WEDNESDAY -- Arriving, Settling in, and the Truck Race.
This is being written in an RV, en route back from Bristol to Iowa, 55 MPH “Bessie speed” to keep the fuel mileage as reasonable as possible (8 miles to the gallon versus 6 or 7 if we get to 65 MPG)…what better way to pass the time than to put my race weekend memories down, while they are still fresh.
As many of you know, I’ve been to lots of races (and have the credit card bills to prove it!), but one crown jewel has eluded me in my 10 years as a NASCAR fan.
Bristol. But no more. Thanks to my honey, Jeff, I not only am no longer a Bristol virgin, but for the second time in as many months I’ve been at a race where MY GUY won!!! AND in spectacular fashion. How’s THAT for a date?? (Actually, 3 of the 5 race weekends I’ve attended, Carl won…and the other 2 [Atlanta and Infineon] he was in contention and just had bad luck, or a parts failure—the engine IS a big part of it all. LOL) It’s a good season to be an Edhead.
I’ll skip over the gory details involving watching the Hauler Parade from the gutter (o-kay, so we were sitting on lawn chairs, most of us, in the gutter, but still…) and other often alcohol-fueled adventures in camping (it’s BRISTOL BABY!! Did I say that already????), or watching the Shrub win yet another Truck race (which I almost didn’t mind, since I was actually at BRISTOL!!!!).
I won’t mention the fun of travelling with 3 guys in a 20 + year old RV (ol’ Bessie, I named her, for the purpose of the weekend) which surprisingly served us quite well….Did 55 MPH the whole way, resulting in 16 hours on the road, plus 7-8 hours in between napping in a Walmart parking lot in Corbin, KY. No use pulling into a campground at 3 am, is there??
After setting up camp on Wednesday, we all headed down to the track, with the help of Raceway Ministries, as the owner of the RV is temporarily handicapped (ice in February got him, and he is still on the mend). They were wonderful people who made sure he at least had a ride to and from the track each day (they kept insisting all of us accept rides, and we did a couple of times, but felt guilty doing so, being able-bodied. Although by weekend’s end, and at least one trip on foot up Holy Hill, we all felt slightly disabled! LOL), even if it was just a ride from the track to the shuttle, then down from the campground entrance…with Bristol’s hills, he would never have made it otherwise. Thanks Bubba and crew for taking such good care of us!!
The truck race was awesome in that it was my first Bristol race live, and even though the Shrub won it (GO Johnny Benson!! But it was not to be), I had a great time. My boyfriend Jeff proved his prophetic powers by predicting that Jimmy Johnson would wreck out before the race was over, and we watched that developing down the backstretch as he lost it, got it back, lost it again…and eventually just spun right out. THAT made us laugh uproariously (well, all except the Jimmy fan in the bunch, of couse!)
That night, worn out from our travels, we slept soundly, in preparation for the next day’s fun.
THURSDAY – The Bristol Hauler Parade
To Fanfest or not to Fanfest
After spending much of the day at the campground, just relaxing and meeting our neighbors, neighbors Jeff and Brian knew from last year (many renew yearly the same site), we headed into Bristol to meet up with the man we purchased our tickets from. The intention was to do that, then go downtown to see some of the Bristol Family Funfest things going on, but we got to visiting, and others joined the group, and before we knew it, we missed the Fun and it was time to find a spot to view the hauler parade. This was something I had really been looking forward to seeing, having heard about it in past years, and I wasn’t going to miss it.
We were misinformed that you could NOT sit in the track and watch them park the haulers (I’d love to see them park those puppies in that tiny track!! It just boggles the mind how they fit both series haulers in there…later we found out we could have, that the track was open for that purpose---I’ll remember that next year!!) so we found ourselves a piece of curb (gutter) and parked our lawn chairs to enjoy the show.
What a spectacle that is!!! All those haulers decked out, blaring their horns and people hanging out the windows, waving at the crowd…AWESOME!! Definitely worth doing.
After it was all over, we packed up the car and joined the crowd for the hour or more long ride back to the track (we weren’t THAT far away, but the sheer numbers of fans that had come out was mind-boggling…and traffic-jamming….) The Aflac ducks had fun watching the parade, but were glad to get back to the campground.
FINALLY back at the campsite, we spent a bit of time troubleshooting where the antifreeze leak was on the car…after so long in traffic, it had overheated a bit, and apparently a hose was loose, so when we finally started moving, even though it cooled down, the antifreeze that leaked blew back onto the engine and all that, causing that sickly-sweet smelling smoke that only antifreeze can cause. Troubleshooting done, we just enjoyed the evening (and even the stumbling entertainment of some who had over-imbibed, knowing those people were going to pay for it the next day! LOL).
FRIDAY - Bristol Nationwide Race
Deflated dre...err, tires, Wandering Edheads, and Holy Hill!!
Finally, one of the races I’d been really looking forward to all week. The LAST Nationwide race I had attended, coincidentally with Jeff, Carl had won the race…would our luck hold?
After dropping the other 2 off at the seats, Jeff and I headed up to our seats in Earnhardt Terrace to watch Cup qualifying…nice seats, cupholder and all, and we and the Aflac ducks enjoyed seeing Carl FINALLY get a pole this season…YAY, now he’ll be in the Shootout next year!!.
We skipped Nationwide qualifying as we had to go find the registration booth for the NASCAR Foundation Track Walk to report in for our track walk the next day….you’d think that would be easy, but at first we had the directions “Outside the main grandstand” (just which side is the main grandstand at Bristol??? It’s basically a bowl!! LOL) and then we found a flyer with more specific instructions, which we proceeded to misread as sign up was at Gate 9 (turns out it was, but only right before the track walk Saturday morning). However, there IS no marked Gate 9. It was the track entrance (where the haulers drive in), and, we found out, no-one there knew anything about the Trackwalk sign-up. We were then directed back up the hill to the Bruton Smith building, which we had passed on the way there on the tram, to enquire there…and FINALLY got some good directions…but in the end we circled the track once on foot inside, then again via tram and golf cart on the outside to find it. Thank God this wasn’t Daytona or Talladega!! How about some clearer directions next time, folks!!! LOL
The plus side of this “adventure”, I’ll call it, for lack of a better term, is that I finally got the “lay of the land” at Bristol in my head…I mean, I saw EVERY square inch of it!! LOL Having never been at a track as small (yet massive!) as Bristol, and being used to tracks that you can look at from the outside and definitively say “That’s the main grandstand” or “that’s the backstretch” (I mean, the seats circle this sucker, unlike all the other tracks I’ve been at where part of the backstretch has no seats!!), I had been having difficulty developing a mental map in my head of where everything is in relation to what turn….no more, this cured me of that. I even remembered later where I saw a Radio Shack booth, from our travels. LOL
Finally, it was race time, and we returned to our seats to enjoy the action.
Carl looked good right off, but some bad luck ended his night prematurely. Apparently one weak spot on a tire, coupled with hot brakes, and Carl was in the garage with everything from a broken track bar to something broken in the steering, according to what they were saying on the scanner. Go figure.
It’s sad to watch your guy come back out on the track and just make laps, too far down to gain any points but not wanting a DNF on his record. I was blue for quite a while. Then I started rooting for Greg Biffle, the next nearest Roush guy to the front…but in the end, I was quite happy to see Brad Keslowski win it. ABS. Anyone But Shrub. LOL
ESPECIALLY since the “talking heads” were making a big deal again about Kyle Busch running all 3 races at Bristol, and the chance he had for doing the triple…go ahead and keep talking about Kyle Busch, focus on him, because while he’s leading the points, Carl Edwards is quietly making it a race!!
(I feel I should insert here that, although I share the same last name as the Shrub, and we MAY be distantly related, I am in NO WAY a fan of his. In case you didn’t already get that. LOL)
After the race, the other two were going to use the Raceway Ministries transportation to get back to the campsite, so Jeff and I decided, after having had 2 days of basically relaxing, we were energetic enough that we were going to attempt Holy Hill, the shortest route to our campground…and the longest, steepest hill on the track grounds. I had a little bit of trepidation about this (I mean, even one of the Raceway Ministries guys said “Just change one letter in ‘Holy Hill’ and the name is more accurate!!!”), but I was game to try it once. I mean, so what if we stopped a few times on the way up...
Yeah, right!! I have climbed hills at NASCAR tracks all over the country (Sears Point, err, Infineon Raceway, comes to mind…you just have no idea HOW hilly that track and area is until you’ve climbed the hills!), but NEVER before have I done it straight-shot, up the hill. We did it with 3 stops…this allowed us to catch our breath, and gave us a great view of the track. And visit with other fans doing the same thing. The next morning, I’d get some daytime pics of the track, coming DOWN the hill for the track walk, but the night-time view was spectacular, too.
We did, however, beat the other 2 members of our group, relying on transportation, back to the campsite by at least an hour. So there IS a benefit to tackling Holy Hill. I just don’t want to do it more than once or twice in a weekend. LOL
After some visiting around the campground, we showered (note to those who haven’t camped at a race track before….the showers are always emptier after midnight…and always bring flipflops…you never know what whoever was in front of you left behind. LOL) and hit the sack, storing energy for the BIG day of the weekend.
Finally, one of the races I’d been really looking forward to all week. The LAST Nationwide race I had attended, coincidentally with Jeff, Carl had won the race…would our luck hold?
After dropping the other 2 off at the seats, Jeff and I headed up to our seats in Earnhardt Terrace to watch Cup qualifying…nice seats, cupholder and all, and we and the Aflac ducks enjoyed seeing Carl FINALLY get a pole this season…YAY, now he’ll be in the Shootout next year!!.
We skipped Nationwide qualifying as we had to go find the registration booth for the NASCAR Foundation Track Walk to report in for our track walk the next day….you’d think that would be easy, but at first we had the directions “Outside the main grandstand” (just which side is the main grandstand at Bristol??? It’s basically a bowl!! LOL) and then we found a flyer with more specific instructions, which we proceeded to misread as sign up was at Gate 9 (turns out it was, but only right before the track walk Saturday morning). However, there IS no marked Gate 9. It was the track entrance (where the haulers drive in), and, we found out, no-one there knew anything about the Trackwalk sign-up. We were then directed back up the hill to the Bruton Smith building, which we had passed on the way there on the tram, to enquire there…and FINALLY got some good directions…but in the end we circled the track once on foot inside, then again via tram and golf cart on the outside to find it. Thank God this wasn’t Daytona or Talladega!! How about some clearer directions next time, folks!!! LOL
The plus side of this “adventure”, I’ll call it, for lack of a better term, is that I finally got the “lay of the land” at Bristol in my head…I mean, I saw EVERY square inch of it!! LOL Having never been at a track as small (yet massive!) as Bristol, and being used to tracks that you can look at from the outside and definitively say “That’s the main grandstand” or “that’s the backstretch” (I mean, the seats circle this sucker, unlike all the other tracks I’ve been at where part of the backstretch has no seats!!), I had been having difficulty developing a mental map in my head of where everything is in relation to what turn….no more, this cured me of that. I even remembered later where I saw a Radio Shack booth, from our travels. LOL
Finally, it was race time, and we returned to our seats to enjoy the action.
Carl looked good right off, but some bad luck ended his night prematurely. Apparently one weak spot on a tire, coupled with hot brakes, and Carl was in the garage with everything from a broken track bar to something broken in the steering, according to what they were saying on the scanner. Go figure.
It’s sad to watch your guy come back out on the track and just make laps, too far down to gain any points but not wanting a DNF on his record. I was blue for quite a while. Then I started rooting for Greg Biffle, the next nearest Roush guy to the front…but in the end, I was quite happy to see Brad Keslowski win it. ABS. Anyone But Shrub. LOL
ESPECIALLY since the “talking heads” were making a big deal again about Kyle Busch running all 3 races at Bristol, and the chance he had for doing the triple…go ahead and keep talking about Kyle Busch, focus on him, because while he’s leading the points, Carl Edwards is quietly making it a race!!
(I feel I should insert here that, although I share the same last name as the Shrub, and we MAY be distantly related, I am in NO WAY a fan of his. In case you didn’t already get that. LOL)
After the race, the other two were going to use the Raceway Ministries transportation to get back to the campsite, so Jeff and I decided, after having had 2 days of basically relaxing, we were energetic enough that we were going to attempt Holy Hill, the shortest route to our campground…and the longest, steepest hill on the track grounds. I had a little bit of trepidation about this (I mean, even one of the Raceway Ministries guys said “Just change one letter in ‘Holy Hill’ and the name is more accurate!!!”), but I was game to try it once. I mean, so what if we stopped a few times on the way up...
Yeah, right!! I have climbed hills at NASCAR tracks all over the country (Sears Point, err, Infineon Raceway, comes to mind…you just have no idea HOW hilly that track and area is until you’ve climbed the hills!), but NEVER before have I done it straight-shot, up the hill. We did it with 3 stops…this allowed us to catch our breath, and gave us a great view of the track. And visit with other fans doing the same thing. The next morning, I’d get some daytime pics of the track, coming DOWN the hill for the track walk, but the night-time view was spectacular, too.
We did, however, beat the other 2 members of our group, relying on transportation, back to the campsite by at least an hour. So there IS a benefit to tackling Holy Hill. I just don’t want to do it more than once or twice in a weekend. LOL
After some visiting around the campground, we showered (note to those who haven’t camped at a race track before….the showers are always emptier after midnight…and always bring flipflops…you never know what whoever was in front of you left behind. LOL) and hit the sack, storing energy for the BIG day of the weekend.
SATURDAY -- Bristol, Cup Race Day!!
Track walk, Pit Road and CARL SPINS THE SHRUB!! (Oh yeah, and wins the race, too!!)
Race day dawned, and although Bristol’s weather had been remarkably mild to this point (80s during the daytime, 60s at night) we knew right off this was going to be the hottest day yet.
Jeff and I dressed and headed out, coffee in hand, while the other 2 were still dozing, down to the track for our track walk. I love doing these, when they are available…it’s just cool to get down on the track surface (or up, in the case of Bristol!! LOL) and see everything from the drivers’ points of view….and the money is usually for a good cause, and often some drivers join the crowd. Carl did at Gateway, and that was a small group, so we all got to walk with him, but there were at least 100 people here for this one, so I knew we wouldn’t do more than get glimpses of Dave Blaney, Joe Nemechek and Michael McDowell on this one. That’s o-kay, it’s still fun to do.
Arriving down at “Gate 9” we saw that people were already gathering, so we found a spot to sit and wait. Lola, who we had accidentally found the day before during our “searching for the Foundation tent” adventure, showed up shortly thereafter and we chatted a while, then Lola waved to someone she knew in the crowd…it was Emily!! So I got to meet 2 more Edheads.
