The Cup race - Supporting Carl, from Pole winner, and race leader, to the garage

Sunday November 11th

They say it's always fastest just before it blows...sadly, on this day, it was true.

Sunday morning, in order to beat the worst of the traffic, we headed back to the track bright and early again.

Pulling into the hospitality parking, Anne and her Mom chose to hang out at the truck while LeadfootRN and I decided to explore the souvenir haulers, which we had not explored in-depth at this point yet.

Eventually we headed down to pit lane, where the Cup teams were starting to set up their pit stalls. Heading up to the overlook of the Cup garage, we spent about 90 minutes just taking in the preparations, snapping pics and video and just enjoying the view of the garage activity.

A little later we retired to a table behind pit lane to sit and people watch, and relax…I headed onto pit lane, and down towards turn one, knowing that that’s where the 99 team would be setting up. They were, but unfortunately that end of pit lane was off-limits to the fans, so I had to settle for snapping some pictures.

Returning to where LeadfootRN was relaxing, we finally headed back across the track, as they were allowing fans to enter and exit that way as no cars were on the track, and after a few more pics, we headed out to the Speed Stage to meet up with Anne and her Mom for one last attempt at getting the Edhead banner on TV on Raceday.

This was trickier due to the TV camera angles that required we stand at the back of the crowd and select our spot according to the landmarks behind the guys on screen, but eventually we succeeded, and LeadfootRN squeezed up to the front of the crowd and snapped this pic of the banner from the stage area:


After this successful foray, for the final time, we headed to our seats, but Anne and I decided once more to put the banner on display during Driver Intros, and found a spot along the fence towards turn one.

We had quite a while to wait, with Carl being on the pole, and the last driver introduced, but finally, success…we got a big grin and a thumbs up when he saw us with the banner as he went by…here, he waves, seconds before the thumbs up:
Packing up the banner for the final time, and retreating to our seats, we settled in for what we hoped would be an AWESOME race.

And for Hendrick fans, it was. As for me, a Diehard Edhead, the AWESOME part ended after 80 or so laps, when Carl, in the race-leading car, suddenly reported the engine was blowing up…it’s so sad that often the car is fastest just before it blows. Not wanting to fully blow up and lay oil all over the track, possibly ruining another driver and team’s day, Carl pulled in to the garage so the team could look at it and see if there was anything they could do:

20 laps later, I had recovered from my disappointment, and was avidly rooting for Clint Bowyer to get the win, but it was not to be, and we headed out when it was obvious Jimmie Johnson was going to win yet again, for the 4th race in a row.

All in all, it was a great race weekend, and I can’t wait until next year, when I get to do my race season all over again!

Busch Race Day - Hikes, Cakes, and Rattlesnakes

Saturday, November 10th

Bright and early Saturday morning Anne picked us up and we headed in the VIP way to the track. PIR has this cool VIP parking for those who purchase Fan Hospitality, which Anne had, and as such we were back in that primo spot we parked in last spring, not nearly the hike of the day before when LeadfootRN and I arrived by ourselves.

Now I had had some issues purchasing our Cup tickets from a NASCAR tour holder who had extras…as I purchased them immediately after moving from LA to San Diego, I had not yet changed my billing address on my credit card…by the time I realized that they were shipping to my CREDIT CARD address, where I no longer resided, it was when they e-mailed me a copy of the Fed Ex label, and the tickets had already been sent to LA. With my past issues of tickets getting lost in the LA UPS area, this made me even more nervous than just they were being sent to my old address. What would we do if that black hole sucked these tickets up, too.

After much e-mailing and phone calling, this issue was sorted out, but not in time for me to receive the tickets before leaving for the races, so the plan was for them to be left at Will Call by the time of the Busch race Saturday, as the tour operator would be arriving at the track with her tour group that day. So that was on my agenda.

But FIRST, pit lane…LeadfootRN, Anne and her Mom headed down there, while I headed for the Official Nascar Member’s Club tent to sign in for my 10am garage tour. Then I headed out to meet Paige at the entrance to the tunnel, to help her with a cake and gift basket being sent to the 60 crew by some fans in celebration of their clinching the Busch Championship the week before.

We arrived there at the same time, then headed up to “Rattlesnake Hill” in turn 3-4 where the gal that got the cake with Paige was setting up for the race day with their family, to pick up the cake and gift basket. As it was a good-sized cake, there was no way Paige could get it and the basket down to the garage without some help, and I was glad to help.

After finding the camp site, and a bit of a chat, we headed back down the hill, but not before admiring the view from up there. They may be “cheap seats” with no access to the fan area inside the gates, but the view is of the entire track, and if you don’t mind being on the lookout for rattlesnakes, it’s a great deal!

Venturing back down the hill, we hopped on the tram to the infield because there was no way my arms, carrying the cake, would hold out for the trek, but fortunately at this time of the morning the tram was not yet busy, and it dropped us off right beside the Busch garage, so it was simple to head to the garage entrance in the hopes of flagging one of the 60 guys (or better yet, PK!) down to deliver them.

