Video From the Talladega Grandstands

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

This very amateur fan video, taken with my hundred-dollar point-and-shoot Casio, might give you some idea of what it’s like to watch the Talladega race from the stands. Well, some idea, minus the tire-smoke and the bone-shaking engine rumble and the soot in your hair and that yummy high-octane emissions smell. Actually scratch that, you can’t really approximate on film what it’s like to be there no matter how fancy a camera you have. I’m still divided about the best vantage point for a race. Front-row trackside like I was at the Daytona 500, where you can almost taste the cars as they blast by—or up in the tower where you can see more of the action, which is almost always the recommended position. I’m leaning toward trackside, just for the in-your-face experience of it all—at superspeedways, the cars are always tiny dots on the backstretch anyway, so it’s not so much of an advantage to be seated higher up. But you can decide for yourself—I got footage from all over the stands.