Sunburns, Left Turns

NASCAR at MIS

SALINE, MICHIGAN AUGUST 22, 2005

We joined 300,000+ NASCAR fans at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday to witness the GFS 400, the latest stop on the Nextel Cup tour.

 

Provided with pre-race Pit Passes courtesy of radio station 1050AM WTKA in Ann Arbor, Lew and I got to the track bright and early to a) avoid the traffic mess, and b) get to the pits.

 

Despite arriving around six hours before the race, we still ran into some traffic near Brooklyn, and were clearly not the only ones with plans to arrive early.  The mere size of MIS and the vast parking space is overwhelming.  The folks at MIS did a pretty nice job carting people from the parking over to the track. That said, it still took us over 45 minutes to get from the parking lot to the entrance to the infield.

 

The infield.  A wise man recently told me NASCAR stands for Non-Athletic Sport Circling Around Rednecks.  Words don't really describe, but basically the infield is giant campground packed full of campers, pop-ups and old school buses.  If you are wondering what they did with the school bus you rode to school in back in elementary school, wonder no longer: it is on its way to the next NASCAR race right now, and it's been customized with a rickety deck on top and bunk beds inside.  Also, often the owners of the bus have chosen to don the vehicle with a number, most cases #69.  I realize it is kind of hypocritical to cut on these guys.  I'm out there tailgating at dawn for football games that don't kick-off until late afternoon.  These guys just take it to the next level and arrive a few days before the race.

 

To the pits.  With our passes we could get right up into the actual race pits and even onto the track.  It was really cool.  Several hours before the race, each team has what Lew and I figure are the 'B' pit crews: guys who do the set-up and dirty jobs before the real crews come out.  The main duties of these dudes was to mess around with the tires and lugnuts, and sign the occasional autograph.  As race time approached you could see some of the real crews creep into the pits with the fuel.

 

Overall, it was pretty cool being on the inside.  The only thing better would have been to been in the pits for the actual race and watch those guys work.  The race was interesting.  Driver Jeremy Mayfield won by taking a risky strategy to conserve fuel.  Many drivers ran out of gas in the final few laps. 

 

Here are a few pics from the day: