I wanted to put up a journal entry on the Pennsylvania 500 right after returning from Pocono Raceway, but decided to put it off due to Trixie's passing. Now that some time has passed, here's the entry written now before I forget any of the details.
On Sunday morning, we load up the car with an ice chest filled with lunch (in our case some cold chicken and hamburgers, a few beers and bottles of water). Pocono allows people to bring in a 12x12 cooler that can be put under your seat. I can't think of any other sporting event that lets you do this. Pretty cool. A tip for next time - bring a grill, and cook there. Lots of people do that, and some of the setups are BIG. There was one party in the parking lot where a guy was BBQ'ing ribs for a party of about twenty people (and his grill was about six feet long!). And the crowds! We parked about a half mile from the grandstands (and that was the near end, we had to walk about a half mile after that to get to our seats!), and all we could see was cars and RVs. It seemed the earth was covered with them. Imagine the parking at a football game (I've been to a few, used to live in Dallas and went to one or two Cowboys games each year), and bump it up almost an order of magnitude. Anyway, since the racetrack is so big, more people can sit in the grandstands than at a football game, a lot more, and most every seat is filled as far as I can tell. I'm almost leaving out all the activity outside the track. Trailer upon trailer of things to buy, autographs from the racers if you get there around 7:00 am, games, a salon even - Garnier is a NASCAR sponsor. It's like a city set up for the weekend.
Opening ceremonies for NASCAR races are awesome. It's like the Fourth of July all over again. A military band played a medley of the songs representing our armed forces, and had people who served in each one stand up. Special awards were to given to retiring racers Rusty Wallace and Mark Martin (who came in 2nd and 3rd), presented by US Senator Rick Santorum, who also said the "Gentlemen start your engines!" words. Of course, there's the National Anthem and an opening invocation (which no other sport I know of does).
On to the race. Loud! and fast! Watching a race on TV does it no justice for knowing how fast and furious these cars are. Especially awesome is how loud the cars are as they pass just after a race restart. At that point they're all together and it is pretty awesome as they go past. After a few laps, some stragglers will drift off the tail end of the pack. Trying to spot one car in a crowd is pretty nearly impossible. As they go past the numbers are pretty nearly illegible as it's all a blur. Spotters, the race-team members who watch the cars progress and radio the drivers and pit crew, work in a higher section of the grandstand with a higher view, have more experience, and yet even they have trouble if the cars' colors or sponsorship logos are too similar.
All in all, it was a lot of fun and excitement at our first NASCAR race. We won't go to very many, it is very expensive to go. My racer, Carl Edwards came in fourth, but my fantasy team composed of Kurt Busch, Mark Martin, and Carl Edwards came in 1st, 3rd, and 4th respectively so I trounced my competition. Standings wise, Kurt Busch and Mark Martin are well-placed in the top 10, and Carl Edwards is barely out of it in a close 12th place. The top 10 racers are "promoted" after the 26th race - sometime in September, to the final "Race for the Cup". Kindof complicated to explain, but after 26 races (of 36 total), the top 10 are given a lot of bonus points, so that even though there are 43 cars in each race, only one of those top 10 will be able to win the championship at the end.