Behind the NinthWheel

Dover International Speedway

My trip yesterday was a private charter (I was lead driver of two coaches) to the NASCAR race at Dover International Speedway, in Dover, Delaware. There were a couple of no-shows, so they gave tickets to myself and the other driver! They were $94 tickets, so it was a nice gift -- but we got no tip, so it wasn't a profitable day. But at least we had a little fun watching the race, and I got a few nice photos.

The photo above was taken at the start of the race as the cars were led around the one-mile "Monster Mile" track by the pace car, just before the green flag was dropped. The bright orange car, 4th from the right in the outside row, is that of #31, Jeff Burton, who eventually won the 400 mile race.

My seat was on Turn 3. The first four accidents of the race all happened right in front of me, on turns three and four. This photo is the first one, soon after the race began. What's interesting to me on this one is how close #31, Jeff Burton, was to being involved in it -- as you can see in the photo, he dropped all the way to the inside to avoid hitting #20 as he was sliding down the track. The race outcome was so close to having been totally different.

In this overview of the speedway you can see the bright yellow pace car at the bottom of the photo, a Dodge Charger, leading the pack during a yellow flag following another crash. There were quite a few crashes during the day, but to the best of my knowledge, no one was hurt. Races like this are really awesome to watch. The noise is so loud you can't even talk to the person sitting right next to you; many people wear ear plugs, but although I had some, I wanted to experience the full effect, so I didn't wear them. There were 140,000 people in attendance, and over 500 buses -- actually I don't know the exact count, it may have been more.

I watched the first 200 laps before heading out to the coach for a short nap and to prepare for the trip home. Good thing, too -- the rain held off for the whole race, but less than ten minutes after it ended, we got a terrific downpour that caught everyone leaving the stadium, so my passengers arrived back at the coach looking like drowned rats, soaked all the way to the skin. The coach didn't smell too great by the time we got home two hours later.

posted by Bob @ 12:20 PM