The NASCAR Cup Series made its way back to the Kansas City Speedway for the 2026 AdventHealthcare 400 on April 18, and I had the opportunity to attend it as my first-ever NASCAR event. 

This event consisted of 37 NASCAR drivers, including Kyle Larson, Bubba Wallace, Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, and many others. The drivers had to go through three sections, each consisting of about 80 laps, and adding up to a total of 267 laps of the track originally. Each section of the race was able to gain the top 10 drivers some points for the leaderboard. Closer to the end of the event, there was a caution due to a spinout from one of the drivers, which resulted in having 274 laps of the track and driving 411 miles instead. 

For being my first NASCAR event, I will say that it was a fantastic experience. I did not know anybody who was participating in the event, so I was going in there with nobody to root for and was just there to see what would happen. I will say that when you have someone to root for, it is probably more intense than it was for me, but it still was fun. 

Before the event, I was told to bring my headphones and that it would be really loud, but nothing could have prepared me for how loud it really was. At first, when they started their engines, it was not that bad and was really manageable. Then, they started to drive around the track with the pace car in front of them at a slow speed, and they grew even louder but were not that bad. Then, after 3 laps with the pace car in front of them, the car drove off and allowed the drivers to go to their normal speed of 170-176 mph, and at that moment, the loudness spiked up almost 3x louder, where you really did need headphones. At that moment, the stands started to shake, and the cars would cause gusts of wind to reach the stands, even to the top where I was. After a while, the loudness became less loud the more you got used to it. 

Every part of the event was really fun, but I think the most intense moment of the event was the last 15 laps. Denny Hamlin was leading the race and most of the time had nobody trying to catch up to him, but in the last 15 laps, number 45 Tyler Reddick started to get closer and closer to Hamlin, and at one time passed him for a couple of laps, but Hamlin got in front again right when they had two laps left and was going to win. Before the two passed the 1 lap remaining mark, a car started to spin out, which meant a caution was going to happen, and that they had to do a couple more laps. Everyone was cheering for the caution because it meant that Reddick got another chance to win and that Hamlin wouldn’t win. The pace car had to be used for a couple of laps and then allowed the drivers to go for one more lap. At that point, Kyle Larson, who was originally 3rd, somehow passed both Hamlin and Reddick and took the 1st spot for a little while, but Reddick passed Larson in the last section and took the win, which the crowd loved. 

This win marked Reddick’s fifth win in nine games, which was an accomplishment. I think Reddick deserved that win only due to the fact that for all three sections, he was in 2nd or 3rd place and stayed there the entire time, and did not allow anyone to pass him. 

This experience was fantastic, and it has made me somewhat interested in NASCAR  and what it has to offer. The next event that is coming up is the Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Speedway on April 26, and I will definitely have to check it out.