Tonight is the NASCAR Nationwide Series race, so I have the daytime to go back to town to do some trinket shopping and maybe find breakfast. Didn't find breakfast - I was as leisurely in getting up and out in the morning as I am normally. Did eat at a diner that made a Breakfast Burger with bacon and egg on it.
not my picture | |
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The intersection of Volunteer Parkway with State Street defines an east-west split with "downtown" to the east, and not a lot to the west except an antiques shop and Strings Experienced Musical Instruments. |
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Pickups built into
a machined aluminum block | |
State Street was very quiet, unlike the day before, and I perused the shops leisurely, which, because of Tennessee's 9.5% sales tax versus Virginia's 5%, are mostly on the Virginia side. I found some things for my friends PM and JG, and once I've presented them, I'll say what they are. The night before Nikki had been talking about being an Obama voter and Hilary Clinton fan in a Republican state, so when I saw a Hilary Clinton toilet-bowl brush I had to get it for her. More troublesome was trying to find a Bristol Christmas ornament for my Mom - there were next to none and the ones I saw were nothing special.
I made my way to the track, with grey clouds in my rear-view mirror. Spotty thundershowers were in forecast, and as I pulled into a Wal-Mart to pick up a few things the rain started coming down. And down. And down. For the next half-hour at least the area got a good thunderstorm, with lightning hitting some of the surrounding hills, and thunder reverberating off them. Some of the power went off in the store.
Then it passed and the sun returned and off I went to park again at the little church. Their lot was much fuller than the evening before but I found a good spot, looked around to find no one approaching to ask for money, and headed off thinking I'd make my donation later.
Well, we have a little hitch here. After paying a non-trivial amount for the "best available" tickets months in advance, I get to my seat for the NASCAR Nationwide Series race to find that my seat is in an area partially obscured by a support post, has no view of the front stretch, 1/4 of the track, and isn't on the aisle as I requested and the ticket agent confirmed when I booked.
Oopsy. I have the same seat for tomorrow's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race - I'm going to have to deal with that. I fire off a few emails to the social media part of the BMS app I have for my phone.
Nationwide Series cars are slightly smaller and slightly less powerful than the Sprint Cup cars that run tomorrow night. Believe it or not, these cars use a carburetted push-rod V-8 engine, pretty retro in these days of overhead-camshaft fuel-injected engines - even my old Honda Civic has one. But, my Civic doesn't put out 700 horsepower.
I went and sat in some cheaper corner seats at Turns 1 and 3 and had a view of 95% of the track for the rest of the race. It was a good race, a step up from the prior races: longer (300 laps), faster, louder, smellier, more fans, but not full. Smellier, from race fuel, not offensive if you're used to automotive smells, and a novelty if you are. These cars can blow unburned fuel out the exhaust, and there's no muffler to get in the way. It's not constant, but happens with a car getting on the gas exiting a turn.
Turn 3 |
Back stretch pits | |
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fuller infield tonight |
Front stretch | |
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Turn 2 |
Back stretch | |
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Turns 1 & 2 |
Turn 3 | |
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some sponsor guests |
Ooopsy! | |
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My headset doesn't pick up the race commentary tonight either. Fortunately the trailer that sold it to me (Get Race Ready) exchanges it for another one even though I don't have my receipt anymore.
Another easy walk back to the car in the warm night. Lots more people milling around and heading back to their cars. There's no one to take my money, so I either got a freebie, or I'll get them 10 bucks somehow.
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