when did you get into nascar? how? how did you pick your favorite driver?

Answer 1

Growing up it was the coolest thing in the world to me. A lot of people loved football but I loved watching the cars!!! When everyone would fall asleep being a kid that was impossible so I just sat there and watched it! I picked Gordon 'cause his car was the easiest for me to pick out when I was little and he's been my favorite every since! I love that car!!!

Answer 2

About 7 years ago, I used to not pay attention at all to NASCAR. I didn't think it was fun to watch and it just looked boring with the cars just going in circles. But the first race I ever watched (and the one that got me into racing) was sadly the 2001 Daytona 500. I came home from church that day to find my grandpa watching it (his first race too) during the final 20 laps. We watched as Mikey fought off Dale Jr., as Dale Sr. enthusiastically blocked Sterling Marlin, and on the final lap, I was happy and wondering if Sr. was okay. I knew something was up when in the post race interview with Ken Schrader he acted like something was wrong. And about 2 hours later, I found out there was something wrong-Dale Sr. had died from injuries in the crash. Somehow, Sterling's car in all the replays was etched into my mind, plus the fact he was a good driver, so he became my favorite driver because you could always see his car on the track and he was a consistently good driver. Ever since then, I've watched Sterling through the good times and bad, and I can say I'm probably one of his biggest fans. He is a great driver.

Answer 3

My first experience with Nascar was going to a race with some friends in Atlanta and had a blast! I like to have someone to cheer for and didn't just want to pick a popular driver for obvious reasons and when I heard them announced them with their names and hometowns I picked Joe Nemichk who was at the time driving the '01 Army car because he was from Lakeland Florida very close to my hometown, and then at the next race I went to, we stayed for the whole weekend's events and I bought a program and read all the bios on the drivers and picked Matt Kenseth #17 as my main favorite because we were the closiest in similarites of likes and dislikes and who better to cheer for than someone you are most alike, right!? So when I'm watching the races now I say I have an 'old' favorite of Joe and a 'new' favorite of Matt! Matt wins more so I wear his # more! :)

Answer 4

In 1998 specifically the last race of the year at Atlanta... the race started at 12PM and they didnt finish it until 12AM or later that night... I thought it was Awesome how much hype was put into the race with Jeff Gordon winning the championship and tying the king with 13 wins in a year, a record that will probably never be reached again. I witnessed a living legend tie another living legend and haven't missed more the 5 races since, I wanna see what he'll do next. Every time 24 gets on the track we are witnessing history being written.

Answer 5

I started watching with my husband when we first starting dating. He's been a fan forever, but it took me a while to get into it. Last year was the first year I started to actually enjoy watching the races.

He told me that I would get more into when I picked a driver, and he was right. He asked a few questions: did I want a particular make, a particular sponsor, or did I care where the driver was from? I ended up watching shows like Raceday for a while to get a feel for the personality of some of the drivers. I ended up choosing Carl Edwards when I saw a profile of him hanging out with kids at a gymnastics meet. Doing backflips :)

Answer 6

I got into it as a kid in southern New England the way most kids got into it in the '60s and '70s, before ESPN and Speed and weekly NASCAR coverage -- through watching week-old replays on ABC's "Wide World of Sports."

Thanks to TV in general, my two favorite drivers were Speed Racer and Richard Petty. Speed Racer goes without saying -- he was good-looking, had the coolest car in creation and the coolest girl, too. Richard, meanwhile, always had that friendly piano-key smile, and had the coolest car in NASCAR. And he usually won, which always leaves an impression on a kid. (He drove Plymouths at the peak of their performance and populatity -- and though he went out early in the '70 Daytona 500, that Superbird was my favorite NASCAR car of all time. It's no coincidence that THAT model of #43 was the one used as the "King" car in "Cars." Besides, his teammate at the time, Pete Hamilton, won the race in an identical Petty Blue Superbird, car #40. )

