Nick's 6th Post: Rubbing's Racing

So I would like to dedicate this blog to a sport that is held very dear to Steven Stewart’s heart….NASCAR! (Steven is my roommate and a current seasonal staff member who also runs the main concession stand. During the season ask Steven how he is related to Tony Stewart)

I have never really had any interest in NASCAR prior to 2003 when my brother, Kevin, left his position as an auto mechanic in West Bend, WI to take a position working for Matt Kenseth and the #17 DeWalt team. He currently builds the transmissions for Kenseth’s cars and travels with the pit crew on race days. I do not watch the sport religiously but if I am sitting around on a Sunday afternoon I will flip back and forth between NASCAR and whatever else I am watching. I do follow it more closely than year's past and try to catch a glimpse of my brother on tv after Kenseth would win a race.

I have visited my brother who lives in Concord, NC, which is about 20 minutes north of Charlotte. This area is also home to many NASCAR teams. It amazes me how much the way of life differs down there from here. First off it is God’s country down there. I have never seen so many churches in rural areas and they are just packed on the weekend…maybe praying to the NASCAR gods?!?! Second, you cannot buy liquor in any old store. You have to go to what they call an “ABC” store. This is a store that is owned by the government whereby you cannot purchase liquor on Sundays. Lastly, I have never seen so many people crazy about NASCAR. I happened to be there for a week and wanted to find a place to watch the Packers game on Sunday so I headed to the Dave and Busters. Of course they had the satellite package that could pick up every NFL at the bar, but most of the patrons were complaining that most of the tv’s had football on and made the bartender turn on the race.

Anyways to get back on track (no pun intended) I was mentioning that the area surrounding Charlotte is home to many NASCAR teams. I was lucky enough to go to the shop where my brother worked on all of the #17 cars. This was not your ordinary shop that you and I are used to. This was a glass palace. I was amazed to how big these buildings were and that they were all tinted glass buildings. You could not see inside but you can definitely see everything going on outside. The shop was very pristine there was not much that was out of order. You could have licked the floor that’s how clean this place was.

I was also amazed at the number of race cars in the building. They were just lined up row after row. I never realized they have different styles of cars they use either. They have certain cars they use for short track races and roads races and usually have a new car for every race, which is not cheap because they cost right around $400,000-$500,000 per car. My brother also said they sell cars that are kind of banged up or they won’t use again to individuals who race in lower levels.


Also while I was there I visited the DEI Museum (Dale Earnhardt Incorporated). This was actually a pretty cool place. They had all sorts of memorabilia and career highlights of the late Dale Earnhardt Sr. The thing that amazed me the most was in the center of the museum they had a large glass enclosure with a bunch cars that Sr. had driven throughout his career. It was quite remarkable to see the differences in the cars they drive today to one’s they drove 20-30 years ago.

I have been told attending a race is unlike any other event. People travel in RV’s from all around the country to attend the races. The Phillip Morris Company in Concord actually owns fields surrounding Lowe’s Motor Speedway and they charge people to park in their fields on race weekends. It is quite the scene! I also have been told that the young women who attend these races are phenomenal. My brother has also said "if you ever want to go you let me know," so maybe one of these years I’ll take a trip to a race somewhere.

I don’t have much insight on the sport in general and probably could tell you very little about any of the drivers, but I do respect what these guys do for a living. As for Steven he is such a huge fan of NASCAR he actually purchased NASCAR 09 for his Playstation 2. I have a little advice for you: easy on the left hand turns and slow down coming out of the pits! Well Steven good luck on your quest for the Nextel Cup Championship!

Only 41 Days Until Opening Day!