(After writing: Yes, it's very long ;)

Ok, ok, so I've watched a lot of NASCAR, but I've never been to a race. My fiancee and I had thought about getting tickets for the Pontiac Excitement 400, but didn't like the way Richmond International Raceway (RIR) handled the ticket situation, so we passed on it initially. Soon enough, race weekend was coming up and we kept hearing about it on all the TV ads (we're in C'ville, just an hour North of Richmond). But it wasn't ads for the Excitement 400 because it was already sold out. Rather, it was ads for the Hardee's 250, the Busch race. So it just kind of stuck in our heads and one day we were talking about it and decided to get tickets.

Tickets ordered. We're going!

So now we need all our "gear". We didn't have a thing. So we read on the site about all the restrictions and this and that and everything else. We bought a little 6-pack cooler (For Pepsi! Seriously!) and a clear bag (They were emphatic that it had to be clear) and seat cushions and drinks (Pepsi! Seriously!) and chips and binoculars. But there was one thing missing. The scanner! So we go to Radio Shack and, luckily, the people behind the counter were both race fans so they just start pulling stuff off the shelf and before we know it we have a race scanner, 2 sets of race headphones, and a nice little Y splitter and it's all hooked up and ready to go and they show us how it all works and everything, so we're set.

Race day comes upon us and we pack up our gear and go. Luckily, we had visited the track once before in one of those "Hey, let's just go see what it looks like" spur of the moment type of things, so we at least knew the way to the track. About 4 blocks away from the track, traffic backed up and it took us about 1/2 hour to go 4 blocks. UGH! We thought this was "only" the Busch race. ;) Anyhow, we get in and get parked and get all our gear together and start walking towards the track. Then we see all the merchandise trailers and my fiancee starts going wild. "I want to get a pin and a hat and..." So we start shopping... with our scanner, binoculars, seat cushions, cooler, and bag all in tow. Note to self: Leave that stuff behind until all merchandise is bought and returned to car. We got all the shopping out of the way (Only ended up with a hat and some "hood" pins of our favorite drivers and a sticker) and returned all the merchandise back to the car, then headed back toward the track. We had heard the Busch practice while we were sitting in the car waiting to get in, so we knew we had a little time before the NASCAR qualifying would start. We were walking along just laughing at all the hookers, er, um, women in super tight clothing, that had been hired to peddle free stuff for people. "Just give us your name, address, phone number, credit card, first born, social security number, and bank account number and you can get this 'free' cigarette lighter." Anyhow, the "Winston" people cracked me up the most because they're not allowed to approach you. So they just stand there and stare at you as you walk by as if to say, "PLEASE! come talke to me! PLEASE!!!"

We made it into the track and found our seats. Section I in "Winston", row 19. Pretty much just on the right-hand side of the Start/Finish line, about 1/2 to 2/3 up the stands. Perfect seats. Pit road felt like it was right there and the garages were pretty close too. So we took our seats and programmed the scanner for the Busch drivers and waited for qualifying. We started seeing the WC drivers come out and getting ready and then soon enough qualifying was on. It was pretty exciting to hear, feel, and see the cars flying by so fast at what looks like such a small track. We thought the cars were pretty loud then, but knew it would be louder when there were more cars. We didn't even have a clue! Qualifying was over and both my fiancee and I were happy, she being a Junior (2nd) fan and me being a Gordon (4th) fan. We're both also a bit of a Stewart (3rd) fan, so that was just bonus. The crowd went wild when Stewart was in 3rd after his first run because to that point if someone was around the teens after their first run, they had a good shot at the pole on their second run. Unfortunately, he couldn't better his position, but he was still awesome!

Then a small break in the action and then WC practice. This is when we realized that we didn't have a clue about how loud the race was going to be. The race headphones were our savior. You could still hear everything, but it was so much better. We started listening to cars making adjustments and heard some funny things like, "Where did we put the track bar?" We both looked at each other and laughed! We also heard some teams, like Randy Renfrow's, who didn't seem to have a clue about what they needed to do. It was pretty interesting to follow.

After the practice, it was time to break for "dinner". The Italian Sausage's smelled soooooooo good. ;) Anyhow, we got our "dinner" and headed back to the track for Happy Hour. We watched and listen to some more teams make adjustments and got to hear some teams try to make adjustments with just 5 minutes left and try to get back out on the track (they didn't make it).

Bring on the "Welcome to the track" and the introductions of all the people associated with the race and then the presentation of colors and national anthem (would have been better if they turned down the volume on the speakers to prevent them from cutting out when the guy hit the high notes) and the driver introductions.

