Hey Steve, just talked to the wife and am going "out" for dinner to Mexican restaurant and the chips and hot sauce are great. She needs a little attention with my being gone since Thursday. Will be thinking about you guys as I dig in the bowl of chips.
...and Chris, you are so right about the place being huge. We had great seats on the upper tri-oval stand and the view was excellent, just across from the pits.
I was just blown away by the successful marketing that has been done to make this NASCAR thing so popular. Granted seeing most or all of the track has it's attraction, as does the 195mph "train" of 40 cars 6 inches apart, "bump drafting" to propel their team mate past the other guy to take the lead.
Tony Stewart had a spectacular, airborn wreck where he went 30 feet into the air upside down and down the track 2 or 3 hundred yards and later come down to earth with his wheels up and sliding for another quarter mile . It don't git better than that>>>>
BUT the biggest surprise to me is that every driver has an huge 18 wheeler, custom fit for displays of his shirts, caps, jackets, collectibles, etc selling stuff to the crowds. That was impressive to see over 40 huge trailers lined up selling racing merchandise. Pick your driver, dress up with cap,shirt, jacket, socks, glasses, get a case of beer and go racin' good buddy. In addition, there were another 20 or so trailers that had NASCAR or Talladega stuff in them.
But depite all of that, I still just don't get it. No right turns, they only shift to leave or enter the pits, no rain tires, etc., etc., But I'm glad I went because now I can appreciate the Houston Grand Prix May 11-13 so much more. Anybody else going?
http://www.grandprixofhouston.com/index.html