Why racetracks are removing hundreds of thousands of seats
The infield of the Charlotte Motor Speedway on race weekend is a universe unto itself. Here, you enter the Vatican of Internal Combustion, a microcosm ruled by the forces of V-8 power and flat-out speed.
Multicoloured race cars blast around the speedway’s steep grey banks at more than 330 km/h, and the infield resembles a cross between the Woodstock festival and aRoad Warrior set. Race fans, encamped here for days, arrive by the thousands in jumbo-sized motor homes, jacked-up Ford F-150s and old school buses with viewing platforms welded on top.
More photos: The fans of NASCAR
A fan drinks beer while biking around the infield during the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
PETER CHENEY/THE GLOBE AND MAIL
Steel scaffolds and deer hunting stands rise from the crowd like minarets, each topped with a group of partiers. A black, hemi-powered Ram pickup truck rolls past, loaded with shirtless revellers and a stack of beer coolers. A Confederate flag flutters from one of the chrome-plated exhaust stacks and it brings to mind what one writer said after visiting a NASCAR race at Talladega: “It has not come to the attention of eastern Alabama that the civil war ended.”