First of all, a disclaimer. This project is absolutely not scientific and is meant for informational and humor purposes only. Also I have nothing against rednecks. They are the backbone of the Alabama economy, normally good hard working folks, and I would not be in business without them. They are just definitely wired a little differently.

This past Sunday I went to Redneck Heaven. Where is it, why Talladega Superspeedway of course. Let me make this clear up front. I only went because one of my suppliers is a big NASCAR sponsor, gave me free tickets, and some of my employees really wanted to go. Because of those facts, I loaded up the motorhome and off to Redneckville we went.

Before I get to the research, some general observations.

Obviously, I did not get the memo regarding the dress code. I had no piercings or tattoos. I did not wear a shirt or hat with a car number or driver name and I had on jeans, golf shirt, and comfortable shoes instead of shorts and cowboy boots.

Every driver has a fan base but none more dedicated than Dale Jr. Every time he went by the grandstand people were cheering their heads off despite the fact that he was running poorly and never a threat. I swear if the announcer said “Dale Jr. just broke wind”, multiple attendees would be standing and hollering “Go Dale, let er rip”

I don’t know who the marketing director of Aarons Rental is but he is a genius. Where could you target your customer base so perfectly as at Talledega. I can hear it now, “Honey, we can’t afford to buy one so let’s go to Aarons and rent us a 96” big screen so we can watch the Tide and Dale Jr. kick butt on the tee vee”

The only thing higher than the concession prices was the blimp. Beer was $6, hot dogs $4, and a tee shirt was $24. Even so, every vendor was serving a long line of folks.

Special thanks to Todd. We stopped in Southside, Al at the Smokeneck BBQ and he loaded us up with the best Q in the state. It was fantastic. It is worth a long side trip just to have his slaw and brisket, not to mention the beans and ribs.

Now, on to the project. Since I am not much of a NASCAR fan and was in fact, pretty bored I decided to do some research. I started counting the number of people wearing UA and AU attire and the number of times I heard Roll Tide and War Eagle. Using my wife’s pedometer (Doc told her to wear one) as a yardstick we walked almost 3 miles going into and getting out of the speedway, which means I walked by thousands of folks, a pretty good sampling. Now, wait for it, here are the results.

AU shirts, caps, tents, decals, etc.-14

UA shirts, caps, tents, decals, etc-181

Roll Tide yells-32

War Eagle yells-2 (one of those was in response to a Roll Tide from an attendee wearing a Dale Jr. hat)

Well there you have it folks, proof positive that the UA fan base is more redneck than AU.