Nascar Sandwich

Definition of a Nascar Sandwich: Driving 5 hours in the morning, watching Nascar for 6 hours, then driving 6 hours in the evening because the hotels within 100 miles of the race all cost $200/night!

Yesterday was the Samsung 500 at the Texas Motor Speedway. Brian and I took Chase and Kenny and their friends Austin and Mathew to the race. Our two families bought tickets together, but Austin & Matt's dad had to go out of town unexpectedly so Brian & I volunteered to take all of the boys so that their mom could have a day at home with their daughter Hayley (who has absolutely no desire to watch cars drive in a circle for 5 hours). The drive up was pretty uneventful and the kids were really well-behaved:

The weather was perfect, the traffic wasn't too bad, and the boys were excited. Heck, I was too. Here are the boys before the race started:

And here they are when everything was just getting started:



Just before the race starts all of the drivers are introduced and the people cheer/boo as loud as they can while the drivers go around the track and wave to the fans:

Then they all drive around the track a couple of times. I was thinking, "This isn't too loud. I might not need my earplugs. Watch this 10-second video:

Then all of a sudden the real race started. Oh my goodness ... it was LOUD!

The boys wore their ear protection all day long. They look so cool and so cute at the same time:

My friend Elaine (from high school!) was in Texas on business so I called her and invited her to meet us there. Notice we are already sunburned and we are wearing our earplugs. So we protected our ears, but not our skin:

She is great with the boys. They just love her!!

Here's a picture of the six of us at the track:

Here's Brian & Chase's favorite driver:



Here are some pictures for pure entertainment:

What is this guy doing?!? Do you think he bought that? Found it? Brought it from home? I have no idea. This was my first race. So if someone else out there knows the answer, please comment and let me know.

This is the typical drunk guy. We have no idea who he was cheering for. All he did was drink, smoke, yell, and get sunburned all day long:



Here is the guy who had a little trouble getting out of the parking lot. I can't even tell you how many cars we saw that looked exactly like this:



Here's another thing we saw a few times too many. This guy ran ahead of the traffic on the way out of the racetrack, ran into the woods to hide from view (see how well it worked?), went pee, and ran back to his car:

The entire day was fun and exciting. Although the traffic was a little bit worse leaving the track than it had been getting there, the drive home was just as uneventful as the drive there:

We left the house at 6 am and got home at 11 pm. That is what I call a Nascar Sandwich!