regular race. People need golf carts just to get around the track because itâs so massive. Itâs a microcosm, a city in and of itself.
When I was outside of the track, I felt like I might be at a circus or carnival. There were souvenir trucks and vendors selling food of all sorts. I could smell the rich, savory aroma of good American barbeque roasting in the campgrounds. Some fans had passes to go see the cars in the garage. That surprised me. In few other sports could fans see players before the game or get that close to the action. To me it was like opening the door to the New England Patriotsâ locker room before the big game.
Fans get to see and experience so much at the races. Itâs hard to get a bad seat. If youâre up high you get to see the entire track, which you donât have a hope of seeing from down low because itâs so gigantic. But from down low you can feel the cars rushing by and see the colors of the bright vehicles blur. Everyone picks their favorite driver. Sometimes thereâs a driver who people are rooting against, maybe a driver whoâs edging in on their driverâs lead. Every time Dale Earnhardt Jr. circles the track there will be a few cheers.
The beginning and the end of the race are the biggest spectacles. At the beginning thereâs the anthem and the show that NASCAR makes of that, and then thereâs the final finish, that race for Victory Lane. In between the end and beginning, fans eat, cheer, and holler. Some grow listless and distracted; others are wide-eyed and attentive for the whole race. Theyknow that in every race thereâs that one wreck or move that everyone talks about the next day, and they donât want to miss out on it. There is no rewind button. If they take their eyes off the track too long, they may miss that one spectacular moment, that crash, or that expert maneuver that gets the rest of the crowd on their feet and cheering.
It all seemed amazing to me at that first race. And then I went to the Daytona 500. Thereâs no way to compare any other sporting event to it. The Daytona 500 is the cream of the crop in racing; I had never been to a race like it before. I had the idea that it was just going to be cars going around the track, but from the moment you pull into that parking space, you enter another world: the food, the vendors, the garage, the thousands and thousands of people, the sound of the cars, the excitement that pulsates through the air, and the drivers who seem to be superhuman. The smell of the oil and rubber on the track. The sound of cars screeching and scraping the walls. The blurring colors. You
see
speed.
Iâll never lose that initial impression that I got from the Daytona 500, even if it was, at times, all a blur. Once youâve been a part of something like that, you develop a need for it. A need for speed.
5
TEAMWORK
W hen we go to the movies, we admire the stars on the screen. When we turn on the news, we listen to what our president has accomplished. And when we watch sports, we look for our favorite quarterback or race car driver. Yet the true greatness of our country, whether weâre in Hollywood, the White House, or a sports stadium, lies in the labor of the unsung heroes.
Behind every great film there are many layers of talent, from the writers who create the script to the directors who oversee the making of the film. Though we may only see that great Hollywood star on the screen at the end, in truth that actor is only one part of the process. The same is true in the White House. The president, being only one person, couldnât possibly be responsible for an entire country. He has countless aides and advisors working tediously to keep him informed and able to do his job.
On the NASCAR track, the driver is the star, the leader, and executer. And while he has to be very talented to get into that driverâs seat, somebody had to make that seat and the car itâs in. Someone has
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