THE WAY TO A NASCAR FAN'S HEART!

You've heard that old saying that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach?!  Well, apparently the same can be said for a Nascar Fan!

If you have had the privilege of going to a race, you know that it is so much more than just a race. Not that the race is not the main attraction, but let's face it.  People spend an entire weekend at the track - some even go for a whole week.  Camping, partying - it's all part of the fun we call Nascar! And food plays a major role at every track.

There are websites and facebook pages devoted entirely to eats.  One of my favorites is Steve Post's (of MRN Radio fame) "Food Around The Track" (www.foodaroundthetrack.com).  Every week Steve shares the best places to eat in the host town as well as fan photos of what everyone is having to eat on race day.  Nascar Wife's clams steamed over the campfire were featured two weeks ago!

 

Be sure to check out Steve's page, especially if you are planning to go to a new track.  He does a great deal of research (a/k/a EATING - haha!) and it's a great resource if you are looking to get the full experience of the town you are visiting.

Some tracks have a signature food.  Like the Martinsville hot dog we heard so much about this spring.  Did you know that they are known for their fried baloney sandwich too?

Sorry this is a picture of only HALF of a fried baloney sandwich, but Hubby devoured this puppy in about four bites!  He's already talking about getting one in the fall!  It's basically a slice of grilled baloney (here in Amish country we call it plain or minced baloney) with some grilled onions between two pieces of white bread and then grilled like a grilled cheese.  Add a little mustard and there ya go!

And this week there has been a lot of hype surrounding the new signature food at Talledega - "The Big One" - a ridiculously large meatball stuffed with cheese, topped with bbq sauce and some pasta and I don't really know what else!

I'm anxious to hear what everyone has to say about it, so if you go and try one, please post a comment and let us know what you think!!

When we go to Dover we always look forward to Grotto's pizza and some craft beer, both of which are sold at the concessions set up outside the track so you don't even need to have a race ticket to enjoy!  I will post again after we get there and let you know what other yummy things we try there!

How about you?  Do you have a favorite food that you can only get at your favorite track?

DO YOU WANT TO KNOW A SECRET?!?!

With all the talk this past weekend at Bristol about the Air Titans and track drying, I decided that it is time I share a little secret with you! And not just any secret, but an inside scoop that is only worth sharing with my closest Nascar Wife sisters.   But first, a little background ...

My Hubby is a really fun guy, and travelling with him is always a great adventure.  He is very outgoing and he loves to talk to people.  A lot.  I do my fair share of standing around waiting for him while he talks to complete strangers.  But, here's the thing -- he always finds the most interesting people to talk to and we usually come away with the best information!  One of the reasons for that is that he asks good questions of people that no one else is talking to!  We have learned so much about Nascar from guys like the man in the Nascar souvenir trailer and Nascar officials.  And all of these people are just the nicest people you can ever hope to meet!  And they love to talk about their jobs and the sport and anything else you want to talk about.

A few weeks ago in Martinsville we had one such encounter.  On our way in to the track we walked past the area where the Air Titans are staged.  Last year we stopped and talked to one of the Titan drivers by the name of Earl.  This was the first time these dryers were used at any track so 'we' had lots of questions and Earl had all the answers.  So this year Hubby decided to see if he could find Earl and say Hello, you know, since we are now friends ;-)

Well, we didn't find Earl but we found the guy who drives the car carrier truck that hauls the Air Titans to the tracks.  I'm sorry we didn't get his name, but what a nice man.  Turns out he drives the truck that they use to clean the track before any of the cars ever takes a lap.

I guess I never really thought about it before, but these tracks need to be free of debris, oil, and any other kind of 'gunk' before the racecars go out.  So on Thursdays usually this guy takes this truck out and cleans the track ....

And now here is the SECRET part --  He spreads TIDE powdered laundry detergent on the grease to get it off the track!  I know, right?!?!  He told me that in Daytona they used two-and-a-half MILES of Tide to clean the track!!

So I figure, if it's good enough for Daytona it's probably good enough for all of us to use on those pesky grease spots we can never seem to get out of our favorite shirt!

