A black snake invited itself to a tailgate party near an entrance to Richmond International Raceway yesterday. Large men in lawn chairs skedaddled like scared squirrels.

In another area, John Beckley sat and laughed for hours with a bunch of friends. Beckley, from Windber, Pa., held a fishing rod and cast 5 yards onto a walkway outside RIR. Attached to the end of his line was a dollar bill, which repeatedly caused race fans to bend and reach -- just as Beckley reeled in the buck.

Not bad, but here are the top five scenes in yesterday's prerace circus on and around the grounds of RIR:

Jeff Gordon wore pink

A 15-inch cardboard cutout of the NASCAR driver dangled from the awning of Elmer Neitz's camper. Gordon wore a pink dress, an infant-sized one, purchased for Gordon at K-Mart nine years ago by Elmer's wife, Nancy.

The couple, from Barberton, Ohio doesn't much like Gordon, whose dress is held up by pink yarn tied very tightly around No. 24's neck. "He wins too much," Elmer Neitz said. Gordon has been hanging around with Elmer, 68, and Nancy, 65, through about 35 races, Nancy estimated.

Nancy uses hairspray on the dress, she said, "to fluff it up" before each race. And between races?

"I squash him under my mattress," Nancy said.

Two bagpipe players

Will Rowlette didn't have a shirt but wore a cowboy hat. Mike McCann wore a tight, black Dale Earnhardt Jr. T-shirt. The hat and the shirt didn't draw as much attention as the plaid kilts on Rowlette, from Fairfax, and McCann, from Petersburg.

They roamed through tailgating areas, breaking into a tune every few minutes. "We play for our food and beverages," Rowlette said. Lots of food, but a very limited number of beverages, Rowlette emphasized.

He and McCann are state policemen.

Generous cookie monsters

Members of Girl Scout Troop 529 from Fredericksburg pulled red wagons loaded with Girl Scout cookies, sold to those waiting for the night race to begin. By 3 p.m., only about two dozen boxes, at $3.50 apiece, remained from the 378 boxes with which the Girl Scouts started their fundraising gig at 11 a.m.

"Last year, we brought 150 boxes and sold out in 90 minutes, and that was in the rain," said Kristina Ferguson, the troop leader. "This year, people have just been handing us 20-dollar bills and telling us to keep the change."

The Redneck Windchimes

Ronnie McQuade came across a circular piece of blue-and-white nylon that blew into his yard. The resident of St. Mary's County, Md., with string expertly attached six empty beer cans, which hang from various levels.

Voila. A one-of-a-kind item descending from his motor home.

"A lot of people stop and look at it," McQuade said.

Comforts of home

Three large tents. About a dozen lawn chairs. A 42-inch, high-definition TV. Two tables for food preparation. A generator. A grill. An enormous tarp under it all.

Jamie Riley, from Fredericksburg, recreates part of his home at RIR. Twice per race weekend. Riley, with family and friends, drove from Fredericksburg in three vehicles Friday morning, set up his pad (about 25 minutes of labor), then packed up (another 25 minutes) following the Nationwide Series Lipton Tea 250. They arrived home at half-past-midnight.

The same group left Fredericksburg at 9:30 yesterday morning and repeated the process, with an estimated arrival time at home of 2 a.m., or later, today. No rush to leave a good thing.

"When the race is over, we come back, cook more, eat more," Riley said. "Let the traffic get out of here."