To Go to NASCAR?

One of my life-long goals, it’s a long and varied list, is to travel to all 50 states. At 25, I’m well on my way, but still have much of the Western half to visit. Now, people will ask, what do you consider visiting? For me, it’s more than just driving through. That might be because for three years I drove from Massachusetts to Tennessee twice a year and don’t really count all of the states Henrietta drove through as places I visited.

I’ve decided that in order for a location to count, I have to do some sort of activity there. It could be as simple as eating a meal there, but it must be in a restaurant, beyond the highway exit options. However, most of the time, it’s more extensive. Personally I’ve spent a lot of time at sporting events in other states, which is a BLAST. You get to experience local culture and exciting events!

So far I’ve made it through 28 states and have been to a game (or major event) in a third of them. I’ve been to a road race, a PGA golf tourney, a couple of baseball games, and a couple of football games. A few weekends ago I even hit up a NASCAR event in Charlotte, NC. Can I just say HOW MUCH FUN I HAD?!

I must say, when traveling, company makes all of the difference. I went with an awesome couple and now two of my favorite people. I met them at a friend's wedding in the summer and we became fast friends... Probably for our mutual weirdness. Danielle and Steve were amazing hosts and kept me quite entertained the entire time.

Going into it, I knew it would be fun, but I didn’t think it would be as exciting as it was. Obviously tailgating was a blast. Met about 30 different people over the course of the day. We made a few friends with our Stump game—if you haven’t played, you should definitely check it out: http://www.worldstump.com/rules.html. Then we meandered over to the main event and listened to the Goo Goo Dolls show, followed by the tight-rope walker who walked over the Grand Canyon. This was all leading up to the main event.

I didn’t realize quite how loud it got, nor how big the tracks are. Charlotte Motor Speedway is a 1.5 mile track and has a capacity of 140,000 spectators (Gillette Stadium is 68,756 for comparison). As soon as the drivers started their engines, the noise began to reverberate throughout the stadium. Then the scent of gasoline hit. I was getting amped.

We were seated right before the finish line and the cars all lined up. It wasn’t until their second lap, that the volume maxed out. I don’t even have anything to compare it to. The noise was so much greater than a concert and I could actually feel the vibrations… It was amazing. We only stayed through lap 179 of 330 before calling it a night, but I can’t wait to experience another NASCAR event. Next time we will be hitting up Loudon, NH.