Countdown Talladega

With only 186 days until the Talladega 500 I’m already planning another trip to the famous Infield for camping. Having returned from last weekend’s race this past Monday I felt I needed to post some thoughts about my adventures. Everyone knew it would be exciting, after the driver actions of the previous week in Charlotte. And although I am a fan of Miller Lite, I wasn’t hopping for a Brad Keselowski win, which happen anyway. I still think there’s some bad blood out there among some drivers and would not be surprised to see Brad finish somewhere near the back in today’s race at Martinsville.

After owning my camper for five years and making several race weekend camping trips, I finally have figured out how to do it with the least amount of effort for a more productive time. I had lost my Dega Club status, which means I can’t get into the track until after five on Wednesday before the race. With plan for the May race that status returns and I can actually wander to the infield as early at 8AM on Pre-Race Wednesday.

The October race brings out Halloween costumes and a parade down Talladega Boulevard. With the help of several thousand beer toting fans, Keselowski, Stewart, Boyer, Harvick and several other drivers picked best costume winners, who then competed in a race crawling through chilled Jell-O.  Grown Ups being Grown Ups I guess.

I really like meeting new people and the race is perfect for that. Having a cold beer at the Porta-Bar in the fan zone I found myself in conversation with a guy from Canada. The weekend was his 7^th race of the year and no, he’s not retired, but owns some mining operation in western Canada. Then, there are others that you meet in previous years that come by to say hello.

As I said when I started this post, just 187 days until the spring race, 360 days for the October race and my first race of 2015, the Atlanta race, which has moved from Labor Day to May 1^st. I love me some race weekend camping!

From the Archives — originally published on the Opelika Daily News on October 26, 2014. View the original page.

Author: Jerry Katz

Jerry Katz is the creator of Opelika Daily News. A former broadcaster, he has been writing about Opelika for more than twenty years — first as a blogger, now as the one-person newsroom behind this site. He curates the region's local news daily, writes the Katz Ramblings column and the weekly From the Archives look-back, and maintains an archive of more than 3,200 posts reaching back to 2002. He lives in Opelika. Reach him at jerry@opelikadailynews.com. View all posts by Jerry Katz