Gentlemen, start your engines!

An old friend of my husband’s works for a Nascar racing team.  Kyle Busch, to be exact.  He stopped by last weekend and this beast had been parked outside our house for several days.

I believe that Nos is the main sponsor for Kyle Busch and my husband’s friend basically said he gets paid to throw parties.  

Now, I’m not a Nascar fan but he offered us a chance to go to a race and be on the infield.  So, a “hell yes!” was in order. 

We drove to Dover, DE early on Saturday morning to get there by 7:30 AM.  After getting to the hotel and getting settled we headed back out with his friend and headed onto the speedway.  I can now say that I have driven (well, I was in the car…that counts, right?) on an actual racetrack.  It was pretty cool. 

The giant Nos bus/mansion on wheels was parked on the infield and we helped set it up for party.    The people who came mostly worked for Nos corporate or Sunoco, who is another sponsor I believe.

  

Since it was early, we entertained ourselves while we waited for others to arrive.

They had set out Scrabble and Yahtzee, but I don’t think anyone actually played.  They mostly indulged in the free food and booze.

Before the race (which I found out later wasn’t the actual race, but a minor league race or something to that effect…the big race was on Sunday) we got a chance to meet Kyle Busch.

You know…this guy?  Don’t worry, I had no idea who he was either. 

But, he was awfully cute and an overall nice guy.  At least, from what I saw in the 10 minutes he was there.  And since I’ve met him and he was so awfully cute, I now had to root for him to win.  Besides, I didn’t really know much (or anything) about any of the other drivers.

The race didn’t start until 3 so it was a LONG day of waiting.  We watched the time trials.  They had these handheld tv thingys with headphones so you could listen to what was going on.

   

After the time trials there was a whole lot of nothing going on.  I was beat from being up since 5 AM and all I wanted was a nap.  Unfortunately there was nowhere to do so.  I was surrounded by drunken idiots and your typical redneck butt cracks.

By about 2:30 I could hardly keep my eyes open so I threw in the towel and went back to the hotel to take a much needed nap.  I had intended to come back to catch at least some of the race but it was such a pain in the rear to get back to the hotel that there was no way I was up to doing it again to go back.

I got a ride on a golf cart to the crossover bridge from a very nice gentleman but first he took me (and Courtney went with me back to the hotel) through the driver’s buses/mansions on wheels.  I had no idea that they stayed on the infield.  I would have thought that they would be staying in a fancy hotel.  He pointed out various driver’s buses but only a few names rang a bell.

  This one belonged to Dale Earnhardt Jr.  I did recognize that name.

After being dropped off at the crossover bridge they began introducing the drivers and I think what I was taking pictures of was an exhibition before the race.  I’m not sure.

I think this was Tony Stewart.  I’m ashamed to admit that I know this because of those cheesy Burger King commercials.

After leaving the speedway, we had to walk back to the hotel and I think it was about a mile or so.  We were supposed to have another golf cart waiting on the other side of the crossover bridge but we couldn’t find it so we had to walk.

The long walk definitely solidified the fact that I wasn’t going back to the race.  I was beat.  I fell asleep and stayed asleep until they came back around 7:30.  And I could have slept longer.  I would have loved to catch some of the race but oh well.  Maybe we’ll have another opportunity again someday