NASCAR Nation, you know how to have a good time.

A bright-eyed NASCAR virgin, I attended the Subway Fresh Fit 500 race at Phoenix International Speedway on Saturday.

“Wow” is about the only apt word that comes to mind in describing my arrival on scene and seeing miles of cars and RVs stretched across an immense dirt parking lot. Flags — checkered, American and most bearing driver numbers — whipped in the warm desert wind as folks geared up (i.e. loaded up on adult beverages) for the big race.

I probably uttered the word wow about 20 times as we marched slowly toward the track, taking in a tailgating crowd that reflected a cobblestone of different backgrounds. With a fan base of some 75 million, it should be no surprise NASCAR boasts a fan base that runs the gamut demographically.

There was the canopy with a straight-outta-Deliverance bunch begging female passers-by to flash something only females have. They even spent money to have a banner made up to aid their cause.

Yikes.

And then there were the over-sunned ladies in bikinis who were past the age where that’s still OK.

While there were such questionable elements to the crowd, much aligned with what you’d see at any other sporting event. I even spotted, surprisingly, a Hillary ’08 sticker on a green Honda Civic. Yes, a Civic; there actually were more than a few foreign cars amid all the diesel trucks and American automobiles.

NASCAR, for all its branded madness, knows how to put on a show.

Here’s a bulleted, fun, chronologically (more or less) retelling of the highlights of my day at the track:

• The merch trailers
Lined up in the parking lot were lines of merchandise trailers, specific to drivers or racing teams. It’s no shock that Dale Jr.’s drew the biggest crowds, selling 88-branded hats and T-shirts, as if he were the most popular driver in NASCAR. Oh right, he is.

There was also something to be said for the lack of a crowd at Ryan Newman’s trailer.

• The race itself
Strip down all the commercialism and focus on the raw power of those machines making left turns all night and that’s what makes NASCAR — or any auto racing circuit, for that matter — so popular. The collective roar of the 43-car field is both deafening and awe-inspiring. Feeling the pack whiz by at 200 mph commands respect, plain and simple.

Last summer, a local cyclist did his best to describe to me the power of the peloton in a pro cycling race — how, as a spectator, your organs shook as a pack of the world’s best cyclists zoomed past.

That’s about how I felt as the drivers fired up their engines and began circling that paved oval Saturday night. It’s quite an experience.

Throw in the 100,000 or so fans — most fanatical to an extreme — and you have quite the atmosphere. People stand much of the race — something you really don’t see in most sports outside of the student section at a college football game — and they know their stuff.

That’s something I can respect in a sports world too full of fairweatherers and folks more interested in the stadiums they visit than the teams they’re watching.

All in all, I’d rate NASCAR an excellent spectator sport, something to experience at least once in a lifetime.

• Junior Nation
The most popular driver in all of NASCAR, Dale Earnhardt Jr., is absolutely beloved. Each time his 88 National Guard car found its way to the front, legions of fans cheered raucously as he passed.

When he pitted with a handful of laps to go, opting not to test his limited gas supply and resigning to less than a first-place finish, more than a few Junior disciples deserted the grandstand.

Rolling the dice and not pitting is how Jimmie Johnson won the race.

Most drivers made what they hoped would be their final pit stops with about 72 laps to go, which tested their gas tanks’ ability to carry them through to the end.

Junior was among those playing it safe with five or so laps to go, opting to pit rather than roll the dice.

Contrary to what most realize, there is strategy to this whole NASCAR thing. Pit strategies and drafting make all the difference.

• Fan highlights
I got perhaps the biggest chuckle from a couple of kids that whizzed by on bikes. They were maybe 12 years old, mind you. The back kid yelled to the kid in the front: “What are you doing? You’re drunk!”

Enough said.

There was also a dude sporting a rather tiny Matt Kenseth shirt that revealed his hairy, well-endowed belly.

Like I said, NASCAR Nation runs the gamut, fan-wise.

• Branding power
In this day and age, sports need branding to survive, so it’s hard to fault NASCAR for its mastery in this area, but it does get a little ridiculous. For instance, in a garage interview after his car succumbed to power steering issues, Ryan Newman spewed this sentence: “It’s unfortunate for the Alltel Dodge.”

Imagine if ordinary people spoke like this.

So, in closing this novelesque column, here goes my stab at NASCAR speak.
I’d like to thank Sierra Pacific Homes for providing me the shelter to write this story, also partially written in my friend’s GMC Envoy. My Mac PowerBook G4 held up pretty well throughout the typing process and my friend’s Comcast Internet will no doubt do a wonderful job transmitting the words to Colorado Mountain News Media’s Post Independent.

And this Arrowhead water is doing a great job of keeping me hydrated.

Can’t wait to catch my Southwest Airlines flight back to Colorado and get back to work.

Contact Jeff Caspersen: 384-9123
jcaspersen@postindependent.com