Golden Corral 500

Donna and I had a blast this past Sunday attending the Golden Corral 500 here in Atlanta! Here are the pictures I took.



And here is a short video clip I took from our seats of the cars flying by. The audio would be pretty cool if it wasn't filled with static. Oh, well ... it was just the video clip recording of my digital camera, it's not really a camcorder I guess. :)

We've been to the fall race here in Atlanta a few times but this was our first time for the Spring race. We were really glad we went. Leading up to it we were a little worried about the weather. Forecasts earlier in the week were calling for the possibility of rain. Luckily, the weather was absolutely perfect for most of the race -- sunny and in the 70s. It did cloud up a little late in the afternoon and cooled down a bit but it was still great.

The opening festivities were a mixed bag. I was blown away by the Army flying in the pace car on a chopper. When I saw the chopper flying in I assumed it was doing some kind of a fly-over -- imagine my surprise when it landed on the track almost right in front of where we were sitting! And when the pace car drove out of the cargo area ... well, that was just too cool!

Then there was the national anthem. Wow. This was not good. John Michael Montgomery, a pretty well known country music star performed. You would probably have fairly high expectations -- I know I did. Well, I'm sad to say it was downright embarassing. The video screen on the track showed a close-up of him at the beginning, which they quickly cut away from. I imagine they did that quick cut-away because the guy was obviously READING THE LYRICS! Who doesn't know the words to the national anthem? OK, maybe some people don't. But a professional country singer? Who knows he's going to be singing it in front of thousands of people, plus however many more watched it on TV? It might have been a little more forgivable had he not also sounded awful. I mean really, really awful. Had they not announced who was singing I would have probably felt sorry for the guy, thinking it was just a nervous amateur. It was really shameful. When I watched the replay on TV (Tivo rocks!) I began to wonder if maybe the guy was drunk. I don't know, but I think the guy needs to make an apology.

It quickly became obvious that a lot of the drivers were going to have a long day. There was a pretty big pile-up of cars in the back stretch after the race went green, before they even completed the first lap. A few drivers were out for the race. Jeff Gordon was pretty much knocked out of it although he did manage to eventually get back on the track and get some laps in.

I had high hopes that it was going to be a good day for Junior, since he's done really well at Atlanta in the past. Unfortunately, his early season slump continued unabated, with a 24th place finish. He did actually manage to move up a spot in the points standing. We were very pleased to see that Michael Waltrip had a good race, with a very good 7th place finish. He moved up 8 spots in the points standing and is just behind Jr. now.

The race had a great finish. The last third or so seemed to be mostly dominated by Jimmie Johnson and Greg Biffle, trading the lead back and forth several times. But in the end, Carl Edwards managed to sneak in and pass Johnson right at the end for the win. This was after getting loose in the turns a couple of times in the last 10 laps or so.

Carl Edwards really seems like a nice guy, so I was happy to see him win. He had a pretty good weekend, since he also won the Busch race on Saturday. It was his first victory in both divisions of NASCAR. I think this guy is going places ... he's 3rd in the cup standings right now!

Aside from the disappointment of Jr's continued troubles, it was really a great day. We are really looking forward to our next race.