And while I was happy when Dale finally won the 500, felt badly when he died and have a soft spot for Junior, I haven't had a favorite driver since Richard retired. Just as well. This generic "Car of Tomorrow" is gonna level the field so much more that it doesn't really matter whom you root for -- it's gonna be the NFL's "any given Sunday" philosophy jacked to new heights. It's gonna be 43 clone cars with different markings, with all the creativity of the crews sucked out of the sport. It's gonna become just as much a soap opera as pro wrestling. You'll have golden boys (Gordon), fan favorites (Dale), villains (Stewart) and a lot of other guys who fall in between. We'll all be simply rooting for a color. All that'll be missing, thankfully, is the scripted outcome. But I don't need to sit on the couch and waste my time watching that ...

Answer 7

i got into Nascar last summer. it happen just from getting a Nascar video game. I was bored with the video games i already had. When i went to go get a new game, i was thinking of what game i don't have in my collection. I wanted something with fast cars and that crashed a lot.

i saw a Nascar 2005 Chase for the cup game. i looked on the back cover to see what it's like. i bought it. when i got home i put the game in. i started playing it, and i thought it was fun. The Martinsville track caught my eye. it was a really small track. i spun just one car around. i kept on going. when i got back around the track, ever car had wrecked because of me spinning one car around. everyone was stuck. in the game everyone but me got pulled off the track. i was the only car left on the track. so i had the track to myself. By the time everyone had came back out on to the track, i was already many laps ahead of everyone else. i was able to pit for tires, and gas, and still hold my track position. i won that race. the next day was a Nascar race on TV, at Martinsville. i watched it, and i have been hooked ever since. I even went to my first race at the Milwaukee Mile.

Answer 8

Got hooked on NASCAR in August of 1960 at Dixie Speedway in Midfield Alabama.Ned Jarrett won the race that included 3 Pettys racing,Lee,Richard,and Maurice.
As for favorite driver I watched them as they have progressed from rookies to present status.I mainly follow Joe Gibbs Racing,but also watch Jeff Burton,Carl Edwards,Kyle Petty.

Answer 9

Here is my story of how I became a huge NASCAR and Bobby LaBonte fan.
I'll never forget my first race. My dad ( who has since passed )took my friend ( no longer with us,due to a car accident )and I for a long roadtrip from the shores of Lake Erie, South to Bristol in 1992. I had never really watched any racing until then. What racing I did watch I rooted for Bill Elliott because he drove the Budwieser car (#11) and I was also a big fan of Terry LaBonte and his Kellogs #5. We arrived in Bristol on Friday night and slept in the parking lot of the racetrack in my dads suburban. My dad said since we are here in plenty of time that we were gonna get tickets to the Budwieser 250 on Saturday (Busch Series). When we walked in to the track I was just amazed. When the race started I had to pick a driver to root for. Since there was no Awesome Bill From Dawsonville or Texas Terry in the race I decided my Busch driver was going to be the #44 car because I liked the way it looked and #44 was the number of one of my favorite players on our highschool football team when we went to state in 85. About ten laps into the race I found out that the driver of that #44 was actually Texas Terrys brother, Bobby LaBonte. What a coincidence. Bobby went on to win the Budwieser 250. What a great start to a great weekend. The next day the cup drivers hit the track for the Food City 500. What an exciting specticle. 500 laps of pure power, banging and bumping the whole race. I've never seen so much excitement in one place. The late great Alan Kulwicki won the race in the #7 Hooters car with some awesome driving all day. Since that day I have a part of me that will never forget Alan Kulwicki and what he done as an owner/driver. I will also continue to root for Bobby LaBonte as I have since my day at the Bud 250.

Answer 10

I started watching NASCAR off and on in probably about 1999. In 2003 I became a hard core fan when I met the new driver sponsored by our company. I am sure that you can tell by my name that the driver was Elliott Sadler and I work for Mars Snackfood US (M&M Mars). I was really sad when Elliott moved over to Evernham but even though we no longer sponsor Elliott he remains my favorite driver.

GO #19