This past 4th of July weekend we were able to head to Daytona for the Coke Zero 400 and Subway Jalapeno 250 thanks to the kindness of one of our friends, Scott. This all got set in motion a couple months back when I had mentioned to Scott that Dawson (who is an avid NASCAR fan) has never been to a race and my attempt at getting tickets to the Daytona 500 failed - that's why we ended up in Houston for the SMB concert (not a bad consolation prize if you ask me). All in all it was a fabulous weekend - not what I expected - but fabulous none the less.
For those of you who don't know me very well may not know that I am not a NASCAR fan at all. Driving at 200 mph and making left hand turns for three or more hours really does not strike me as entertainment, but for Dawson it does, so I gave it a try. I will say that watching it live is much better then on the tv. You actually get a feel for how fast the cars are and how far ahead the leader is of the others. So... here's a recap of our very first NASCAR weekend! Who knows, maybe we'll even go again sometime. :)
We started off the trip by leaving the office early on Friday. We figured if we left around 3pm we would HOPEFULLY be past downtown Orlando and miss the rush hour traffic.
Not so much.
We were fine until we hit downtown. Then, our surroundings looked like this til Deltona when traffic finally thinned out and we were able to make it to town. Since the race was set to start at 7:30pm we headed straight to the raceway and planned to check into our hotel after. As we were driving we saw the famous Daytona Beach sign! This is the only the second time I've ever seen this sign - the first was back in October on our way back from Savannah.
The famous Daytona Beach sign on the walkway.
We made it to the raceway!
We picked up our tickets, found some parking and headed off to find our seats. This was the calmest I had seen Dawson since we left Tampa.
Outside the raceway we found the Hudson Hornet!
I thought it was just a character in the Disney/Pixar Cars movie...
but apparently it was a real race car...
We made our way through the gates (Dawson would NOT let me take a picture of his getting his ticket scanned - ugh) and by several vendors and got to our seats. We walked about 2 miles from where we parked. Seriously. Yeesh.
This map was copied from The Daytona International Speedway Website
Our seats on Friday night were in the Petty Tower... They were AWESOME!!! We were able to see the whole speedway. Here are a couple of shots of the race from our seats...
During the very last lap of the race, actually right before the finish line, about 6 cars wrecked. One car skidded along the wall and I happen to get a few pictures of it.
No one got hurt, but it did make for an exciting finish!
As soon as the race ended, we headed to the beach to check out our hotel. One nugget of advice... NEVER stay at the Ocean Shores Resort in Daytona Beach... seriously... the following excerpt is from their ad:
"The hotel also features an oceanfront swimming pool, kiddie pool and open air sundeck. All rooms include: remote control cable color television, and touch controlled heat and air."
I should have been tipped off by the fact that the room has a color TV was a point they chose to highlight in their ad... So what kind of place was this? It was the kind of place that you rent with about 10 friends while on spring break in Daytona. You don't care where you sleep or if you shower... in fact you plan on not remembering this place... yeah, that's the kind of place it was. Dawson and I both slept FULLY clothed and on TOP of the sheets. I actually put towels over the comforter and slept on top of that. I did find a few surprises in the room on the rug... this was one of them:
I should have been tipped off by the fact that the room has a color TV was a point they chose to highlight in their ad... So what kind of place was this? It was the kind of place that you rent with about 10 friends while on spring break in Daytona. You don't care where you sleep or if you shower... in fact you plan on not remembering this place... yeah, that's the kind of place it was. Dawson and I both slept FULLY clothed and on TOP of the sheets. I actually put towels over the comforter and slept on top of that. I did find a few surprises in the room on the rug... this was one of them:
Someone had a lot of fun with the iron... there were about 12 of these around the room.
After seeing the room, Dawson and I decided to go grab a bite and contemplate finding another hotel room. We ended up at Wing House across the street and realized that the waitresses in Daytona take it to a totally different level then the WH girls in Tampa. We were greeted by a girl in a white bra, (yes, it was a bra) and jean shorts with her butt hanging out. Awesome. Then, our waitress was dressed as Captain America... only a very revealing Captain America...
Yup, those are Captain America underoos.
So, after an awkward dinner of wings and beer after midnight, we headed back to the hotel to turn in for the night. The next morning we headed out sightseeing (going to Nascar stores) near the beach and on the suggestion of our friend Scott, we ended up at this little gem of a beach bar...
The Ocean Deck... at 1030am...
From what we understand, this is the oldest bar in Volusia
I think they called whatever was in here their Pier Punch... all I know is I had to pop some Advil and chug a bottle of water by 1pm... not the best idea when it's 95 degrees
outside and you are headed to a race...
After hanging out for a while, we headed back over to the race way and took our seats. I was so thankful that we had remembered to bring ear plugs...
People checking out the infield and using their pit passes.
There were a lot more people there on Saturday then there were on Friday.
I don't know what it is about the national anthem, but it is always my favorite part of a sporting event and I manage to always get a little emotional...
Waiting on the race to start...
By the time it started getting dark, the race started. I noticed this was when the crazy outfits and shirtless guy sightings became more frequent...
Dawson waiting on the cars to zoom by us...
After about three hours of loud noise and left hand turns,
some guy won so he started doing donuts in the infield.
After the race, we packed up and headed to our hotel in Lake Mary - there was NO WAY we were staying at Ocean Shores again... I actually made the reservation for the new place while we were driving...
The next day we found one of the reasons Dawson loves making the trek over to the Orlando area...
BOJANGLES.... we treated ourselves to breakfast and then bought a few steak biscuits for the road... unfortunately they did not make it all the way home. Dawson got hungry.
We had a great time in Daytona and are looking forward to going back for a fun beach get away sometime in the future. I will say that this experience has changed my view on NASCAR - at least in person anyway. I still can't stand watching it on TV :)
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