h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Thank you. I was amazed when I opened the front page this morning and saw an article about NASCAR!

What a treat! A few weeks ago there was an article about "Mountain Dew" which was started in my home town (Knoxville, Tennessee) and now this.

I grew up listening to races on the radio with my Dad, and when they stared being televised we were both in heaven. We went to the local dirt tracks when I was a child, 411, Smokey Mountain, Atomic, and a few times we went to Bristol and Atlanta to the big NASCAR races.

This was back in the days when you didn't have to have special "pit passes" and could go down after the race and see the cars and talk to the drivers and crew.

Job well done, thanks again.

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it! What with all the Formula 1 stuff in the Guide I figured we needed a fair shake.

I didn't grow up with Nascar, I was dragged into it kicking and screaming by my husband when we got married (I could still safely ignore it while we were dating). I haven't been to a race in years, but the boys go to the Busch race at Gateway (St Louis) every summer. This year will be my son's first, and he's really excited. I'll probably go next year.

I'd enjoy seeing a race at Bristol, but I hear there's a waiting list several years long for tickets.

Last one I went to at Bristol was the spring race in 1973. Cale won, I think he led every lap. It took two Sundays to run, it started raining after about 50 or 75 laps and we got soaked to to skin.

When we went back a week or two later it was cold and windy, and I had one of the worst colds of my life. I was miserable.

I remember the year, because that was the spring I got my first car, a 1973 Mustang Mach 1. Just what every 15 year old girl needs, right? My Dad is a gearhead, what can I say? His retirement project was a kit car, a Shelby Cobra replica.

He took it to a big Shelby America Auto Club show down at Charlotte, and got to drive it around Lowes Motor Speedway. I got to ride in it with him around the track, he was careful, he only got it up to about 140 MPH down the back stretch. Shoot, he used to drive the family car nearly that fast back in the '60's, on the interstate on the way the Florida on vacation. (Well, 100 at least.)

If you ever get a chance, go to Bristol, just be sure to take ear plugs AND some other type of ear protection. They don't call it Thunder Valley for nothing. The track sits right down in a valley, and is surrounded by hills all the way around. All those motors just echo back down.

Back when we were going, the track wasn't surrounded by grandstands, like it is now. I'm sure that just makes the noise factor even worse than it was then, and it was REALLY loud then. A lot worse than Atlanta.

Well done on this article.

I'm rather new to the whole NASCAR thing, but I'm definitely hooked. I live pretty close to California Speedway, and a couple friends of mine got hooked while I was away. One of them is a gearhead who once crewed for his father-in-law's dragster, so it was natural. Anyway, the two of them dragged me to a few events after I came back to town, and even managed to drag my wife along. We both thoroughly enjoyed the experience at the track.

I knew I was hooked, though, at the last race of 2004 in Miami. You see, back in 2003 when I went to the track the first time, I knew I had to pick a driver to root for, to make it more interesting. I'd vaguely heard about some guy named Jimmy Johnson who was from California, and had won the last race there. So I picked him. I was having a devil of a time reading the marquee, though, and I somehow misidentified him as the driver of the #5. The race was 2/3rds over before my gearhead friend was able to point me to the right car.

I went back in '04 with my wife, and rooted for the right car the whole time. And he did very well. He started towards the middle of the pack, and gained a position every lap at first, until he was running in the top 5, which was pretty exciting. We went to the newly-added night race in the fall, and he did the same thing.

I followed the Chase in the papers, and was sad to see him fail in the first couple races, then astonished by the comeback. So he went into Miami-Homestead with a legitimate shot at the title. And I watched a NASCAR race on television. And I enjoyed it. Weird, eh?

We didn't go to the track in February of this year, and have no intentions of going in the fall. It was too damned hot both times, although at least in September when the sun set halfway through, it became bearable and then even comfortable, previous dehydration and attendant exhaustion notwithstanding. Naturally, the February race this year (moved up from April) came on a nice cool day, and would have been perfect conditions. But I've watched every race from home, taping them when I can't watch real time.

There's a "... you might be a redneck" joke or two in there somewhere, I'm sure.

Welcome to the NASCAR family!

Please allow an old timer the chance to stroll down memory lane.

Mom and I were driving along Sunday, I don't even remember how the subject of races came up. This show's to go ya how much the times have changed.

We jokingly say "when we win the lottery we will go to Daytona for Speed Weeks and..." Knowing full well we'll never win the lottery, and even if we DID, we wouldn't go to Daytona. I couldn't take the crowd, and to STAND UP for the entire race! Hey, that's why you paid for a SEAT people. Back in the '60's when we went to races there were local tracks that would have you removed from the grandstands if you insisted on standing up when the cars were on the track. Honest. You can see just as well sitting in your seat as you can standing up.

And what's up with all the alcohol at these events? The last time we went to a race (Atlanta, March 1975) there were so many drunks sitting around us, well standing around us we couldn't enjoy the race. I'll watch them on TV from now on. You get to see a lot more of the action.

But I digress, the real reason I wanted to write this was to talk about the difference in the pits. Back then a car would NEVER have been painted green (bad luck) and a woman was NEVER allowed in the pits during a race. (Also bad luck)

Ah, but after the races were over, the pit and garage area was open to the public, you didn't need special passes. All the drivers and crews were still around, putting equiptment away, loading the car on to the trailer. And the trailer wasn't the big 18-wheeler's like they have today.

Once, after a night race at Hickory, NC, we were looking at Toodle (spelling) Estes car. I was maybe three-years-old, I can remember bits and pieces of this happening. Dad would pick me up so I could see inside the car, he was pointing out the roll-bars, the gear-shift, and other things. Mr. Estes saw him, he told dad to go ahead and put me in the car and let me sit in it! Somehow I don't think that happens after races today.

Ah, the good old days...

Green is bad luck? That explains Bobby Labonte's year...

Yeah, I'm not too happy about the alcohol either. The first time I went we were surrounded by loud and stupid drunks. The other two trips weren't so bad, probably because we paid more to sit higher and get a better view.

People think the purpose of going to the races (or a lot of other events) is to get wasted. It's stupid. I can stay at home and get wasted and have the same experience.

I don't like the way the fans react, either. There's a handful of drivers who can do no wrong by them, and another handful that can do no right. Dale Junior is treated like a rock star just because of his daddy. He's just a young guy who has won a handful or races, and is self-destructing this year, yet every time he causes problems they cut him all the slack. Meanwhile, a guy like Jeff Gordon who races clean and has 4 championships is booed and showered with trash when he takes the checkered flag.

Don't get me started on Gordon! Or DJ either!

Yep, in the old days green was bad luck, you weren't even supposed to wear anything green. When, let me see, I think it was Darrell Waltrip started driving a car with green on it, oh you should have heard the uproar! No peanuts in the pit area, or in the garage, either. Lots of superstitions.

If you ever get a chance to see a show "Legends of NASCAR" or something like, that watch it. It is a commercial for some videos they sell. It has some of the drivers from the old days sitting around talking. It's a hoot. They talk about the days when they ran 40 odd races a season. Darrell Waltrip, Benny Parsons, Junior Johnson, the Allison brothers, Cale Yarbrough, the Woods brothers, A.J. Foyt (I think), Buddy Baker, Ned Jarrett, Dick Brooks, there are a bunch of others, I can't remember if Richard Petty is on it or not. It think Rusty Wallace might be on it and maybe one or two of the other guys currently running.

I went to a few races in Hickory as well and I went to Lowes when it was called Charlotte Motor Speedway. Cept I went there for concerts. They had some awesome ones back then.