En route to PIR for the fall race weekend, I had driven up from San Diego to the Palm Springs home of my friend LeadfootRN, Thursday night…the trip up there was fine, although driving through mountains in the dark is not my favorite thing, especially in company of a bunch of big trucks, but it was otherwise uneventful, and Friday morning we headed out bright and early for Phoenix.
Now, as my friend’s nickname might indicate, since she was driving, we made AWESOME time, and arrived at the track in plenty of time to Truck qualifying, and later Cup qualifying, with only a few narrow misses…fortunately, when we passed police officers on the road, we were stuck at traffic speed.
On the way down Avondale Blvd to the track, we saw a symbol that anyone who is familiar with Nascar is immediately recognizable, although at this point, it was in a slightly different perspective than we usually see it:
Now PIR pit access is an AWESOME experience, even for those who have had access at other tracks. As I had been to the track in the spring and it was LeadfootRN’s first time at PIR, I knew exactly where to take her for up close and personal mingling with the drivers and crews. When they emerged from the garage or took the shortest route back TO the garage, they had to walk by one area where quick fans could be on the front line.We were pretty quick. The hike into the infield was a bit much for her long-time RN knees, but once we got there, she quickly forgot her discomfort. And me, in a blonde moment, I kinda forgot to mention that there was a tram…
LeadfootRN’s Tony Stewart hat was quickly filled by autographs of truck and Cup drivers returning from or heading out to their qualifying runs, as did my camera card, of pics of the same…most had no problem signing the hat, even if it was not their souvenir, but a few balked (even my fav, Carl Edwards, who seemed to have no interest in signing a Tony Stewart hat…hmmm, I wonder why that is???), so on the way out of the track later that evening, LeadfootRN’s goal was to pick up a standard NASCAR hat for the next day.
As qualifying ended and the officials started shooing fans off pit lane, we walked out to pit lane, supposedly to cross the track to the stairs, rather than trek all the way around again, but a crowd gathering to the side distracted us. Quick thinking and politeness soon found us standing in that crowd, gathering in front of the Bud Pole Award banner, awaiting the Pole winner…Carl Edwards!!! I saw his mother, Nancy, and greeted her with the enthusiastic applause of a fan happy for her driver, then we quietly settled in to the crowd to wait, not drawing attention to ourselves in the hopes of grabbing a few shots of Carl as he posed for his award.
Then it was on out to the Speed Stage for Trackside, where we planned to get the Edhead banner on TV for the final times this year…it would be sent back to another Leadfoot after Homestead, and she planned to send it to Carl for his memories, as he had seen it several times throughout the season at the track; we Edheads did our best to let him know we supported him with it.
In the Trackside crowd, I met up with a long-time friend from another message board, a friend whose wife and son I had met before, but I had not met him in person before. He’s my computer guru, and despite being a Jeff Gordon fan, a pretty good guy.
Then Anne and her Mom, Paige, Julie, LeadfootRN and I all gathered as close to the stage as possible and got the banner on Trackside several times…although I personally never saw it on the telecast, because for whatever reason my DVR chose not to record it, despite it being scheduled…Go figure!!
Karen16 snapped this pic of the banner in the crowd:
In the Trackside crowd, I met up with a long-time friend from another message board, a friend whose wife and son I had met before, but I had not met him in person before. He’s my computer guru, and despite being a Jeff Gordon fan, a pretty good guy.
Then Anne and her Mom, Paige, Julie, LeadfootRN and I all gathered as close to the stage as possible and got the banner on Trackside several times…although I personally never saw it on the telecast, because for whatever reason my DVR chose not to record it, despite it being scheduled…Go figure!!
Karen16 snapped this pic of the banner in the crowd:
Tired from our first long day, we headed out to find our hotel, and dinner, and settled in to rest up for the next day, an entire day on pit lane. Where ELSE would we be?!