Finally heading down, the first thing we saw before getting onto the track was Michael McDowell, sitting in the shade of the stands on his golf cart (because, believe me, even at 10 am, it was HOT!!!), so we snapped photos and got autographs, those who wanted them…then the organizers shooed Michael and the crowd onto the track to keep things from bottlenecking there…and we headed down.
Now, via pit passes and track walks, I’ve been on track surfaces before, but this was like walking down the side of a popcorn bowl!! Amazing!! And, as we walked on around into turn 3, it got so much steeper, it boggled the mind. So THAT’S what 36 degree banking feels like!! LOL
While standing on the banking and surveying the infield from that vantage point, another Edhead, seeing my Edhead t-shirt, approached me and introduced herself….WVRoushfan. She had her AFLAC duck along for the walk, cozily perched in her fanny pack (ours were still napping, too. LOL Sadly, we forgot them). It was great to meet her, too.
Walking on around, middle of turn 3 and 4 I gave up on balancing on the banking (after a pic or 2 at the top, of course. LOL) and headed down to the apron, which is also slightly banked in the corners, FYI….and I did a naughty thing...I couldn’t resist sticking a “Smile Bob” sticker on the wall. LOL Who knows, maybe a red flag would happen, and Carl would be parked there….and it’s just a vinyl sticker, it peels off. LOL
On around the track we went, checking out the quiet pit lanes, pit boxes all covered but ready to be set up by the crews later that day, and as I suspected, with his Pole position, Carl and the 99 crew had chosen the number one pit stall…almost directly in front of our seats!! AWESOME! Things were looking up, after the bad luck of the Nationwide race. Hopefully my and Carl’s luck would be better today.
After finishing up the track walk, we headed back to the campsite to cool down (taking the shuttles this time…no more Holy Hill for me!! LOL) and have a bite of lunch before I had to return to the track for my “track tour” aka pit lane access. Jeff offered to come down and wait for me, but I told him to just relax, I’m well-versed at getting around race tracks…and after our adventures yesterday, the layout was burned into my brain. I wouldn’t be getting lost. LOL
Now let me say, for these trips, Bubba and Raceway Ministries had told us to call them for any trip to the track, but as Jeff and I were able-bodied, we chose to do as the other able bodied folks (most of them) were doing…get there ourselves. Why burn their gas for special trips when it wasn’t the entire group?
Back down at “Gate 9”, I lined up with the other ONMC members signed up for the tour, and watched crewmen (and the occasional VIP, including Mike Helton…) enter and leave the track. I met another couple of Carl fans, whose camera was on the fritz, and got their contact info with a promise to share my pics from the time on pit lane with them.
Sadly, this wasn’t a Garage tour, with the tight confines down there, even ONMC couldn’t get a group in for that, but we got to do the traditional walk around and watch the crews getting raceday ready, from outside the pit walls, and some notables in NASCAR were being interviewed down there, so that was interesting. Kasey Kahne’s show car was down there on the track for fans to see and get their picture taken with….unless it’s the 99 car, I generally just keep on walking. LOL
I spent a bit of time, of course, watching the 99 guys working on the car and setting up the pit stall, then DJ Copp of NASCAR Now fame came by…I had previously been introduced to him in his pre-ESPN days, when he was a member of Carl’s 99 crew, so we chatted a bit, and I gave him a stack of “Smile Bob” stickers which he delivered to the 99 guys (who were out of reach thanks to barriers)…I hope they have some fun with them, and Bob Smiles. LOL
Finishing up (I could have stayed until they kicked everyone out, but after an hour in the heat, I was wiped out, and ready for a cold beverage) I left the track…should be easy, right, just walk out where we came in, under the grandstands where the haulers driver through, “Gate 9”.
Nope. They blocked that off, and directed us to either walk all the way down to turn 2 and go out there, or climb the stands and go out that way.
Well, since my campground was across the road from the end of the track we came in on, no WAY was I walking all the way down to turn 2, then back on the outside….1/2 mile track or no, my tootsies were tired.
So, a “Holy Hill” of my own, climbing 40+ rows up the grandstands to the exit into the Concourse….UGH!!
Who needs a stairmaster…I know I’m out of shape, but the thought that Carl Edwards routinely RUNS those stairs until his legs give out, I felt like such a wimp.
But after one stop half-way up, I finally emerged on the concourse….and made a B-line to the nearest cold beverage vendor.
$2 water never tasted so good! Neither did the beer that I had after that, for the trip back to the campsite…hey, it was 5 o’clock somewhere!!
One shuttle ride later, I found the boys lounging around in the shade by Bessie, looking remarkably rested compared to my sweaty mess (I had to use the facilities, but no way could I until I dried out a bit….trying to peel off and put back on jeans when you are sweat-drenched just creates MORE sweat! LOL). They’d even taken a nap, in preparation for the race that night….I was wishing I had time for a nap at this point, but that wasn’t to be.
After a while cooling down, and some yummy deer steak served by our host, an avid hunter, we headed back to the track with plenty of time to get to our seats and enjoy some of the pre-race festivities.
Race time, YAY!! It was lovely seeing Carl starting on the Pole…and the first few laps were great…until Juablo proved to be a problem. Carl spent lap after lap after lap trying to get by him, but Juan Pablo wouldn’t give up….I mean, just let him pass, then settle in behind him to pass other lap cars and be the Lucky Dog, if you are that fast!! Don’t continually block the leaders…I get that he was trying to keep from going a lap down, but he continued this action throughout the race, racing EVERYONE harder than he really needed to…I think numerous drivers were a little peeved at him by the time the race was half-way over.
This “battle”, for lack of a better term, finally resulted in Carl getting passed by the Shrub, who settled in to lead so long that with 100 laps to go, people started getting up and leaving, thinking the writing was on the wall, that the Shrub was going to win yet another one, and having no interest in watching that…probably thinking if that was going to happen, they might as well get a jump on the traffic, I guess.
Now, I’m not condemning those people, I did the same thing after Atlanta, when Carl, the winner’s main competition from the sheer number of laps Carl lead, blew an engine, and it was obvious no-one had anything for him, and in that case, I was right, but this night, I knew as long as Carl was running second to him, there was ALWAYS a chance he’d get by him….and he almost did on pit lane once, missing by only a hair. The 99 guys were AWESOME!!
On this night, those “Mystery Debris” cautions worked in the 99 team’s benefit (and I did see a truck go out and pick something up off the track every time…although we joked that it was usually just a wayward beer can, directed at the Shrub, who was stinking up the show) and Carl was FINALLY able to get the jump, with the help of the Bump and Run move that the Shrub has NO PROBLEM using liberally himself, and get around him, and just cruise to the end. AWESOME!!!
The cheers when Carl passed him were deafening, as were the cheers when he took the checkers….another flip!! That’s 3 in the 4 race weekends I’ve attended this season…it’s a good season to be an Edhead, that’s for sure, Carl is a threat to win at every track, something the TV talking heads keep over-looking….well, they can’t now. 6 wins to the Shrub’s 8…going for the Cup, Baby!!!
Added bonus, the Shrub decided to “voice his displeasure” at having a move HE uses all the time, used on him, and rubbed Carl pretty hard.
Well, several other drivers have tried that before, and although Carl’s a great guy, and nice, he’s not going to back down when someone does something like that to him. He’s no push-over.
The cheers when Carl came back and spun the Shrub were once again “raise the roof” loud….and the way the Shrub took off after him, I thought for sure the 99 car was going to be going to Victory Lane on a wrecker, with both drivers making a trip to “The Hauler”, but apparently the Shrub’s spotter/Crew chief got to him and calmed him down enough that he just headed to the garage.
That BRISTOL, BABY!! Check your emotions at the door, and learn to take what you dish out. You may be the star right now, Shrub, but none of these guys are going to cut you any slack when you act like a petulant child.
There was one down side to the night….our “semi-handicapped” host had his knee injured while waiting in line for the restroom, when a drunken fan fell into him….he gamely continued hobbling along, but with 2 false hips, one previously broken ankle and another broken ankle currently on the mend, doesn’t it just figure that HE would be the one knocked down, resulting in another injured joint. I mean, he’s running out of joints!
After a bit he was able to walk on it, and refused to let us flag down EMS to go to the hospital and get it checked out, and we got home fine, shuttles and golf carts getting us there, but he was pretty sore this morning…but still insisted on waiting until we got back to Iowa to get it checked out. I’m hoping that, although it’s sore, nothing serious is wrong with it, as he is still able to walk on it, but this man just has NO luck when it comes to joints and injuries….
The trip back to Iowa in Bessie was uneventful, and arriving at 5am Monday morning, we crashed. Monday was a “relax and hang out” day for Jeff and I, and too soon, it was Tuesday, and time to head back to California.
THAT trip was also uneventful, if long (2 hour lay-over in DFW), or WOULD have been, if the shuttle bus from LAX to Bakersfield hadn’t overheated in traffic…for the second time in a week, I smelt that sickly-sweet antifreeze smoke…and we spent 3 hours that night sitting at the side of an LA freeway, waiting for a replacement bus…sleeping on a bus is ALMOST as bad as trying to sleep on an airplane, but I FINALLY arrived home (after an entertaining time listening to the bus driver berate whoever was on the other end of the phone who decided that 14 people stranded at the side of an LA freeway was not an emergency, and waited 2 hours to send out the replacement bus!! He was NOT polite in his thoughts about that, and I won’t repeat here some of the words he used. LOL). I got a free shuttle ride out of it, so in the end, despite the loss of a night doing laundry, I was personally none the worse for wear….I could have been the lady on the bus who had spent all day, due to airline delays, trying to get home, only to get stranded by the freeway…I thought she was going to crack. LOL
Now, how to contain my urge to scrape up the cash to go to the Phoenix race in November….LOL
BUT, as my roommate reminded me tonight, Fontana is only a couple of hours down the road…and unless we’re scheduled to work Sunday night, we are both off work at 7am Sunday morning………………
Race day dawned, and although Bristol’s weather had been remarkably mild to this point (80s during the daytime, 60s at night) we knew right off this was going to be the hottest day yet.
Jeff and I dressed and headed out, coffee in hand, while the other 2 were still dozing, down to the track for our track walk. I love doing these, when they are available…it’s just cool to get down on the track surface (or up, in the case of Bristol!! LOL) and see everything from the drivers’ points of view….and the money is usually for a good cause, and often some drivers join the crowd. Carl did at Gateway, and that was a small group, so we all got to walk with him, but there were at least 100 people here for this one, so I knew we wouldn’t do more than get glimpses of Dave Blaney, Joe Nemechek and Michael McDowell on this one. That’s o-kay, it’s still fun to do.
Arriving down at “Gate 9” we saw that people were already gathering, so we found a spot to sit and wait. Lola, who we had accidentally found the day before during our “searching for the Foundation tent” adventure, showed up shortly thereafter and we chatted a while, then Lola waved to someone she knew in the crowd…it was Emily!! So I got to meet 2 more Edheads.
Finally heading down, the first thing we saw before getting onto the track was Michael McDowell, sitting in the shade of the stands on his golf cart (because, believe me, even at 10 am, it was HOT!!!), so we snapped photos and got autographs, those who wanted them…then the organizers shooed Michael and the crowd onto the track to keep things from bottlenecking there…and we headed down.
Now, via pit passes and track walks, I’ve been on track surfaces before, but this was like walking down the side of a popcorn bowl!! Amazing!! And, as we walked on around into turn 3, it got so much steeper, it boggled the mind. So THAT’S what 36 degree banking feels like!! LOL
While standing on the banking and surveying the infield from that vantage point, another Edhead, seeing my Edhead t-shirt, approached me and introduced herself….WVRoushfan. She had her AFLAC duck along for the walk, cozily perched in her fanny pack (ours were still napping, too. LOL Sadly, we forgot them). It was great to meet her, too.
Walking on around, middle of turn 3 and 4 I gave up on balancing on the banking (after a pic or 2 at the top, of course. LOL) and headed down to the apron, which is also slightly banked in the corners, FYI….and I did a naughty thing...I couldn’t resist sticking a “Smile Bob” sticker on the wall. LOL Who knows, maybe a red flag would happen, and Carl would be parked there….and it’s just a vinyl sticker, it peels off. LOL
On around the track we went, checking out the quiet pit lanes, pit boxes all covered but ready to be set up by the crews later that day, and as I suspected, with his Pole position, Carl and the 99 crew had chosen the number one pit stall…almost directly in front of our seats!! AWESOME! Things were looking up, after the bad luck of the Nationwide race. Hopefully my and Carl’s luck would be better today.
After finishing up the track walk, we headed back to the campsite to cool down (taking the shuttles this time…no more Holy Hill for me!! LOL) and have a bite of lunch before I had to return to the track for my “track tour” aka pit lane access. Jeff offered to come down and wait for me, but I told him to just relax, I’m well-versed at getting around race tracks…and after our adventures yesterday, the layout was burned into my brain. I wouldn’t be getting lost. LOL
Now let me say, for these trips, Bubba and Raceway Ministries had told us to call them for any trip to the track, but as Jeff and I were able-bodied, we chose to do as the other able bodied folks (most of them) were doing…get there ourselves. Why burn their gas for special trips when it wasn’t the entire group?
Back down at “Gate 9”, I lined up with the other ONMC members signed up for the tour, and watched crewmen (and the occasional VIP, including Mike Helton…) enter and leave the track. I met another couple of Carl fans, whose camera was on the fritz, and got their contact info with a promise to share my pics from the time on pit lane with them.
Sadly, this wasn’t a Garage tour, with the tight confines down there, even ONMC couldn’t get a group in for that, but we got to do the traditional walk around and watch the crews getting raceday ready, from outside the pit walls, and some notables in NASCAR were being interviewed down there, so that was interesting. Kasey Kahne’s show car was down there on the track for fans to see and get their picture taken with….unless it’s the 99 car, I generally just keep on walking. LOL
I spent a bit of time, of course, watching the 99 guys working on the car and setting up the pit stall, then DJ Copp of NASCAR Now fame came by…I had previously been introduced to him in his pre-ESPN days, when he was a member of Carl’s 99 crew, so we chatted a bit, and I gave him a stack of “Smile Bob” stickers which he delivered to the 99 guys (who were out of reach thanks to barriers)…I hope they have some fun with them, and Bob Smiles. LOL
Finishing up (I could have stayed until they kicked everyone out, but after an hour in the heat, I was wiped out, and ready for a cold beverage) I left the track…should be easy, right, just walk out where we came in, under the grandstands where the haulers driver through, “Gate 9”.
