The Brickyard 400 2007

No offense to AllState, or any sponsor that puts in that kind of money to sponsor a race, but it will ALWAYS be the Brickyard 400 to me!!

And I learned something new this weekend…it was Dale Jarrett who started the “kissing the bricks” when he won the race a few years back. I did not know that. I hope some other important piece of information doesn’t get shoved out of my head by that little bit of trivia. Hmmm, where did I put my apartment keys when I left home?? Uh oh!!

As is our practice, we headed to the track bright and early at 7am so as to beat some of the traffic, and score a decent parking spot. Our hotel this year was down towards the south end of town, allowing us to skip getting on any interstate anywhere to get to the track…it was all surface streets to the track, a route we had plotted out during our errands on Friday.

Unfortunately, Indianapolis police had a slightly different idea of what our route should be, and for a fraction of a moment we thought they were going to direct us all the way out to I465 to come back in on Crawfordville road with the masses, but we managed to find a substitute side street to the one we had originally chosen, but that the police had blocked off, and made it there without major problems.

Parking in our favorite lot right across from the tunnel to the infield, we first headed down to the Tony Stewart hauler so my friend could pick up a knapsack to replace her sagging vinyl bag. The girl carries so much in…as there was no rain predicted, and my seat cushion was left behind at home due to lack of room in the suitcase, I was traveling light, scanner on the hip, camera around the neck, and my small purse with the necessities. Oh, and our neck coolers…we bought those at IRP the day before when the sun came out and things heated up, and they were a Godsend. Past experience told us we were going to need them again this day, and we were right.

After dropping off our purchases at the car, we headed inside, as once in, if you leave, they won’t let you back in. First stop was the souvenir haulers inside, and I found the 99 hauler no problem. The told me that someone had the banner, so I didn’t have to worry about it. Things were starting to pick up at the haulers, so I left them be to go about their business, and we headed down to Gasoline Alley to see what we could see.

Imagine our disappointment when we got there, only to find out that you now must have pit passes to cross over and go up on the balconies overlooking the garages. Since pit passes are not sold to the general public, but just to those in suites and hospitality areas, we lowly race fans were out in the cold (figuratively speaking, of course...it was already quite warm at 9am) when it came to peeking into the inside workings of a Cup garage. I was very disappointed, because they line up according to points, so this year Carl’s garage should have been right below the area they used to let us in to. Had we been there at 7am when the gates opened, we would have gotten to be up there for an hour or so before they shut it down, but as we had not known they were changing their practice in this area, we did not head straight there when we got there. Next time we will. Or we’ll mug a couple of over-dressed hospitality goers for their pit passes…LOL (Just joking…I think……….) One track official told us they weren’t even supposed to allow people to line up along Gasoline Alley any more, but he thought that was unfair when you figure how much we had paid for the tickets, so they weren’t shooing people away from there. The would likely have had a riot on their hands had they tried.

We split up because I wanted to watch what I could see of the garage going-ons from the limited angle we had, and my friend wanted to go down and find our seats. It wasn’t long before I figured out I wasn’t going to be able to see much due to the number of people between me and the fence, so I wandered off in search of my friend.

Stopping along pit lane to snap some pics of the 99 car, already sitting on pit lane, ready to roll (those 99 guys are SOOOO efficient!!), I found my friend at the 99 pit stall, which was fortunately in easy sight of our seats. We chatted with the guys a minute, but left them alone to go sit in our seats a while, in the shade (it was going to be a scorcher, we could already tell at 9:30am), as they appeared to be VERY busy…LOL
As Driver introduction time approached, I headed down to where I knew the drivers were brought in by van and dropped off behind the Pagoda to go up the steps for their intros, and staked out a spot on a planter were I would be able to stand with a view above the crowd. Hey, even a tall gal needs help in a crowd situation!!

I chatted with a nice Kasey Kahne fan who joined me when she found out why the officials were gathering in that area, and we waited…

Nancy Sterling (Carl Edwards' Mom) ran by at one point, and I called out “Hi Nancy!” to her, and she greeted me back and waved on the run…she said she’d be back, but I couldn’t see how, as it was getting close to race time, and I imagined she was headed down to pit lane.

Finally the police started dividing the crowds and the first van came through…lots of good pics, but no Carl.

Ditto the second van, and third, and forth….before we knew it, they were all through, and my new KK fan friend and I had neither of us seen our drivers…the sneaky little devils must have snuck in another way!!!

Actually, it occurred to me afterwards that Carl might have had a media interview ahead of time in there, and thus was in the pagoda before I even arrived. Oh well…

As I headed back around beside the pagoda to go down the row to our seats (my friend had stayed there to get the shots of the drivers in their trucks) I realized that drivers were coming off the intro stage at the side, and down the stairs there, so I took up residence…

I spotted Carl up on one of the balconies, so snapped a couple of pics as best I could through the railing…and took shots of drivers coming off the stage and down the stairs.

