It was a very hot and steamy day on July 4th to say the least. I didn't want to even attempt to get out of the house at all that day until I had to, because I worked in the stuff all week and needed a desperate break from the sun. Plus, I went out drinking the night before and didn't want to chance sweating out my alcohol so early before heading to the Coke Zero 400. I headed over to my buddy Den's house at about 3, to find out what time we were leaving and the next thing I knew I was drinking and swimming in his pool. The night couldn't start any better!
We had to have a toss up on who was driving, and since the AC was out in his truck it was an easy choice to have me drive for the night, not to mention that I did not know the guys we were going with who had got me the tickets. The race started at 8:00, but we didn't want to chance the traffic so we left at 5 o'clock to head to Daytona Beach to pick up his buddies, of course a drink for the road wouldn't hurt. No traffic at all on the way, got to Daytona with ease so we went to an awesome bar before we picked up the ticket holders and pounded a beer while we watched the breaking news update of the death of Steve McNair. This bar was awesome, though. The next time my boys from up north get down here we have to go there. It was called "The Arena" and was filled with beautiful flat screens nicely spaced throughout the bar, a VIP lounge, a couple high end pool tables, an outdoor deck facing the ocean, and the biggest round bar I have ever seen. After we pounded are drink is was back in the car to pick up the other two. Now let me tell you about these guys...
The dudes names were Archie and Jimmy, friends of Den's up north. Both look like Jersey guys and every other word that came out of their mouths was f^@k. Not kiddin. Here's the first words I heard from him story might be exaggerated but the content is still the same.
"That f^@king race last night was f^@king weak. And that f^@king fat f^@k sitting in f^@king front of us was going to get his f^@king ass kicked for f^@king talking shit."
It was just like that. But, these guys are loaded. They came from nothing and that dude Archie is worth about 50 million dollars, but the cool thing about both of them is that they don't flaunt it at all and actually dress like kind of scumbags. Archie hands me the ticket and tells me that he's not responsible for anything that happens now once it is out of his possession. I look at the price of the ticket. One Hundred and Sixty dollars, with tax, 170! A few more drinks at their house and we hit the road in my small ass Mirage to International Speedway.
International Speedway was mobbed! We parked at Den's wife's work for free and walked about a 1/4-1/2 mile to the track. Walking to the track is probably one of the better experiences your going to have if you want to really chuckle. Archie explained it perfect, "There are f^@king race fans like us and there are f^@king hick ass race fans like them!" So true! I wish I had my camera for all of you. On a bench on the side of the road there was a foursome of rednecks looking for tickets, how they had the money for tickets was beyond me, but only 1 of the 4 had a shirt on, all were wearing those cut jean shorts that they wore in the 80s, and of course all of them were hammered and giving high fives to fans wearing Earnhardt shirts or hats. Certainly a site to see.
We get to the track and went up stairs like no other, mind you it is still sizzling out and alcohol already in the system was causing sweating already, now I have walked a half a mile which now feels like 3 miles going up these stairs. We finally get to our section and Den's like, "you ready?". Of course! Now we are changing to Captain and Cokes, which were $8, not nice! We get drinks for Jimmy and Archie and get to our seats. To my surprise there is not one fruitcaked redneck around us. But I already forgot how much our seats were, nice keep drinking. Our seats were incredible! Top level and right at the start/finish line. You can't get better seats than these. And I'll tell you what was there, was big-breasted women...everywhere! I swear to all of you I think that it is a prerequisite to have a large chest if you a female NASCAR fan. If you have small tits, sorry you have to leave! Unreal! My eyes were on the t-shirts of the women fans more than the race track throughout the night.
Before the start of the race I look to my left then look to my right and notice that their is massive amounts of people at this race. Nothing like I have ever seen before. I decided that I was going to do my rooting mostly for Joe Gibbs young prodigy Joey Lagano, but I wouldn't be mad if Tony Stewart won at all. I have to apologize to Den, but I still can't get into the the race as a whole. The start is kind of hot because all the cars are piled up together going 160+ not even two feet apart. The middle sucks, I never officially got drunk because of the massive amounts of state cops out and about this weekend, but I was feeling good and since all the wipe outs were on the other side of the track, boredom started to set in.
Then we get to the final ten laps. At this point now I am feeling quite well, I didn't have to buy a drink the whole night. A stupid ass caution flag comes out for whatever reason while Stewart has a nice lead. So the cars get bunched up together for the final 8 laps. I look at Den and say, dammit I want to see a crash right in front of us. He says we just might now that they are bunched like this now. Kyle Busch takes the lead from Stewart with a lap and a half to go. Nobody like Busch much, in fact he is hated throughout NASCAR fans. If you haven't seen the end of the race, I'll have it at the end of the blog. But, like most of the fans there it is one of the better finishes that you'll ever see at a race. Not lying to you the finish of this race on youtube is exactly how I saw it live. At the last turn on the final lap, Stewart not taking a 2nd place finish bumps Busch to the wall and what ensues is absolute may lay. Busch hits the wall and takes out the almost the entire field right in front of us at the finish line, while Stewart cruised by before the pile up to finish as the winner. It truly was an awesome finish to get to see after the boredom that happened to me before the last 10 laps. Busch's car was a wreck, and fans were pumped about it. Just imagine leaving this place with the rednecks so happy a guy got into a huge wreck and his car was in shambles. A fight happened right when we were leaving probably because somebody was staring at somebody's girlfriend's boobs. The two hour ride home sucked ass, with state cops everywhere, but ultimately it was a decent night in Daytona. The dude that was suppose to get us into the strip club was hammered throughout the race and somehow disappeared from us somewhere in the middle of the race so the tittie bar was out of the question. But definitely the night in Daytona was something everyone should try to experience whether you like racing or not but I'll tell you what it is something that I could only handle once a year!
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