Touring the NASCAR shops.
Back in 2010 I was fortunate enough the convince my then wife to go on a NASCAR themed Vacation, was I the happiest man ever ? You bet !
I've been a NASCAR fan for just over 25 years, love the sport, collect stuff like crazy, write about it and driver everyone around me nuts always talking about it.
Anyways, we left home and drove for twenty one hours ( Google map says 16 but they lie..LOL ) to get to North Carolina. I was absolutely in heaven when we finally got there. My intentions were to tour every shop in the State but it didn't take me very long to realize that my agenda was far too big for the time we had. So I cut the list down to a few shops, those that I really wanted to see.
Now let me tell you, this was a heart breaking exercise keep in mind the 21 hour drive, I wanted to see ALL the shops. The first place we hit was Hendrick Motorsports, Oh man was I big eyed and happy, like a fat guy in a Poutine shop ( I'm in Québec, Poutine is big here ). Shinny cars, displays, trophies, booklets and DVD's....Oh me, Oh my...
I could literally read, see and feel all of the Hendrick history, the good, the bad and the sad, right there in front of me, how awesome is that?!?!
Old cars from past Hendrick drivers like Geoff Bodine, Darrell Waltrip, Ricky Craven and Ricky Hendrick, sitting there in pristine condition. In the entrance hall there was a Jeff Gordon car, Jimmie Johnson car, Mark Martin and Dale Jr cars was also on display. In the back, the part I called the hockey rink there was one of Jeff Gordon's midget cars, it was just fantastic. At one area in the shop there is a huge plexi-glass wall and through that wall you can see the mechanics, body guys and engineers working on the cars....I tell you, if you have never gone to a race shop, GO...Do yourself a favor, it's pretty cool.
Next stop was Michael Waltrip Racing. I had heard so much about this new shop, I just had to go. Michael did a fantastic job, that place is absolutely the best shop I've visited. With a bird's eye view over everything, you walk across a hallway with large windows that permit you to see the shock room the disabling of the cars as they come back from the race tracks and the work floor where the bodies are hung, the decals are put on and the chassis get married to the engines. As a little bonus you also get to see the administrative staff area such as Michael office and the meeting room where all the decisions are made, kind of cool ! We also got to tour the fab shop, no cameras allowed in there but I did get to see how the body is put under the Nascar template and adjustments are done, got to see chassis being built, that was awesome. The tour guide we got was the best, telling us the stories and joking around, we thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.
After touring some shops and buying everything I could afford out of the gift shops, we decided to tour Charlotte Motor Speedway and on the way back home stopped over in Dover and Pocono where again....Fat guy in a Poutine shop.....But...I'll leave you with that and tell you the stories about the tracks some other time, just too much to write about just now....
So take care and if you have ever wanted to take tours of race shops but had some doubts, please, just go and enjoy the spectacle, you will not regret it!