The Fast and the Furious

Friday night I headed out to Raceway Park with the folks for some good old fashioned NHRA drag racing. I haven't been in about 10 years and besides the fact that it is more crowded than it used to be, everything was the same. There's nothing like walking in there and hearing the engines revving and smelling the fuel--completely unhealthy, but so awesome! And the way the NHRA and the drivers treat their fans is like no other. When you walk around in the pits from trailer to trailer, pretty much every driver is happy to sign autographs and take pictures. And the feeling that you get when you're in the stands and that funny car goes down the track at over 300mph is like no other.
Sadly, yesterdays qualifying round ended in tragedy when funny car driver Scott Kalitta's car caught on fire and he then crashed and died. He was a great driver and will be missed by racing fans. I'm glad I wasn't there to see that.