Then what should happen, but in the process of grabbing a pick of my friend’s beloved Tony for her….

Carl goes bounding down the stairs, in clear view. Of course, too fast for me to swing the camera in that direction...DOH!!

I told her she owed me for what I sacrificed to get her that pic!! She assures me she has a pic of Carl riding by on his truck, but I haven't seen it yet.

I was so disgusted with my lack of good reflexes, I turned and stormed off…only to whip back around when I head the crowd chanting “Mark!! Mark!!!” and see Mark Martin go down the stairs!!! UGH!!!! My reflexes were REALLY shot…I really needed more sleep, I think.

Back in our seats, we settled in for a long race, one that turned out to be eventful. Our neck cooler thingies were properly chilled, and by now our seats were in the direct sunlight, so we needed them…there were frequent trips down to the beverage carts for water and ice to help us keep cool.

Sure. Best laid plans. Several hot and sweaty hours later, the ice had run out, the neck cooler thingies were warm, and we were drenched...thank God there was a bit of a breeze. Eventually we moved down from our high-up perch to more open seats where we could feel the breeze...right behind the 99 pit stall. Pure coincidence, I assure you. LOL

BEFORE the move:

AFTER the move:

As the laps wore done, and it looked more and more like Tony Stewart might pull off his second Brickyard win, of course we headed down to get as close to Victory lane as possible. At the Brickyard, this means bunching up at the fence behind Victory lane, and hoping for a glimpse.

Unfortunately, due to a couple of Nextel officials and some security officers blocking what little view there WAS from back there, we got limited pictures of the Victory Lane activities...the LAST time Tony won there, he came back to the opening and gave the fans on our side a thumbs up, but not this time...oh, well!!

What is generally a pretty good egress from the Lot 2 parking lot found us parked for about an hour...apparently a couple of idiots had gotten into a car accident that blocked off one of the 2 exits, and as such, we were at a standstill...so much so, in the heat, that some good Samaritans came along passing out bottled water to those stranded in their cars.

Eventually, we DID make it back to the hotel. Another enjoyable (albeit sweaty!!) Nascar weekend under our belts!!!

Next stop?? RICHMOND!!!!!!

Saturday at O'Reilly Raceway Park

The Busch race on Saturday was a night race, but we had Turn 4 Club hospitality tickets, which meant we had a tent to relax under, and free pit tours to take. So we headed out early to get good parking near the gate, and were quite successful, as several trips to the car during the day to drop things off became necessary. The gals searching bags became quite familiar with us!

Most of the day was cloudy Saturday, which made for ideal race-going conditions…it wasn’t until the sun came out later that we felt the heat.

Our first pit tour was just 3 of us early comers, so he took us down during a practice, and showed us all sorts of things. It was hard to hear him with cars on the tracks, but I thought he was pretty thorough…as he took us by the 60 pit stall, I scanned the group for any sign of red hair, but none was to be found. If PK was there, he was under wraps, or in hiding.

Later in the afternoon, when practice was done and qualifying had started, I took my second tour. This one was much shorter, BUT the guide took us right in beside the 60 pit stall to the wall at the edge of pit lane…I looked around, but still couldn’t find PK, so I wished the 60 guys a good race (I was wearing my Edhead t-shirt, so they knew it was a message from the fans) as the tour guide lead us back out into the garage area.

As I turned around who should I run into but PK, hat firmly in place. I smiled and told him to have a good race, too, then said “I see you are ‘under cover’!” pointing at his hat….He laughed, and continued on his way about his business…so I called after him “We’re waiting!!” and he turned and grinned at me again as he headed off across the garage…one of those grins with a twinkle in the eye. He knew EXACTLY what I was talking about. Apparently, right up until race time that hat stayed in place, not even the crew saw the new dye-job.

After a good dinner in the Turn 4 Club tent, we headed up to our seats and hung out with our neighbors, a rowdy but fun group who kept plying us with shrimp cocktail and veggies and dip. It was a lot of fun, and before long we were seeing the drivers come around the track on their trucks during driver intros.

After an AWESOME military helicopter flyover where he buzzed the crowd, we settled in to enjoy the race, scanners firmly in place.

For the first time I really enjoyed a Busch race at IRP. It might just be that for the first time in the last 3 years Carl didn’t get wrecked, and was up front, contending for the win, and he and Greg Biffle put on an awesome 10-lap side-by-side display of racing prowess towards the end that had the crowd on its feet cheering, whether they liked these 2 drivers or not.

It might be witnessing Toyota’s first win in the Busch series with Jason Leffler at the helm. It might have been meeting up with 2 Diehard Edheads prior to the race that I hadn’t met yet, a lovely couple that I had chatted with on the boards, but did not know would be at the races this weekend, only discovered on seeing a man wearing the same shirt as me (Edheads 2007!) walking towards me in the crowd. Whatever, it was a fabulous day.

