NASCAR: Part race, part carnival, part circus

<p>SONOMA — What, exactly, draws about 100,000 people to Infineon Raceway each June?</p><p>Elizabeth Rymsza concedes that prior to her first visit she didn't have the faintest clue.</p><p>Attend a NASCAR race? Please. Rymsza figured anything else would be more appealing. Really, anything.</p><p>“The first time (I went) I said I would rather have a root canal — without pain medication,” she said.</p><p>Rymsza, 49, and her husband, Gary Rogala, 60, laughed at the memory. It was about an hour before Sunday's Save/Mart 350 at Infineon and much had changed since the couple from suburban Sacramento attended their first NASCAR race together four years ago.</p><p>On Sunday, Rymsza was happily spending her seventh wedding anniversary with her husband. At the racetrack.</p><p> Forgot the root canal.</p><p> “I understand it now,” she said, noting the spectacle surrounding the race. “I get it.”</p><p>The 23rd annual NASCAR race at Infineon was held Sunday in Sonoma and, as usual, a throng nearly matching the population of Berkeley was on hand to watch Kurt Busch capture the checkered flag and the $293,300 first-place prize. NASCAR estimated the crowd at 100,000.</p><p>For many in attendance the race was the thing. A legion of diehards in Jeff Gordon hats and Jimmie Johnson T-shirts had filled Infineon's parking lots by 9 a.m., many enjoying Budweiser breakfasts which blurred into liquid lunches.</p><p>So, yes, for many, the only NASCAR race in Northern California every year was a reason to have an all-day party while watching the world's best stock-car drivers in person. This was certainly their best opportunity to do so - the only other West Coast race on NASCAR's 36-race schedule is the Auto Club 500 in Fontana, 450 miles from Sonoma.</p><p>But Rymsza was among those in attendance not completely immersed in all the details of the 110-lap race.</p><p>And for those more casual fans, a NASCAR race is also a carnival (funnel cakes, turkey legs) or a people-watching event (Infineon girls) or a spectacle (air show) or a play land for their children (jump house!)</p><p>“This is a total scene,” said Chris Downey of San Francisco. “I mean ask these girls - they've never been here before.”</p><p>Downey waved to his teenaged nieces, Gigi Downey and Mackenzie Nolan, visiting from Portland.</p><p>“We went to a county fair for the first time yesterday,” said Gigi Downey, “and this is way bigger.”</p><p>The size and spectacle is unrivaled in Sonoma County. How many other events in the area are preceded by a spine-tingling flyover from military fighter jets?</p><p>Garbriel Deadrich of Vacaville, a casual fan, was at the race for the second straight year with his 3-year-old son, Jackson, who was sharing a grape Slushee with his dad while eating a soft pretzel roughly the size of his head.</p><p>Deadrich, 33, was less interested in the race's outcome than in making memories for his son.</p><p>“I'm pretty much here for him to be able to experience this excitement,” he said. “Just for him to be able to experience the sound of the cars and the speed. Just the whole spectacle around here.”</p><p>Perhaps Jackson will get hooked. Rogala, Rymsza's NASCAR-mad husband, clearly is.</p><p>“I plan on coming here every year until I can't anymore,” he said. “There's so much going. To me, it's the NASCAR nation. It's a traveling circus.”</p><p>His wife smiled. She has become at least a semi-interested observer. She said her favorite driver is Denny Hamlin. And she wants to see a NASCAR race on an oval track after only witnessing races at Infineon's road course.</p><p>Of course, she conceded there were other reasons she wants to attend the Kobalt Tools 400 in Nevada.</p><p>“I really want to go to the race in Las Vegas,” she said. “There's a lot of other stuff to do there.”</p>