NASCAR

 

As I mentioned in my previous post I am a big NASCAR fan and have been for close to 20 years.  We are in Charlotte, North Carolina, which is the hub for the race shops involved in NASCAR.  In addition, the recently opened NASCAR Hall of Fame is in downtown Charlotte.  I had been to Charlotte back in 1999, for business, and was able to do some sightseeing.  At that time I visited 3 race shops (Gibbs, Hendricks and DEI).  Fran had not been on this previous visit so I thought we would visit  a few so she could see the operations.

When Toyota wanted to come into NASCAR they hooked up with retiring driver Michael Waltrip to create a team for their cars.  As a result of this partnership he was fairly well funded to enter a very expensive sport.  With this he created a fan experience race shop and, I believe, is the only that actually charges an admission.  We were not disappointed and did not mind paying the $8, per person, for the visit.  You get to see the entire shop via a second story walkway with viewing areas.  You are then taken on a guided tour of the hauler bay and pit crew training area.  This is by far the best race shop visit I have done.

Shop area where completed cars are worked on

This is where the pit crews train

Fran trying out a race seat.  VERY difficult to get out of.

Down the road a few minutes was the Penske Racing shop.  One of Penske’s drivers is the current NASCAR champion.  This shop also gave you an elevated view of the shop area with the hauler bay off to one side. 

Hauler bay

Shop area

Lastly, I decided to go back to Hendricks Motorsports as this company is the elite of NASCAR so I wanted to see what has happened since I was here in 1999.  I was blown away!  When I came in 1999 the shop was one large building.  Now it takes up hundreds and hundreds of acres with many buildings.  You do not get to really see much of the operations but they do have a nice little museum that is free.

This was the original building when I came in 1999

From where I was standing to take the first picture I took this picture of the race shops for the 4 Sprint Cup teams.  They are the buildings in the background.  They are massive.  There are additional buildings for the museum and his engine building operation.  You can tell where the money is in NASCAR.

Today we drove to downtown Charlotte to see the NASCAR Hall of Fame.  We spent about 2 hours at the hall and both agreed it was worth the admission.  The nice thing is that it will appeal to those that are not into the sport or do not know much about it.  It is very nicely presented.

An interesting exhibit involves displaying cars throughout NASCAR’s history on a simulated track which demonstrates the degrees of banking found at various tracks.  In addition there are descriptions of all the various tracks as well as samples of the track surface. 

A continuation of the “track”

Fran at the 33 degree banking walk.  It is very difficult to walk up that steep of a track

They had a new exhibit involving some horrific wrecks of race cars over the years with the actual cars and the video showing the wreck.  In each case the driver walked away from the crash with minor injuries.  The above car wrecked at Bristol Speedway.  The entire driver compartment is exposed.  The driver walked away and ended up in another car to complete the race.  The above picture is a view from the passenger side so the front of the car is to the right and drivers seat is towards the center of the picture.  Parts that had flown off the car (including engine) are what you see in the foreground of the picture.