Enjoy NASCAR Racing More with a Scanner

Have you ever thought that being a NASCAR fan is like watching a movie? Your favorite driver is the hero and all the other drivers are the "Bad Guys". You want to know as much as possible about your favorite driver just like you do about your favorite actor. When you watch the race either on TV or in person at the track, you want all the good tidbits of information going on between the pit crew and the drivers. You can do this with a scanner.

The radio link between the driver and his pit crew is a vital link in the driver's ability to cross the finish line first. While everyone knows that NASCAR officials and fans monitor these frequencies, there are some "interesting" comments that occur during the heat of battle.

When it's time for the car to come in to the pits for service, the driver will start listing off the car's condition, cluing in the crew to get whatever things they need to get the car ready to roll. The Pit Crew Chief will radio back what he plans to do to get the car ready.

These conversations are usually bland but can get very interesting when things go wrong. The drivers will forget they are being monitored and will say what they think.

If you are at the race in person, you can rent a scanner there or buy one at Radio Shack that's pre-programmed with the NASCAR channels. Serious race fans tend to buy their own as renting one at the tract gets to be expensive. Another option to buying a pre-programmed one is to buy a "regular" scanner and find the NASCAR frequencies online via your favorite search engine. Also, you'll need a heavy "double muff" headset as the noise at the race would drown out what you are listening to.

Most of the time, you will be watching the races on television. You will miss many interesting things that have happened during those TV commercial breaks. Another disadvantage to watching a race on TV is your favorite driver may not get that much air time. There may be lots of interesting things happen that you will not see.

You can avoid much of the disadvantage of watching a race on TV by going to the NASCAR website and ordering a subscription to Raceday Scanner. This will let you listen to drivers through your computer. Make sure your favorite driver is available, not all of them are. A great setup for this is to have a laptop computer near the TV. Or you may have a desktop computer that is close to a TV. A broadband Internet connection is the best. Even thought the scanner will pick up the signal with a delay, you will still hear what's being said.

A NASCAR race experience will be different and much better when you have the chance to hear what's going on behind the scenes. In fact, you will wonder what you ever did without it once you have experienced it.