I have been a NASCAR fan for a long time and all those times I watched the races, either in person or at the track, I always wondered what it would be like to be in one of those Winston Cup cars. What did it feel like?, what did it look like traveling around the track that fast?, what did it sound like? I could only imagine. How could I ever know what it would be like?

Then one day as I watching a race, it was during a commercial, I saw an ad for the Richard Petty Driving Experience where they promised you could be a driver or passenger in a Winston Cup car and know what it's like to hurtle around one of NASCAR's tracks at 160 MPH. This really tweaked my interest, so I decided to do some searching on the web to see if I could find out more about this.

I found what I was looking for here. This web site lists a whole host of driving schools where one can experience a whole range of high speed driving. I was only interested in Richard Petty's school, so I clicked on the link and headed over there.

Richard's offers a whole range of riding experiences depending on how brave you feel. There is everything from a 3-lap ride along trip to the "Advanced Racing Experience" where you get to take 40 laps and a personal instructor and they are offered at many of the race tracks where the Winston Cup cars race. I decided to start at the beginning and signed up for the Ride Along.

The Ride Along course lets you experience real life racing thrills by riding shotgun in a two-seater Winston Cup stock car driven by one of Richard's professional driving instructors as you experience a simulated Winston Cup style 3 lap qualifying run. The cost of of this course was only $90.00 and was available all during the day. I decided, this was for me. So I looked for the next available date the school would be at the Atlanta Motor Speedway and I signed up.

So when that Saturday finally arrived, I headed to AMS eagerly anticipating my 3 lap trip. Everyone was directed to the infield media center and the parking spaces located there. I parked my truck and headed over to the signup table, paid my money, signed the injury waiver and went to stand in line to wait my turn. While we were waiting one of the assistants came over to me and informed me I had to wear a helmet while in the car. They had a rack of helmets we were to select from and so I got mine and got back in line.

While I was standing in line I was watching the various classes going on. I could see they had 4 cars that would be used for the Ride Along classes. They were using a No. 3 Dale Earnhardt car, a 24 Jeff Gordon car, a 43 Richard Petty car and a 99 Jeff Burton car. As I was waiting, I started a conversation with the guy behind me. We talked about NASCAR and the fact that neither of us had done this before and we were really looking forward to it.

Finally, it was our turn. An assistant came over to where we were standing and helped make sure our helmets were on correctly. He asked the guy I was with which car he wanted to ride in and he picked the 3 car. That left me to ride in the 24 car. Of course if I had my druthers, I'd have picked the No 6 car. However, at this point, it really didn't matter which car I rode in. Of course, we had to get into the car thru the left window. As I slid down into my seat, an assistant reached thru the window and fastened the shoulder harness securely around me. He then inserted a neck brace around the back of my head.

As we waited for the OK from the flagman, I chatted a bit with my driver. He told me he was a driver on the Craftsman Series Truck program. The day itself was a very hot day and inside that car was even hotter. The driver was outfitted it the standard NASCAR fire suit and helmet. He had to have been burning up. He was sipping on some water as we waited for the start. Finally he said to me "Here we go!" and fired the engine.

We began our run from about halfway down pit road, about where the start finish line is. I can tell you one thing, we didn't do any 55MPH down pit road. He hammered down pit road and as we approached turn one, we were down on the apron of the track. We accelerated into turn two and up onto the banking. As we flew down the back stretch, I didn't have any sensation of leaning being up on the banking. It wasn't as loud as I thought it would be either. It reminded of what I see on TV from the onboard car cameras. We were right next to the outside wall and everything was flying by so quickly. I looked ahead and saw turn three coming. He took the car into the corner about halfway up on the track and I thought I was going to go out the right hand door.

As we went into turn four, the No 3 car came by us on the inside and passed us as we started down the front stretch. My driver put the nose of our 24 car right on the back bumper of that No 3 car and stayed there the whole length on the front stretch. As we went into turn one again, we dropped inside the No 3 car and passed him coming out of turn two. I can only assume the No 3 car was right on our bumper all the way down the back stretch. We made one more lap and as we came out of turn four for the last time, he eased our 24 car down to the apron and we headed back down pit road. As we enterd pit road, he cut the engine and we coasted to a stop back to where we started.

As we came to a stop, an assistant came over and took my picture before I exited the car, again thru the right window. They use a digital camera and by the time you get back to the ticket area your picture is waiting for you, for a price that is, $15.00. It was well worth it to me.

The ride was incredible with such an adrenaline rush! It was all I expected and more. I know I am going to do it again next month and in October I am going back and do the "Rookie Experience" and drive the car myself for 8 laps this time. I would highly recommend this experience to any NASCAR race fan.