My Charlotte Hangover

[1forthe$]

This was my second trip to Charlotte (The first was in 2019) and I am exhausted after a 9-hour drive getting home. For anyone contemplating making a trip to the World Finals, I'll give you my experience/opinion and let you make the decision from there.

First, 3 days of racing for $12,000 purses is kind of wack. I didn't realize the $$$ was that small until I had already committed to going. I don't guess it really matters to me.. I mean most all the same guys were there that woulda been for $50K right ??

The dust.. man I thought it was just a fluke in 2019. then seeing/hearing about it from last year I thought surely.. surely they'd make sure it was controlled. Holy crap, swing and a miss!

There were 6 of us, and we bought 2 extra seats (at the child rate.. cause I'm a hacker) to make sure we had plenty of room to stretch out and not be shoulder to shoulder with our neighbors. That was a good idea! Made for a way more comfortable weekend than the first trip we made.

There simply doesn't seem to be a bad seat at that Charlotte. We sat in section 407, which was awesome because that's right where the cars pull onto the track in front of you. I picked that section because the seating chart indicated that would happen.. but I was still leery...
Also, the facility is obviously top notch. There are nice, mostly clean restrooms everywhere. I waited no longer than 45 seconds in line all weekend to pee. Thats including the 'End of heat races flock to the Pisser'

Don't plan on buying beer/alcohol at the track. This is not Eldora... they are not cheap. Furthermore, you can take your own in. $7 a beer.. ouch. Furthermore, food is outrageous as well. I did have some pretty awesome popcorn from a food truck though. Huge bag for $6.. so I felt like I finally got one on TheDirtTrack.

We stayed about 10 minutes-ish away in Northlake. That was pretty convenient to everything. There are stores, restaurants and anything else you need everywhere.

Mama's Pizza Express maybe the best pizza I've ever ate (and I'm a pretty experienced eater if you catch my drift..). I asked one of the cashiers at Target where he suggested and he did not steer me wrong. The guys at MaMa's said that Joey Logano eats there all time and orders a panini... I told him I'd walk out if he insinuated that I care about what that idiot does again. The Hickory Tavern was pretty good too.. but nothing amazing.

The racing was decent at best. Im not sure what it looked like on TV.. but it wasnt real exciting from my seat. I mean, it was certainly better that no racing.. but it lacked that big event feel. No "electricity" in that air come feature time. That seems amazing to say out loud considering LM's, WoO Sprints, and BB Mods.. but its true. It felt just like a typical regular Saturday night show to me. Maybe I'm jaded.. ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯

Overall, it was probably my last trip to Charlotte. I spent a $hit Ton of money to not have that great of an experience at the track. Overall I had a good time, but it was mostly of being with my crew, and nothing to do with the event itself. For me, it just has too much concrete and aluminum. 6 lanes of interstate is nice to not be stuck bumper to bumper getting there or out, but man.. it just lacks that hometown / grass roots feel. I like when I walk through the gate that the staff feels honored to have me, and are just as excited about the weekends event as I am. Not to mention freezing my anus off to just sit and think about how lack-luster it felt.

For the miles, hours, and $$$... personally I'll just save it for a 2nd Cedar Lake trip next year, maybe go back to Eldora in 2022, or maybe/PROBABLY check out something new in a small town. It was cool to see once though. Once.

[T-MAC 39 FAN]

The best race of the wknd was Fridays mod race where the 17yr old kid from pa.in the 84y Alex yankowski sliced & diced his way to the front and won.

[weatherman85]

Donny Schatz had the best drive on Saturday night in the sprint race. Drove from 25th to 3rd in 25 laps. Sucks they shortened all the features that night. Crowd around me was pretty electric but most of them being Davenport fans helped. I also thought the dust got much better as Saturday went on. It was HORRIBLE during practice but got better with cooler temps and the bit of track work they did. At least from were we sat. I don’t think it’d be worth a 9 hour drive but made a nice father and son trip for me with my dad only being 2.5 hours from the track.

[WisWildManFan]

I went in 08 and went again this year. I spent a pretty penny as well with flights and lodging. We brought our own coolers in so I never gave them a dime for beverages. We sat in turn 1 and they had some decent food vendors down by us. $10-14 was average but I expected that. I guess I go to so many (not a nice word)(not a nice word)(not a nice word)(not a nice word)hole facility tracks that I welcome the nice bleachers, bathrooms, etc. We were able to do a lot of things in the city during the day which is nice and different from many dirt weekends. Nascar HoF, Concord Mills, restaurants, etc. Maple City Biscuits is a must! That being said I probably won't return for a while. The weather is just too much of a gamble that time of year. We will see how vegas turns out this week and may try that next year. The racing will probably be ho hum there as well but the extra activities will make up for that lol. Have a hard time finding better racing then I have at home on the 1/4 mile bullrings. The dome is a lot of fun and very unique but it's only a 4 hour drive for me... I would recommend going to that at least once.