Rain at MIS makes RV lot a swamp of mud and water

BROOKLYN, Mich. -- The deep scars in the mud and the grass in the infield RV lot at Michigan International Speedway bear witness to the struggle between the pleasure of NASCAR fandom and the plight of having full-time employment.

When the 3M Performance 400 was postponed after a day-long deluge Sunday, those in attendance were left with a tough decision: Stay and tough it out, or get back to work. Unfortunately, in many cases, mud made the decision easy.

Tow truck drivers made a killing Sunday night as Mother Nature was unkind to million-dollar motorhomes and pop-up trailers alike. What remained in the Turns 1 and 2 RV lot Monday afternoon was a motley collection of old school buses with names like "Fishmobile" and "Plum Crazy," travel trailers surrounded by foot-deep puddles and the flotsam and jetsam left by those already long gone.

The smell? A potent combination of muddy grass, empty beer cans, plastic garbage bags piled up at empty campsites and the smoke from campfires long extinguished, either by the rain or by the last of the beer.

One bumpersticker said it all: "My drinking team has a racing problem."

A group of four men from Benton Harbor huddled under a tarp while their wives tried to stay comfortable inside the trailer. A pile of beer cans completely surrounded their fire pit.

"We're staying until the beer runs out," one man said. "And we're just about out of beer."

While most people tried to find higher ground -- or at least, drier clothes -- a couple of young kids waded in a puddle of mud, splashing each other with the brown water.

So how tough must you be to be a true NASCAR fan?

Consider the plight of the Newcombe family. They drove their school bus -- painted bright red with No. 8 emblazoned on the sides -- up from Columbus, Ohio, with the idea of having a nice, enjoyable race weekend, just like they have every year since 1976.

"We came up here Thursday night and parked and set up," Rick Newcombe said. "Me and my daughter got up Friday morning and drove back to Columbus and raced quarter midgets and drove back Friday night. We've been on the road quite a bit this weekend. We just want to get home."

Newcombe bought the bus from a church in 1982. It was originally painted black for Dale Earnhardt. After his death, the Newcombes decorated the whole thing in a Junior motif, complete with No. 8 curtains in the windows. On the ceiling are autographs from drivers who have stopped by to say hello.

Newcombe said now that Junior is leaving Budweiser and the No. 8 behind, he has two choices: "We heard Kasey Kahne's going to be Budweiser, so we could just put a 9 on it. Or we could paint it green and do it all over again."

But on Monday afternoon, Rick and Debbie Newcombe, friends Debbie Thompson and Louie Weeber and kids were stuck sitting around a cramped dining table. Welcome to NASCAR purgatory: Needing to leave to get back to work, but unable to leave because the track gate is closed while crews try to dry the track.

The constant overnight rain made their decision easy, Debbie Newcombe said.

"I didn't think it would get any worse, but this morning, we needed a boat," she said. "Honestly, a boat would have been good."

Unfortunately, boats float and busses don't. Their bus sank in the muck up to the hubs at some point overnight and things only got worse from there, ending up with the police having to file an accident report.

"We got stuck getting out and then they hooked a wrecker to us," Rick Newcombe said. "The wrecker pulled us into the camper beside us. We finally got out and got up to the gate and they started the damn dryers and they won't let us back out."

So there they sit, soggy and sleep-deprived, not really wanting to be in Brooklyn, Mich., in the rain, but unable to do anything about it.

"My buddy, Lou, said he wasn't really in the mood to watch it today," Newcombe said. "I said, 'Guess what? You can either take a nap or watch it because we aren't going anywhere.'"