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Darlington 2009 - Southern 500
This race was freaking hot. The highest the temps have gotten in NC so far have been mid to upper 80s. And that's considering during those temps, we've been indoors. Well, try 95 outside. Roasting!
The great news - there was a shuttle from the hotel. That was the best ten bucks I've ever spent at a race. Unfortunately, they dropped us right where we sit on the backstretch. And the souvenir trailers were on the frontstretch.
En route to the souvenir trailers we saw Stremme. Sadly, I realized five seconds too late that shouting "David" is not going to get a response when there are ten million of them in the field. (Shouting "Stremme" would have been much better.)
This was the view of turn four from the outside.
( Picture 1 )
At the trailers we saw three drivers (missed a few by a few minutes, didn't stick around for one or two more). Well, I saw three drivers.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
eliz, bubblesbrnaid and pmgoose didn't see Carl Edwards, as the crowd was insane around him and impossible to get past.
Saw: Reutimann, Vickers and Edwards
( Pictures of Reutimann and Vickers )
While we were walking away from Vickers, I put on a Jamie Mac bandana I'd bought. Because I was feeling piratey. And promptly got a "Yay McMurray!" from a passing fan. The McMurray fans, bonding at the souvenir stand.
It was just then that I saw these giant posters of some of the drivers. Some days certain things just beg to happen. Like seeing a giant Joey Logano and totally having to...
( Joey Logano )
Oh, and then a helicopter was landing, so I had to take a picture.
( Helicopter )
So, due to the fact that the pictures are crappy, while I got pictures of all the drivers on the intro lap, I'll be saving that for the next post. Although I'm inserting Max Papis here because he was awesome and about to fall out of the car.
( Max Papis )
Now, the view toward turn 1.
( Turn 1 )
The view toward turn 4.
( Turn 4 )
Even better - video from our seats. Backstretch, row 6 (which was technically row 4, as there were no rows 1 and 2).
( Video 1 )
Part of what you should note about that video is the crazed Truex fan. Granted, if you were a Truex fan, this race was one that made you very happy. After all, Truex had a good showing. He would have won if the track hadn't changed later and made it impossible to pass the leaders.
Next up, a picture of the crazed Truex fan who never. sat. down.
( Truex fan )
Other events from the night - dude with beer bong got escorted out by cops. There were random fireworks off turn 4 during the race. Some older drunk guy got mad at some younger drunk guys for walking to their seats during the anthem. There was screaming. A lot of it. You just knew a fight was getting ready to go down. Declarations of "I served this country!" were thrown out by old dude. Turns out, he was yelling at guys with fresh shrapnel scars from their time in the military. Funny ending - they had to sit beside each other.
One of the pain in the ass parts of being so close? You get hit by stuff. We were covered in rubber and speedy dry by the end of the race. Sunscreen and sweat are a natural glue for that stuff. One girl had a genius idea for how to combat the constant rubber to the face.
( Solution )
Now, let's talk about the speedy dry. Just because the stuff didn't settle while racing was going on. But during cautions it had a chance to settle for a moment before the cars would come back around. Which means we'd get hit in a wave.
It also produced the coolest pictures of the night.
( Speedy dry pictures )
I love those pictures.
Anyway, at one point the moon was blood red. That was cool.
So the two military guys I mentioned earlier? The young ones in the conflict over the anthem and all? Well, they got drunk. Really drunk. (I hope we didn't see all the cans of Coors, because they're lightweights if we did.) And had those headsets/scanners that connect by a cord so they can talk to one another with the little microphones. You know, like crew chiefs wear. Well, those guys got tangled up. Which is when we got...ballet.
( NASCAR plus booze equals ballet )
And then, another pretty picture at the end of the race.
( Pretty picture )
Last but not least, video of Mark Martin's victory lap.
( Victory Lap )
This race was freaking hot. The highest the temps have gotten in NC so far have been mid to upper 80s. And that's considering during those temps, we've been indoors. Well, try 95 outside. Roasting!
The great news - there was a shuttle from the hotel. That was the best ten bucks I've ever spent at a race. Unfortunately, they dropped us right where we sit on the backstretch. And the souvenir trailers were on the frontstretch.
En route to the souvenir trailers we saw Stremme. Sadly, I realized five seconds too late that shouting "David" is not going to get a response when there are ten million of them in the field. (Shouting "Stremme" would have been much better.)
This was the view of turn four from the outside.
( Picture 1 )
At the trailers we saw three drivers (missed a few by a few minutes, didn't stick around for one or two more). Well, I saw three drivers.
eliz, bubblesbrnaid and pmgoose didn't see Carl Edwards, as the crowd was insane around him and impossible to get past.Saw: Reutimann, Vickers and Edwards
( Pictures of Reutimann and Vickers )
While we were walking away from Vickers, I put on a Jamie Mac bandana I'd bought. Because I was feeling piratey. And promptly got a "Yay McMurray!" from a passing fan. The McMurray fans, bonding at the souvenir stand.
It was just then that I saw these giant posters of some of the drivers. Some days certain things just beg to happen. Like seeing a giant Joey Logano and totally having to...
( Joey Logano )
Oh, and then a helicopter was landing, so I had to take a picture.
( Helicopter )
So, due to the fact that the pictures are crappy, while I got pictures of all the drivers on the intro lap, I'll be saving that for the next post. Although I'm inserting Max Papis here because he was awesome and about to fall out of the car.
( Max Papis )
Now, the view toward turn 1.
( Turn 1 )
The view toward turn 4.
( Turn 4 )
Even better - video from our seats. Backstretch, row 6 (which was technically row 4, as there were no rows 1 and 2).
( Video 1 )
Part of what you should note about that video is the crazed Truex fan. Granted, if you were a Truex fan, this race was one that made you very happy. After all, Truex had a good showing. He would have won if the track hadn't changed later and made it impossible to pass the leaders.
Next up, a picture of the crazed Truex fan who never. sat. down.
( Truex fan )
Other events from the night - dude with beer bong got escorted out by cops. There were random fireworks off turn 4 during the race. Some older drunk guy got mad at some younger drunk guys for walking to their seats during the anthem. There was screaming. A lot of it. You just knew a fight was getting ready to go down. Declarations of "I served this country!" were thrown out by old dude. Turns out, he was yelling at guys with fresh shrapnel scars from their time in the military. Funny ending - they had to sit beside each other.
One of the pain in the ass parts of being so close? You get hit by stuff. We were covered in rubber and speedy dry by the end of the race. Sunscreen and sweat are a natural glue for that stuff. One girl had a genius idea for how to combat the constant rubber to the face.
( Solution )
Now, let's talk about the speedy dry. Just because the stuff didn't settle while racing was going on. But during cautions it had a chance to settle for a moment before the cars would come back around. Which means we'd get hit in a wave.
It also produced the coolest pictures of the night.
( Speedy dry pictures )
I love those pictures.
Anyway, at one point the moon was blood red. That was cool.
So the two military guys I mentioned earlier? The young ones in the conflict over the anthem and all? Well, they got drunk. Really drunk. (I hope we didn't see all the cans of Coors, because they're lightweights if we did.) And had those headsets/scanners that connect by a cord so they can talk to one another with the little microphones. You know, like crew chiefs wear. Well, those guys got tangled up. Which is when we got...ballet.
( NASCAR plus booze equals ballet )
And then, another pretty picture at the end of the race.
( Pretty picture )
Last but not least, video of Mark Martin's victory lap.
( Victory Lap )
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