After our must-do trip to IKEA, we headed up to Charlotte Motor Speedway. I must admit, I was less than thrilled to be going, but hubby and BIL endured IKEA for me, so I decided to keep my mouth shut and attempt to enjoy myself.
Needless to say, pulling up to the Speedway, I felt myself getting jacked!
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| Right outside the Speedway |
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| Kayla and Kent inside the speedway |
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| Kyle and I inside the speedway |
We decided to pay $10 and take a tour of the speedway, the dragway and the dirt track. While we were waiting, we got to watch the driving school do a few laps and that itself was so awesome. The driving school offers two options for school - you can either do a ride-along or you can drive yourself. At first, all 4 of us decided we wanted to do it and drive a car. Then the ride-along cars came by and we quickly changed our minds! These are driven by an instructor and you are really getting a better glimpse into racing. These cars were going around the track at 130 mph and it was so loud. I had no idea NASCAR was that loud.
It was time for our tour and we didn't really know what to expect. Needless to say, it was the best $20 we had spent in a l-o-n-g time!!! I was so glad we went by the speedway. I had no idea racing could be so much fun! We're now planning a trip back to Charlotte for the night race in October!
Our tour guide was really nice and gave us a great tour. We knew that we were supposed to take a lap around the track, but what we didn't know was that our guide was going to pull up the bank going around Turn 1 and scare us all. He pulled onto it and we literally felt like the van couple topple over at any second. It was definitely a HUGE thrill!!!! As he came off of the turn, he floored it and before we knew it we were heading around the track going 80 mph. After that, we knew we HAD to do the driving school. I could only imagine the thrill going around the track twice as fast!!
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| Entrance into the administrative part of Charlotte Motor Speedway |
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| The largest tv in the world. It contains more than 9 million LED lights. I can't remember the exact measurements, but it was HUGE! |
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| Inside the winner's circle |
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zMAX Dragway - this is the only 4 wide drag strip in the world.
Our tour van and the other van raced against each other.
We lost. :( |
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| The dirt track at Charlotte - they were getting it ready for monster trucks |
Before we ever decided to do this tour, Kyle had his mind set on going to Hendrick Motorsports. For those that don't know - Kyle is a DIE HARD Jimmie Johnson fan. And no, he didn't jump on the bandwagon once Jimmie became a champion 5 times in a row. Kyle has been a #48 fan since he and I got together. I love giving him a hard time about it, but I really believe Kyle would leave me for JJ!!! Ha! He loves to give me a hard time too because he's managed to convince all the kids in the family to be #48 fans too. Anyway, we found out that Hendrick Motorsports was just down the road from the Speedway, so we headed there next. This place was in the middle of a little country neighborhood, but once you got onto the property, it opened up like you wouldn't believe. There were 5 (maybe more) HUGE buildings on the property, a giant pond and more asphalt than you could imagine. And of course, it was H-O-T!!!!
The two big buildings on the back of the property are where each team's garages are. The #48 and #88 share a garage and #24 and #5 share a garage. We headed to the #24 and #5 garage first because that's where the majority of the cars were. Once Kyle learned you could go in and walk around, we quickly made our way through that garage and headed to the #48 building. Kyle was more excited than a kid at Christmas!
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| The #5 and #24 garage |
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| Kyle in Heaven... |
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| #48 and #88 share a garage |
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| Smiling bigger than I've seen in a LONG time! |
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| View into the #88 and #48 garage |
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| 5 time Champion |
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#88 was a bit overshadowed being in the same building as #48.
All these trophies belong to #48 |
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| Trying to fit into this mock - up car was hilarious!!!! I'm almost positive people over 5'9" aren't supposed to squeeze into them, but Kent and myself sure did. We struggled to get in and out, but we fit!!! |
We were looking online for tickets to the October night race before we got out of the parking lot if that tells you had much fun we had.
Who knew NASCAR and racing could be so exciting!!!!!
2 comments:
What a fun trip!!!!!! I know I'm awful at commenting, but love love love your updates. Love seeing you guys having a good time and love seeing how much you do to honor Erik. <3
You guys were just about a mile away from where I use to live! Sounds like y'all had a great time! And of course racing is so much fun! Lol!
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