You go and watch NASCAR! Which is exactly what I did on Sunday.
I came away from NASCAR not really getting drawn into the whole thing that much. In fact, I left half way through because I was bored couldn’t get into it. The tickets that we got were free, thank goodness, because at $90 a pop I really would have felt ripped off slightly disappointed had I actually payed for them.
I did enjoy the crashes though, they were fun to watch.
Of course we also had a flyover and the airplanes actually had weapons equipped!
I also enjoyed watching a redneck guy with bad teeth and a rat-tail calling out smart remarks to people as they walked past him. He was doing that for a while and then someone looking for their seat asked him if he was sitting in the correct seat. He was actually in the wrong section and had to move… nobody’s perfect, right?
What I found amazing was the patriotism shown before the race started. Three trucks drove around the track with an American flag in tow and the crowd went absolutely mental with a deafening noise.
What was even more amazing happened after we had to stand for the American national anthem and remove our hats, which I expected of course. But then we were asked to bow our heads in prayer as Miss Florida read a prayer praising God about various things and asking for the protection of various people in faraway places. At the end of the prayer there was a resounding “Amen!” and people here and there followed that up with “Praise the Lord!” It was at that point I really felt like a foreigner and very, very out of place. It hit me I was in the company of real southerners at that time and I was very glad I had not worn my t-shirt that said “BORING” in the style of the NASCAR logo.
Anyway, I didn’t really enjoy the whole NASCAR experience. I thought it paled in my comparison to the V8 Supercars in Australia or rally car driving. That’s my opinion of course. It would probably have been much more enjoyable had I been wearing the headsets and listening to the commentators and had I actually chosen someone to go for and/or worked out what the hell was going on with people getting ahead and then losing their lead again. It’s like that computer catchup thing on racing games they have for people behind the leader.
I did find this website which is a response to people who claim that NASCAR may not be that exciting. But, if you go read that site, you’ll find that what they claim is great about NASCAR is pretty much in every other sporting event in existence so I don’t see the ’that’s special’ part of the whole thing. Plus, the part about them seeming to make up rules as they go along… I’d find that downright annoying.
Something I heard about later was a pilot of one of the helicopters at the event was killed. Damn. We were long gone by that time though.