Nope. They blocked that off, and directed us to either walk all the way down to turn 2 and go out there, or climb the stands and go out that way.
Well, since my campground was across the road from the end of the track we came in on, no WAY was I walking all the way down to turn 2, then back on the outside….1/2 mile track or no, my tootsies were tired.
So, a “Holy Hill” of my own, climbing 40+ rows up the grandstands to the exit into the Concourse….UGH!!
Who needs a stairmaster…I know I’m out of shape, but the thought that Carl Edwards routinely RUNS those stairs until his legs give out, I felt like such a wimp.
But after one stop half-way up, I finally emerged on the concourse….and made a B-line to the nearest cold beverage vendor.
$2 water never tasted so good! Neither did the beer that I had after that, for the trip back to the campsite…hey, it was 5 o’clock somewhere!!
One shuttle ride later, I found the boys lounging around in the shade by Bessie, looking remarkably rested compared to my sweaty mess (I had to use the facilities, but no way could I until I dried out a bit….trying to peel off and put back on jeans when you are sweat-drenched just creates MORE sweat! LOL). They’d even taken a nap, in preparation for the race that night….I was wishing I had time for a nap at this point, but that wasn’t to be.
After a while cooling down, and some yummy deer steak served by our host, an avid hunter, we headed back to the track with plenty of time to get to our seats and enjoy some of the pre-race festivities.
Race time, YAY!! It was lovely seeing Carl starting on the Pole…and the first few laps were great…until Juablo proved to be a problem. Carl spent lap after lap after lap trying to get by him, but Juan Pablo wouldn’t give up….I mean, just let him pass, then settle in behind him to pass other lap cars and be the Lucky Dog, if you are that fast!! Don’t continually block the leaders…I get that he was trying to keep from going a lap down, but he continued this action throughout the race, racing EVERYONE harder than he really needed to…I think numerous drivers were a little peeved at him by the time the race was half-way over.
This “battle”, for lack of a better term, finally resulted in Carl getting passed by the Shrub, who settled in to lead so long that with 100 laps to go, people started getting up and leaving, thinking the writing was on the wall, that the Shrub was going to win yet another one, and having no interest in watching that…probably thinking if that was going to happen, they might as well get a jump on the traffic, I guess.
Now, I’m not condemning those people, I did the same thing after Atlanta, when Carl, the winner’s main competition from the sheer number of laps Carl lead, blew an engine, and it was obvious no-one had anything for him, and in that case, I was right, but this night, I knew as long as Carl was running second to him, there was ALWAYS a chance he’d get by him….and he almost did on pit lane once, missing by only a hair. The 99 guys were AWESOME!!
On this night, those “Mystery Debris” cautions worked in the 99 team’s benefit (and I did see a truck go out and pick something up off the track every time…although we joked that it was usually just a wayward beer can, directed at the Shrub, who was stinking up the show) and Carl was FINALLY able to get the jump, with the help of the Bump and Run move that the Shrub has NO PROBLEM using liberally himself, and get around him, and just cruise to the end. AWESOME!!!
The cheers when Carl passed him were deafening, as were the cheers when he took the checkers….another flip!! That’s 3 in the 4 race weekends I’ve attended this season…it’s a good season to be an Edhead, that’s for sure, Carl is a threat to win at every track, something the TV talking heads keep over-looking….well, they can’t now. 6 wins to the Shrub’s 8…going for the Cup, Baby!!!
Added bonus, the Shrub decided to “voice his displeasure” at having a move HE uses all the time, used on him, and rubbed Carl pretty hard.
Well, several other drivers have tried that before, and although Carl’s a great guy, and nice, he’s not going to back down when someone does something like that to him. He’s no push-over.
The cheers when Carl came back and spun the Shrub were once again “raise the roof” loud….and the way the Shrub took off after him, I thought for sure the 99 car was going to be going to Victory Lane on a wrecker, with both drivers making a trip to “The Hauler”, but apparently the Shrub’s spotter/Crew chief got to him and calmed him down enough that he just headed to the garage.
That BRISTOL, BABY!! Check your emotions at the door, and learn to take what you dish out. You may be the star right now, Shrub, but none of these guys are going to cut you any slack when you act like a petulant child.
There was one down side to the night….our “semi-handicapped” host had his knee injured while waiting in line for the restroom, when a drunken fan fell into him….he gamely continued hobbling along, but with 2 false hips, one previously broken ankle and another broken ankle currently on the mend, doesn’t it just figure that HE would be the one knocked down, resulting in another injured joint. I mean, he’s running out of joints!
After a bit he was able to walk on it, and refused to let us flag down EMS to go to the hospital and get it checked out, and we got home fine, shuttles and golf carts getting us there, but he was pretty sore this morning…but still insisted on waiting until we got back to Iowa to get it checked out. I’m hoping that, although it’s sore, nothing serious is wrong with it, as he is still able to walk on it, but this man just has NO luck when it comes to joints and injuries….
The trip back to Iowa in Bessie was uneventful, and arriving at 5am Monday morning, we crashed. Monday was a “relax and hang out” day for Jeff and I, and too soon, it was Tuesday, and time to head back to California.
THAT trip was also uneventful, if long (2 hour lay-over in DFW), or WOULD have been, if the shuttle bus from LAX to Bakersfield hadn’t overheated in traffic…for the second time in a week, I smelt that sickly-sweet antifreeze smoke…and we spent 3 hours that night sitting at the side of an LA freeway, waiting for a replacement bus…sleeping on a bus is ALMOST as bad as trying to sleep on an airplane, but I FINALLY arrived home (after an entertaining time listening to the bus driver berate whoever was on the other end of the phone who decided that 14 people stranded at the side of an LA freeway was not an emergency, and waited 2 hours to send out the replacement bus!! He was NOT polite in his thoughts about that, and I won’t repeat here some of the words he used. LOL). I got a free shuttle ride out of it, so in the end, despite the loss of a night doing laundry, I was personally none the worse for wear….I could have been the lady on the bus who had spent all day, due to airline delays, trying to get home, only to get stranded by the freeway…I thought she was going to crack. LOL
Now, how to contain my urge to scrape up the cash to go to the Phoenix race in November….LOL
BUT, as my roommate reminded me tonight, Fontana is only a couple of hours down the road…and unless we’re scheduled to work Sunday night, we are both off work at 7am Sunday morning………………
Gateway, here come the Diehard Edheads!!
Thursday July 17, 2008
By the time we left to pick Jamie Jo up, we were sweaty, slightly sunburnt, and dirt-covered, but it was a blast!! We were the last fans to leave.
And I have to say something. Those Cell Phone parking lots at airports now? FABULOUS idea!! We just sat there until Jamie Jo texted she had her luggage, then drove in and picked her up…actually, we saw her Northwest Airlines flight land just before she texted, so we waved as it went by. LOL
Back at the hotel, we caught up (I hadn’t seen Jamie Jo in more than a year, at the Edfest on the All-Star weekend in Charlotte), hung out and relaxed (and showered off the track dirt and cooled off, in Jeff’s and my case!), then met up with Buz and Robin, who also arrived around 6pm, to go for dinner.
A nice dinner at Ruby Tuesday’s, and long talk, and we all separated for the night to sleep and get ready for the next day. Buz would be busy helping his grandson get ready for the race the next night, but the rest of us were driving to Columbia, MO, home of Carl Edwards, to shop at IB Nuts and Racing, a shop that specializes in snacks and all things Edwards, then to lunch at PCYC Home Port with local Edheads.
Exhausted from our travels and dirt track adventure, we dropped off to sleep almost as soon as our heads hit our respective pillows.
Hold on to your hats, kids, this one is a LITTLE more personal!! At least, to start…
After a wonderful (but short) visit home to Canada to see my family, I arrived in St. Louis Thursday morning, July 17th, and Jeff met me at the airport. He has called this day “The first day of the rest of our lives” but I was a little more cautious, as I have been most of my life when it comes to affairs of the heart. My attitude was more “Wait and see” laced with excitement.
You see, this race weekend was a little more special for me. It was also my first actual meeting with a man I have been “e-dating” for 6 months (since the NASCAR season started, funnily enough), who I had chatted NASCAR with on-line for years prior to that, and with whom we were both surprised to find, on getting to know each other better, I had a lot in common with, and visa versa.
Thus, there was both excitement and nervousness in the air. We knew what each other looked like after exchanged photos, and how each other thought after numerous nights spent chatting about anything and everything in the past 6 months, but I still knew there would be some awkwardness when we met, at least on my part. Even though I already considered myself part of a couple, the actual reality of it was looming. This was the test…were we REALLY as compatible as it seemed in all our talks??
Coming through airport security, I immediately spotted Jeff, leaning against a pillar, watching the security exit, wearing an “Old skool” t-shirt (a play on a nickname he’s had for years). My “Canadian Women have more fun, eh?” t-shirt would have identified him to me, even if he had not seen numerous photos already. The hug came easily, and we found ourselves finally seeing each other. It was a monumental moment.
After a quick smoke (smoking is bad, kids, BAD!!! And it’s easier never to start than to try to quit, as millions of smokers will attest) while waiting for my checked luggage, we proceeded out on the roads of St. Louis with me in navigator/spotter position, something I am quite used to after my numerous race weekends with LeadfootRN, who prefers to drive also.
Finding our hotel and checking in, we then found this little hole-in-the-wall BBQ place and had lunch, and proceeded to try to figure out what to do for the next few hours, before Jamie Jo’s plane arrived and we had to return to the airport to pick her up. By this time, we had begun to find the rhythm of our long talks on-line, and were more comfortable together. And it turned out the question of what to do was a no-brainer….Some of the Wallaces and a few other drivers were doing some media appearances and a signing at Tri-City Raceway in Pontoon Beach, Il, where we were headed the next night to cheer on my buddy’s grandson, Roger Kaido, in his (much rain-delayed) debut in a UMP Crate Late Model race.
For 2 race fans, it really WAS a no-brainer.
So off to Tri-City Raceway, where we found not only the drivers signing, but some fellow Diehard Edheads: Buz, Roger and Chase Kaido, and Jennifer and her sons Andy and David. (I’m proud of myself!! I remembered all their names!! I always remember a face, but names…somehow they tend to elude me.) It was funny how Jennifer recognized me without having ever met me (I guess my photo HAS been on the message boards more than a few times. LOL)
So we enjoyed the autograph session and media sessions, and watched as Kenny, Stephen, Mike Wallace and David Stremme took turns running a couple of 2-seater cars around the dirt track giving the media rides.
After a wonderful (but short) visit home to Canada to see my family, I arrived in St. Louis Thursday morning, July 17th, and Jeff met me at the airport. He has called this day “The first day of the rest of our lives” but I was a little more cautious, as I have been most of my life when it comes to affairs of the heart. My attitude was more “Wait and see” laced with excitement.
You see, this race weekend was a little more special for me. It was also my first actual meeting with a man I have been “e-dating” for 6 months (since the NASCAR season started, funnily enough), who I had chatted NASCAR with on-line for years prior to that, and with whom we were both surprised to find, on getting to know each other better, I had a lot in common with, and visa versa.
Thus, there was both excitement and nervousness in the air. We knew what each other looked like after exchanged photos, and how each other thought after numerous nights spent chatting about anything and everything in the past 6 months, but I still knew there would be some awkwardness when we met, at least on my part. Even though I already considered myself part of a couple, the actual reality of it was looming. This was the test…were we REALLY as compatible as it seemed in all our talks??
Coming through airport security, I immediately spotted Jeff, leaning against a pillar, watching the security exit, wearing an “Old skool” t-shirt (a play on a nickname he’s had for years). My “Canadian Women have more fun, eh?” t-shirt would have identified him to me, even if he had not seen numerous photos already. The hug came easily, and we found ourselves finally seeing each other. It was a monumental moment.
After a quick smoke (smoking is bad, kids, BAD!!! And it’s easier never to start than to try to quit, as millions of smokers will attest) while waiting for my checked luggage, we proceeded out on the roads of St. Louis with me in navigator/spotter position, something I am quite used to after my numerous race weekends with LeadfootRN, who prefers to drive also.
Finding our hotel and checking in, we then found this little hole-in-the-wall BBQ place and had lunch, and proceeded to try to figure out what to do for the next few hours, before Jamie Jo’s plane arrived and we had to return to the airport to pick her up. By this time, we had begun to find the rhythm of our long talks on-line, and were more comfortable together. And it turned out the question of what to do was a no-brainer….Some of the Wallaces and a few other drivers were doing some media appearances and a signing at Tri-City Raceway in Pontoon Beach, Il, where we were headed the next night to cheer on my buddy’s grandson, Roger Kaido, in his (much rain-delayed) debut in a UMP Crate Late Model race.
For 2 race fans, it really WAS a no-brainer.
So off to Tri-City Raceway, where we found not only the drivers signing, but some fellow Diehard Edheads: Buz, Roger and Chase Kaido, and Jennifer and her sons Andy and David. (I’m proud of myself!! I remembered all their names!! I always remember a face, but names…somehow they tend to elude me.) It was funny how Jennifer recognized me without having ever met me (I guess my photo HAS been on the message boards more than a few times. LOL)
So we enjoyed the autograph session and media sessions, and watched as Kenny, Stephen, Mike Wallace and David Stremme took turns running a couple of 2-seater cars around the dirt track giving the media rides.
By the time we left to pick Jamie Jo up, we were sweaty, slightly sunburnt, and dirt-covered, but it was a blast!! We were the last fans to leave.And I have to say something. Those Cell Phone parking lots at airports now? FABULOUS idea!! We just sat there until Jamie Jo texted she had her luggage, then drove in and picked her up…actually, we saw her Northwest Airlines flight land just before she texted, so we waved as it went by. LOL
Back at the hotel, we caught up (I hadn’t seen Jamie Jo in more than a year, at the Edfest on the All-Star weekend in Charlotte), hung out and relaxed (and showered off the track dirt and cooled off, in Jeff’s and my case!), then met up with Buz and Robin, who also arrived around 6pm, to go for dinner.
A nice dinner at Ruby Tuesday’s, and long talk, and we all separated for the night to sleep and get ready for the next day. Buz would be busy helping his grandson get ready for the race the next night, but the rest of us were driving to Columbia, MO, home of Carl Edwards, to shop at IB Nuts and Racing, a shop that specializes in snacks and all things Edwards, then to lunch at PCYC Home Port with local Edheads.
Exhausted from our travels and dirt track adventure, we dropped off to sleep almost as soon as our heads hit our respective pillows.
Home Port, Edheads, and Talent on Dirt.
