Christmas morning of '98 was all warm and fuzzy enough, especially since Santa had brought me two tickets to the following October's Winston Cup race at (then) Charlotte Motor Speedway. The wife and I had attended the Charlotte autumn event in 1979 and it was absolutely perfect..........unbelievable fall weather, a thrilling pre-race air show and an up-and-coming local yocal named Dale Earnhardt won the race.NASCAR and Cup racing had undergone exponential changes in the 20 following years, and by 1999, the entire Charlotte experience hardly resembled itself or our memories. For starters, the sky was overcast and the traffic on US 29 was completley snarled in every direction, extending way beyond the confines of the speedway. Inching along, we eventually made it to a mandatory turn into a sea of souvenir "rigs", followed by another turn into the "parking lot", and were greeted by a CMS staff-person (whom I'm positive never attended the Dale Carnegie personality shool) who growled "TWENTY DOLLARS!". TWENTY D-O-L-L-A-R-S.......? For WHAT.......pray tell? (I thought) "To PARK..........that's WHAT!" Mr. Personality (reading my thoughts) hissed at us. But, his facial expression said volumes more............like where are you two FRUM????............... Hicksville?"So this is what racing has become?"...........I thought...........Shucks, I can remember going to the Southern 500 back in the day, and folks what lived around the race track would have these little home-made signs, in their yards, "parking $1.00" By 1999, Charlotte Motor Speedway was living large and I was witnessing and living the "parking $1.00" concept.......on steroids. As I was in a moving sea of motorized humanity, what could I do? Nothing............couldn't back up, there was a million cars behind me, and a million more in front. I could not do a dad-gum thing (and that WAS the CMS plan, anyway) but pay up............that's what I did.Moving on past Mr. Dale Carnegie, we came to an immense grassy field, defined by a grid of gravel roads. We were (now) at least 1/4 mile from US 29, and the section of this parking area, near the highway, did have multiple rows of neatly parked cars. All the millions of race fans (in their cars) ahead of me were all instructed (by another staff-person waving what looked like a tobbacco stick) towards that forward parking area where the cars were all neatly lined up. When it came my turn to peel off to the left and join my $20.00-poorer-brethern,...........the tobbacco-stick-waver waved me to drive forward and pointed toward ANOTHER tb-stick waving staffer, 1/4 mile further down the gravel path, who was already waving me to yet another of his colleagues 1/4 mile back towards the highway, and this third staffer was pointing me to a "space" beside a 55-gallon drum/ trash- can....... that was about THIS far away from a light pole. This "space" was at the intersection of two of the bisecting gravel roads and this was "my" parking space. I DID drive into it, but as it was at a corner my front and rear bumpers were both extending into the intersecting roadways and a collision............... or twelve........... with other satisfied customer(s) was a real and distinct possibility. "I just paid TWENTY DOLLARS for THIS? It a'int even a REAL parking space............!!!"Captain Tobbacco Stick soon left my space continuing his genius-at-work display of parking cars. When he had left, I cranked that Mustang up and headed straight for the sensible section of the parking lot, where every body else WAS PARKING..........and neatly parked in a growing row of automobiles. But wait, there's more..............Tobbacco Sticker NUMBER 1 came running down the grassy knoll to my new and sane location and snorted........................"What's wrong, you didn't like your parking space................?""It was NOT a parking space............" I heard myself say...............Einstein then bellowed........"Well, you CAN'T park HERE...................." Not too surprisingly, the stick wavers went into full emergency mode and directed me to a much more remote and distant section of the grassy knoll, but at least I escaped trash can alley. To put the exclamation on a wonderful experience, and MY Christmas present, it soon started raining...........and more raining..........and we never even got out of the car. Hours later, we were still a refugee of the rain slickened grassy knoll............listening to the race being postponed on the RADIO...............akkkk!The rain never stopped, and darkness began to fall. The stick wavers had all donned foul-weather gear, and were now waving the billions of happy fans out of Woodstock (part II). But, in a final testimony of unabashed hatred for man-kind and every person that had made the trip to CMS that day, and had the misfortune to be "parked" by these CMS parking lot Nazis, they made us ALL exit via some poor hapless neighboring resident's BACK YARD. That's right.........I a'int making this up, you can't make up this stupid stuff........the entire parking lot, went right by some woman's clothesline and through her side yard onto some suburban side street way behind the speedway. As darkness was engulfing the procession, and as there were one million cars in front and behind me, again, I had no choice but to bumble along, not having the slightest clue as to where I was or where I was going.......or most importantly, how to get the H out of Dodge and get back HOME.But, let me say, there is a God and he granted me a miracle that day (night at this point) the procession went by a sign "Hendrick Motorsports" with an arrow (like I was in any mood for sight-seeing) if you know where this sign is located, then you know where I was.........although I still don't. But right past the "Hendrick Motorsports" sign, the little road crossed over some multilane super highway..........and PRAISE GOD, I recognized the big road! I took the next exit, found my way to US 74 and headed for Shallotte, North Carolina!!Well, things has changed some more, in the 10 years since 1999. "Charlotte" Motor Speedway appears to be returning, as Lowes Corp. heads for the hills.......ditto Winston/RJR, Union Oil, and gobs of the apparent "prosperity" that CMS and NASCAR had tapped into. In 1999, the sky seemed to be the limit for NASCAR racing, and fans were a dime a dozen. They could be treated in any fashion, there were plenty of 'um............."we can't build seats at the race track fast enough................." Arrogance? YEP, Shorsightedness? YEP, Over-confident? YES...........Problems? YEP Has the racing bass learned anything? Good question, but it sure don't look like they have. Have I returned to CMS for race? You do the math!But, perhaps the biggest thing that's happened since 1999, is those fans, that were being jerked around by those stick wavers are now the stock car journalists...........and we have the internet. Progress, sometimes it's a funny thing...........it's like a box of chok-lotts!