I’m gonna go out on a limb and assume that the Venn Diagram of weirdos and people who drive 7 hours to go to a NASCAR race by themselves is just a circle. Not sure which side I’d fall into, but I’m a pretty dedicated race fan. Walking into my apartment you won’t see very much memorabilia other than a couple Allmendinger hats, I don’t ask for autographs, and I don’t buy a shirt from every track that I visit. Not trying to say I’m some saint either, but I’m always weirded out by grown men asking 23 year old dudes to write their name in cursive on a $5 t-shirt. It’s not my cup of English breakfast tea.

To be at the track is, without a shimmer of doubt, the most peaceful place for me to be. On Saturday night I made the executive decision to wake up early the next morning and make the 7 hour pilgrimage to Atlanta Motor Speedway for Sunday’s race. Zero planning whatsoever, but that was part of the appeal.

2 a.m. Sunday morning came so damn early but for obvious reasons, it was easier to get out of bed on 3 hours sleep to get to the track than it is to get out of bed for work everyday. I picked up a ticket in section 106 row 17 from a scalper on the side of the road who tried to convince me that it was on the front stretch. This dude also had on a huge trench coat that literally had pill bottles spilling out of the side pockets. I’m sure he had a fun day…

I’m not gonna bore you with giving you a step by step recount of my entire day at the track, but I will say this; damn it felt good to be back. Surprisingly being at the track alone was more enjoyable than even I thought it would have been. Just threw my scanner and headset in my backpack, popped in the earbuds, and walked around in my own little world. Gotta give credit where it’s due too, the pre-race fan fare at a NASCAR race is really unlike any other sporting event. I went to three ‘driver-fan interaction’ type events in about a 1 hour span and I know for a fact you can’t get that with any other sport.

The race itself was solid. Not the 2001 spring Atlanta race but it wasn’t the 2000 New Hampshire Race either. Fortunately, it’s extremely easy to get a good deal on a ticket when you’re just buying one so I had a good seat in turn 4 where I could see every single driver sliding and swatting flies off of the turn and onto the front stretch. Call it sadistic, but the most entertaining part of the race was watching this drunk 60 year old (who might’ve weighed 120 soaking wet) stand up and drunkenly throw his hands in the air for EVERY SINGLE ONE of the 292 laps that Harvick led. Evidently he was paying zero attention to the PA announcer under caution (nor would he have even been able to process what was said anyways), but seeing this old codger loose his shit when Harvick pulled down to the apron to take the green flag from the back of the field was absolutely hilarious.

Never ever thought I’d see the day where NASCAR did an F1 style victory lane on the track but Atlanta finally pulled the trigger and that was an impressive step for the fan engagement at the track. I can’t let it go unsaid though…I saw some dude do the weirdest thing though. Paige and Scarlett Keselowski were walking around the faux victory lane and his young daughter started to wander around. This dude standing next to me literally took his phone out of his pocket and waited for Scarlett to walk closer and started snapping pictures of her. I get that some people legitimately think “oh what a cute kid” and that’s fine…but to kneel down and actually take pictures like that was a weird move to say the least. At the end of the day though I don’t really have grounds to be calling anyone weird after driving 14 total hours to watch a race by myself.

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