Memories From NASCAR’s Las Vegas ‘Victory Lap’ Caught On Video (Well, Mostly)

Let’s get the bad news out of the way first.

After Jeff Burton hit the gas and spun his No. 31 car around and around, surrounding us with smoke, I looked down at my video camera and got a sinking feeling in my stomach.

Just as Burton proudly said, “That was the first burnout of my career,” I realized I had pressed the “standby” button on my Flip Video camera instead of “record.”

Burton shares the Mark Martin school of thought and doesn’t do burnouts after his race wins; he just drives to Victory Lane. But as the other 11 drivers ahead of us in NASCAR’s annual “Victory Lap” down Las Vegas Boulevard did burnouts in an intersection, Burton followed suit.

I was chosen to ride along with Burton during the event, so I got a first person view of the burnout. And the plan was to share it with all of you, thanks to the handheld video camera. But as it turned out, I messed up.

Oops.

I assume the burnout looked awesome from outside the car, as it felt pretty cool from inside the passenger seat (I use the term “seat” loosely, as it was actually just a pad placed on styrofoam). As Burton did donuts at the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Spring Mountain Road (better known to Vegas visitors as the spot where the Wynn, Venetian and Treasure Island come together), I lost my bearings on which direction we were pointing.

Anyway, that’s the part you won’t see on the video below. Sorry about that.

What you will see is this: Tens of thousands of people lining the streets of the Las Vegas Strip, presumably most of them non-NASCAR fans.

In that sense, the ride was amazing. Curious onlookers poured out of hotels and casinos to stand five-deep or more in some places, craning their necks to get a view of the noisy stock cars parading down one of the world’s most famous streets.

As you can see in the video, some of the people were moved by the experience (letting out “WOO!” just at the sight of the cars); others were perplexed and simply stared.

No matter their reaction, though, they were watching. And that’s great news for a sport that continues its efforts to try and reach out to new fans.

Some of my favorite moments that I made sure to include in the video:

• Burton had a keen sense for picking out people from the crowd, even though he was driving. He pointed out Darth Vader and an overly excited lady, among others.

• If you’ve been to Vegas, you’re familiar with the annoying people who try to hand you call girl leaflets when you walk by. But even those guys stopped to look and wave at the cars passing by.

• There were several delays in the parade due to drivers being too hard on their equipment. Jeff Gordon broke his car during the first burnout and had to be pushed by Clint Bowyer the rest of the way; Kevin Harvick later blew a tire and caused somewhat of a red flag, during which drivers emerged from their cars and chatted with one another.

My favorite part of the ride was the people. To see so many people stopped and focused on NASCAR – people from all around the world and from all walks of life – was truly a cool experience. I enjoyed looking at their faces and seeing their reactions as they watched the cars.

Thanks to NASCAR for the opportunity to ride in one of the cars this year. Maybe if I get a chance next year, I won’t miss the burnout.