After 15 years of living in the South, I’ve been informed that to truly be considered an honorary member of Southern Culture, I must attend a NASCAR race. Specifically, Talladega, this weekend. The problem is, this is the sum total of my knowledge of NASCAR/Talladega:
Cars go very fast in one direction around a track. Sometimes there are spectacular crashes. The person in the lead isn’t necessarily the person who is winning.
There is an art to the timing of pit stops- it has something to do with going in ‘under’ the green vs yellow flag, how many laps at what speed, etc.
Talladega is lovingly referred to by its attendees as the Redneck Mardi Gras. I’ve been promised nakedness (though the thought makes me a little queasy), and admonished to stay away from something called… ummm… the center field? That doesn’t quite sound right, but as I said, I’m new.
Drivers… errr… there’s Jeff Gordon, and Dale Jr (whose dad has somehow bypassed the lengthy process for canonization and has become a saint, if the whole ‘3’ meme is anything to go by), and the guy that does commercials for Armor All. And… the guy who does commercials for Goodys Powder- does he still race? And isn’t there a girl?
That’s… about it. So please- educate me! Tips on how to avoid getting into a Yankee-Southerner misunderstanding-based fistfight would be most helpful as well.
Just go and people watch. Watch the race too. Enjoy the beer and boobs on the attractive southern gals who are also enjoying the race. You were probably warned off about the infield, that’s the place with the campers, they’ll be far more hardcore there.
Talladega (and Daytona) is a restrictor plate track - the track is so long and steeply banked that the cars could essentially run it full out all the time, while at other tracks they need to noticeably slow to turn (left, just so you know). These races can get out of control, and crashes at the speeds the cars can manage can be horrific, especially if one goes into the stands. The plates were mandated after a series of close calls, and they restrict the inflow of air into the engine, which means the cars can’t run as fast. This has the side effect of making the cars perform pretty similarly, and the field will be pretty bunched up (the best cars/drivers don’t have much edge over the rest). So drivers have less margin for error and crashes are bigger since they have less time to dodge. There will likely be one “big one” during the race. Grumbling about restrictor plates is always acceptable. You can probably throw in something like “socialism” for good measure
Talladega is the biggest of the oval(ish) tracks that NASCAR races on (although no longer the fastest due to restrictor plates. More on that later). It produces some of the closest racing and finishes in NASCAR (again heavily due to restrictor plates)
The restrictor plate is a square of metal with holes drilled in it that mounts between the carburetor and intake manifold. It restricts how much air/fuel mixture can get into the engine. As a result, the engines are somewhat underpowered (although they’ll still be hitting about 200 m.p.h., maybe a little less). Because of this, the cars are very dependent on drafting or slipstreaming. This is how you get the close finishes and close racing (as well as spectacular multi-car wrecks) here. Nobody can break out to a lead of more than a few car lengths.
As far as the “center field” you referred to, you probably meant “infield.” I have heard that it does get quite rowdy there at Talladega. People can bring their RV’s there starting like Thursday or Friday I think and will be probably getting blasted all weekend.
About the timing of pit stops, it is much better to pit under the yellow flag as opposed to the green flag. If you pit under green, you have to hit the entrance of pit road going no more than 55 m.p.h., plus stop for about 15 seconds while the pit crew changes tires, refills fuel, makes handling adjustments, etc. Meanwhile the other cars are still going 190 around the track and you will most certainly get lapped (first place car goes all the way around the track and passes you). This is OK as long as everyone else has to pit under green; you will get your lap back. However, if you pit under green, then the caution flag comes out for whatever reason before others have to pit, you will be stuck a lap down since you will be trapped behind the pace car doing about 70 or so.
Another part of pit stops is trying to make as few as possible, since you lose tons of time while doing it. If the timing is right, a car can win with hardly any gas left in it while other, faster cars are forced to pit before they run out of gas.
As far as drivers (and avoiding fights) are concerned, Dale Jr. is probably the most popular driver, however he is in quite a slump these days. I’ve never actually been to Talladega but the Earnhardt’s are big time fan favorites down there. Dale Sr. pulled off some pretty wild wins there, including his last which involved passing like 15 cars or so in the last 3-4 laps. As a result, I’d probably avoid bad-mouthing Jr. Again, I’ve never been there but I could imagine a drunken fan starting some shit over that.
Jimmie Johnson is definitely the most dominant driver in the sport now but people are getting sick of it (compare to some people’s attitudes about the New England Patriots over the last several years). Accusations of cheating run rampant (his crew chief has been fined and suspended for cheating several times), plus he is not Southern so fans down there most likely do not care for him. Shouldn’t be a problem though, he doesn’t tend to do as well at the plate tracks. Not sure who you are referring to in those commercials however.
I’m sure there’s more that I’m leaving out but I think I may have overwhelmed the OP with info as it is.
Meh, I don’t think anyone would give him a hard time about earplugs. I’ve been to Michigan International Speedway for a few races (although I’m sure things are a little different here than Talladega) and I’ve seen people wearing them or the big ear-muff things (some of those are actually scanners so you can listen to the radio traffic between drivers and crews).