Friday July 18, 2008
Friday morning dawned sunny and hot (funny how this weekend always seems to fall during a heat wave in MO!) and we headed out for Columbia. It’s a nice drive, and arriving at IB Nuts and Racing, we found Aimee, Jean Marie, Jan and Commodore awaiting us. Browsing through, I was disappointed to find that there was very little Kenny Edwards stuff on display…talking to the lady behind the counter, we found that Kenny had a load of t-shirts in his car, and that he would be in around 2pm, so we planned to come back after lunch. I wanted that Kenny Edwards t-shirt I should have bought 2 years ago!!
But for anyone who is in the Columbia area and desires autographed Carl Edwards things, he occasionally stops in there and signs things to leave to be sold to fans, and there are mementos of Carl’s racing on the walls…so look up IB Nuts and Racing in Columbia, MO, officially known as “IB Fruits and Nuts, Too” http://www.ibnuts.com/servlet/the-template/locator/Page And who knows when you might run into an Edwards boy there.
So loaded up on snacks and Carl Edwards items, after having enjoyed the items on display there (a side of Carl’s truck from when he ran the Truck series, trophies, photos, etc) we headed down the road to Home Port.
Perche Creek Yacht Club. A club like no other. Many of us were already members, the remainder wanted to BECOME members. http://www.percheyc.com/
Meeting up with Commodore, who had gone on ahead, and MK, his lovely wife, we proceeded to enjoy Home Port’s wonderful home cooking and the company of our fellow Edheads. The new members submitted their applications, and I sponsored Jeff on his application, earning myself a gold PCYC pin. Yay!!
Lunch passed too quickly, and Commodore then dipped into his “Everything Edwards” goodie bag, handing out miscellaneous prizes for drawings. Commodore Comedy Network calendars, photos, pins etc. were drawn for and everyone got a prize, and lots of pins.
Before we knew it, it was time to head back to St. Louis, but first, a trip back by IB Nuts and Racing to see if Kenny brought his new t-shirts in.
No go. Sadly, they were in his other vehicle, (don’t we all know what THAT is like!!), but we got to meet up with Kenny Edwards, Carl’s little brother, and chat with him a bit, then we headed back to St. Louis. Part of the group was headed to Gateway Raceway for practice for the next day’s Nationwide race, but my group was headed to Tri-City Raceway for our role as Roger Kaido fans. This was going to be fun!!
Arriving at the track, we nabbed seats at the turn 4 end of the grandstands to have a view of the garage outside the track as well as the track. One quick phone call, and Buz joined us from the backstretch, were Roger’s pit was.
The report was that they were having problems with an oil leak…on Roger’s feet. But the young man was soldiering on. Can you imagine how slippery that must have been….sure sometimes you have to deal with a slick track, but slick floorboards???? I’m sure the leak wasn’t THAT bad, but that’s what I imagined.
A $5 pair of plastic goggles and $2 rental of seats with backs were the best investment of the day….we thoroughly enjoyed all the races, but the highlight for us was of course watching this (almost) 14 year old, racing older kids and men, man-handle a car around the track, avoiding the wrecks and picking off positions, starting 18th (of 23 cars) and finishing a respectable 11th place (would have been 10th had the car that spun before the start finish line not backed over it before Roger got there) and keeping the car under control on a track that seemed, to me, to get slicker as the night wore on.
Roger did an AWESOME job, but was disappointed in himself, because he held back a bit, this being his only race car and not wanting to get involved in someone else’s wreck his first time out….he just wished he could have gone all-out, but wisely and maturely realized that could keep him out of other races, if he damaged the car. Roger could teach the likes of Stephen Wallace and Kyle Busch a thing or two, maturity-wise.
Later, watching David Stremme, David Ragan, Stephen and Mike Wallace, Kenny Schrader, and Andy Petree race in the final race (Kenny Wallace chose to be flagman) topped off the night, and we headed home after congratulating Roger on his run, coated in dirt (I’m still picking it out of my ears!!) and happy. There’s no better way to spend a Friday night before a NASCAR race than at the racetrack!!
Friday morning dawned sunny and hot (funny how this weekend always seems to fall during a heat wave in MO!) and we headed out for Columbia. It’s a nice drive, and arriving at IB Nuts and Racing, we found Aimee, Jean Marie, Jan and Commodore awaiting us. Browsing through, I was disappointed to find that there was very little Kenny Edwards stuff on display…talking to the lady behind the counter, we found that Kenny had a load of t-shirts in his car, and that he would be in around 2pm, so we planned to come back after lunch. I wanted that Kenny Edwards t-shirt I should have bought 2 years ago!!
But for anyone who is in the Columbia area and desires autographed Carl Edwards things, he occasionally stops in there and signs things to leave to be sold to fans, and there are mementos of Carl’s racing on the walls…so look up IB Nuts and Racing in Columbia, MO, officially known as “IB Fruits and Nuts, Too” http://www.ibnuts.com/servlet/the-template/locator/Page And who knows when you might run into an Edwards boy there.
So loaded up on snacks and Carl Edwards items, after having enjoyed the items on display there (a side of Carl’s truck from when he ran the Truck series, trophies, photos, etc) we headed down the road to Home Port.
Perche Creek Yacht Club. A club like no other. Many of us were already members, the remainder wanted to BECOME members. http://www.percheyc.com/
Meeting up with Commodore, who had gone on ahead, and MK, his lovely wife, we proceeded to enjoy Home Port’s wonderful home cooking and the company of our fellow Edheads. The new members submitted their applications, and I sponsored Jeff on his application, earning myself a gold PCYC pin. Yay!!
Lunch passed too quickly, and Commodore then dipped into his “Everything Edwards” goodie bag, handing out miscellaneous prizes for drawings. Commodore Comedy Network calendars, photos, pins etc. were drawn for and everyone got a prize, and lots of pins.
Before we knew it, it was time to head back to St. Louis, but first, a trip back by IB Nuts and Racing to see if Kenny brought his new t-shirts in.
No go. Sadly, they were in his other vehicle, (don’t we all know what THAT is like!!), but we got to meet up with Kenny Edwards, Carl’s little brother, and chat with him a bit, then we headed back to St. Louis. Part of the group was headed to Gateway Raceway for practice for the next day’s Nationwide race, but my group was headed to Tri-City Raceway for our role as Roger Kaido fans. This was going to be fun!!
Arriving at the track, we nabbed seats at the turn 4 end of the grandstands to have a view of the garage outside the track as well as the track. One quick phone call, and Buz joined us from the backstretch, were Roger’s pit was.
The report was that they were having problems with an oil leak…on Roger’s feet. But the young man was soldiering on. Can you imagine how slippery that must have been….sure sometimes you have to deal with a slick track, but slick floorboards???? I’m sure the leak wasn’t THAT bad, but that’s what I imagined.
A $5 pair of plastic goggles and $2 rental of seats with backs were the best investment of the day….we thoroughly enjoyed all the races, but the highlight for us was of course watching this (almost) 14 year old, racing older kids and men, man-handle a car around the track, avoiding the wrecks and picking off positions, starting 18th (of 23 cars) and finishing a respectable 11th place (would have been 10th had the car that spun before the start finish line not backed over it before Roger got there) and keeping the car under control on a track that seemed, to me, to get slicker as the night wore on.
Roger did an AWESOME job, but was disappointed in himself, because he held back a bit, this being his only race car and not wanting to get involved in someone else’s wreck his first time out….he just wished he could have gone all-out, but wisely and maturely realized that could keep him out of other races, if he damaged the car. Roger could teach the likes of Stephen Wallace and Kyle Busch a thing or two, maturity-wise.
Later, watching David Stremme, David Ragan, Stephen and Mike Wallace, Kenny Schrader, and Andy Petree race in the final race (Kenny Wallace chose to be flagman) topped off the night, and we headed home after congratulating Roger on his run, coated in dirt (I’m still picking it out of my ears!!) and happy. There’s no better way to spend a Friday night before a NASCAR race than at the racetrack!!
Gateway: Tailgating, Trackwalking, and Nationwide was on our side!!
Saturday July 19, 2008
An hour later, we were in and setting up camp, holding a couple of spots for others still to arrive….
By 1:30pm we were in line waiting for the gates to open. Carl was to have a signing at his souvenir hauler, and we wanted to get in right away to get tickets for it. Jamie Jo was ESPECIALLY vocal about this, fearing that we wouldn’t get there in time and not having been to a Carl signing in a LOONNNGGGG time. A couple in our group had season passes, and as such were allowed through 30 minutes before the rest of us, Jennifer being one of them, so she headed in to get in line for tickets.
And BEFORE they started letting the general masses in (supposedly at 2pm, but it was 2:09pm before they let us pass) Jennifer called me and told me the tickets were all gone. Turns out they had been handing them out all day Friday, too, and there were only a few left.
Thanks Gateway. That sucks that something like that can happen. Would it have HURT them to let us ALL in at 1:30pm??? That was just unfair.
However, a bright spot…over the PA system came the announcement that the track walk, set to start at 2:15pm (again, they COULD have timed that better and gotten more participants, if they had held it 30 minutes later…we had to almost run to get there in time) would include Mike Wallace, Landen Cassill and CARL EDWARDS!!! YAY!!
Rushing down there, the half a dozen or so of us who chose to do it arrived just in time to make the walk with Carl, and let me tell you, that was SOOOO much better than waiting in a hot line-up for a few seconds with him at his signing later that afternoon. Plus, we could still get pics of him and listen to his Q&A at the signing, from the crowd out front.
It was relaxed and casual, and Mike Wallace, being a Wallace and possessing a wicked sense of humor, just HAD to comment on my t-shirt, made especially for this event:
Credit: Jeff Meyer
“Hey, if he [Carl] wins, will you take off the shirt???” causing Carl and everyone else to laugh, and Carl to say “THAT would be a good promotion!!” Hey, taking it off WOULD be easier than actually doing a back flip myself!!
I enjoy track walks anyway, but it was especially fun with Carl and Mike Wallace (who, at one point, rallied a few of the fans walking behind Carl and his group to up and run past him, “tour-de-France” style, commenting “These young guys are just so out of shape!!” or something to that effect, then hopping on a golf cart and riding a short bit. LMAO!!), and too quickly it was over, and the drivers all peeled off for their various haulers, Carl saying he need to grab some lunch. I got to talk to Carl’s PR guy, Randy Fuller, and it turns out Kate was there, but kept a low profile, so I didn’t see her myself, but a few of the others chatted with her, too.
Back at the tailgating site, we all cooled off (multiple bottles of Vitamin water all around!) and I was thankful for the neck cooler wraps I had picked up at a local drug store, as were several others, because the heat was really getting to us, despite the shade of our awnings. Relaxing and enjoying the company, other Edheads popping by to visit as the afternoon progressed, enjoying Buz’s wife’s home cooking and BBQ’d goodies. How could it be any better?
We went back in to enjoy Carl’s signing at his souvenir hauler after he qualifyied in 3rd position for the race. Michelle took Jennifer’s ticket to get Carl’s signature because Jennifer’s boys had spent the afternoon on the Fan Walk getting drivers autographs, and had gotten Carl’s on the track walk, as we all had, and didn’t want to stand in the hot line. The rest of us stood out front and chatted back and forth with Carl.
Then, he DID IT AGAIN!! Like 2 years ago, when he won at this track, his home track, he invited all Edheads to join him in Victory Lane. He seems to only do that when he has a good car and a good feeling about the race (and knows there is a group of Edheads gathering). Jamie Jo called out “Don’t make promises you can’t keep!!” and he seriously looked at her and said something along the lines of he did it 2 years ago, and they were there, and he wanted us there again, if he won.
So we started formulating a plan. Buz and I, being the 2 adults in the group who had been here 2 years ago and were part of the group privileged to get into Victory Lane with Carl when he won, had already gotten re-aquainted with the security guard who had helped get us in then, and Buz went to talk to him again this time when we came in for the race, telling him what Carl had said. I know this gave that guard heartburn, because he had had to work hard to get us in 2 years ago, but being a diehard Carl fan himself, he was game to help us again.
Piling into the stands, the anticipation in the Edhead camp was buzzing. It just felt like it was going to be a good night, we just KNEW it!!
The race started out with a wimper, in that the track had a power surge, and lost power, and was running on generator power immediately after Driver Intros were completed…the only reason we knew the National Anthem was on (plus many of the drivers and teams, as evidenced by the milling around during the Anthem on TV) was that someone noticed the Jumbotron showing her singing it. The PA system was out, the scoring pylon was dark, and there were several dark patches of lights around the track.
The flyover?
Actually, the flyover was the 2 inch long dragon fly who flew over our heads at that same instant….So fast, I couldn’t get the camera focused on it…those darn flyovers are so impressive, but over so fast. LOL
But the race must go on, and it started without the PA system, or functioning yellow and red lights (so the drivers had to rely on their spotters and seeing the flag to know if a caution came out) and with a couple of dark spots visible around the track:
but by the time the first caution came out, they seemed to have the power issues at least patched up, and we could hear the broadcast over the PA system.
The race itself was AWESOME for a Carl Edwards fan, as he never ran lower than 7th, and his closest competition (the 99, 88, 17) all suffered problems that dropped them out of the race…It looked a little bit there at the end that Joey Lagano might have something for him, but Carl just drove away from him.
12 laps to go, using hand signals, I indicated to the nearest Edhead to pass on to their next Edhead that with 10 to go, we were going down front, ready to witness the flip. The message passed through the group like a wave through a crowd.
Jamie Jo insists she was a nervous wreck those final 10 laps, and Robin almost refused to go down front, afraid that would jinx Carl, but me, I was calm. Somehow that Labor nurse intuition, the one that sometimes tells me exactly when a baby is going to come, just told me he was going to do it. I just knew it. I couldn’t explain it. I just knew.
10 laps to go, down front we went, some to stand in the crowd at the railing (the security wasn’t allowing people down by the fence), some to sit in the first couple of rows.
Those last 10 laps went by FAST!! And before we knew it we were at the railing, to view the flip over the heads of the crowd down at the fence…even the security guards were snapping pics, as you can see from the video…the big guy in the neon yellow shirt keeping people off the ladder up to the flag stand?? See, he pulls out his cell phone to snap a pic of the flip himself….Edheads are EVERYWHERE!! Too bad he would prove to be one of the hurdles we had to overcome to get to our invited spot in Victory Lane.
As the crowd started to thin, and after all the spotters had come through, we assembled at the gate at the start/finish line with several Dream Factory people (the parents of the boy who was to receive the trophy Carl always gives away to a child somewhere) and a bunch of Save A Lot people, who worked for Carl’s sponsor but didn’t have credentials to get in, either, and seemed to think that the “no credentials, no passage” rule shouldn’t apply to them, as employees of the winning sponsor.
