Dover Speedway, It is NASCAR time (9/28)

This morning we are headed to Dover Delaware for the NASCAR race.  It is about a 2 hour drive from where we are staying.  We planned to leave this morning at 9 am but Joe decided to do a little more waxing on the fifth wheel so we didn't get on the road until 9:30.  Again we have to drive south around Washington DC, the traffic is pretty light compared to yesterday.  All goes well.  We have to take the Bay Bridge across Chesapeake Bay.  This is a really high bridge and I am sweating.  I don't like bridges across big bodies of water.  I was really glad when we were off of it.  This is also a tole bridge the cost per vehicle is $6.

Once across we head for Delaware.  We see other cars with race car driver stickers on them so decided to follow them, hoping they were going to the race.  You have to take all these back roads to get to Dover. We made it to Dover about 11:30 and stopped for lunch before heading to the track.  Now is when the frustration comes in.  After lunch we head for the track just to find all the roads are grid locked.  Long red lights and short green ones.  You would think as many times as NASCAR races here they would have a system set up to get everyone into the track smoothly.  It takes us until 1:30 to finally get a place to park.  There is no signs to direct you where you should park for you what section you seats are in.  We finally parked in a flooring store parking lot for $10 and walked to the track.  We discovered we were about as far away from our seats as we could possibly be.  We are about 1 to 1 1/2 mile from our car by turn one, we are sitting in turn 4. Needless to say we got to our seats in time for the National Anthem.  We thought we would be plenty high up with row 10, but what the seating chart doesn't tell you is the rows start at row 8, so we are not in very good seats.  We can see the cars coming out of turn 3 and going into turn 4, then the cars disappear and you don't see them again until they hit turn 1 and loose them again until turn 3.  I was still very frustrated over the parking and not a very happy camper with our seats.  But once I had a beer and settled into the race all was better.  The only other annoying thing was all the young drunks around us that thought they were the only ones at the races.  The race was pretty good not a lot of passing and not a lot of yellows.  Dale Jr finished 17th, Tony Stewart finished 14th and Kyle Larson finished 6th.  These are the ones I cheer for.  Jeff Gordon won the race.  I like him too so was happy with the finish.

One of the fun things is Kyle Larson, Dale Jr. and Jeff Gordon were pitted right in front of us.  It was fun to watch the pit crews get to work on the cars when they pitted.  It is amazing to watch them change 4 tires so quickly.










Once the race is over we stay seated to let the crowd clear out, Joe went up to the higher seats to see what the view of the track is from there.  It isn't much better, as the sun is in your eyes and glares off the cars and make it hard to see who is who.  It looks like turn two would be the better seats if we come back here.  I have discovered I am not a fan of the monster mile tracks, I like the smaller tracks.

Once out we walk around the vendors for a bit and then go to the statute of the rock monster that represents the monster mile.

Now for the long trek back to the truck.  At least the traffic has thinned out some by the time we get to the truck.  We see a Bob Evans restaurant just down the road so went there to eat dinner and wait for the traffic to clear out some more.  We both had their Chicken Pot Pie, delicious!!!
The race was done by 5:30 and we were back at Cherry Hill Park by 9:30.  All in all not a bad day!!!!