Talladega and NASCAR (10/19)

We are up early and on our way by 8:30. It takes about 2 hours to drive there through some beautiful country.  I like traveling these back roads.

It was very easy to get to the track and parking is well signed.  We park and take the shuttle the rest of the way to the track.  Do a little shopping for Talladega t-shirts.  Then get some lunch and head up to our seats.  We are in the Gadsden grandstands in turn 4, section E row 13.  We are only 5 rows up from the track. We get a good view of turn 4 and heading into the tri-oval.  The we seen them go into turn 2 and not again until they come out of turn 3.  It takes a while for them to come all the way around.  I usually don't like to watch the re-stricter plate races because they can get very long and boring.  But today's race is the exception from the minute the green flag was thrown.

before race festivities

There was a lot of strategy going on to see who could push who to the front.  One of these, Dale Jr, Mat Kennseth, Jimmie Johnson and Brad Keselowski have to win in order to stay in the chase.  The whole grandstands went wild when Dale Jr took the lead.  He lead for quite a few laps then lost his line and faded back.  He would fight his way to the front many times but never lead again.  Jimmy Johnson lead much of the race and I was sure he would win.  But rocket man Brad Keselowski with help from his team mate, Joey Logano,  was pushed to the front and ended up winning the race.  We were very disappointed.  After his temper tantrum last week, I didn't want to see him win.

 This gives you an idea of what we could see from our seats.  I don't like these big tracks where you can't see the whole track.

 We were ready to go as soon as the checkered flag was thrown.  We hurry back to the tram loading zone and managed to get on the third tram.  Talladega really knows how to move the traffic out.  Once in the truck and on the road, they have sighs strung across the road showing which lane you need to be in depending on where you are going. The roads are four lanes wide and traffic is for only the race track until you get past the I 20 then it is open for local traffic as well.  This is the fastest we have ever gotten out of a track and there were thousands of people leaving the track after the race.  We stay on the 77 until Attalta, then we catch the 278 to the 231.  We stop at a Hardee's for hamburgers in Attalta and are back home by 8 pm.  Not bad since the race got over with at 5 pm.  We are both tired and make it an early night.  Joe has to take the truck in for an oil change by 8 am in the morning.