You see, after our invited excursion to Victory Lane 2 years ago, Gateway Raceway decided NO ONE was going to do that again, driver invite or no. No credentials, no admittance.
We were polite and patient, the epitome of a good Edhead, and Buz made a deal and went down with our security guard friend to Victory Lane to try to find someone to get us in (Had to drop his long shorts down, making it look like he was losing them, to meet his socks, still under his long t-shirt, because the security guard made noises about how he wasn't wearing long pants...made us laugh, and the security guard just rolled his eyes and waved him in LOL!!), while Jennifer called Aimee, already in with credentials, to see what she could do from the inside. Aimee told Randy Fuller, Carl’s PR guy and witness to Carl’s invite at the earlier signing, and he called out to someone to go get us in.
No go.
Finally Buz cam back with permission for us to go in, and we started filing through, after letting the Dream Factory people go.
Unfortunately, half-way through our group, the security guards got cranky and cut us off, so those of us who got through tried to find help.
Carl Edwards Sr went back to try to help, as did Tom Giacchi (of “Shave Tom” fame)….but what FINALLY got everyone in was Tom went over the security guards’ heads, to someone high up in the Nationwide series. This man proceeded to use the security guards radio to inform those higher ups in the Gateway Raceway security heirarchy that when NASCAR is at the track, NASCAR is in charge of who gets in or not.
NATIONWIDE WAS ON OUR SIDE! YAY!!
We watched as Carl wrote something on the trophy he gave to a Dream Factory child:
And posed for NUMEROUS photos with various sponsor hats on (the infamous “Hat Dance”):
And then it was our turn. 
Credit: Michelle Alexander
Of course, I had to turn around and show off the back of my shirt, which made even Carl laugh: 
All in all, a WONDERFUL day. Although, if Carl is going to continue to invite the Edheads to Victory Lane whenever he wins Gateway, we’re going to have to get something set up to get us in, because Cowboy, our security guard friend, came perilously close to losing his job just to get us in.
It was an AWESOME race weekend, topped off for me by the new experience of attending the race as part of a couple, an experience I found I totally enjoyed…but then again, that may just have been because of the other half of the couple. And yes, we really ARE as compatible as we thought.
Race day dawned sunny and, you guessed it…HOT!!! It was going to be a steamy scorcher, but I’ve come to expect nothing else when it comes to this race weekend.
Loading up into the car, Jeff, Jamie Jo, Robin and I buzzed through McDonald’s for a more substantial breakfast than the hotel offered (there’s only so many muffins I can eat and I want something more, especially when looking at a long day at the track!) and it seemed our luck was turning. You see, Thursday night at Ruby Tuesday’s, when I went to pay for dinner, a sum of money fell out of my purse and under the booth table, and I didn’t realize it until the next day when I went looking for it…someone on the cleaning staff of Ruby Tuesday’s in Collinsville, Ill, ended that night VERY happy!!!
THEN Friday night, I went to upload my pictures to my computer, many of which had been taken over 2 days getting coated in dirt at Tri City Raceway…and the memory card failed and got erased. Having had a memory card accidentally erased before, I didn’t panic. I knew that as long as I didn’t take more photos on it, at least some of the photos could be retrieved, so I went to my back-up memory card for the rest of the weekend.
So having had 2 episodes of bad luck already this weekend, I was leery, waiting for the third to occur. Bad luck just ALWAYS seems to happen in 3s, I’ve seen it over and over through the years. So we were pleasantly surprised when we made it to Micky D’s JUST in time for breakfast…right after we ordered, they turned the menu over to lunch. YAY!!
Off to the track we went, and pulled into the south entrance of the parking lot in which we were to try to get together with all the other Diehard Edheads attending today, for tailgating. We parked to wait for admittance, and I headed up the line after calling Aimee and finding out that Michelle and some others were already in line. In short order I found them (they were easily identifiable by their Edhead shirts, and again, they all recognized me immediately). We chatted a bit, and then I returned to my group to wait for them to open the gates.
Loading up into the car, Jeff, Jamie Jo, Robin and I buzzed through McDonald’s for a more substantial breakfast than the hotel offered (there’s only so many muffins I can eat and I want something more, especially when looking at a long day at the track!) and it seemed our luck was turning. You see, Thursday night at Ruby Tuesday’s, when I went to pay for dinner, a sum of money fell out of my purse and under the booth table, and I didn’t realize it until the next day when I went looking for it…someone on the cleaning staff of Ruby Tuesday’s in Collinsville, Ill, ended that night VERY happy!!!
THEN Friday night, I went to upload my pictures to my computer, many of which had been taken over 2 days getting coated in dirt at Tri City Raceway…and the memory card failed and got erased. Having had a memory card accidentally erased before, I didn’t panic. I knew that as long as I didn’t take more photos on it, at least some of the photos could be retrieved, so I went to my back-up memory card for the rest of the weekend.
So having had 2 episodes of bad luck already this weekend, I was leery, waiting for the third to occur. Bad luck just ALWAYS seems to happen in 3s, I’ve seen it over and over through the years. So we were pleasantly surprised when we made it to Micky D’s JUST in time for breakfast…right after we ordered, they turned the menu over to lunch. YAY!!
Off to the track we went, and pulled into the south entrance of the parking lot in which we were to try to get together with all the other Diehard Edheads attending today, for tailgating. We parked to wait for admittance, and I headed up the line after calling Aimee and finding out that Michelle and some others were already in line. In short order I found them (they were easily identifiable by their Edhead shirts, and again, they all recognized me immediately). We chatted a bit, and then I returned to my group to wait for them to open the gates.
An hour later, we were in and setting up camp, holding a couple of spots for others still to arrive….By 1:30pm we were in line waiting for the gates to open. Carl was to have a signing at his souvenir hauler, and we wanted to get in right away to get tickets for it. Jamie Jo was ESPECIALLY vocal about this, fearing that we wouldn’t get there in time and not having been to a Carl signing in a LOONNNGGGG time. A couple in our group had season passes, and as such were allowed through 30 minutes before the rest of us, Jennifer being one of them, so she headed in to get in line for tickets.
And BEFORE they started letting the general masses in (supposedly at 2pm, but it was 2:09pm before they let us pass) Jennifer called me and told me the tickets were all gone. Turns out they had been handing them out all day Friday, too, and there were only a few left.
Thanks Gateway. That sucks that something like that can happen. Would it have HURT them to let us ALL in at 1:30pm??? That was just unfair.
However, a bright spot…over the PA system came the announcement that the track walk, set to start at 2:15pm (again, they COULD have timed that better and gotten more participants, if they had held it 30 minutes later…we had to almost run to get there in time) would include Mike Wallace, Landen Cassill and CARL EDWARDS!!! YAY!!
Rushing down there, the half a dozen or so of us who chose to do it arrived just in time to make the walk with Carl, and let me tell you, that was SOOOO much better than waiting in a hot line-up for a few seconds with him at his signing later that afternoon. Plus, we could still get pics of him and listen to his Q&A at the signing, from the crowd out front.
It was relaxed and casual, and Mike Wallace, being a Wallace and possessing a wicked sense of humor, just HAD to comment on my t-shirt, made especially for this event:
Credit: Jeff MeyerI enjoy track walks anyway, but it was especially fun with Carl and Mike Wallace (who, at one point, rallied a few of the fans walking behind Carl and his group to up and run past him, “tour-de-France” style, commenting “These young guys are just so out of shape!!” or something to that effect, then hopping on a golf cart and riding a short bit. LMAO!!), and too quickly it was over, and the drivers all peeled off for their various haulers, Carl saying he need to grab some lunch. I got to talk to Carl’s PR guy, Randy Fuller, and it turns out Kate was there, but kept a low profile, so I didn’t see her myself, but a few of the others chatted with her, too.
Back at the tailgating site, we all cooled off (multiple bottles of Vitamin water all around!) and I was thankful for the neck cooler wraps I had picked up at a local drug store, as were several others, because the heat was really getting to us, despite the shade of our awnings. Relaxing and enjoying the company, other Edheads popping by to visit as the afternoon progressed, enjoying Buz’s wife’s home cooking and BBQ’d goodies. How could it be any better?
We went back in to enjoy Carl’s signing at his souvenir hauler after he qualifyied in 3rd position for the race. Michelle took Jennifer’s ticket to get Carl’s signature because Jennifer’s boys had spent the afternoon on the Fan Walk getting drivers autographs, and had gotten Carl’s on the track walk, as we all had, and didn’t want to stand in the hot line. The rest of us stood out front and chatted back and forth with Carl.
Then, he DID IT AGAIN!! Like 2 years ago, when he won at this track, his home track, he invited all Edheads to join him in Victory Lane. He seems to only do that when he has a good car and a good feeling about the race (and knows there is a group of Edheads gathering). Jamie Jo called out “Don’t make promises you can’t keep!!” and he seriously looked at her and said something along the lines of he did it 2 years ago, and they were there, and he wanted us there again, if he won.
So we started formulating a plan. Buz and I, being the 2 adults in the group who had been here 2 years ago and were part of the group privileged to get into Victory Lane with Carl when he won, had already gotten re-aquainted with the security guard who had helped get us in then, and Buz went to talk to him again this time when we came in for the race, telling him what Carl had said. I know this gave that guard heartburn, because he had had to work hard to get us in 2 years ago, but being a diehard Carl fan himself, he was game to help us again.
Piling into the stands, the anticipation in the Edhead camp was buzzing. It just felt like it was going to be a good night, we just KNEW it!!
The race started out with a wimper, in that the track had a power surge, and lost power, and was running on generator power immediately after Driver Intros were completed…the only reason we knew the National Anthem was on (plus many of the drivers and teams, as evidenced by the milling around during the Anthem on TV) was that someone noticed the Jumbotron showing her singing it. The PA system was out, the scoring pylon was dark, and there were several dark patches of lights around the track.
The flyover?
But the race must go on, and it started without the PA system, or functioning yellow and red lights (so the drivers had to rely on their spotters and seeing the flag to know if a caution came out) and with a couple of dark spots visible around the track:
but by the time the first caution came out, they seemed to have the power issues at least patched up, and we could hear the broadcast over the PA system.The race itself was AWESOME for a Carl Edwards fan, as he never ran lower than 7th, and his closest competition (the 99, 88, 17) all suffered problems that dropped them out of the race…It looked a little bit there at the end that Joey Lagano might have something for him, but Carl just drove away from him.
12 laps to go, using hand signals, I indicated to the nearest Edhead to pass on to their next Edhead that with 10 to go, we were going down front, ready to witness the flip. The message passed through the group like a wave through a crowd.
Jamie Jo insists she was a nervous wreck those final 10 laps, and Robin almost refused to go down front, afraid that would jinx Carl, but me, I was calm. Somehow that Labor nurse intuition, the one that sometimes tells me exactly when a baby is going to come, just told me he was going to do it. I just knew it. I couldn’t explain it. I just knew.
10 laps to go, down front we went, some to stand in the crowd at the railing (the security wasn’t allowing people down by the fence), some to sit in the first couple of rows.
Those last 10 laps went by FAST!! And before we knew it we were at the railing, to view the flip over the heads of the crowd down at the fence…even the security guards were snapping pics, as you can see from the video…the big guy in the neon yellow shirt keeping people off the ladder up to the flag stand?? See, he pulls out his cell phone to snap a pic of the flip himself….Edheads are EVERYWHERE!! Too bad he would prove to be one of the hurdles we had to overcome to get to our invited spot in Victory Lane.
As the crowd started to thin, and after all the spotters had come through, we assembled at the gate at the start/finish line with several Dream Factory people (the parents of the boy who was to receive the trophy Carl always gives away to a child somewhere) and a bunch of Save A Lot people, who worked for Carl’s sponsor but didn’t have credentials to get in, either, and seemed to think that the “no credentials, no passage” rule shouldn’t apply to them, as employees of the winning sponsor.
You see, after our invited excursion to Victory Lane 2 years ago, Gateway Raceway decided NO ONE was going to do that again, driver invite or no. No credentials, no admittance.
We were polite and patient, the epitome of a good Edhead, and Buz made a deal and went down with our security guard friend to Victory Lane to try to find someone to get us in (Had to drop his long shorts down, making it look like he was losing them, to meet his socks, still under his long t-shirt, because the security guard made noises about how he wasn't wearing long pants...made us laugh, and the security guard just rolled his eyes and waved him in LOL!!), while Jennifer called Aimee, already in with credentials, to see what she could do from the inside. Aimee told Randy Fuller, Carl’s PR guy and witness to Carl’s invite at the earlier signing, and he called out to someone to go get us in.
No go.
Finally Buz cam back with permission for us to go in, and we started filing through, after letting the Dream Factory people go.
Unfortunately, half-way through our group, the security guards got cranky and cut us off, so those of us who got through tried to find help.
Carl Edwards Sr went back to try to help, as did Tom Giacchi (of “Shave Tom” fame)….but what FINALLY got everyone in was Tom went over the security guards’ heads, to someone high up in the Nationwide series. This man proceeded to use the security guards radio to inform those higher ups in the Gateway Raceway security heirarchy that when NASCAR is at the track, NASCAR is in charge of who gets in or not.
NATIONWIDE WAS ON OUR SIDE! YAY!!
Thank you, Mr. Nationwide, for helping us, a lowly group of fans. We know you likely had more important things to do.
Finally the Diehards and Edheads were assembled in Victory Lane, where we watched the Hat Dance, and talked to Carl Sr, Nancy Sterling, Tom, Randy, Kate, and gave the 60 crew a round of applause as they rolled the car by to the hauler…and just generally enjoyed being there. We continued to be well-behaved (note to fellow fans should you ever be lucky enough to get admission to the pits or Victory lane or any inner sanctum of NASCAR…polite people get invited back. Obnoxious and/or drunken fans do not, and tend to get ejected ASAP), staying out of the way as Carl did the required photos, and waiting patiently while he went to the media center to fulfill his media obligations.
That’s when Kate saw me and my distinctive shirt, and asked me with a laugh if I was going to take it off!! LOL I said “Oh, Carl told you about that” and she said “No I was there!!” which surprised me, as I had not seen her in the crowd. I assured her that, although a flip would be too difficult for me, no, I was NOT going to take my shirt off. LOL
As we waited, Roger Kaido dreamed a bit:
Finally the Diehards and Edheads were assembled in Victory Lane, where we watched the Hat Dance, and talked to Carl Sr, Nancy Sterling, Tom, Randy, Kate, and gave the 60 crew a round of applause as they rolled the car by to the hauler…and just generally enjoyed being there. We continued to be well-behaved (note to fellow fans should you ever be lucky enough to get admission to the pits or Victory lane or any inner sanctum of NASCAR…polite people get invited back. Obnoxious and/or drunken fans do not, and tend to get ejected ASAP), staying out of the way as Carl did the required photos, and waiting patiently while he went to the media center to fulfill his media obligations.
