It was awesome. The stands are enormous, the track was huge, the sound was unbelievable, and it finished under caution :smack: :mad: . I went with another doper’s family to the Pocono 500 on Sunday. It was my first race and i sort of knew what to expect. Happily, my expectations were far exceeded. It’s one thing to watch cars go fast on a tv, but it is so totally different to be there and watch those machines stretch their legs. The sound is also great. I had seen NASCAR 3D at IMAX and thought that sound was loud, but it doesn’t really do the real thing justice. I’ve been a fan for quite a while and now i’m hooked for life. 
That was you that threw that cooler at the backup flagman wasn’t it!
Jimmie Johnson sucks
What a first race to go to. They screwed up the scoring, opened the pits to early. Trying to stop Johnson from winning. What I want to know is where were the referees?
What?
You mean NASCAR hasn’t melded with the WWE?Coulda fooled me.
When the hedoublel is someone going to open some competition for NASCAR?
All that being said…I’m glad you had a good time.
[QUOTE=Reeder]
What a first race to go to. They screwed up the scoring, opened the pits to early. Trying to stop Johnson from winning. What I want to know is where were the referees?
What?
You mean NASCAR hasn’t melded with the WWE?Coulda fooled me.
When the hedoublel is someone going to open some competition for NASCAR?
[QUOTE]
I think my head is going to asplode, I agree with Reeder. Good assessment my friend.
I am sooooo jealous.
I want to TRY, ( yeah, its a big TRY ) to talk stormchaser into going down to Kansas City on October 10th.
The nearest IMAX to me is in Omaha, NE, so I haven’t seen NASCAR 3D yet.
Kasey Kahne is hot!!!
Yes, Pocono was a real clusterf*ck on Sunday. On the track (2-15, 31-12, 17-29), off the track (flagmen who can’t wait for “orders”) and in the stands (we’re not all like that. I’ve never seen that happen at Pocono before. Us yankees are usually much more laid back than that.)
But seeing a race in person is what it’s all about. You can “Crank it up” all you want, but it doesn’t compare to the fury of 43 cars running wide open (well, 42 cars at top speed, one blowing an engine) in front of you, in the midst of 100,000+ people, beer in hand, smelling the rubber, feeling the debris bouncing off you…
August 1 won’t get here soon enough. Where’d you sit, SlickRoenick?
Kenseth’s a panzy.
Going to a race is fun.
I’ve been to Watkin’s Glen and hung out in the infield. I didn’t like that so much because I really enjoy following the race and that was almost impossible to do there.
Dover is great though. From a lot of seats, you can basically watch the whole track (it’s only a mile) so you can follow your guy for a while, or follow any two or 3 guys that might be battling it out, but not necessarily for the lead. You can really watch a guy working on another guy for laps, and see where he gains and loses.
Also, to those who don’t know, NASCAR lets you bring in a cooler (don’t throw it at the officials) and BEER. What a great afternoon, watching a race, swilling a few brewskis. Lots of fun.
The fans, for the most part are fun. You see people in real funny outfits. Big fatsos with no shirt on. People yelling funny stuff.
HOWEVER, don’t think NASCAR has gotten too far from it’s roots. I am put-off by the amount of confederate flags people fly in the infield. When are people going to get over it? I just really don’t get what showing your support for the confederacy has to do with fuckin’ motor racing?
AND, at Dover this year we parked in a convenience store lot that was charging a reasonable $10. Well, the parking was handled by an Indian (from India) guy. Well, I heard a guy yell right at him, “hey, where’s your rag?” After yelling to everybody, “he’s gonna box our cars in. he can’t speak english, but he can speak money.” The guy was yelling about how stores aren’t run by Americans anymore.
It was really off-putting. No wonder NASCAR is moving races to California.
Wow, you picked a really boring and tedious race to start with, and you still enjoyed it! Congratulations!
<mini-hijack>
NASCAR has a bunch of things that need to be fixed. Here’s a short list:
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Caution scoring. Just do like every bullring in the country, and revert to the last green lap for caution scoring. Sure, it’ll make some people mad, but it’s the easiest way.
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Caution lights on the dash. Put a big honkin’ yellow flashing light on everyone’s dash, and light it when the flag is displayed. Solves the question of when the caution comes out.
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Green-white-checkers finishes. If the Truck Series can do it, so can Cup.
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Actually write out the rulebook instead of making it up as you go. The NASCAR “rulebook” is a blank notebook, an ink pen and a bottle of white-out.
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Open inspections. Let anyone and everyone that wants to watch sit in the Room of Doom and witness. That’ll shut up the conspiracy nuts that say the 8, 48, 9 and 17 are getting breaks.
Speaking of the 48, there’s only two words that can explain that kind of speed: Traction. Control. I don’t know how they’re doing it, but they are. You can’t be THAT good and be legal.
</hijack>
Now that you’ve been to a race, it’s time to get you to a real race, like Bristol. That place is FUN.