You're welcome!

DO YOU "WAZE"?

If you have read my posts about Martinsville, you know that last fall we got a speeding ticket while heading to the race on Sunday morning.  Not one of our favorite memories of our trip for sure.

Okay, so we weren't quite THIS bad, but we definitely felt like we were targeted because we were out of state and they knew we weren't going to return to Virginia the week before Christmas to fight it.

So this time around our kids told us about this new app for our smartphones - WAZE (pronounced Wah-zuh).  It is a free app and I can't begin to count the number of times it saved our hides on our fourteen-hour round trip!

Waze uses your phone's gps and shows you where you are on the road.  It's kind of cool and spooky at the same time.  But the great thing about it is that you can see if there are any other Waze users on the road ahead of you.  Whenever a user sees a police car or a traffic jam or even a vehicle on the side of the road the PASSENGER - NOT THE DRIVER - can enter that information on their smartphone and it immediately pops up on your phone.  There is even a little voice that comes on and says things like "Caution, police reported in one mile."  It also indicates whether they are hidden or visible.

We appreciated it as much for the "vehicle on the shoulder" information as the speed trap information.  When you are towing an RV on an interstate highway and know that there is perhaps a disabled tractor-trailer coming up you can safely change lanes well in advance.  We had to do that several times. 

The information concerning construction and traffic jams was also very helpful.  It also does other things like mark the Dunkin Donuts and Outback Steakhouses on your route, although we didn't need to use that feature.  There are lots of other features that we have not fully investigated yet but you can bet we will!

One little piece of advice for you though.  Be sure to take your car charger along with you as it really uses up your battery - even if it is fully charged.  I did not notice a big hit to our data usage, but we have so much data that we never use that I wasn't really concerned.  You might just want to check with your carrier if you use alot of data on a regular basis just so you don't fall over when you get your next cellphone bill.

Safe and ticket-free travels everyone!!

MARTINSVILLE REVISITED

I have finally THAWED OUT from a record-breaking cold weekend in Southern Virginia.  Wouldn't you know it would happen on race weekend?!  The good news is that following a rainy Friday morning, the rest of the weekend was filled with brilliant sunshine and clear blue skies.  The sun was the saving grace on Saturday as the wind was fiercely cold, but in the grandstand seats we were sheltered somewhat from the wind and the sun felt wonderfully warm.  I even came home with a little bit of sunburn!!

Yup, 30 degrees and we are headed to the track!

There were several big race headlines this weekend ....

THE MARTINSVILLE HOT DOG - And this is the last time we are going to discuss this, I promise! As you know, the track created quite the stir when it was made known prior to the race that they were changing hot dog vendors (GASP!!). We conducted our own unbiased independent research and can definitively declare that the hot dog remains unchanged.  The exact same as it always was. No change. None.

As this picture of the line of people waiting to buy one (only $2!) shows, sales were steady and by next race all will be forgotten and forgiven ....

I will tell you this much, though.  Hubby tried the fried bologna sandwich and he is a BIG FAN!

And me?  I'll stay with the ham sliders!  

KYLE LARSON - As of today (Thursday), Kyle has been cleared to get behind the wheel of his race car next week and I'm sure everyone in Nascar is happy about that.  He has said that he thinks he was just dehydrated. Not surprising really.  I am just so amazed at the schedule these drivers keep on race day!  They do so many appearances with the fans and sponsors.  I know of no other sport where fans have the access to their favorite athlete like they do in Nascar.  Can you imagine Tom Brady or Peyton Manning going out in front of the stadium the morning of a big game to greet fans and sign autographs?!  Add this to your list of reasons to love Nascar!!

DENNY HAMLIN - Great car, great race, AWESOME BURNOUT!!

And I just happened to catch up with his golfcart at his souvenir hauler ....

You just never know who you will see and where, so you're always on star-watch!

Next time I will show you a little bit of the behind-the-scenes things I learned about.  One little tidbit is so interesting, and I am pretty sure you have never read about this anywhere else!  Hmmm.... ;-)