When NASCAR tinkers, fans earn free fun
These NASCAR rules changes about ride heights and whatnot might drive the drivers and their teams crazy, but race fans love ’em.
When NASCAR tinkers with ride heights, it means there probably are going to be extra practice sessions, and when there are extra practice sessions at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, race fans get in free.
You can’t get even a Rick Mast can koozie for free. (Given Rick Mast’s last NASCAR race was in 2002, you probably can’t even buy one of his can koozies on eBay at the regular price.)
At a few minutes before 3 p.m. Thursday, Dale Earnhardt Jr. pulled the black No. 88 Diet Dew Chevy into the Neon Garage. A couple of people yelled “Woo-hoo!” because this is what people always do when an Earnhardt is within shouting distance, even if he can’t hear you from behind soundproof glass.
An older man in front had his nose pressed up against the glass, like a kid watching the big cats at a zoo. He did not have a Rick Mast can koozie. He was wearing a Virginia Tech ballcap and a Route 66 T-shirt that said one can get his kicks in Tucumcari, N.M., which is debatable.
Ray South of Hewitt, Minn., said he was loving the free access into the Neon Garage, considering he paid $75 for a garage pass for Sunday. But that was a small price to pay, he said, because back where he’s from, the wind-chill factor was 44 degrees below zero the other day.
The Minnesota man, whose son lives in Las Vegas, said he was a Matt Kenseth fan, “because he’s just a farm boy from Wisconsin, and he doesn’t seem like such a hot dog,” like some of the other drivers. Then he introduced me to his wife, Sandy; she was wearing a Tony Stewart cap.
They have known each other since second grade but have been married only eight years; after their spouses died, they rediscovered each other at their 40th class reunion.
They said they had the whole NASCAR weekend planned out, that they would be going to the track during the day and down to Fremont Street at night for the pep rally and the REO Speedwagon concert.
REO Speedwagon is an old band, and if I had to guess, it probably has been awhile since Ray and Sandy South last rode a storm out, or whatever REO’s last hit was about. But Ray said the concert down on Fremont, like Thursday’s NASCAR practice session, was free.
Woo-hoo!