That’s when Kate saw me and my distinctive shirt, and asked me with a laugh if I was going to take it off!! LOL I said “Oh, Carl told you about that” and she said “No I was there!!” which surprised me, as I had not seen her in the crowd. I assured her that, although a flip would be too difficult for me, no, I was NOT going to take my shirt off. LOL
As we waited, Roger Kaido dreamed a bit:
Credit: Michelle AlexanderAll in all, a WONDERFUL day. Although, if Carl is going to continue to invite the Edheads to Victory Lane whenever he wins Gateway, we’re going to have to get something set up to get us in, because Cowboy, our security guard friend, came perilously close to losing his job just to get us in.It was an AWESOME race weekend, topped off for me by the new experience of attending the race as part of a couple, an experience I found I totally enjoyed…but then again, that may just have been because of the other half of the couple. And yes, we really ARE as compatible as we thought.
Buses, Flyovers, and BOB SMILES!!!!
Infineon Raceway, June 22, 2008
Well, THIS race day was a new one for me. We chose, rather than driving to the track, paying the astronomical gas prices, and getting a hotel room for the night, to bus it…found a local tour group that had a deal for bus trip and tickets, all for about what I’ve paid in the past for tickets at other tracks!! It was AWESOME!!
Well, the 6+ hours each way, making stops to pick up other NASCAR fans, WAS slightly sanity-testing, (I DID get my nails manicured, something I hadn’t gotten around to before leaving! LOL) but it was still great to be able to nap when we could (really hard to nap sitting up, though…the bus was pretty full) and not have to worry about all that. We watched the sun rise over the mountains…and the gas prices rise as we got further north. Thank GOD we didn’t have to worry about that on this day!!
Of course, we went the extra mile and got pit passes/driver intro passes, too. After last year’s fiasco with buying tickets last minute, and thinking we were also purchasing pit passes (through a secondary vendor), only to find out we bought a second set of tickets, I didn’t take any chances this time…got them directly from the track.
Arriving there on a sunny and warm day (a wonderful change from the previous days in Sonoma, which apparently were as hot as they were in Harvickland, where I currently reside, hitting triple-digits…and a remarkable change from the LAST time I was at a race track!! Thank GOD!!) with a nice cool breeze, we wasted no time picking up our pit passes and getting down there.
Well, THIS race day was a new one for me. We chose, rather than driving to the track, paying the astronomical gas prices, and getting a hotel room for the night, to bus it…found a local tour group that had a deal for bus trip and tickets, all for about what I’ve paid in the past for tickets at other tracks!! It was AWESOME!!
Well, the 6+ hours each way, making stops to pick up other NASCAR fans, WAS slightly sanity-testing, (I DID get my nails manicured, something I hadn’t gotten around to before leaving! LOL) but it was still great to be able to nap when we could (really hard to nap sitting up, though…the bus was pretty full) and not have to worry about all that. We watched the sun rise over the mountains…and the gas prices rise as we got further north. Thank GOD we didn’t have to worry about that on this day!!
Of course, we went the extra mile and got pit passes/driver intro passes, too. After last year’s fiasco with buying tickets last minute, and thinking we were also purchasing pit passes (through a secondary vendor), only to find out we bought a second set of tickets, I didn’t take any chances this time…got them directly from the track.
Arriving there on a sunny and warm day (a wonderful change from the previous days in Sonoma, which apparently were as hot as they were in Harvickland, where I currently reside, hitting triple-digits…and a remarkable change from the LAST time I was at a race track!! Thank GOD!!) with a nice cool breeze, we wasted no time picking up our pit passes and getting down there.
(I was kicking myself as I looked at this pic....why didn't I look to see who's pit box that was attached to??? WHO IS 'BEAK'??? LOL)Being on someone else’s schedule to get there, we only had limited pit lane time, but were still able to stroll along, taking in the sights and sounds…ahhh, pit lane on race day morning, there’s nothing like it!! I still wonder, though, how some of these “women” get in there, where supposedly long pants and closed-toe shoes as well as no exposed shoulders is the standard rule, in their mini skirts and bikinis….
After wandering up and down pit lane, getting our fix of the race day aura of controlled chaos as crews set up pit boxes and put their cars through inspection, LeadfootRN and I split up, she to go up to our seats to watch the driver intros from there (her knee was bothering her, and she didn’t feel like hiking back around to the area where they let us in for Driver Intros) and I headed down there, to wait with the rest of the crowd.
While waiting, we were treated to an airshow, which I surprisingly got not one, but 3 good (one particularly surprising) shots of:
After wandering up and down pit lane, getting our fix of the race day aura of controlled chaos as crews set up pit boxes and put their cars through inspection, LeadfootRN and I split up, she to go up to our seats to watch the driver intros from there (her knee was bothering her, and she didn’t feel like hiking back around to the area where they let us in for Driver Intros) and I headed down there, to wait with the rest of the crowd.
While waiting, we were treated to an airshow, which I surprisingly got not one, but 3 good (one particularly surprising) shots of:
Once in, we enjoyed a Rolling Stones cover band (whatever…bring on the drivers!! Let’s go racing!!! LOL) and I chatted with a lady beside me sporting a 99 ticket lanyard, who was new to the driver intros deal, so I told her what to expect…she had a much more professional camera than I did, and was bound and determined to get close up shots of Carl and a few others of her favorites…20/20 hindsight, I should have given her my e-mail, asked if she’d be willing to share some of her pics. Oh well.
Sitting there on the pit wall, well, the track wall, pit wall was actually about 6 feet behind us, beside the 99 car (of course we 99 fans had gravitated to it! LOL)
Sitting there on the pit wall, well, the track wall, pit wall was actually about 6 feet behind us, beside the 99 car (of course we 99 fans had gravitated to it! LOL)
we just enjoyed the balmy weather and chatted, and that’s when Sandie found me….the “Official Edhead” t-shirt gave me away. Well, that and most Edheads who frequent the RFR boards know what I look like…my pic has been on there a FEW times. LOL
So we chatted for a while, she’s a fellow nurse also, from the San Fran area, and I look forward to looking her up when I finally move up that way…we had a good time, even though it seemed like it was taking forever for intros to get under way!!!
The 99 crew started lining up on pit wall behind us, and we were surprised and pleased to see Bob there with them…
So we chatted for a while, she’s a fellow nurse also, from the San Fran area, and I look forward to looking her up when I finally move up that way…we had a good time, even though it seemed like it was taking forever for intros to get under way!!!
The 99 crew started lining up on pit wall behind us, and we were surprised and pleased to see Bob there with them…
And Edhead teamwork kicked in….Sandie called “Bob!” and got his attention, poised with her camera for a pic…but I thought the soberly curious face he turned our way would just never do, so I called out “Smile Bob!!” and VOILA!! It’s a “Bob Smile”. Success!! :D
Finally Driver intros got under way, and in no time as they reached the top 10, I was split between snapping pics of the drivers as they came down the stage in front of us, and turning around and snapping pics of them as they came around the track on their trucks and dismounted behind us…busy busy!! I LOVED it!! Felt like I was TRULY in the middle of everything!!! (If you want more than Carl pics, you'll have to check out the album linked below...I AM an Edhead, after all!! LOL)
Race time, Sandie and her friend and I separated to head to our seats, and after fending off a guy who thought a gal by herself under the stands was fair game for a pick-up attempt (NOT!!!), I grabbed some burgers and beers and joined LeadfootRN in our seats…
The race itself, from an Edhead standpoint, was AWESOME, listening to Bob encourage Carl as he passed car after car, heading to the front, and they adjusted their strategy because the car was running so good, trying to extend their run to have more fuel for the end….
And then, they got bitten. The caution came out after a bunch of cars had already pitted, and Carl hadn’t. Normally, on regular oval tracks, this would have benefitted Carl and team, putting those cars who had just pitted a lap down, where they would have ended up after they pitted…but not on the long winding road course. As a result of this half a lap too soon caution, Carl went from second place to 10th…GRRR!!
But again, he headed forward, picking off cars, and eventually got those 5 bonus points for leading….only to be bitten yet again by the same thing. THIS time, he went back to 20th. How is a fan supposed to keep her hopes up when her guy has the fastest car out there, but keeps getting put back because strategy bit him????
Disheartened, and knowing that there was little chance Carl could pass 19 cars in the laps remaining (and indeed, he even lost a couple of spots at first), I headed out to the bus…we only had 30 minutes after the finish to get out there, and on the hills at Sonoma, I hate to be rushed, and LeadfootRN, with her sore knee, had already headed out there for the same reason….so, scanner still tuned to the 99 team’s frequency, I trudged out.
But again, he headed forward, picking off cars, and eventually got those 5 bonus points for leading….only to be bitten yet again by the same thing. THIS time, he went back to 20th. How is a fan supposed to keep her hopes up when her guy has the fastest car out there, but keeps getting put back because strategy bit him????
Disheartened, and knowing that there was little chance Carl could pass 19 cars in the laps remaining (and indeed, he even lost a couple of spots at first), I headed out to the bus…we only had 30 minutes after the finish to get out there, and on the hills at Sonoma, I hate to be rushed, and LeadfootRN, with her sore knee, had already headed out there for the same reason….so, scanner still tuned to the 99 team’s frequency, I trudged out.
You see, having been awake since 1 am, and it now being around 4pm in the afternoon or so, I was wiped…I had hit the wall of exhaustion. Didn’t even see it coming. T-boned me. One minute I’m happily cheering Carl and crew on to what was surely to be a top 5 finish, if not a win, then commiserating with him at the bad luck, the next…UGH…No energy!! I just needed to sit somewhere quiet and listen to the end of the race.
So we did, and heard that Carl managed to claw his way back to a top 10 finish, which alleviated SOME of my disappointment, but when your guy has the car to beat, it never totally helps that he has a great come-back but still doesn’t win.
The rest of the bus group showed up in good time, and we got out before the bulk of the race traffic, so other than extreme stiffness from trying to nap sitting up (basically, losing consciousness…LF maintains I was snoring…I don’t snore!! Wheeze a little, heavy breath a little, maybe, but snore…nope. LOL)
The ride home was uneventful (Of course it was…I was unconscious for at least 50% of it!!). I can see this bus thing being the wave of the future for NASCAR attendees….it really does take a load off, and is much more affordable, with gas prices the way they are today. That being said, for me, it’s only good for same-day races, not entire race weekends. I really do prefer to be in control of when I arrive and leave. The early bird gets the worm!! AND, had Carl actually won…it would have been hard to tear myself away from the Victory Lane scene!!
So we did, and heard that Carl managed to claw his way back to a top 10 finish, which alleviated SOME of my disappointment, but when your guy has the car to beat, it never totally helps that he has a great come-back but still doesn’t win.
The rest of the bus group showed up in good time, and we got out before the bulk of the race traffic, so other than extreme stiffness from trying to nap sitting up (basically, losing consciousness…LF maintains I was snoring…I don’t snore!! Wheeze a little, heavy breath a little, maybe, but snore…nope. LOL)
The ride home was uneventful (Of course it was…I was unconscious for at least 50% of it!!). I can see this bus thing being the wave of the future for NASCAR attendees….it really does take a load off, and is much more affordable, with gas prices the way they are today. That being said, for me, it’s only good for same-day races, not entire race weekends. I really do prefer to be in control of when I arrive and leave. The early bird gets the worm!! AND, had Carl actually won…it would have been hard to tear myself away from the Victory Lane scene!!
Diehards, Dukes…and SNOW????
Atlanta Motor Speedway, March 2008
Saturday March 8th
Friday en route to Atlanta was an uneventful travel day from the Left coast for me, and after Jean Marie arrived, I finally ran out of steam and fell asleep before Tracy got there. At least I got my beauty sleep…for what would turn out to be a test of my Canadian blood, thinned from long time spent on the South side of North America.
Saturday morning, we crawled out of our warm beds bright and early and congregated at the hotel’s continental breakfast area, where I finally met Tracy…and we realized simultaneously that despite a long time hanging out on the same Carl Edwards internet message boards but not in “real life”, we had actually MET a couple of times before, on pit lanes of different race tracks! Pit lane is REALLY a small world!
After enjoying a breakfast to help insulate ourselves from the cold weather outside, we headed to the track bright and early to make the most of what time we had on pit lane.
Arriving there, we bundled up in our winter woolies, and headed off through the fan area, where we spotted the General Lee for the first of several times that weekend.
At turn 4, we managed to flag down a golf cart to give us a ride to the infield and pit lane…little did we know that that ride would be an adventure, in that, as we arrived at the gate to pit lane, the heavens suddenly opened up.
Rain? Nope, that would be too mundane. We suddenly found ourselves in a WHITE OUT, so pronounced by the Canadian in the group!!! Couldn’t see our hands in front of our faces. The picture doesn't do it justice, because at it's worst, I was on a golf cart, and my camera was in my jacket, being protected from the snow. On the way to the track, first flurries, which cleared up for a bit:
Saturday March 8th
Friday en route to Atlanta was an uneventful travel day from the Left coast for me, and after Jean Marie arrived, I finally ran out of steam and fell asleep before Tracy got there. At least I got my beauty sleep…for what would turn out to be a test of my Canadian blood, thinned from long time spent on the South side of North America.
Saturday morning, we crawled out of our warm beds bright and early and congregated at the hotel’s continental breakfast area, where I finally met Tracy…and we realized simultaneously that despite a long time hanging out on the same Carl Edwards internet message boards but not in “real life”, we had actually MET a couple of times before, on pit lanes of different race tracks! Pit lane is REALLY a small world!
After enjoying a breakfast to help insulate ourselves from the cold weather outside, we headed to the track bright and early to make the most of what time we had on pit lane.
Arriving there, we bundled up in our winter woolies, and headed off through the fan area, where we spotted the General Lee for the first of several times that weekend.
At turn 4, we managed to flag down a golf cart to give us a ride to the infield and pit lane…little did we know that that ride would be an adventure, in that, as we arrived at the gate to pit lane, the heavens suddenly opened up.
