You Might Be a Redneck If.....

You go to your first NASCAR race and absolutely love it! Yes folks, I just got back from Charlotte where I attended the UAW-GM Quality 500. I am out of the closet...I love the NASCAR. Picture this:

• Packing enough food and beer to fill 4, yes 4 SUVs.
• Partying with people you've never met, but who you now share a bond with
• Drinking more Jell-O Shots in one day than you have EVER had before....and living to tell about it (we started out with 250, of which I think I drank at least 20....OUCH)

This was my first NASCAR experience. We aimed to leave the house at 1:30, which ended up being about 3:00 (and Elaine and Jacquie weren't even there)! We were moving along but got stuck in race traffic and were barely moving. One of our crew jumps out of SUV #2 to hit the woods to relieve himself. Needless to say, this is the precise moment that traffic starts moving...and moving quickly. This poor boy, decked out in VA Tech gear (guess he thought they were playing in Charlotte this weekend) ends up running about 1.5 miles in flip flops to catch up to us. Sucked to be him.

We parked the cars, set up the table, the canopy the food and let's not forget the Jell-O. Lord have mercy.

After tailgating for a bit, we load up smaller coolers and head to the track. How awesome is NASCAR? You can take your coolers full of beer, food and Jell-O shots inside. (The NFL should take a lesson from this.) We find our seats and plant ourselves. Now let me just talk about the seating arrangements for a second. You know how baseball and football stadiums are a little roomy and you're not really sitting on top of the person beside you? No such luck here. We were packed tighter than a can of sardines. To top it off, I was sitting between two not so small men. oy. If you've ever been to a Penn State game, I can liken it to Beaver Stadium, only worse. Its THAT bad. Needless to say, the beer was flowing and the shots were constantly handed out (if I had to hear, "hey rookie, what color do you want?" one more time.....)

I definitely fit right in as I was sporting the red and black of my favorite driver, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. True to this season, he wrecked quite early (still lasted longer than Jeff Gordon). After Jr blew out his tire, I decided to cheer on VA Boy and driver of the M&M car, Elliott Sadler...who wrecked...then it was Tony Stewart...who wrecked, followed by Kasey Kahne, who wrecked (are you getting the picture here?) If I had been anywhere close to sober and picked up on the pattern, I would have started cheering for Jimmie Johnson who I am NOT a fan of, but eventually won. ugh.

All in all, I had a great time. Even met up with my new boy which was awesome. Nothing like having your first kiss at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Now there's a story for the grandkids. Damn alcohol.

I'd highly recommend going to a race...even if you don't like it, the party is definitely worth it!