“When 43 cars start up and every one of them has over 800 horsepower and they’re going around there reaching top speeds of over 200 miles per hour, it’s just something you can’t describe unless you’ve seen it, heard it and felt it.”—Jeff Burton (Wed. June 29th)
Do I have to say anything more? This could be the only blog where I stop right here and everything is explained. Unless you haven’t seen, heard or felt a live NASCAR race. Then it’s time for Jeff Burton and I to tell you how to enjoy your first-ever race.
This post goes out to you, the casual NASCAR fan, who just got tickets to see a race because your company got some freebies. This post goes out to you, the diehard fan who has seen every race on TV, but has never been to the real, live deal. And this post goes out to you, the NASCAR “virgin” who is ready to experience racing for the first time.
How do you enjoy your first experience at a NASCAR race? Well, according to some, it all depends on how old you are. To Jeff Burton and myself one of the best ways is to be literally in the action by listening to the team communications on a scanner.
“Make sure that you… rent a scanner so you can listen to the teams,” said Burton in a teleconference on Wednesday. “Because now you can listen to the teams at the same time you can listen to the radio broadcast and you can be in the race.
“That’s what separates our sport from other sports. If you’re a fan of an NFL football team and the coach is talking on the headset you don’t get to listen to that. You don’t get to hear what’s going on in the huddle. In our sport it’s all in the open, it’s all right there for you to listen to it. It adds greatly to what’s going on.”
And he’s not lying. I vaguely remember my first race at Indianapolis in 1996. I know that year we didn’t have a scanner with us. Every other trip to a NASCAR event since then, the scanner is the first thing I put in my backpack.
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| Dan Wood, myself and Mark Slaughter at the 2009 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Kentucky (NASCARMedia.com photo) |
The scanner allowed me to ask Mike Skinner a question after the 2009 Camping World Truck Series race at Kentucky. Coming down pit road Skinner came on the radio and exclaimed to his team that his engine had shut down. I was standing a few pit stalls from Skinner’s stall, and his crew chief calmly said to switch to his second ignition box.
I was able to ask him after the race if that had any bearing on his truck at all. I couldn’t have done that without the scanner.
Going to the racetrack without my scanner would be like leaving home without my cell phone. Races just aren’t the same without the scanner. Any NASCAR fan who has access to a scanner could tell you the same thing.
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| If you're as close as FOX19 photographer Dan Wood and I are in this photo, you need hearing protection for sure. Why not have the headsets that can tune into Joey Logano's frequency too? |
“Drivers are very animated and full of emotion. Things come out that probably shouldn’t come out sometimes but it really adds to the racing experience in my opinion,” Burton said.
And if you’ve heard any of Kurt Busch’s tirades from earlier this season, you’d know a lot of inappropriate stuff comes out on the radio. I remember a hilarious tweet from Jenna Fryer of the AP during the Richmond race in May. She tweeted, “Time to switch to Kurt Busch’s radio frequency to learn some new curse words.”
He described his car as a monkey having relations with a football, but used much more vulgar terminology. I’ll let your mind take it from there.
So if you’re headed to the Kentucky Speedway for the first time ever next week, just make sure you know to rent a scanner. It really does allow you to know exactly what’s going on with your favorite driver.
“Make sure if you’re going to a race and you’ve never been before, make sure you rent one of those scanners so you can listen to the drivers and the teams. It really makes a big difference,” he said.
I’ll be tuned in to Mark Martin all night in nine nights. Who will you tune in to?
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