Rain? Nope, that would be too mundane. We suddenly found ourselves in a WHITE OUT, so pronounced by the Canadian in the group!!! Couldn’t see our hands in front of our faces. The picture doesn't do it justice, because at it's worst, I was on a golf cart, and my camera was in my jacket, being protected from the snow. On the way to the track, first flurries, which cleared up for a bit:
Hopping off the cart, with my camera safely tucked inside my coat, I helped Tracy cover her babies (cameras) to protect them from what was a wet snow, and we hoofed it through the infield to pit lane…
By the time we got to the Busch garage, the snow was lightening up, and Tracy headed off to her assignment while Jean-Marie and I decided to wander down pit lane.
After a while, we found ourselves at the food stand, and ordering some hot beverages, we ducked around the side of the building to use it as a windbreak for a while…when suddenly
THE SUN CAME OUT! HALLELUJIA!!
Gradually, the weather improved, although it never quite got warm.
Back down on pit lane, another beautiful sight awaited us. The weather had delayed all on-track activities, but the first thing we saw upon returning to pit lane was the Nationwide crews, pushing the pit boxes out onto pit lane, lead by the 60 team! YAY!!
Before to long, pit lane was a beehive of activity, and we soon found Tracy again, snapping pics to her hearts content.
Now I’ve never truly met any NASCAR legends, drivers of the past, but this day would break that trend for me. At the 00 pit box, Jean-Marie and I ended up talking to Buzzy Reutimann, and I shook his hand. Cool meeting someone who raced back in the day, even if it was more non-NASCAR racing than NASCAR. Just wish I had a pic of us, but there were too many people around by this time.
As race time approached, we said good-by to Tracy, and headed up into the stands. Our seats were AWESOME, right up from the start/finish line, and, as luck would have it, straight across from the 60 pit stall.
Or rather, Jean-Marie’s seat. Upon going up there with her, and seeing how much better her view was than mine would be out of turn 1, I chose to occupy an unoccupied seat with her. The stands were far from full, so this was no problem.
By now the sun was out, just some puffy clouds in the sky, and if it weren’t for the cold wind, we’d have been able to totally ditch our winter duds. How windy was it? This flag NEVER drooped:
But we were at the races, so we soldiered on!
The race itself was AWESOME as usual.
After the race, we rendezvoused at the 99 souvenir hauler, instructed to look for an older, balding man….Tracy would join up with us there after her time on pit lane, and Perry was going to meet us.
Standing to the side of the crowds at the 99 hauler (the crowds for all things 99/60 just keep getting bigger and bigger!!) we noticed a man in khakis with a hat on, on the other side of the crowd. Tracy’s description hadn’t taken into account the chilly weather.
After a short time standing on our separate sides of the crowd, waiting for Tracy to show up to make introductions, I finally walked over and asked him if he was Perry. And he was.
We made chit chat for a while, getting to know each other, and Aimee called, so she chatted with Perry, too, and finally, dragging, her arms inches longer and thicker than they had been that morning, after a day of hoisting her cameras on pit lane, Tracy straggled up…
We escorted Perry to his car, and enjoyed some of his pics, then hopped in our vehicles in search of a place to eat something substantial…Tracy admitted she hadn’t had anything all day but a couple of bananas.
We headed for TGIFridays, where Glenn, Tracy’s photographer friend, joined us, and had a great time just talking and sharing photos we had taken and just generally having fun, while filling up on great food.
Back at the hotel, we congregated in Tracy’s room, Perry now off, headed for home, and had a “Photo Party”, sharing our downloaded pics, and generally just relaxed, before it was time to crawl into our respective beds for the night.
Another fabulous (if frigid!) raceday!
More Diehards, Dukes and Disappointment
Sunday March 9th
“I know you don’t mind if I call you Matt, but if you call me Bob one more time…." Then they made the rounds of radios, each saying “Hi Bob!” pretty much confirming Bob Osborne may not have been at the track, but he was listening. I imagine Trackpass was frustrating him with their 5-7 (or more) second delay.
Once Carl’s car was out of the race (blown engine, with the typical let-down…this was the 3rd time in the past 6 months I had attended a race that Carl blew an engine in…in fact, I think it was only the 3rd time total that Carl had lost an engine in a race…geez, if it weren’t for the fact that Carl had won the race in Las Vegas last week when I was there, I’d be thinking I’m bad luck for Carl!!), I made an “executive decision” and headed for the rental car, which was on the other side of the track from me. It was obvious to me who would win, my gut told me Kyle Busch’s luck would hold this day, and I didn’t feel like facing race traffic by myself after a long race weekend, so it was time to vamoose.
Oh, before you express your disappointment in me as a NASCAR fan, let it be known, the first thing I did (O-kay, SECOND, after firing up the heater!!) when I got into the rental car was find the MRN station on the radio. I listened to the rest of the race as I drove to the hotel, and as I pulled into the parking lot, the Shrub was pulling into Victory Lane. I’m glad I listened to my gut and left…when the other fans leaving the track were fighting the traffic, I was cozy in my (lacking of internet…yup, my SECOND race weekend in a row in digs that had malfunctioning internet!) lovely hotel room, watching the post-race coverage on TV, and checking out my pics. So there!
All in all, this was a fabulous race weekend, meeting wonderful people I had only met on-line before, marred only by Carl’s engine problems (he WOULD have won his third in a row otherwise!!) and the cold, and my Canadian blood rose to the challenge with the latter. Another first time at a track checked off the list…next, Bristol. And not just Bristol…the Bristol night race!! But first, a couple of little pit stops at Infineon and Gateway.
It’s gonna be a LOOONG time until June rolls around, for this gal used to attending around 8 races a year the past couple of years.
Hoping for warmer weather, we awoke to a bright sunny day. But sadly, still cold, and the wind whipped up again later that morning. I guess I was doomed to the weirdest farmer’s tan I have ever had…just my face and hands.
As Tracy and Jean-Marie were destined to leave the race early this day, Tracy to catch her flight and Jean-Marie to head back to the warmth of Florida, we took separate cars, and arrived at the crack of “Pit lane just opening”…in time to see the General Lee with his unconventional (or not, considering the surroundings) driver being pulled in, presumably in preparation for the stunt planned for pre-race:
As Tracy and Jean-Marie were destined to leave the race early this day, Tracy to catch her flight and Jean-Marie to head back to the warmth of Florida, we took separate cars, and arrived at the crack of “Pit lane just opening”…in time to see the General Lee with his unconventional (or not, considering the surroundings) driver being pulled in, presumably in preparation for the stunt planned for pre-race:
In hot pursuit:
Upon entry, we found that pit lane was as busy as always on Sunday morning. We quickly found the 99 pit stall, where I dropped off a little CCN (Commodore Comedy Network, available through the RoushFenway Racing message boards) special story for the guys…something about the AFLAC Duck riding along with Carl to Victory, only to be spun afterwards on pit lane by Mark Martin, who was just telling them congratulations. Funnily enough, this race would also be the race where the new AFLAC commercial, with the Duck driving the car to victory with Carl in the passenger seat, aired. CCN’s editor in chief, Commodore, is typically closed-mouthed about the coincidence.
Proceeding down a few stalls, we chatted with Cameron, one of the crew guys on the 17 team, formerly of the 60 Nationwide team. He’s a really nice guy, and it was fun hanging out with him, but I suspected we were keeping him from work he had to do, even though he didn’t seem to mind!!
After this, we wandered happily along pit lane, just enjoying the atmosphere, and too soon it was time to head to my seat. Bidding Jean-Marie and Tracy good-bye, as I wouldn’t see them again before they left, and their seats were in another area, I headed up to the stands.
Emerging from the tunnel to the infield, I heard the crowd roar…and walking down to the fence, was able to fire up my trusty Canon just in time to catch the General Lee, Bo Duke (John Schneider) at the wheel, performing the pre-race stunt, resulting in Roscoe P Coltrane (not really, it was a stunt driver) in a Sheriff’s car on it’s side on the tri-oval grass, leaving a huge divet!! Of course, the stunt driver was fine, and my favorite Duke emerged from the General Lee not 50 feet from me!! AWESOME!!
Proceeding down a few stalls, we chatted with Cameron, one of the crew guys on the 17 team, formerly of the 60 Nationwide team. He’s a really nice guy, and it was fun hanging out with him, but I suspected we were keeping him from work he had to do, even though he didn’t seem to mind!!
After this, we wandered happily along pit lane, just enjoying the atmosphere, and too soon it was time to head to my seat. Bidding Jean-Marie and Tracy good-bye, as I wouldn’t see them again before they left, and their seats were in another area, I headed up to the stands.
Emerging from the tunnel to the infield, I heard the crowd roar…and walking down to the fence, was able to fire up my trusty Canon just in time to catch the General Lee, Bo Duke (John Schneider) at the wheel, performing the pre-race stunt, resulting in Roscoe P Coltrane (not really, it was a stunt driver) in a Sheriff’s car on it’s side on the tri-oval grass, leaving a huge divet!! Of course, the stunt driver was fine, and my favorite Duke emerged from the General Lee not 50 feet from me!! AWESOME!!
After the Dukes display, I headed down front for Driver Intros…I had known that after the Dukes of Hazzard, John Schneider had had a signing career of sorts, and he was part of the pre-race entertainment musically, also.
Of course, I snapped tons of photos in driver intros:
Of course, I snapped tons of photos in driver intros:
The race was awesome…right up until Carl’s engine went south. Prior to that, listening in on the scanner, I wondered how many times Carl would call Robbie “Bob” before Robbie made a comment…and I wasn’t disappointed.
Under Caution, Robbie finally addressed this issue, I paraphrase:
Under Caution, Robbie finally addressed this issue, I paraphrase:
“I know you don’t mind if I call you Matt, but if you call me Bob one more time…." Then they made the rounds of radios, each saying “Hi Bob!” pretty much confirming Bob Osborne may not have been at the track, but he was listening. I imagine Trackpass was frustrating him with their 5-7 (or more) second delay.
Once Carl’s car was out of the race (blown engine, with the typical let-down…this was the 3rd time in the past 6 months I had attended a race that Carl blew an engine in…in fact, I think it was only the 3rd time total that Carl had lost an engine in a race…geez, if it weren’t for the fact that Carl had won the race in Las Vegas last week when I was there, I’d be thinking I’m bad luck for Carl!!), I made an “executive decision” and headed for the rental car, which was on the other side of the track from me. It was obvious to me who would win, my gut told me Kyle Busch’s luck would hold this day, and I didn’t feel like facing race traffic by myself after a long race weekend, so it was time to vamoose.
Oh, before you express your disappointment in me as a NASCAR fan, let it be known, the first thing I did (O-kay, SECOND, after firing up the heater!!) when I got into the rental car was find the MRN station on the radio. I listened to the rest of the race as I drove to the hotel, and as I pulled into the parking lot, the Shrub was pulling into Victory Lane. I’m glad I listened to my gut and left…when the other fans leaving the track were fighting the traffic, I was cozy in my (lacking of internet…yup, my SECOND race weekend in a row in digs that had malfunctioning internet!) lovely hotel room, watching the post-race coverage on TV, and checking out my pics. So there!
All in all, this was a fabulous race weekend, meeting wonderful people I had only met on-line before, marred only by Carl’s engine problems (he WOULD have won his third in a row otherwise!!) and the cold, and my Canadian blood rose to the challenge with the latter. Another first time at a track checked off the list…next, Bristol. And not just Bristol…the Bristol night race!! But first, a couple of little pit stops at Infineon and Gateway.
It’s gonna be a LOOONG time until June rolls around, for this gal used to attending around 8 races a year the past couple of years.
Sunshine, Desert Traffic, and Blue Men.
Las Vegas Motor Speedway Feb. 29-Mar. 2 2008
Friday, Feb. 29 (LEAP DAY!)
My first race weekend of the year WHOO HOO!!!
This one would be a little different, as it would be en route moving between San Diego and Bakersfield, CA. I would be doing this race weekend with the truck loaded to the tip top with my (not so!) portable belongings, and the cats in tow. It would also be a good test run to see if my good buddy, LeadfootRN, and the cats can get along, as she would be my roommate in another month. Nice to have someone to share the bills with for once!
The trip to Vegas was uneventful, other than a little detour into Miramar Air Force base (Top Gun, anyone????)…the exit to the road that the Time Warner offices were on branched, and, you guessed it, I took the wrong branch. So, I was able to enter Miramar…by 20 feet, to do a u-turn and go back out, following the directions the nice man in uniform at the gate gave me. So I can now say that I have been on a US Airforce base.
Meeting up with LeadfootRN in Barstow, we grabbed a late breakfast and headed off, me in my loaded down truck with 2 complaining cats, she in her little red sports car, to make the last leg of the trip to Vegas. The idea was since I knew where our rented condo was, she would follow me.
Well, as you can well guess from the nickname, that didn’t last long, and before long she was a little red speck in the distant traffic, my poor, loaded down truck taking longer to get up to speed.
I wondered how long it would take her to notice I wasn’t anywhere near behind her…on an open road, once I’m up to speed when my truck is loaded, I can match her speed no problem, (an object in motion or something like that!). BUT in the congested, 18-wheeler-ladden traffic of I-15 heading to Vegas, LeadfootRN was able to dart through…but I was not. THEN one poorly timed big rig decided the 55mph right lane was NOT the place for him, so he upped to 70 (shame shame!!!) and pulled into the left-hand lane, effectively preventing me from going any faster than 70---for about 15 minutes, as we passed a stream of trucks. LF, of course, was NOT doing 70….
Finally she realized I was no-where in the vicinity and pulled over, thinking I was further behind her than I actually was, and waited…and I buzzed past her right after she did that. I guess I made up some time once out of that crowd of trucks, huh?? Funny thing was, if I hadn’t texted her “Buh-bye!! Just passed you!” she would likely STILL be sitting there waiting for me today!!
I’m a good little Leadfoot, I stay wthin 10 mph of the speed limit…most of the time….LFRN had no such compunction, and caught back up quickly at the outskirts of Las Vegas, so we continued with the original plan and she followed me to the condo.
We lucked out, through a pet-friendly hotel site (remember, I had the cats with me) we found a condo for the same price as a room at any of the local one-star hotel chains…found out later that it was still in the process of being renovated, and with it’s proximity as a little apartment/condo complex to the strip, they were keeping rates low to get people to come, get it “on the map”, so to say. I bet that introductory rate will triple by next year.
Brand spanking new condo with 52-inch flat screen TV, for $90/night, and room for the cats to not be confined to a small hotel room all weekend. Not bad!!
One negative. They ignored my request of a first floor condo, due to the fact that I was moving, and aside from certain things I wasn’t going to want to leave in the truck all weekend (TV, computer, 2 17-20lb cats….) it would make life so much simpler just to walk in a door with no stairs leading up to it. I knew from the layout, similar to many an apartment complex I have lived in all over the country, that there would be no elevators.