And then the race! WOW! What a race! It was SO loud!!! Again, the race headphones were our savior. We had picked out a few drivers to cycle through on the scanner before the race: Kenny Wallace, Michael Waltrip, Kerry Earnhardt, Hank Parker Jr, and Greg Biffle. We started out with Kenny (or "Herman" as his team calls him) and he was fun to listen to. His team was talking about a lot of adjustments at the beginning of the race and with all the early cautions, they were able to make a lot of them. We could tell that this was going to be a fun race to watch with all the early banging and crashing. We switched to the other drivers to listen to, but there wasn't anything interesting. We were back on Herman, er, Kenny when he spun out Ashton Lewis and he was on the radio in a split second saying, "I swear I didn't mean to turn him like that. Make sure you find his spotter and let him know that I'm sincerely sorry. I didn't mean to get into him like that." The spotters had a conference and everything was good apparently. I think it helped that Lewis saved the car and didn't suffer any damage (and ended up in 2nd place!). We watched more excitement and I happened to have my binoculars on Jimmy Spencer's pit stop when he broke his U-bolt. What luck! We quickly switched to Spencer's radio to find out what happened and the crew kept screaming to make sure that the tow truck didn't mess up the nose of the car.

"Make sure they don't tear up that nose!"

"Can we get a jack under there and just pull it back to the garage?"

"A jack? Probably not. I think they're going to lift it just enough to get it off the ground."

"10-4, just make sure they don't tear up that nose!"

"10-4, they know"

Being the 2-time defending champ of the Busch race at RIR and having a 2nd place car at the time, I think the team wanted to make sure they had that same car for the Fall race.

So back to Kenny and more racing. It was a good thing we were watching Kenny because soon enough there was some crazy racing. Things were getting bunched up around Kenny and going into turns 1 and 2 he ended up getting into the back of Scott Riggs and sent him into the wall. We were waiting to hear his explanation, but it was silence. Nothing. Not even static. We put the binoculars on Riggs and saw that he was stalling to get into the ambulance and we knew something was up. Sure enough, he gave Kenny the "peace sign" and hollered, "Twice! Twice!" at Kenny as he drove by, alluding to it being the second accident that started off Kenny's front bumper. Anyhow, Kenny's team talked about some changes and then someone asked Kenny's spotter, "You had any visitors up there?"

"Yeah, Triple-H came over pretty mad, but I just told him that someone got in the back of us and there was nothing we could do."

Kenny, did have a damaged back bumpber, but whether that happened before or after the spin out, we didn't know.

So the race continued with Bobby Hamilton, Jr in the lead and then suddenly, with just 8 laps to go, we heard Kenny's spotter saying, "Something's wrong with the 25 car," talking about Hamilton's car. So we switched over to the 25 car just in time to hear, "Did you run out of gas or lose the engine?" and knew Hamilton's day was done.

Soon enough, the same thing happened to Kenny on the 2nd to last lap of the race. UGH! They were running pretty decent and were quite disappointed in losing so many spots so close to the end of the race.

Jason Keller won the race, but he didn't wow the crowd with a burnout, so we don't like him now. ;)

We watched some fireworks and went home happy race fans. We both agreed that we're hooked now. We're planning for our next race and are so happy that we decided to go to this one and do it "right" with the scanner and everything. No way it would have been near as much fun without the scanner. It's so much better than TV when you get to hear everything live. Plus you don't get to hear things on TV like:

After Kerry Earnhardt crashed (he's a bit of a "slow" talker, so read his lines really slow):
"You ok?"

"Yeah."

"Alright, let's get her into the pits and get it fixed."

"It won't go."

"She won't roll?"

"Huh?"

"She won't ROLL?"

"No."

"Ok, we got a tow on the way."

Kenny Wallace's spotter on nearly every restart after yellow:
"One to go this time by"

"10-4"

"Stay high. Those lapped idiots are coming by."

It was always something about the "idiots" passing to start with the lead cars. I was wondering what would happen if Kenny got a lap down, but alas it never happened. ;)

During Yellow one time, Kenny's crew trying to determine if to pit or not. Starts with Kenny at about turn 2 and ends at about the end of turn 4:
Kenny: "Are we coming in?"

"Do what the leaders do."

Chief (turn 3 after only about 2 of the top 10 pit): "Come in."

"PIT?!?!"

"Yeah, come in."

Kenny (turn 4 after missing pit road): "I guess we're staying out. You sure you want to pit?"

"Do what the leaders do."

"10-4"

The leaders ended up not pitting, so Kenny stayed out. It was pretty funny the way Kenny said, "PIT?!?!" It was even more funny that he said it as he was passing the entrance to pit road.