Cars going round in a circle.

When Noah was 2 years old and we lived in the south we would spend some Sunday afternoon watching the NASCAR races together as we played games or hung out.  It was a fun way to get some knowledge about a sport that was important to some of the people I worked with and of course make Noah happy.  Before that time much of what I knew about NASCAR was from ESPN and Jim Rome who called it Neckcar.  But what I discovered was a science that seemed so amazing.  The engineers who build the engines and the cars, the way the drivers use simple physics to gain a few extra miles per hour or manage to squeeze into spaces a few inches bigger than their cars really was remarkable.  However I was not much of a fan of the fans of NASCAR.  My one encounter that I will never forget a time I was flying early on a Monday morning out of Atlanta.  The day before was the New Hampshire race and there were many fans going home on my flight.  I could easily tell them as they were dressed up like their favorite driver.  Apparently there was an encounter the day before between Jeff Gordan and the late Dale Earnhart.  Their fans were jeering each other.  But even more noticable was that many of these fine young gentlemen had with them a six pack cooler as their carry on.  So I assumed that I was on the party flight to Georgia, just what I needed for a flight at 8:30am.  But much to my surprise when we approached the jetway one of these men opened their cooler to pull out his ticket and what looked like it sat on was a pile of underwear and socks, folded into the cooler.  This was his luggage.  Bravo for ingenuity.

In the years since I find myself gravitating toward the weekly car races from February to November.  I even started to question the ever changing points system, and can talk about the car of tomorrow with the best of them.  I know what the center of corner is and sometimes am tempted to get someone on the highway loose and spin em into the wall.  I have become a fan.  Last week I settled in to watch the Daytona 500 only the have it delayed over and over again.  I really missed it.  I loved it on Monday night and stayed up too late to watch.  I think I didn't want to admit how much a fan I am, but I have sat in stockcar, gunned the engine, and may one day do the fantasy camp.  I want to be part of the crowd and see the race.  Perhaps and the track in Northern California, or at least a track with a sushi bar.