Can you guess where this is going?
Yup. Third floor. And booked solid, so no way to switch. UGH!!!
After 6 trips up and down those stairs, everything important except the TV was in, (which got covered in blankets in the back of the locked truck in the hopes that no-one would see it there), I was thankful I hadn’t bothered to shower early that morning, because I DEFINITELY needed one before we headed out for the evening.
The only other negative was that, even after having maintenance come up to check it out, it was found that the “High speed internet” advertised did not work. My theory: they had JUST finished the redo on the condo, and had not remembered for whatever reason to have them hook up the internet when they hooked up the cable.
Now we had decided that Friday night, rather than go see the truck race and all the festivities at the track, we would take in a show, so we had tickets to see the full Blue Man Group show. I had seen them at pre-race the year before and loved it, so I knew it would be fun, and it was.
Even when they buried the audience in heavy-duty toilet paper, and my claustrophobia reared for a second until I could get it cleared off me and see again. Truly a fun show, and it was nice to have an excuse to get dressed up for once.
Well, “home” to bed…all race days start early, and the next morning would be no different. Have to take advantage of that one day in the Neon Garage and on pit lane!!
Friday, Feb. 29 (LEAP DAY!)
My first race weekend of the year WHOO HOO!!!
This one would be a little different, as it would be en route moving between San Diego and Bakersfield, CA. I would be doing this race weekend with the truck loaded to the tip top with my (not so!) portable belongings, and the cats in tow. It would also be a good test run to see if my good buddy, LeadfootRN, and the cats can get along, as she would be my roommate in another month. Nice to have someone to share the bills with for once!
The trip to Vegas was uneventful, other than a little detour into Miramar Air Force base (Top Gun, anyone????)…the exit to the road that the Time Warner offices were on branched, and, you guessed it, I took the wrong branch. So, I was able to enter Miramar…by 20 feet, to do a u-turn and go back out, following the directions the nice man in uniform at the gate gave me. So I can now say that I have been on a US Airforce base.
Meeting up with LeadfootRN in Barstow, we grabbed a late breakfast and headed off, me in my loaded down truck with 2 complaining cats, she in her little red sports car, to make the last leg of the trip to Vegas. The idea was since I knew where our rented condo was, she would follow me.
Well, as you can well guess from the nickname, that didn’t last long, and before long she was a little red speck in the distant traffic, my poor, loaded down truck taking longer to get up to speed.
I wondered how long it would take her to notice I wasn’t anywhere near behind her…on an open road, once I’m up to speed when my truck is loaded, I can match her speed no problem, (an object in motion or something like that!). BUT in the congested, 18-wheeler-ladden traffic of I-15 heading to Vegas, LeadfootRN was able to dart through…but I was not. THEN one poorly timed big rig decided the 55mph right lane was NOT the place for him, so he upped to 70 (shame shame!!!) and pulled into the left-hand lane, effectively preventing me from going any faster than 70---for about 15 minutes, as we passed a stream of trucks. LF, of course, was NOT doing 70….
Finally she realized I was no-where in the vicinity and pulled over, thinking I was further behind her than I actually was, and waited…and I buzzed past her right after she did that. I guess I made up some time once out of that crowd of trucks, huh?? Funny thing was, if I hadn’t texted her “Buh-bye!! Just passed you!” she would likely STILL be sitting there waiting for me today!!
I’m a good little Leadfoot, I stay wthin 10 mph of the speed limit…most of the time….LFRN had no such compunction, and caught back up quickly at the outskirts of Las Vegas, so we continued with the original plan and she followed me to the condo.
We lucked out, through a pet-friendly hotel site (remember, I had the cats with me) we found a condo for the same price as a room at any of the local one-star hotel chains…found out later that it was still in the process of being renovated, and with it’s proximity as a little apartment/condo complex to the strip, they were keeping rates low to get people to come, get it “on the map”, so to say. I bet that introductory rate will triple by next year.
Brand spanking new condo with 52-inch flat screen TV, for $90/night, and room for the cats to not be confined to a small hotel room all weekend. Not bad!!
One negative. They ignored my request of a first floor condo, due to the fact that I was moving, and aside from certain things I wasn’t going to want to leave in the truck all weekend (TV, computer, 2 17-20lb cats….) it would make life so much simpler just to walk in a door with no stairs leading up to it. I knew from the layout, similar to many an apartment complex I have lived in all over the country, that there would be no elevators.
Can you guess where this is going?
Yup. Third floor. And booked solid, so no way to switch. UGH!!!
After 6 trips up and down those stairs, everything important except the TV was in, (which got covered in blankets in the back of the locked truck in the hopes that no-one would see it there), I was thankful I hadn’t bothered to shower early that morning, because I DEFINITELY needed one before we headed out for the evening.
The only other negative was that, even after having maintenance come up to check it out, it was found that the “High speed internet” advertised did not work. My theory: they had JUST finished the redo on the condo, and had not remembered for whatever reason to have them hook up the internet when they hooked up the cable.
Now we had decided that Friday night, rather than go see the truck race and all the festivities at the track, we would take in a show, so we had tickets to see the full Blue Man Group show. I had seen them at pre-race the year before and loved it, so I knew it would be fun, and it was.
Even when they buried the audience in heavy-duty toilet paper, and my claustrophobia reared for a second until I could get it cleared off me and see again. Truly a fun show, and it was nice to have an excuse to get dressed up for once.
Well, “home” to bed…all race days start early, and the next morning would be no different. Have to take advantage of that one day in the Neon Garage and on pit lane!!
Neon Garage day!! Oh, and the Nationwide race…and Race traffic in Vegas.
Saturday, March 1
Saturday LeadfootRN and I found our way through the tunnel to the Neon Garage, having encountered no problems getting to the track. Once in, we decided to head first down to pit lane to deliver the goodie basket I had brought for the 60 Nationwide crew from the Carl Edwards Diehards, as it was just hefty enough that I knew I didn’t want to be carrying it around all day. Besides, the point of the basket is for the 60 crew to have some snacks to munch on as they work…best to get it to them as close to the beginning of their workday as I could.
Unfortunately, either the security guard at the gate to pit lane forgot how to unlock a lock, or there was an issue with the key, but needless to say, we waited in line until another security guard showed up with a functioning key and got the gate open. YAY!
Once on pit lane, it wasn’t hard to find the 60 box…there was that great big green and yellow Scott’s paint job right in front of us, with a couple of the crew doing a semi-setup. That is, qualifying had not yet happened, so they had not selected a pit box to use during the race, which are selected based on qualifying results, so they were just setting up what they could on the box, to be moved into their chosen stall after qualifying. Got that???
Anyway, I delivered the goodies to them, and LF and I headed on down pit lane to find a spot on the pit wall, watching the drivers walk by while NNS qualifying went on….ultimately we missed Carl, who went out early and was already on the track by the time we got down there, and Tony walked down pit lane on the other side of the cars, disappointing LF, so he didn’t have to acknowledge fans or sign anything (well, except for those with passes to cross that ever present pit wall that kept us lowly pit pass only holders back)…but Morgan Sheppard was signing things, and several of the rookies were more than glad to stop.
Tiring of pit lane, and hungry, thirsty and in need of a rest, we headed back into the Neon garage. Obtaining water and hotdogs, we sat in the shade on benches outside the 99 garage window, and, as Cup practice had started, once we were done we went to watch the goings on closer.
20/20 hindsight, I SHOULD have had my “Smile Bob!” t-shirt on that day, as at points I was no more than 2 feet and a sheet of plexiglass away from him.
Eventually we found Anne and her mom on the upstairs level over Carl’s garage, so we joined them to watch the comings and goings as he brought his car in for adjustments, then went back out again. LF of course headed down a few stalls to Tony’s garage to watch the same there.
As the final Cup practice started, we joined the crowds starting to stream out of the Neon Garage down and up the laboring escalators of the fan tunnel under the track, deciding it would be nice to sit and watch from our seats a while. They were pretty awesome seats, if I do say so myself, just to the turn 4 side of the Start/finish line and about 20-25 rows up. We got a steal of a deal on them from a travel company who hadn’t sold all their packages and were just trying to recoup some of their ticket costs.
The Nationwide (dang, I still want to say “Busch”….it will ALWAYS be the Busch Series to me!) race was ALMOST a dream come true. Mark Martin and Carl Edwards fighting for the lead at the end, with Brad Keslowski in the mix….The 2 of them were about to dispatch Brad, when the combination of Carl’s loose car and Mark getting a great run on him from behind resulted in a tap that didn’t even scuff Mark or Carl’s bumpers…but sent the already loose 60 spinning into Brad, effectively ending their days. Mark went on to win, and immediately apologized in victory lane, although I don’t think he had anything to apologize for…it was an accident, and yes, I can say that, because I’ve been a Mark Martin fan longer than I’ve been a Carl fan, and Mark doesn’t purposely take others out.
So I ALMOST got to see them in my dream 1-2 finish…but NOT quite!
And now, I have witnessed, in person, Mark Martin win a Truck race and a Nationwide race…time for that Cup win with me there to cheer you on, Mark!!
That night, traffic got directed out of the track the weirdest way possible, but we ended up doing what I expected we’d end up doing….weaving down city streets back to our condo. We learned one thing. Do NOT drive on Flamingo Road on Saturday night. What SHOULD have taken us less than 10 minutes ended up being more than 30 minutes, thanks to a fender bender and the usual Saturday night “Going to the Strip” crowd, plus 100 000 or so Nascar fans.
Checking the weather channel that night, we found out that the rumors of high wind gusts on Sunday we heard talked about on the scanners at the track were true…it was predicting a high temperature of 65, with wind gusts up to 50mph, making the wind chill feel even colder. Thank GOD the sum total of my portable belongings in my truck included my winter coat…I NEVER would have packed it for a race weekend in Vegas otherwise! I had a feeling I was going to be thankful I had it.
2 weekends in a row, wearing my winter coat at Nascar races? Unheard of…usually I’m melting in 80-100 degree heat!!!
Saturday LeadfootRN and I found our way through the tunnel to the Neon Garage, having encountered no problems getting to the track. Once in, we decided to head first down to pit lane to deliver the goodie basket I had brought for the 60 Nationwide crew from the Carl Edwards Diehards, as it was just hefty enough that I knew I didn’t want to be carrying it around all day. Besides, the point of the basket is for the 60 crew to have some snacks to munch on as they work…best to get it to them as close to the beginning of their workday as I could.
Unfortunately, either the security guard at the gate to pit lane forgot how to unlock a lock, or there was an issue with the key, but needless to say, we waited in line until another security guard showed up with a functioning key and got the gate open. YAY!
Once on pit lane, it wasn’t hard to find the 60 box…there was that great big green and yellow Scott’s paint job right in front of us, with a couple of the crew doing a semi-setup. That is, qualifying had not yet happened, so they had not selected a pit box to use during the race, which are selected based on qualifying results, so they were just setting up what they could on the box, to be moved into their chosen stall after qualifying. Got that???
Anyway, I delivered the goodies to them, and LF and I headed on down pit lane to find a spot on the pit wall, watching the drivers walk by while NNS qualifying went on….ultimately we missed Carl, who went out early and was already on the track by the time we got down there, and Tony walked down pit lane on the other side of the cars, disappointing LF, so he didn’t have to acknowledge fans or sign anything (well, except for those with passes to cross that ever present pit wall that kept us lowly pit pass only holders back)…but Morgan Sheppard was signing things, and several of the rookies were more than glad to stop.
After a while, we proceeded down to where the cars came off the track and off pit lane to go back to the garage, and while there, Bobby Labonte signed some autographs, as well as a few others. Me, I’m more of a photo-hound than an autograph-hound, so I just snapped pics.
Tiring of pit lane, and hungry, thirsty and in need of a rest, we headed back into the Neon garage. Obtaining water and hotdogs, we sat in the shade on benches outside the 99 garage window, and, as Cup practice had started, once we were done we went to watch the goings on closer.
20/20 hindsight, I SHOULD have had my “Smile Bob!” t-shirt on that day, as at points I was no more than 2 feet and a sheet of plexiglass away from him.
Eventually we found Anne and her mom on the upstairs level over Carl’s garage, so we joined them to watch the comings and goings as he brought his car in for adjustments, then went back out again. LF of course headed down a few stalls to Tony’s garage to watch the same there.
As the final Cup practice started, we joined the crowds starting to stream out of the Neon Garage down and up the laboring escalators of the fan tunnel under the track, deciding it would be nice to sit and watch from our seats a while. They were pretty awesome seats, if I do say so myself, just to the turn 4 side of the Start/finish line and about 20-25 rows up. We got a steal of a deal on them from a travel company who hadn’t sold all their packages and were just trying to recoup some of their ticket costs.
The Nationwide (dang, I still want to say “Busch”….it will ALWAYS be the Busch Series to me!) race was ALMOST a dream come true. Mark Martin and Carl Edwards fighting for the lead at the end, with Brad Keslowski in the mix….The 2 of them were about to dispatch Brad, when the combination of Carl’s loose car and Mark getting a great run on him from behind resulted in a tap that didn’t even scuff Mark or Carl’s bumpers…but sent the already loose 60 spinning into Brad, effectively ending their days. Mark went on to win, and immediately apologized in victory lane, although I don’t think he had anything to apologize for…it was an accident, and yes, I can say that, because I’ve been a Mark Martin fan longer than I’ve been a Carl fan, and Mark doesn’t purposely take others out.
So I ALMOST got to see them in my dream 1-2 finish…but NOT quite!
And now, I have witnessed, in person, Mark Martin win a Truck race and a Nationwide race…time for that Cup win with me there to cheer you on, Mark!!
That night, traffic got directed out of the track the weirdest way possible, but we ended up doing what I expected we’d end up doing….weaving down city streets back to our condo. We learned one thing. Do NOT drive on Flamingo Road on Saturday night. What SHOULD have taken us less than 10 minutes ended up being more than 30 minutes, thanks to a fender bender and the usual Saturday night “Going to the Strip” crowd, plus 100 000 or so Nascar fans.
Checking the weather channel that night, we found out that the rumors of high wind gusts on Sunday we heard talked about on the scanners at the track were true…it was predicting a high temperature of 65, with wind gusts up to 50mph, making the wind chill feel even colder. Thank GOD the sum total of my portable belongings in my truck included my winter coat…I NEVER would have packed it for a race weekend in Vegas otherwise! I had a feeling I was going to be thankful I had it.
2 weekends in a row, wearing my winter coat at Nascar races? Unheard of…usually I’m melting in 80-100 degree heat!!!
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