But the cool thing about this year's Mountain Dew Southern 500 was that I was there! That makes two NASCAR races in as many months for me this year. It also is the only other NASCAR race I've been to besides the Brickyard 400, which I've been to for nine straight years now.
We were in Darlington for my wife's family reunion and decided to go to the race on Sunday. Well, some of us -- my wife, her dad, and I did. My wife's uncle works for a company that has connections at the track and was able to get us a really good parking spot. We literally drove from his house to the track via roads that didn't incur traffic and pulled up a few hundred feet away from the grandstand entrance and parked. It made us all feel like VIPs. The race itself was rain-delayed, but once it started, it ran without interruption for rain. We were in seats about 15 feet from the track in the exit of turn 4. When we left, we had rubber and asphalt flecks that had been kicked up from the track all over us. It was loads and loads of fun.
The seats were great and it looked like most of the seats in the facility had a good view of the track. I'm sure we'll probably be going to races in Darlington in the future.
