FLORENCE, SC :: It’s not often that I get to venture out of the southeast, well I can only think of one time, and that was a family vacation to New York City in 1997 and when we moved to Oklahoma back in 1999. But this past weekend, I ventured to Winchester Speedway in Indiana with Matt Weaver from SB Nation, Tony Stevens, the voice of the UARA and Patrick Reynolds from Motor Week Live. A weekend I won’t soon forget.
Charlotte Motor Speedway played host to the weekend, on Thursday night. I was there covering the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour season finale on the quarter mile track. A race that was far from stellar, for a series that should not be running their season finale there, but that’s a different story. Burt Myers ended up picking up the win when Ryan Preece broke a rocker arm after dominating the first 138 laps. George Brunhoelzl III picked up his third consecutive NWSMT championship, the first driver to do that in both modified tours.
Friday, I experienced my first trip to the state fair in Columbia, South Carolina. I have never been to anything that resembled a fair, and I’m 24 years old. I guess you can say I led a sheltered life up until this year. But it was nice to get away from racing and spend the day with close friends that have nothing to do with racing.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series played host to my Saturday plans. I wasn’t supposed to be at Charlotte, but things change and a close friend of mine pulled some strings and I was able to enjoy a night of Sprint Cup racing and photography.
I have not been a fan of NASCAR racing like I used to be. Before I got involved in short track racing, I would have never miss a NASCAR race. But boy, things have changed in the last five years. I missed three of the first four chase races, and the only race I saw the Chicago race was because it was rained out. Cup racing just doesn’t appeal to me like it did at a time.
I guess you could say the only reason I enjoy going to Cup races is because of the way things run. From the pace car ride with Brett Bodine, to the free jug of oil the track gave to the media, things just feel different when I’m “working” a Cup weekend. Don’t get me wrong, I will always enjoy going to short tracks every week, but being spoiled with a place to work, free food and so many other amenities at a Cup track is awesome.
Now, to the important part of the weekend, the guys I rode to Winchester, Indiana had been saying this was a bucket list race they wanted to knock off. I didn’t go into this weekend thinking that. I thought it was just another race. Maybe it’s because I’m still “new” to short track racing. But I’ve certainly changed my mind after seeing 400 laps on the high banks.
The race itself was like nothing I had ever seen. Guys racing all over the high banks for 400 laps. Nobody in the Mid-Atlantic has ever done anything like that. Lets just say, Winchester put last weeks Martinsville race to shame. 400 laps, only nine or ten cautions, where as Martinsville had what seemed like 50 cautions in 300 laps.
I didn’t understand some of the rules that ARCA/CRA used, like the IndyCar type restarts and so on, but I guess everybody does things differently. What works in the Midwest like they do, might not work here. I get that.
I had the opportunity to listen to the ARCA/CRA official over the scanner during the race, just to see how things worked up there. The one thing that stood out the most was the official getting pissed when lapped cars got passed in the wrong lane. I’m assuming it’s written in the rule book that lapped cars have to give the high side or maybe it was just a Winchester 400 deal, I don’t know. I do know that I don’t consider that racing and to me it affects the outcome of the race. Not giving lapped cars the chance to race to stay on the lead lap is a part of racing, and shouldn’t be taken away.
All-in-all, I wouldn’t change anything from this past weekend. I got to be spoiled by the Cup race at Charlotte and then travel eight hours to enjoy what might be the second or third biggest Late Model race in the country. A race that I suggest everybody add to their bucket list and attend.
