For my 50th birthday, my sister gave me a really unique gift. She likes to give experiential gifts and this one was right up my alley. It was a NASCAR Racing Experience where you drive an actual NASCAR stock car for 5 minutes. While I could have done it locally here at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, I thought it would be more interesting at a more classic NASCAR track, so I ended up choosing Charlotte Motor Speedway which is sort of a home track for a lot of NASCAR race teams. Charlotte is where they race the annual Coca-Cola 600 on the same day as the Indy 500. I planned not only to do the NASCAR Racing Experience, but also to visit the NASCAR Hall of Fame in downtown Charlotte and maybe visit a race shop.
It was a 7am check-in and it was still pitch dark when I arrived at the track. You first check-in at the trailer and turn in your waiver form and you get issued a race suit and a pager to notify you when it is your turn (yes, just like at the restaurant).
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| Check In and Sign Your Life Away! |
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| Crack of dawn looking down Pit Lane into Turn 1 |
Then they began to drive out the cars and grid them on Pit Lane. There are 8 cars for driving plus 2 ride cars driven by a professional driver with a passenger seat. These are pre-raced full NASCAR stock cars weighing 3400 lbs. They configure the seats to fit certain body sizes as there are no sliding seat adjustments. Some pads can be used for minor fitting.
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| Grid of the cars |
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| The Main Ride Car |
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| Cockpit view of the Ride Car |
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| Suited up and ready to go! |
At 8am they called all drivers together for the drivers' briefing. This took place in the same briefing room as the cup drivers use on race day. You watch a video with all the instructions and then Bob, the crew chief comes up and goes over it again and answers any questions you might have.
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| Drivers' Briefing Room |
This is where I got a little surprise. Having some friends who have done a similar thing previously and doing a little YouTube research on these experiences, I was expecting to have a coach driver sitting next to me in the car. At least that is what my friends have experienced and what I saw on the videos online. But Bob, the crew chief told us that we're alone in the cockpit and there are no safety nets. Only a spotter / coach on the radio to you giving you instructions. You're in full control of a real NASCAR and if you don't follow instructions or you go below the white line on the turns, you can easily wreck! So needless to say, the anxiety level went up just a little. On top of that, they told us that there are multiple drivers out on the track at the same time as well as the ride car going way faster than we're allowed to drive. So passing is allowed if you're given an OK to pass. The ride car would have the outside lane and can pass you even on the turns so you must keep on your race line. Other rules: No burnouts or you go home; If you stall twice on pit lane, you only get a ride in the ride car; No driving below the white line or you'll wreck.
Once the briefing was over, we walked back through the garage area and gathered in Pit Lane waiting for our pager to go off signaling our turn to drive.
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| Victory Lane |
My pager went off after about 5 minutes and I got in line to get ear buds taped in and fitted for a helmet. Then you just wait for the right car that fits you to come back in and then you're taken out to get strapped into the harness, connected to the radio system, and hook up the driver's side window net. Then you wait for your spotter / coach to address you and they start the engine. This Camry is the car I drove.
When you're told to go, you start the car off in 1st gear and bring it up to 3000 rpm and shift into the next gear until you're into 4th gear at the end of pit lane. Then you stay on the apron around Turns 1 and 2 until you're on the backstretch where you can merge onto the race track. From there, they have you bring it up to 4000 rpm and keep it constant around the whole track. There are markers painted on the track that you need to thread so that you're lined up perfectly going into the turn and coming out of the turn. Charlotte Motor Speedway has 24 degree banking in the turns which is pretty steep, so you will feel the lateral G-forces. Once you prove you can hold the constant rpms and hit your marks, they will tell you to gradually increase your rpms by 200 rpm increments. So Lap 1 was 4000 and Lap 2 was 4200. I ended up in some traffic on Lap 3 and had to stay behind a slower car on the track at about 3800 rpm, so I sort of lost a lap, but the coach told me to get close to the car in front of me coming out of Turn 2 and get ready to pass. He gave me the OK to pass on the backstretch and I got to punch it and race past the slower car. Then he told me to go to 4400 rpms and then 5 seconds later told me to go to 4600 rpms for my last lap. After the checkered flag, you bring it back down to about 2000 rpms and merge back on to the apron on the backstretch and bring the car into Pit Lane and coast to a stop.
Here's a video of several drivers after I finished starting down Pit Lane and coming around on their race laps to give you a feel for how it runs and how many cars are on track at the same time.
Five minutes and it's all over. My top speed was 143.10 mph. It was an awesome drive and very worth the trip. Would I do it again? You bet!! But I'd probably go for 8 laps and top 150 mph.
So after watching a few more drivers take their turns, I checked out and hopped into my rental Mustang to leave the speedway. Somehow this muscle car felt way slow...
