On Monday night, Shelby & I saw OAR in concert at Barnhill Arena on the University of Arkansas campus.  OAR was in town as part of the Campus Consciousness Tour 2008 to promote green campuses.

“Who is OAR?”  I have gotten that question quite a bit since telling folks I was going to the concert and since the concert itself.

Of A Revolution, better known as simply O.A.R., found their musical niche with college students years ago. Their jam band sound mixed with playful lyrics sparked the attention of fraternities, sororities, wannabe-hippies and other college students around the nation.

But with a new album and a tighter sound, the Maryland six-piece band is reaching even higher for the stars and for the radio airwaves.

This quote came from an article that appeared in The Arkansas Traveler about the band before the concert called OAR Brings Jam Rock to Barnhill.

OAR has a large fan base but, on the other hand, not a lot of people have heard of them.  They have very few songs that are played on the radio, especially around here.  To be honest, I only know as much as I do about them and am a fan because of my love of NASCAR.  Some of the members of OAR are friends with some of the NASCAR drivers and so their name and music comes up occasionally.

Regardless of how known they are to people, Barnhill was pretty full on Monday night.  Several people knew all of the songs, like Shelby and I did, while others sat and just enjoyed the music from a band they didn’t know prior to that night.  I definitely recommend attending an OAR concert if you are given the opportunity.  I hope they come back around here soon!

Here are the pictures I took during the concert (because you know I don’t leave home without my camera).

My last blog entry was all about Sunday’s race.  I had to do a special blog entry for the above picture.  It was taken Sunday night after Penni & I finished eating supper in Grapevine, TX.  Your eyes are not deceiving you.  There are Red Bull Racing cars & haulers in the parking lot of the Grapevine Mills Mall.  When Penni & I got to Steak ‘N Shake there was 1 unmarked hauler and 2 83’s & 84’s sitting out and crew members moving parts around the lot.  We had a hunch of what was going on but weren’t 100% sure until we saw the 83 & 84 haulers.  The unmarked hauler brought the Phoenix (this weekend’s race) cars to meet the 83 & 84 haulers who would give the unmarked hauler the Texas cars to take back to Charlotte and take the Phoenix cars on westward.  It was neat getting to witness this.  We always hear about haulers trading cars but never have witnessed it ourselves.

One final bonus…Here is a slideshow of all of the pictures I took in Texas for the NASCAR race last weekend.  Enjoy!

Andi mentioned to me back in Michigan that she noticed a special black seat on Dale Earnhardt Jr’s pit box for car owner Rick Hendrick.  I, unfortunately, wasn’t able to see it…until Sunday.  The above picture is of the seats on the Hendrick Motorsports 88 (Junior’s) pit box.  Each of the Hendrick Motorsports pit boxes have a seat labeled for Rick to sit on when he visits during the race.

(more…)

Kyle Busch won his 10th Nationwide series race on Saturday night.  The win was Kyle 10th in the series this season, which tied a record held by Sam Ard.  Following the race, Kyle announced that he was donating $100,000 to Sam Ard.

(more…)

Friday was the longest day of my vacation.  We were at the track for 12 hours or so.  Friday included two Nationwide series practices, a Sprint Cup practice, qualifying for both the Nationwide & Sprint Cup series, and finally the Craftsman Truck series race.  Plus, SPEED TV was filming Trackside Live and we watched that for a while.

(more…)