After eating and resting a bit, we decided to head in to explore the souvenir area, spend some money, and sign in at the Official Nascar Members Club, verifying we were here and ready to join the crowd for the post-race Chaser celebration in Victory Lane after the race. We were both looking forward to it, even though I had attended enough of these “special events” by now to know that they are often not as fun as we think they will be when we sign up for them. We can imagine all SORTS of great scenarios when given a chance at inside access that often the reality falls short of. However, no matter what, it was going to be cool to get to be down there while the 12 Chase Contenders are interviewed post-race.
Collecting up my things, I suddenly realized that my tickets, in their lanyard, were missing!
A horrible sinking feeling arose that maybe I hadn’t been careful with them when I got out of the car at Subway, and even that while we were relaxing and chatting with our neighbors in the parking lot at the track, someone had grabbed them off the seat of the car.
All sorts of plans were going through my head, including throwing myself on the mercy of the gals at Will Call, to be sure they would at least give me my pit pass, and buying whatever crappy ticket was left over for the race from a scalper, then sneaking up to find out who was sitting in my seat….to giving up our primo parking spot near (at least not a 3 mile hike) the gates in order to go back to Subway, hoping and praying if they fell out there, they still were….
We tore that car apart 3 times…but for some reason, the third time, Anne looked under the passenger seat…and there they were!!! I guess neither of us looked in that one spot. It’s always the last place you look…which makes sense, because if you found it in the FIRST place you looked, and kept looking, you’d seem a touch…off…
WHEW! Coronary averted!!! Had we NOT found them, I would have strapped MYSELF to the defibrillator!!!
Off to the track, where we said Hi to Mark and the gals at the souvenir hauler, and I waved at Randy as he walked by…of course, he had no idea who I was, but as you’ll see by my pics, I spotted him SEVERAL times this weekend.
Of course, being the pit lane addicts Anne and I are, we headed down there as soon as it opened, just hanging around, seeing the sites. We chatted with some of the pit crew guys, including John, who was having a heckuva hose issue…LOL
People at Nascar races are usually very friendly, and this day was no different. We met all sorts of people down on pit lane, and not just fans…Richmond is not far from Charlotte, where most race shops are, and crews and family tend to live around there, so I wasn’t too surprised to meet a few crew family members who had come up for the weekend, making time to be with their spouses or family members who they must not see very often, as many have “day jobs” during the week, then are gone all weekend, 38 weeks of the year.
The most…interesting…person we saw was…Elvis. Leading a pit tour!! Elvis is NOT dead…he’s just following the NASCAR circuit!! As he headed straight for the #8 pit stall, I suspect his presence had something to do with the fact that his face was plastered all over the #8 car that weekend. But he definitely was NOT camera-shy! I snapped a couple of pics for our Elvis-crazy Brandi, who was not on pit lane…what a day for her to not have a pit pass!!
Before long the cars started being rolled through inspection and out onto pit lane, so Anne and I took up position near where they came out and snapped away…looking impatiently for the 99 car and crew. Applause broke out along pit lane as the 31 car, proudly adorned with the AT&T logo across the hood, came on to pit lane...the car had started the race weekend with a blank orange hood, a result of the on-going battle between Sprint-Nextel and AT&T/Cingular over AT&T's right to have THEIR logo on the hood of the car they inherited when they bought out Cingular:
Sadly, getting up-close shots of the 99 car and it's crew was not to be. After several hours on pit lane, our water gone, the sun hot, we finally had to give up, after going down to see if the 99 car and crew was even close to coming through inspection…which they weren’t. We HAD to get out of the heat, or suffer the fate of hapless race fans every hot race weekend…heatstroke!! So we headed to the hospitality area, and wonderful shade…watching the workers in the structure, with their cool fans, still fanning themselves, I wanted to say “You don’t KNOW hot!”, but as they were slaving over chafing dishes full of hot food, working, while we could sit and cool off, I decided that would be unwise. I guess I get mean when I’m overheated!!!
After a while sitting in the blessed cool, a little food, and a lot of cold beverages, we felt ready to head back out into the heat.
We found our seats, right at the start/finish line, easily enough, but almost had to CLIMB over bodies to get to them, as Daughtry was playing right in front of us. Not being an American Idol fan, or whatever, I didn’t know who the group was, but I recognized the songs, and picked it up later during my vacation…another Daughtry CD sold!!
After the concert, and people thinned out considerably, and we settled in to watch the pre-race festivities.
Unfortunately, our primo seats were NOT primo for driver intros…rather than move out the Daughtry stage, or use the same one, right in front of us at the start/finish line, they set up the standard Driver Intro stage down closer to turn 4…so we didn’t have a great view for that. But we made do.
As the race started and went on, it became apparent that Carl had a strong car…way to go Bob and crew!! BUT…sadly, we suddenly heard Carl over our scanners saying the engine was going, and the following troubleshooting session was almost more painful, because then we had hope that it might be something electrical, something they could fix and keep going with…but that big puff of white smoke across the track in turn 3 dashed our hopes.
