NASCAR!

 So I posted that Drew won tickets to a NASCAR event.  We went last night. 

What I didn’t know is that Drew used to go to the stock car races in Islip when he was a kid.  He felt like he was reliving his childhood last night.

Our tickets allowed us to access the pit.

The scoreboard

And the control tower… not only do the announce the races to the crowd, they stream the event on the internet.

The way it’s set up, the racers do qualifying heats in the afternoon, and the actual races are at night.  Here’s the lineup.

As you can see, there are many different types of car.  We got there during the qualifying heats and stayed for all of the actual races.

It’s NASCAR, so the names of the sponsors are painted onto the cars.  Some of the drivers have big corporate sponsors, like State Farm insurance or Coors beer.  Others are sponsored by local businesses, like Syosset Trucks.  I was amused to see at least two cars sponsored by local law firms.

Drew’s watch kept alerting him to the “loud environment”.  You can get protection for your ears if you need it. 

And the smell of exhaust permeates the air.

I don’t think there was a single race that didn’t involve someone crashing and getting towed off the track.  Drew said “we don’t go for the races, we go for the crashes.” 

Because Drew won the contest, he got a really cool Dale Earnhardt jacket, and he was given a ride in one of the cars during the opening ceremonies.

But I had fun, too!  I got to ride with the mascot!

And later, so did the friends who came with us.

The cars are amazing.

I took some video, too.  Here the cars are just warming up.

This was taken during a race.

There’s a concession stand (of course) where you can get burgers, hot dogs, ice cream, etc. and a “beer garden” for … well, beer.

The people who work there were super nice and really made our evening.  

So it’s not something we would have done if Drew hadn’t entered the contest, but it definitely was a fun evening, and I’d go again,