Welcome to the other side of the fence. As you can tell I am new to the whole blog thing. I am also new to the NASCAR world. I have been a fan forever, but just recently started working for a Nationwide team. I chose the name The Other Side of the Fence because it means a lot to me. For years I have been on the outside of the garage area staring though the fence hoping for a chance to get in. This past weekend I was fortunate enough to go to the racetrack with the team. Now I am on the inside of the fence and it is such a cool feeling. I wanted to share the experience with those who don’t have the same opportunity. Plus there is so much cool stuff that I am learning that everyone I know is getting tired of me rambling about NASCAR. ? So, here goes…

Atlanta was awesome! I got up at 4:00 in the morning and was at the racetrack by 9:30am. Living in Charlotte makes it an easy drive to a bunch of the racetracks. I spent the whole morning and most of the afternoon on top of our Nationwide team’s hauler watching all of the practice sessions. A word to the wise: when you are standing out in the sun all day on top of a silver hauler take extra sun block. I’m still fighting the sunburn.   The actual track is really cool. The backstretch is higher than the front stretch. So the drivers are going up hill out of turn two and down hill out of four. It makes the cars look like a roller coaster. My suggestion is not to watch the race from the infield though. There are so many haulers and motor coaches in the infield that it is hard to see the whole track.   I went down to pit road to watch qualifying. It is a awesome experience to see all of the drivers walking within feet of you. It makes the whole experience that has been a dream for so long seem so real. Plus it is really cool to see the cars come by at speed being so close to them.  I watched the race from our team’s pit box. It is really cool because they have a computer that has the NASCAR scoring system on it. That way you can see your lap times and everyone else’s. You can also see the running order. They also have a TV with the live broadcast on it so that you can see the whole race and not just the race on the front stretch. It was a good race too. Congrats to Jamie Mac for outrunning Kyle! I’m defiantly going again next year.    For now I am still just an observer, just from the inside this time. My job is strictly at the race shop. But I will be at all of the races within driving distance of Charlotte and maybe one or two more. Thanks for sharing the experience with me and feel free to let me know what you think.   Some random thoughts on the race: I don’t understand how people can say that NASCAR races are boring. They obviously have never seen a Sprint Cup race at Atlanta. The ESPN announcers said that there were more cars sideways during the race than there are at a drifting contest. You have to admire anyone who can control a car going 190 in a 4 wheel slide. Having spent all day Saturday at the racetrack I can say that this is only more impressive when you see it in person. One time seen in person is better than a hundred times heard about.   Though there weren’t very many cautions the race was not without drama. During the race Jimmie Johnson expressed his displeasure with Juan Montoya. I love Rusty Wallace’s explanation of the incident. He got so loose that his hand flew out the window. I, along with the rest of the world, am completely convinced that handling problems on the 48 car was the reason for the expression. Rusty was always good at making up stories to explain things away. Definitely not boring!

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