter 13.) Many races end with last-lap surprises at this Alabama track.
V Bristol Motor Speedway events: This short half-mile track brings out the beast in every driver, with close-quarter racing sending many drivers to the garage area long before a winner is declared. The bumping and banging is the bane of many teams, who spend weeks afterwards smoothing out the dings and dents in the car’s superstructure.
Watching a NASCAR race is a total-body experience: the earth-shattering sound of a 790 horsepower engine roaring when a driver flips the ignition switch, the sight of 43 colorful cars flying around a track fender-to-fender as the grandstands shake, and the gritty smell of burned rubber mixed with gasoline. If watching races on television from your living room isn’t enough of a rush for you, it’s time to head out to the track. Here are several great races you may want to check out yourself (see Chapter 14 for more info on going to races):
V The Daytona 500: NASCAR’s annual Super Bowl, which is held in February and signals the start of the season. Teams spend several weeks at Daytona International Speedway getting ready for the year’s most hotly-contested event. Even past series champions say they don’t consider their resumes complete unless they have won the Daytona 500.
V The Brickyard 400: Long the hallowed ground of the Indy 500 (open-wheel) race, NASCAR has had no trouble packing the Indianapolis Motor Speedway stands with more than 300,000 spectators each August. Jeff Gordon is the event’s master, having won four Brickyard 400s since NASCAR’s inaugural race there in 1994.
MARK SAYS
Mark Martin fans
It’s hard to believe how many NASCAR fans buy racing paraphernalia to support their favorite drivers. Then again, as a driver, it’s even harder to believe how many fans root for me. I drove for a long time before that sunk in, but I’ll never forget the moment it did. In 1990, seven long years after my first NASCAR Cup race, I was driving at North WilkesboroSpeedway in North Carolina, battling Dale Earnhardt for the lead. At that point, Earnhardt had won three of his seven NASCAR Cup championships, and my goal was to keep him from winning his fourth title that year and to beat him in that race. It wasn’t easy getting by Earnhardt, but when I finally passed him, the crowd went wild.
Usually a driver doesn’t see the fans because he’s concentrating so much on the race. On that day, though, I could see the crowd out of the corner of my eye as soon as I began the pass. They were standing up, hooting and hollering as I pulled next to Earnhardt. They only got louder as we raced side-by-side down the frontstretch, between the first and last turns. (See Chapter 8 for more details on the layout of racetracks.) It created an even bigger stir when I passed Earnhardt for good and won the race. At that moment, standing in Victory Lane and seeing all those fans, I realized that the crowd was rooting for me and that I had a pretty big following. Even though Earnhardt won the championship that year and I was the runner-up, I still felt pretty good about that moment at North Wilkesboro. It was unforgettable.
V Talladega Superspeedway events: Both races at NASCAR’s longest track (2.66 miles) are hot tickets. Even with introduction of carburetor restrictor plates, which have kept average speeds under 180 mph, fans can’t get enough of the high-speed action. (For more on restrictor plates, see Chapter 13.) Many races end with last-lap surprises at this Alabama track.
V Bristol Motor Speedway events: This short half-mile track brings out the beast in every driver, with close-quarter racing sending many drivers to the garage area long before a winner is declared. The bumping and banging is the bane of many teams, who spend weeks afterwards smoothing out the dings and dents in the car’s superstructure.