Does it Live Up to the Hype?
Tailgating
By Nathan Johnson
With the return of football season, a lot of you may be working on some sort of future tailgating plan, but is tailgating all it’s cracked up to be?
Before you go thinking that tailgating might not be something that falls into the “hyped” category, stop and consider the amount of money soda companies, meat purveyors, charcoal makers, beer companies and chips/dips makers pour into selling the idea that it’s fun to go hang out in a parking lot at a sporting event.
In an effort to find out about the art of tailgating and whether or not it lives up to the hype, we aren’t going to review the lowly football tailgater. A few hours of grilling in a parking lot on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon is really just child’s play. When it comes to tailgating, no one has it down better than NASCAR fans, who spend what amounts to multiple days eating, sleeping and partying in the parking lot at various races all around the country.
M/C/C’s own Kathy Andrews is one of those intrepid fans. A couple of weeks a year, she packs up several days’ worth of eats and sundries in an RV and heads to the races. Brand Flakes sat down with Kathy to get her take on the ultimate in tailgating.
Brand Flakes: Tell us a little about tailgating at a NASCAR race.
Kathy: It’s a week of endless “woo hoo!” where you see a lot of drinking and everything goes. While we usually steer clear of the major party area, a section of the campground known as “the strip,” we still have a lot of fun.
BF: Does it ever get too rowdy?
Kathy: We’re not into the partying as much. We go for the racing, which is an amazing experience, but we’ve seen our fair share of drunk people doing crazy things. I remember walking out of the RV one morning and finding a guy passed out in our camp area.
BF: What about the food – the true staple of any awesome tailgating experience?
Kathy: There’s any kind of grilled food you can imagine. We always go with a guy who grills all week. He actually builds grills and likes doing all of the cooking. It always smells and tastes really wonderful.
BF: What if you forget something while you’re out there tailgating for a week?
Kathy: At some of the tracks, they actually set up a grocery store on the site. For instance, at the Texas Motor Speedway, they set up an Albertsons, where you can get pretty much anything you’d want as far as tailgating supplies.
BF: What’s your advice to NASCAR tailgating newbies?
Kathy: Protect yourself from the elements. There’s a lot of wind, dust, sun and sometimes rain, which creates a lot of mud. A lot of first-timers come out with only a tent, which doesn’t offer much protection. It’s also really noisy all week, and a tent doesn’t block much sound. I don’t mind the hootin’ and hollerin’ as long as it stays in the more active partying areas. On the up-side, there are a lot of giveaways. I’ve seen people stock up on sample size deodorants, T-shirts, juices and a bunch of other freebies.
BF: So, does it live up to the hype?
Kathy: You know, NASCAR tailgating doesn’t get near the hype of football tailgating, but it’s a much bigger experience, and the races are just cool. They really get your heart beating fast! If you think you’ve got the stamina to last a full week of tailgating, I’d definitely recommend you check it out.
E-mail the authors: Nathan Johnson
