The racers are getting ready in their starting positions and pacing behind the pace car.  The race is getting set up and people are getting in their seats and getting ready for the National Anthem to start, and many of the people came from other states.

We are at the Michigan international Speedway for the Sprint Cup Race.  We even got to go through the pits before the race started.  It's so bright that your eyes are practically burning and it is so loud that in order to hear the person next to you they need to scream their lungs out.  The race is starting up.The first lap gets started and the racers are going about 200 miles per hour.

My mom starting screaming right when Jeff Gordon passed, “ Look there is Jeff Gordon! I got a really good picture of his car.”

“Let me see,” my sister said as she grabbed the phone.

Next thing we know it starts raining-  the race goes under the red flag because it is dangerous for the cars to race in the rain due to lack of helpful grip on the track.  I thought to myself, “Why do they need to stop the race for a small amount of rain… ?”  It was raining so hard it nearly hurt just to get hit by one drop. This happened a few times and eventually it started raining only on half the track. 

When the rain stopped the track drying crew went completely around the track despite the fact that they could just do a few u-turns and be done in less time.

After a few more laps, at least a few for a race, It starts raining again but it does not stop; for awhile and the race ends because we run into the problem of a small flood.  The water was ankle deep and everyone is surprisingly calm and talking about what is going on.  It is very hard to walk in the fairly deep water with wet socks and my shoes are worn out by walking the days before the race making it that much harder to walk through the water.

I learned that it is better and more exciting to go see a event in person than it is to watch it on tv at home.  It was great being able to feel the rattling of the stands caused by the passing racers in their cars during the race.  I look forward to the time I can go to another race and get the chance to see the checkered flag for that race.