NASCAR at Phoenix International Raceway | Part 2

About one hour before the race was to start, we headed into the track to check out the cars and find our seats. We sat right along turn 4, which ended up being a great spot to see the wrecks! As we waited for the race to start, I plugged in all the driver frequencies into our scanner and Luke kept a look-out for dust storms...it was so windy.

This Papa Johns Pizza character greeted us when we walked into the track.

The national anthem was played by an amazing trumpet player and Luke Air Force sent out some fighter jets for the fly-over. There were even guys parachuting into the track. And then it was time for the race. As the engines fired, Luke looked at me. I think he knew the engines would be loud, but not deafening loud. Thank goodness for our scanner and ear plugs!

A parachutist and the flyover during the national anthem

As the race went on, the sun began to set. We had an excellent view of the sunset and it was cool to see how the track changed as the sun went down.

A view of the track in the afternoon, evening and night.

A couple of the wrecks

The race was fun to watch, and it was even more fun listening to the drivers complain about their cars over the radio. Some drivers had flowery language (Dale Jr!).

Dale Jr. said whaaa?

Like any true NASCAR fan, we ended up not staying for the whole race...not because we weren't enjoying it, but we didn't want to deal with the onslaught of traffic. Even though we live a few miles from the track, it was faster for us to park our car at a concert venue about 15 miles from the track and take a school bus back to the car. With us leaving about 45 minutes before the race ended we were able to get to our car and back to our house just in time to avoid the traffic. And we got to see the end of the race on TV in the comfort of our PJs and couch :)