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Back in the day, Nascar was strictly a southern sport. The only people that even really cared about the sport were the good ol’ boys in the south. In 1979 the Daytona 500 was televised for the first time and that started to bring the sport to different areas. As more and more people watched it on t.v., more and more people got word of the sport and it started to branch out all over the country. We still have races in the south such as Daytona Beach Florida, Atlanta Georgia and Charlotte North Carolina, but now Nascar also races in Chicago, Las Vegas and even in California.

So what is the popularity with the sport? Well, having been a race fan for about 14 years now, I can honestly say it is the way the fan can get closer to the sport than almost any other. It is a connection that you almost cannot even begin to understand until you attend a Nascar race in person. The commrodery with the other fans, the smell of the burning rubber and gasoline from the 800 horse power cars that go zooming by you at almost 200 miles per hour, the way you can see yourself getting behind the wheel of one of these awesome machines and doing what those drivers do, no other sport on Earth allows you to feel the way you can when you leave a Nascar race.

The problem with most sports is that you drive to the stadium to watch the game for three or four hours and then go back home, but with Nascar, true fans make an entire weekend of the event. Whenever the races come here to Atlanta, we pack up and go to the track late Thursday night or early Friday morning. We get there and set up our campsite among thousands of other campers. All you need to do is to simply start a campfire and pop a cold beer open and soon you will have “friends” come join you and you will talk about all the different drivers and just about anything else. On Friday night we watch qualifying to see who will start where on Sunday during the race then it’s back to the campsite for more partying until you just give out. You wake up Saturday morning and go visit the souvenir trailers and get your favorite new gear and go watch a race scheduled for that day and then it’s back to partying with all the people again. Then on Sunday you watch the main Nascar event that is given a patriotic introduction like no other that will just leave you speechless for about four hours, and even if your favorite driver doesn’t win, you still leave with a smile on your face.

The fans, the drivers, the sights and smells, there is nothing like it on Earth. I would advise anyone that has never been interested in Nascar before to watch a race and then go make a week-end of it when a race comes near your hometown and you will not be sorry. Just go one time and you will be hooked for life.

Richard Cronier is an avid classic car and truck enthusiast. Visit http://www.classicfordandchevy.com to see how he can help you restore your classic car or truck.