This, too, is a bonus for the hard-core fans,
who are not often mistaken for Harvard professors.
-Yeah! -Yeah!
On race weekends, their main diet is beer and red meat.
-What if you were spotted eating a salad? -Eating salad?
And they get a lot more access than F1 fans.
These are actual fans being driven around!
These are fans who have lined up,
that have paid to go around the track with a professional,
-or some kind of driver. -Imagine that in F1.
If you can do this in F1, I'm coming tomorrow.
But they're in a pack of cars. They're not even on their own.
Look at this, these are just spectators, you or me.
I didn't see how I might get the same chance to drive on that oval,
but then I was told to report to the drivers' briefing,
where I was in for a surprise.
From the United States Air Force,
four-star general General Mark A Welsh III and his wife Betty Welsh.
From Top Gear UK, today's honorary pace car driver,
from Birmingham, England, Richard Hammond.
Race time arrived.
After the national anthem had finished...
the man with the jetpack had landed, and the B-52 bomber had flown past...
it was time to me to lead the grid of 43 cars out on the formation lap.
They are still coming. There's millions of them.
Don't stall, Hammond. Don't mess it up.
Behind me, 39,000 horsepower was itching to get going.
I daren't look in the mirror. It's like being attacked by tigers.
Come on.
Slip road is clear.
Green flag.
We started that! We did that.
And my treats weren't over, because I'd be spending
the actual race helping one of the teams, who gave me a very important job.
Yeah, I'm with the team. Coming through, oh, yeah.
Three hours and 20 minutes of racing just flew by.
There's a man over there who won. He's now firing six guns in the air,
wearing his new Stetson. and he's delighted.
Now the whole circus moves on to the next place, to do it all again
and there's a big argument here to say this is proof F1 is po-faced.
It could learn a lot from this.
The next morning, at a deserted Texas Speedway,
there was one final treat in store.
This, plus a driving lesson from NASCAR royalty Kyle Petty.
It doesn't feel like anything else I've ever driven, I mean,
this thing does not want to go in a straight line.
The car only wants to turn left, not go straight. Hit the grass.
You got to run through the grass,
it's like mowing the yard. You got to hit the grass. Hard.
Yeah, all the way down.
I am so scared!
-More gas, more gas, more gas, more gas. -Oh, my God!
Oh, dear Lord!
Put her next to the wall a little bit.
I am next to the wall!
Eventually, Kyle let me go out on my own.
Letting it find grip. Trying not to fight it too much.
It's not just a big loop.
It's complex, it's three-dimensional,
and I'm wrestling my way around it in a huge, shouting dragon.
I'm going to roll out of this corner onto the straight now.
Here I go, getting on the gas!
Oh, my God!
I'm in an explosion again!
Where's it finding the grip?
Both of my lungs are on the same side! That's not normal!
And then, just to add to my problems...
Oh, no, that's not what I wanted to see in the mirror. That's too authentic!
I don't need that!