We were exceedingly lucky, as just as we arrived, and set the cake down on a table there, one of the 60 crew came by…followed closely by PK!!!

So we congratulated them on the championship, and snapped a few pics of PK with the cake:

The pit crew member showed his gratitude by grabbing a Nerf football out of the basket with something that appeared to be glee. It’s nice to know they appreciate the things the fans do to show their appreciation of them.

Leaving Paige there, I hopped back onto the tram and headed out to the ONMC tent to gather with my group for the tour. I don’t know why they wouldn’t just let me meet them down there, and 20/20 hindsight it would have been a good idea, as the trip back into the infield, crammed on 3 big golf carts, was like a race at Darlington…in that one of the golf carts blew a tire, so we ended up squeezing onto the 2 remaining carts. At least it could have happened while we were in there, where there were plenty of people experienced in changing tires!! LOL

Arriving at the Cup garage, we entered the coolest place on earth, as Matt, our guide called it, and having had only limited access through such tours myself, I had to agree.

Wandering through, we saw teams in garages and just on the grounds (the “field fillers” who don’t get a garage, because of limited garage space) tuning up their cars and going through inspection in preparation for further practice that day.

Sterling Marlin and Johnny Sauter were 2 of the drivers we saw in the garage, but I paid for the luxury of a garage tour by missing Carl’s Busch qualifying run (qualifying was going on at this time) and his interview, done right in front of LeadfootRN, Anne and her Mom, and his signing…and THIS time he signed LeadfootRN’s standard-issue NASCAR hat, so she was pleased.

But all I got to see of him was a smile and a wave as he ran by us in the garage, on the way to his RV in the driver’s RV lot behind the garage.

Thank goodness for friends with cameras, as at least I got to see some pics:
Seeing the COT “claw” that replaces the multiple body templates used to measure the old cars in the inspection process was cool, and the various garage stalls, where teams were hard at work tweaking the cars for practice:



Winding up our tour, we gathered for a group shot in front of the garage exit to the track, then split up.

I left them there, not wanting to put added stress on the 2 remaining golf carts and not seeing the need to ride back out, only to turn around and ride back in on the tram, and headed out to pit lane to join my friends at the primo spot for the remainder of Busch qualifying.

As I walked down to their spot, I missed a great shot of Jamie McMurray, running down pit lane to make his Busch qualifying run, but stopping to goose an unfortunate Nascar official who had paused to bend down for something…it was so hilarious to see that I was still chuckling when I joined the gals. Paige eventually showed up, and we hung out for a while, then we split up again, as I was sadly short of shots and wanted to hang around down there for practice…Anne and her Mom headed to their hospitality experience, and LeadfootRN, footweary after standing around for several hours, headed into the stands to relax and watch practice from our seats.

I went down the walkway in front of the Cup garage to snap some pics of the cars coming in off the track to the garage to tweak before going back out, but unfortunately, even with the scanner tuned in to their frequency, I missed the 99 coming in…and they spent so long in the garage, then out on track again, that I got tired of standing there and headed out of the track, realizing there was just a short time until the race started, and I had to get down to the Will Call office in turn one (the opposite end of the track from the tunnel in) to pick up our Cup tickets.

Satisfied to finally to have our Cup tickets in hand, I headed in to the stands…Anne and I met with the Edhead banner to the turn 1 side of the Driver Intro stage to hold it up as Carl rode by on the truck…only to realize they weren’t DOING the driver ride-bys for the Busch race. Disappointing, but probably a result of the tight schedule, with both Busch qualifying and Cup final practice crammed in before the race. So we headed up to our seats to enjoy the race.

Mind you, it had to have hit 90 degrees by this time, and when we arrived at our seats, we found a very hot LeadfootRN, who had been sitting there in the sun, chugging water, for several hours, as there were so many stairs up to our seats that she had vowed she wasn’t going to go down and return to the seats…as the race progressed, the heat got to be too much for her, so I gave her my Fanscan, which I had rented out of curiousity, but had found not to be something I was a fan of, and she headed down to the seats beneath the stands to cool off, still able to watch the race on the Fanscan. It’s a cool toy, but I find it unnecessary. LeadfootRN, the electronics addict she is, absolutely loved it, and swore she would own one before she attended another race. Well, at least there was one satisfied coustomer.

I did find out that sitting towards turn 4 at Phoenix, as with many tracks, was not conducive to snapping pics down the frontstretch, due to the glare of the sun as it descended towards turn 1 and 2, so most of my pics are of the cars in turn 4 and coming onto pit lane.

Carl had a decent day, so we left that night satisfied with our full day of race-going. LeadfootRN, despite applying and re-applying sunscreen, ended up being slightly crispy, but happy. We headed back to the hotel to rest up for the next day…the Cup race!!