Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

In addition to the outlawed Bus Rides and campground "What T-shirt" contests I like the 1/4 scale races and English Creek for diversions. The NSCHoF is a must see as is the constant parade of race fans.

Phil Taylor

home-theater-systems-advice.com

Homemade pie and ice cream at the Rotary tent near the Hall of Fame, checking out the new displays & cars at the NSCHoF&M along with the "Members Only" meeting at the HoF at which Dave Argabright usually extracts wonderful stories and comments from some great sprint car drivers, owners and mechanics. Cooling off inside the museum while attending one of their interesting fan forums.

Great thread! Last year it was fun sitting in the hall of fame saturday night after the races got cancelled and watching all of the scooters, cars, mules, etc trying to get out of the pits by crossing the muddy, slick, sloppy, backstretch

That was YOU, arghhhhh. Believe it or not, while there are likely more Steve fans than Sammy I always sold more Sammy pics, go figure. Then there was the wheelstand pic of the two of them, whew, that went well, lol. If Knoxville is too busy for ya' there is a nice little bar called Mikes (I think) in Monroe a few miles up HW-14 that my ol' buddy John Bankston was a fixture at, great little place. Take It Easy...

Cooking my own steak at Udders while bench racing with others doing the same.

All these posts and no mention of Dingus??!

Also gotta love the free chicken they BBQ outside of turn four on Friday night after the races.. I believe they still do it... WFOB would agree with me on this one along with LDA, if he is even on this board anymore...

I'm pretty sure the "free chicken feed" is a Thursday night tradition...

through the years...

Wet T-shirt contest out behind the barns (and the last one at the Ready Mix Plant.

The Wild Man

Dingus

"rating" the ladies with cheers as they walked or drove down highway 14 (now involves cheering those in the Dingus Beer Garden as well)

Running into someone famous when you least expect it (Kasey, Tony, Chevy Chase back in the day)..

Seeing drivers and friends you don't see any other time of year (especially retired drivers)..

The bands under the grandstands after the races...

The old "free dances" in the Skate Pit

Cappi doing a belly flop into a big mud puddle outside turn 4 (pre concrete days)

Not sleeping for 4 days and then coming to the realization that I had to be to work @ 5:00 AM Monday

The Bus Ride (pre TV days)

hopefully some of those traditions come back to life for the 50th...

Of course i am.. after a long day of drinking and watching races a hot piece of BBQ chicken tastes awesome at 1 in the morning! Also nothing like drinking and playing bags before the races whooping up on BIG J and Dude Fan!

my wife and i have been going to knoxville for about 10 years now and we really didnt have any traditions or things we did, just the usual everyday stuff until about 4 years ago when my daughter morgyn was born. we first took her to nationals when she was 3 months old and now she has come every year and just loves it. she looks forward to the racing just as much as i do. she helps me count down the days until we leave and even trys to make her own list as to what she want to pack in the camper. every little town we pass through on the way she always asks "is this knoxville" i tell her no not yet. believe it or not when we hit knoxville and pass by walmart, the track, and the red carpet motel and see the haulers lined up she knows we have arrived just by looking at the big grin on her face. thats my tradition.

ps. sitting in the inflatable pool drinking beer( also a new tradition)

pss. leaving on sunday sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!

new perspective now that I take all 3 of my kids to the nationals.

the spicy chicken chunks...we allways dedicate the 1st to my G;pa He loved those things.

The FREE chicken feed...great grilled chicken

getting a FRIED TWINKEE, eating godfathers pizza and watching the drunks do the Dingus Shuffle across the street

Since we used to camp a few campers down from the "HONK" sign...but it still makes me laugh

being with 10 family members, looking around going........WOW, THIS IS GREAT

Always go to Dingus before races and have a shot of tequila and a beer!

Spending ten days with family and friends.

A morgan coke and prime rib on the grill!! Then catching up with friends you havn't seen in a year. But, for the first time in 20 years, I can't make it to Knoxville unil Saturday. My favorite week of the year got cut short because of work!! ): But I'm sure as hell going to make up for it next year!!!

Chevy Chase? Really?

I could think of 20,000 famous people I would associate with being seen in Knoxville before I would think of Chevy Chase.

What was his connection?

Is this heaven?  
No, it's Iowa....Knoxville, Iowa.

Work sucks, doesn't it? I had been to every night of the Nationals from 1969 - 2006. 2007 work forced me to make only Saturday night. 2008 I only made Friday and Saturday. Last year I was there for Saturday and Sunday. This year is still uncertain, but will be there for at least Saturday. After 41 years the traditions have changed many times, but some will never change. The atmosphere is like non-other. I still get goosebumbs when the first hotlap session of each night and Saturday's A-Main pushes off. Getting to watch drivers I only get to see once a year. Seeing old friends and acquaintences, some I only see at the Nationals. The parties after each nights racing, whether in the Arizona Barn as a kid, to behind the grandstands and turn 3 and 4 of more recent times. camping since '77 and almost always an afternoon poker game in the screen house. And of course watching the lovely ladies.

As for the wet t-shirt contests, the first one I recall was at Dingus' in '81. As I recall, one of the participants bared all and took home more cash collected from the audience than the actual winner won in official prize money. LOL.

Hope all of you participating and attending have a great and safe Nationals, and keep old traditions moving into the future and start a few new ones.

The bus ride under the grandstands.

The Marion County Cattleman's Association food tent is directly East of the Skating Rink. It is worth the stop. The last few years I have spent many hours on the Saturday afternoon of the Nationals in the Hall of Fame watching classic footage of racing that they were showing.

Can someone explain the "bus rides under the grandstand"?

I love how you can be at Dingus and big time drivers are over there having a beer with you...not too many other forms of sports can you get that close to your heros.