Originally Posted at Foxsports.com on December 28, 2005.
I love getting dirty.
At the track.
At the _dirt_ track.
No, seriously.
It's a lot of fun and unbelievable to see.
No, really.
You've probably seen a nascar race, right?
A race on pavement. You know how the cars turn and maybe slide a little as the go into the corners? Well, on dirt, that slide is magnified.
Like 100x.
I'm being serious. The cars literally go into the corner sideways. (Probably more accurate to call it slideways). And the tracks are usually around a 1/2 mile in length, so the drivers are either coming out of the slide or getting ready to go into it.
Open wheel cars - like a sprint car (with wings or without), or a midget - are the most fun to see. The driver is visible from the stands - and you can see him (or her as there are several female drivers) steering the car.
But they race stock cars - late models - on dirt too.
And because they're racing on dirt, it first has to be wet down and packed in before the race.
Well, they do that by having the push tracks circle the track. Sometimes it seems like they circle the track forever getting the dirt just right.
I know it sounds silly, "getting the dirt just right" but it is important. I'd love to drive (or even ride) in a push truck some day.
I am so serious. It's like on my list of things to do before I die.
After the track is packed down, the drivers watch the track as the qualifications, heats and races progress to see what is happening to the cushion and what lines around the track are the quickest tonight.
Sometimes the "line" closest to the wall in the straightway and closest to the inside of the corner is fastest. Sometimes it isn't. A good driver watches to see where the quick time is being laid down.
A push truck? Well, with the winged sprint cars, they need a "push" to get started, so the push trucks push them out on the track.
I know, it sounds weird, but it's cool.
The crashes are scary. And spectacular.
My favorite track is my home track - Knoxville Raceway. If you've ever watched an open wheel race on a dirt track on TV, it may have been at Knoxville. The Knoxville Nationals are every August and SPEED channel broadcasts them.
At Knoxville, the sprint cars have wings.
Oh, believe me, you'd know what a winged sprint car was if you ever saw one. No questions in your mind.
I love the crowds at dirt tracks.
They can get rowdy, like any sports fans. But they are friendly. And generally considerate. And if you sit near a group of them long enough at the local track, you will know everything about everybody.
Definitely more than you want to know about everybody.
But you'd likely meet a former driver, or car owner, or track official. And then you'd meet their family, and learn which driver their daughter/granddaughter is dating (or has the hots for). And you'd learn that they know at least half the people in the stands and half the people in the pits. And the people they don't know are just friends they don't know the names of yet.
It's a small community. And they will ask you questions and know more about you before the night is over than your family does. Really.
However, the small size of the crowds is causing some tracks to go out of business.
It is unfortunate. It's a unique form of racing. A lot of the drivers you know from Nascar started on dirt tracks - Tony Stewart, Kasey Kahne, Erin Crocker, Jeff Gordon, and Ken Schrader to name a few. In fact, Nascar used to run dirt tracks when it first started.
One of my favorite parts of a dirt track race is that you can go into the pits after the race and talk to the driver, officials, car owner, mechanic, crew chief, or whomever else is there.
I know if I tried that at the Nextal Cup race, heck, even truck or Busch race, my behind would be booted from the track.
Why don't we stop talking about the dirt track and you can come with me next time? The season starts in April...
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