One entertaining race day with no major incidents down, one to go.

Indy Bound: Planes, Trains and Automobiles

My trip to Indianapolis for this year's Brickyard 400 (oops, sorry, ALLSTATE 400...geez!!) started out with getting from LA to San Diego in time for a 6am flight Thursday morning. I had found a flight for much cheaper than any out of LA, but it was a bit of a commute to the airport. Eschewing driving down, I chose to do the Amtrak train, Pacific Surfliner. It was reasonable, even if you add on a non-air conditioned in 90+ degree heat cab ride with a cabbie who was NOT pleased I wanted to pay by credit card, despite my having stated that when calling for the cab. Talk about attitude.

Arriving at Union station in downtown LA, a beautifully restored train station, I immediately checked in my baggage…only to shortly thereafter hear an announcement that my train was delayed, and they couldn’t tell us when to expect the train. UGH!!

After a few phone calls to my friend, waiting for me in San Diego, and a trip to the Metrolink desk to find out how close THEIR trains would get me to San Diego, I approached customer service about getting my luggage back so that I could pursue an alternative route to San Diego, only to be told that there was no way to get my luggage back once it was checked. I didn’t have to wait for the train, but my luggage was going to.

As this was 6pm, and our flight out of San Diego left at 6am the next morning, the thought of taking an alternative form of transportation to San Diego and just hoping my luggage got there in time for my flight made me a bit nervous, not to mention having to eke out time to go to the train station to pick up my erstwhile luggage and losing yet more sleeping time.

Finally around 6:30 pm, they announced that the train would be arriving around 7:15pm, a mere 2 hours late…turns out a car accident on the tracks up the way caused the delay. What we found out when we boarded was that they just basically cancelled the 5:10 train I was to be on, and combined the waiting 5:10 train and delayed 6pm train passengers on to one train. So it was a little bit tight for a while!!!

They say once the train gets to the ocean en route to San Diego, it runs along the ocean and the view is magnificent. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t know, as it was pitch dark outside when we got there. Oh, well!!

After arriving in San Diego and visiting with my friend, we crashed, only to have to get up at 4am to hop on the shuttle to the airport….starting my race weekend off with 3 hours sleep before leaving LA, and 3 hours sleep that night before getting on a plane in San Diego…sometimes working nights sucks!!

The flight itself was uneventful, and we arrived in Indianapolis ALMOST on time…but it took 45 minutes for them to get the baggage out to us, and by the time we took the shuttle to the rental place and picked up the car, a black PT Cruiser, it was 4pm…too late to venture down to the Office Depot to see Carl giving out school supplies to needy kids.

So we decided to drop our stuff at the hotel, then head out to Oreilly Raceway Park for the Silver Crown race. We found the hotel easily enough…and added bonus, it was right beside a truck stop and truck wash that we soon noticed a lot of Busch series haulers were pulling up into for one last fill-up and a wash before heading out to ORP (it'll ALWAYS be IRP to me!!). Of course, it was the Scotts green 60 hauler that caught my attention first…then the 16 hauler…later that night, I spent some time at our hotel room window, watching all the haulers going through the car wash, but there was no time now to do so, as we wanted to get to the track.

Despite the fact that Carl would not be running the race due to his injured thumb, we knew he would be there supporting his team, because that’s the type of guy he is. We chose not to get pit passes when we found out they were more than twice as much as the $20 I was quoted over the phone, but it didn’t matter…they did a post-qualifying, pre-race driver signing that all fans were invited down onto the track for, so I got to see Carl up close for some pics anyway.




















We also chose seats right in turn 4 across from the 199 pit stall (Carl’s car) and watched the activity around there through qualifying. A surprise Tony Stewart sighting on pit lane had my TS fan friend extremely happy.

The race was great fun, and it only took a few laps to forget Carl was not in the car as we rooted for his driver to go get ‘em!!! He finished 4th, very respectable. Unfortunately, it did not occur to me that Carl might be the spotter for his driver, as I later found out, so I didn’t have my scanner with me to listen in. Oh, well, 20/20 hindsight and all that.

All in all, a fun evening, but as we were both short on sleep, and were pretty much asleep before our heads hit our respective pillows after the afore-mentioned hauler-watching out of the hotel room.

Friday dawned cloudy and rainy, so we slept in, then went out and ran some errands, but as rain loomed, we chose to skip going to the track for practices. This turned out to be a good idea, as rain washed out all track activity, and without pit passes, which the Brickyard provides to only a select few suite ticket holders, there would have been not much to see. So we rested up for the rest of the weekend’s activities, deciding not to go to the Truck race that night. Might as well save our energy for the next 2 days, which would be busy.

More to come...of course!!!