Nascar in Vegas-Again

We attended the Nascar truck races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway again this year.  I think this has become a new family tradition because it is seriously a hit! I never knew watching cars driving fast in circles could be so much fun! (Way, way, way more fun than watching it on TV) There's just something about being there...the atmosphere of it all is so great. Similar to how a baseball game is better in person than watching it on TV.

My whole family went this year, including Kallan. It was 95 degrees at the track so Alora stayed back at the air-condition, pool provided Golden Nugget Hotel with him so he could nap and be comfortable and play in the pool and not be around the extremely loud noise of the cars.  She didn't mind at all.

This is what Kallan did as soon as we got into our Hotel room...he was SO done with the six hour car ride down.

 After the races we played at the pool and wandered Fremont Street.  It was all decked out for Halloween with even more crazies than usual out and about all dressed up, it was pretty entertaining.

I didn't get any pics of us at the race way, but my mom did so I need to get them from her camera.  While we were there, there was also an Indy race, the championship, there at the speedway and we had tickets for it.  For those of you who don't know much about the Indy Car League, it's not Nascar, it's its own league, and the Indy cars go faster than the Nascars. (I just learned most of this on this last trip) They also don't wreck as much but when they do, the cars usually just obliterate.  We witnessed Indy Car history while we were there. For this particular race, there were 33 cars total in the race, and they usually only race around 20-25 cars on a track at a time.  The race was supposed to be 200 laps total, but just as it began, as they started lap 12 they had a 12 car pile-up accident, the biggest accident they've ever had.  It was so fast and so firey and crazy, and you could totally tell it was bad.  Cars just kept crashing and exploding and catching on fire.  One of the drivers, Dan Wheldon, a 2 time Indy 500 champion was killed in this crash.  It was insane to watch.  They brought a helicopter in right onto the race track to lift him to the hospital where he was pronounce dead from the injuries he sustained in the crash.  They didn't specify what his exact injuries were.  He was 33 years old and had a wife and 2 boys, 2 yrs and 7 months old, and they were there and watched the crash. We waited in the stands for 2 hours before we heard news of his passing. The rest of the drivers held a meeting and decided that Dan would've wanted them to get back into their cars, but they didn't feel up to racing so instead they paid tribute to him by driving their cars at a slower pace 3 cars wide for five laps while Amazing Grace was played on bagpipes.  It was actually pretty humbling and emotional and crazy to be a part of.  I didn't even know who he was prior to this race but I was crying during the tribute and said a little prayer for his family.  The drivers had expressed in their interviews before the race that a lot of them were uneasy about how many cars were in the race. You can actually You-Tube the crash and watch it in slow motion, it's pretty crazy. We're for sure going back next year, and hopefully it will be a happy ending. :)