That being said, I didn’t find them so loud as to require earplugs (unlike top fuel drag racing, even with earplugs it feels as if you’ll be shaken apart from the noise) but everyone is different so yeah, you might want to bring them just in case.
People drive cars in a circle real fast. Occasionally, there is a wreck and someone gets burned to a crisp, which is what the folks in the stands paid their money to see.
Honestly all the things you need to know to understand and watch a NASCAR race on tv kind of go out the window when you attend a race in person.
There’s no ongoing commentary and you won’t be able to see all the action especially at a superspeedway like Talledega.
You may want to get a program that shows the drivers and their car numbers since the only way to see the running order is via the running order tower that gives driver numbers.
Besides the running order the only other things to track are laps run/remaining (188 at Talladega I believe) and what color flag is out. Green= race on, yellow=caution proceed behind pace car and stay in order (usually after a minor wreck or some obstruction on the track), red= Stop the race (usually after a major wreck, black=penalty (some driver did something against the rules and will be penalized), white=one more lap to go, checkered= final lap.
I’m pretty sure this part was a joke, but if not, I don’t think anyone has been “burned to a crisp” in NASCAR since Fireball (heh) Roberts sometime in the 60’s.
In fact, it’d be kind of hard to have this happen with the fire retardant suits and whatnot that drivers are required to wear.
INfield. That’s what I meant. See, told you I was new.
All this is super helpful (especially the ‘expert’ link- hah!)… the stuff about the track and how they alter the cars as a result is very interesting. I’d heard that one of the things I’ll be surprised by is the angle of the track, so now I have a little more information to go with it.
I’ve just been informed that I am to root for Dale Jr, so that solves that problem. I’d already packed earplugs, just in case (and tons and tons of sunblock…), but I’ll be sure to be subtle about putting them in.
Buick, I did a little poking around, and apparently the Armor All guy is Tony Stewart; the Goodys guy is Richard Petty. Also, I’m female. But I still appreciate boobs, and am looking forward to seeing lots of them (hopefully primarily on women).
I watched a bit of the race the other day, as a sort of warmup, and I was really blown away by how close these guys seem to get to one another. I understand the concept of slipstreaming, but I have to ask- are they really as close as it looks? At one point it seemed the rear driver was almost touching the front car’s bumper. It seems if someone wanted to be a total asshole, all they’d need to do is let up on the gas for .0000001 seconds so the other guy crashes.
Thanks again… and keep the advice/info coming- I still have about 36 hours before I leave.
Oops, bob threw me off, totally didn’t get your username until just now. :smack:
Yes, it is that close. They get close enough to actually make contact without crashing, especially at short tracks. At tracks like Talladega one car will sometimes pull right up behind the other while in the draft and actually kind of gently hit the back bumper of the car in front and push them down the straightaway. Then they really haul ass (or crash in spectacular fashion).
But as far as plate tracks go, the racing is even closer than other tracks so there will be times where its like rush hour at 190-200.
The person in back will generally have more control in the case of the back bumper tap issues. Dale Sr. was pretty well known for having a “cast iron bumper” - he was the master of the bump draft, and wasn’t afraid to give a hard bump to get the guy in front out of the way.
Yes on the sunscreen. I have friends who do Texas Motor Speedway races, often come back as lobsters.
Regarding those two drivers, Tony Stewart still races. He’s car #14. Petty hasn’t raced since like '92 if I remember correctly, but he’s the all time career leader in wins with like 200 or something.
Talladega racing can be similar to cycling in some ways–everybody is bunched up in a group, and moving from the back to the front of the group is not that big of a deal for most of the race–drivers just have to make sure they don’t lose the pack. If a couple of cars get out in front of the pack, the pack can track them down in short order. You will see good cars staying near the back of the lead pack just because they feel it’s safer, until the race gets near the end and they make moves.
You will hear people talk about “The Big One.” This refers to the usual massive wreck that occurs when you take 30+ cars going around the track at 200+ MPH, each about 6 inches from the guys around him–someone eventually makes a mistake and tends to take about 15 cars with him.
Somewhere outside the track will be massive, massive numbers of merchandise trailers. Just about every driver will have at least one, popular drivers will tend to have several. Plus a few other ones. My favorite was a place that sold used tires–you could buy tires that had been used at a previous race. One person I talked to was happy because they had bought one of Dale Jr’s tires from Bristol. It was identified as Junior’s because it had a chalk 8 written on it (this was a few years ago).
Because nobody could possibly get a tire from, say Dave Blaney, and write a chalk number on it. (on second thought, probably not from Blaney, he needs to keep the tire so he can run his single lap at the next race)
The HANS device (a collar kind of deal worn on the helmet to prevent extreme whiplash from a collision-what killed Dale Sr. basically) has undoubtedly prevented many deaths-I don’t think any of NASCAR’s divisions have had a death since then (nor the IRL or Formula One).
Years ago I was doing some work at the Harley test facility next door to Talladega and got the opportunity to go out on the track. At one point we went to one of the curves and I could barely walk up it in dress shoes. They are steep, like 35 degrees.