After the requisite mourning period (you HAVE to mourn when your driver’s engine goes south!!), I turned back to the action…joking with the gals via text message that now that I’d lost my red flag virginity during the Busch race the night before, I had now, experiencing 2 more red flags during the course of the race, become a red flag HUSSY!!! LOL
Eventually, it was time to join the ONMC crowd down by the tunnel, as the laps wound down, in preparation for our trek into the infield and eventually out by the Victory Lane/Chaser stage. Even with my knowledge that we would likely be packed in and not have a front-on view (that would be reserved for the press…Anne and I SHOULD have flashed our CCN press/photo passes, I guess!) I was excited…and sure enough, despite some prime views of most of the Chasers, who came over and interacted with us (Carl even faked a stage dive!! LOL) for the actual shots of the group we were sadly out of view…BUT, when they cracked open the champagne and turned it on us, the fans to the side, as well as the Victory Lane guys filming on the other side of the stage (and the press, who were mostly out of reach of the champagne) I happened to be mid-shot of what I COULD see…and got an amazing shot, albeit blurry:
Finally, tired but happy (mostly) with our race weekend experience, we headed out when it was apparent that the drivers were all leaving, so there was nothing else to see…
Back in the car, the traffic had thinned a bit, but was still pretty heavy once you got out on the road. I put my experience of the night before into good use, and managed to get into the lane that, after the Busch race, would have had us going straight down the road to our hotel….
And was disappointed to find that, even with the foresight of the night before, this time, with the bigger Cup race crowd, that lane, too, was directed north instead of south…so we once again were headed the wrong way.
This time, though, I knew which exit to take on the interstate to go the fastest way, NOT back by the race track, down to our hotel.
The moral of the story: NEVER expect that you’ve finally figured out race traffic, because it WILL change! LOL
Back at the hotel, we were still on a race weekend high, even though Anne had to head to the airport in a few hours, so we chatted and watched some of the coverage on TV…and before we knew it, we woke up and it was time for Anne to go.
The rest of my race weekend was pretty quiet. As I was bound for Toronto, home to my family on Monday, once I woke up Sunday afternoon, refreshed, I made a quick call to the airlines just in case there was a late flight out I could get instead, but they were all booked up…so I lazed around the rest of the day. Not a bad end to a race weekend!
After a while sitting in the blessed cool, a little food, and a lot of cold beverages, we felt ready to head back out into the heat.
We found our seats, right at the start/finish line, easily enough, but almost had to CLIMB over bodies to get to them, as Daughtry was playing right in front of us. Not being an American Idol fan, or whatever, I didn’t know who the group was, but I recognized the songs, and picked it up later during my vacation…another Daughtry CD sold!!
After the concert, and people thinned out considerably, and we settled in to watch the pre-race festivities.
Unfortunately, our primo seats were NOT primo for driver intros…rather than move out the Daughtry stage, or use the same one, right in front of us at the start/finish line, they set up the standard Driver Intro stage down closer to turn 4…so we didn’t have a great view for that. But we made do.
As the race started and went on, it became apparent that Carl had a strong car…way to go Bob and crew!! BUT…sadly, we suddenly heard Carl over our scanners saying the engine was going, and the following troubleshooting session was almost more painful, because then we had hope that it might be something electrical, something they could fix and keep going with…but that big puff of white smoke across the track in turn 3 dashed our hopes.
After the requisite mourning period (you HAVE to mourn when your driver’s engine goes south!!), I turned back to the action…joking with the gals via text message that now that I’d lost my red flag virginity during the Busch race the night before, I had now, experiencing 2 more red flags during the course of the race, become a red flag HUSSY!!! LOL
Eventually, it was time to join the ONMC crowd down by the tunnel, as the laps wound down, in preparation for our trek into the infield and eventually out by the Victory Lane/Chaser stage. Even with my knowledge that we would likely be packed in and not have a front-on view (that would be reserved for the press…Anne and I SHOULD have flashed our CCN press/photo passes, I guess!) I was excited…and sure enough, despite some prime views of most of the Chasers, who came over and interacted with us (Carl even faked a stage dive!! LOL) for the actual shots of the group we were sadly out of view…BUT, when they cracked open the champagne and turned it on us, the fans to the side, as well as the Victory Lane guys filming on the other side of the stage (and the press, who were mostly out of reach of the champagne) I happened to be mid-shot of what I COULD see…and got an amazing shot, albeit blurry:
Finally, tired but happy (mostly) with our race weekend experience, we headed out when it was apparent that the drivers were all leaving, so there was nothing else to see…Back in the car, the traffic had thinned a bit, but was still pretty heavy once you got out on the road. I put my experience of the night before into good use, and managed to get into the lane that, after the Busch race, would have had us going straight down the road to our hotel….
And was disappointed to find that, even with the foresight of the night before, this time, with the bigger Cup race crowd, that lane, too, was directed north instead of south…so we once again were headed the wrong way.
This time, though, I knew which exit to take on the interstate to go the fastest way, NOT back by the race track, down to our hotel.
The moral of the story: NEVER expect that you’ve finally figured out race traffic, because it WILL change! LOL
Back at the hotel, we were still on a race weekend high, even though Anne had to head to the airport in a few hours, so we chatted and watched some of the coverage on TV…and before we knew it, we woke up and it was time for Anne to go.
The rest of my race weekend was pretty quiet. As I was bound for Toronto, home to my family on Monday, once I woke up Sunday afternoon, refreshed, I made a quick call to the airlines just in case there was a late flight out I could get instead, but they were all booked up…so I lazed around the rest of the day. Not a bad end to a race weekend!
When Busch qualifying was over, they had already rolled quite a few cars out onto pit lane for Cup qualifying, but as the Busch teams now needed to set up in their pit stalls (where we were sitting) they started shooing us back behind the pit stall lines, so I lost my primo spot. I ALMOST asked the 60 guys if I could borrow a chunk of their wall, but they had work to do, didn’t need to be trying to work around me.
