Delaware International Speedway

Delaware International Speedway is a different race track. Everything about it seems a little different than the other race tracks I frequent. First, when you go to Delaware, you pay to get into the race before you even park your car. Also, at Delaware, there aren't any engine rules, so the modified guys can run as big of a motor as they want, which leads to some pretty mean-sounding and looking engines. It's pretty cool heading there and seeing all the different stuff teams are trying.

Although the rules make the cars sound cool, and creates some impressive speeds, the car count takes a hit because of the costs to keep up with some of the bigger teams. The car count usually hangs between 20-24 cars on a weekly basis.

The racing at Delaware is very exciting. The soft surface allows for lots of side-by-side racing in every division. My main complaint about Delaware is that they run too many divisions. Most race fans just go to an event to see the main division, in this case, either the big block modifieds or the super late models, there's no reason to have 5 different classes of cars running on a night. It makes the races go way to late into the night, and it deters me from taking non-race fans to their first race there, because even I get bored sitting through the support divisions.

Delaware is another track that could benefit greatly from a new set of bleachers. The track is sitting on a fairly nice facility, but the bleachers look a little run down. The track's pit area is one of the nicest in dirt racing, as the entire thing is paved.

The go-kart track is my favorite part of Delaware International Speedway. I've always made it a point to go and race at the track at least once with whoever I was at the races with when I was younger. I haven't done it in probably 4 or 5 years. I attempted to do it last year when I was there, but the line was just too long. My friends and I would love when the track had poor attendance when we were there, because it meant we'd get lots of go-kart racing in. The guy that ran the track probably hated us because we beat those karts to hell when we drove.

Delaware is one 0f the few tracks that I don't have a normal sitting area at. During qualifying races, if I'm in the pits taking notes for a story, I usually sit in the bleachers between 3 & 4. For the feature events, depending on where I am when the race starts, I'll sit anywhere on the front stretch, there's no bad seat in the house.

While I'm not a huge fan of crashes, my most memorable moment at the track was in 2004 when there was a major accident on the front stretch during the annual Delaware State Championship race. Mike McAleer was in second place behind Jamie Mills on a restart of a last-chance race for the feature event. Mills spun the tires a bit on the restart, and McAleer attempted to make a move to the inside and clipped the inside wall. The contact with the wall sent McAleer back up across the track and into the path of Mark Byrum who clipped the right rear wheel of McAleer resulting in the front end of the car lifting off the ground. Byrum's car hit the wall hard and the car running directly behind him, John Keller, had nowhere to go. Keller slammed the side of Byrum's car and sent both cars flipping wildly down the front stretch. Keller's car launched about 10 feet into the air and into the catch fence, which protects the fans from the cars and flying debris. Keller knocked down the catch fence completely for a span of about 15 feet. Both cars flipped wildly, but nobody was hurt. It was probably the worst crash I've seen in 17 years of going to the races.