OnlyBucs

Surg tell us about the NASCAR Race at Pocono Raceway.

Hot as hell?? Would be tough if in the sun.

The weather was the best it's ever been for the race. You'd never know that there was torrential downpour a few hours beforehand. We have great seats on the start/finish line about half way up the grandstands. We can see almost the entire track, only part of the stretch between turns one and two, and two and three you can't see, but we see all the turns, and of course the entire straight away down below us, the longest in all of NASCAR.

They always put on a wonderful pre-race program, and they have stuff for kids prior to the race in the area where they have all the souvenir stands. There is a lot of different food and drink to choose from. You're allowed to bring in your own pop, booze, etc. as long as there is no glass. Mister Man loves the Island Noodles stand, we stop there every year since they've been coming. I always get Tricky's Trash Can Fries. We usually get some lemonade or slushies, this year they had a bunch of smoothie kiosks which we enjoyed.

The seats are just bleacher seats but with a plastic seat and backing, and a space between each one to set your drink. Mister Man always uses his cushion, it must be a lucky one because his race driver always does well at the Poconos, Denny Hamlin. If it gets hot, it's always nice and cool under the bleachers, there are tables to sit and stand at here and there. They have bathroom attendants so the bathrooms stay relatively in good shape.

Parking free, but it's a long walk, keep in mind the grandstands themselves are over a half mile long. They do accomodate ADA, but you have to do your homework in advance. It's very kid friendly, and the crowd is surprisingly diverse. Food and beverages are a bit pricey, but like I said, you can bring stuff in. Usually though, the portions are fairly enormous, and two or three kids could share some of the items and have plenty to eat.

I think this is our 19th year going, and in all that time we have never seen any fights in the stands. Like I said, it's diverse, all colors, naturally a lot of more redneck looking types, but from a sports standpoint it's well represneted by fans of Pittsburgh, Philly, NY, NJ, Boston, Baltimore, DC, Canada, as well as college fans from the South, Midwest, East Coast.

It's a very patriotic group as well. But most people despite what they might wear that isn't NASCAR, such as their baseball/football, etc. teams, the focus is always on the race and everyone's favorite drivers.

Just remember if you ever go, wear comfortable clothes, good walking shoes, have a head covering, sun screen if you need it, CASH (they do have ATM's on site, many of the smaller food kiosks take cash only) and if you don't have a favorite driver, pick one before the race and follow how they do, it makes it a lot more fun. They also have huge screens that show the race live, so you can see replays when they have cautions and such. The Poconos invested a couple years ago into much better screens, you can actually see them really well, before it was hard with the sunlight (anyone that remembers PNC Parks first scoreboard screen on day games knows what I'm talking about).

If you're just there to be there and don't really care much about the race, they have wifi so you can entertain yourself with your device, or do like me and Mister Man do, spend a good bit of the time scouting out all the new food and drink items, and shopping at the souvenir trailers for something unique.

TBH, Jeff Gordon is probably only Nascar driver I ever followed and it was for a month tops. Not a Nascar guy but after reading about the food I want to go. Tricky Trash Can Fries, just got to try them.

By the way, what is this "pop" you speak of? Just goofing. It took me years to stop saying it. After getting made fun of I finally called it soda.