Yep, you read the title right, I went to see the Nascar Busch Series at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
I haven’t been to a race of any sort for quite some time, the last one I went to was a kart race about 6 or 7 years ago so although it wasn’t a new experience for me it was defiantly enjoyable. Especially given I’ve never seen a Nascar race in real life.
I used to watch Nascar a few years back on TV back in the UK when it was on Eurosport but they stopped showing it and coverage since then hasn’t been that easy to come by. A lot of the drivers though are still racing, Dale Earnhardt Jnr., Kenny Wallace, John Andretti and Bobby Labonte are all names that I remember back in the day when I used to know what was going on in the championship and followed it a bit more.
The race started like most of them did, we were located just past turn 4 along the straightaway and I’d forgotten how loud a race can be, the sound of 43 cars at maximum revs going at nearly 200mph isn’t something to be taken without earplugs. The two favourites Matt Kensitt and Carl Edwards led for most of the way, there were cautions, crashes and even a red flag while they were sorting out a slight scoring issue brought about by the leader at the time pitting and remaining in the lead even after he’d been passed (don’t ask me what happened, cause not even the commentators could understand it).
One thing that was surprising was how much damage gets done throughout the race, this was one of many instances where cars would limp back to the pits, and there were more than a few towed away by a flatbed truck as well.
What event wouldn’t be complete without strange sightings, this time it was a rather strange chicken man – I can only assume a genetic experiment gone wrong and a person who thought he was god, commanding with each lap that a specific car went faster by using hand gestures and movements.
The final 10 laps where probably the most adrenalin fuelled laps of the season when the leaders Carl Edwards and Casey Mears wiped each other off the track in a bid for the podium, leaving Dave Blaney and Matt Kensitt to battle it out for the final 2 laps, unfortunately for Matt Kensitt he lost control out of turn 4 and lost the battle leaving Dave Blaney to take the chequered flag.
Watching the last lap made me realise one thing, these guys don’t crash because they aren’t good drivers, it’s because they’re just pushing hard.
I’m glad I had the opportunity to see the race in person. there’s nothing like the sound and feeling of the cars flashing past at full speed, and there’s also nothing like the atmosphere and smelling the fuel in the air.
Posted in: America