Riding in Style, Hanging on Pit Lane, and a Major Mistake…I’m sorry, Carl!!!

Thursday April 16 and Friday April 17: Practice, Qualifying and the Nationwide Race

My Tony Stewart-loving Edhead NASCAR fan friend Nan (How’s THAT for a description?? Hey, I could have tossed RN in there, too. LOL) and I arrived in Phoenix from our separate coasts around the same time on Thursday night. We both had had uneventful flights, although, wearing my Aflac jacket, I did hear two “Aflac!”s before I even got through security in San Francisco, and a flight attendant commented, after she saw the back of my jacket, on all the great commercials the duck is in…but she couldn’t name the human in the most recent commercials, though. LOL

Phoenix’s new Metro Light Rail System is a wonderful way to get from the airport to downtown and beyond. Only 3 months old, the cars are spic and span still, in comparison to all the other older subway/train systems I have ridden in my lifetime (Toronto, Boston, San Francisco), and very quiet, especially in comparison to San Francisco’s atrociously noisy train system. We’ll see how long it stays that clean…I may have to come back in the fall and check it out.

After the group of 20 or so school kids and their teachers/chaperones who also boarded with us at the airport got off at their hotel, we had room to move and really enjoyed it. It went right by our hotel, and between that and good friends in Phoenix, other than trying to get to the track in the morning Friday when said friends were silly enough to not have taken a day off work in honor of the race weekend, we were covered for rides, and the expense of a rental car wasn’t necessary. I really hope they extend that Light Rail to get to more areas, like I have heard they plan to. But I highly recommend the system as a very efficient way to get into the downtown area and a little further north (Camelback road) if you are ever flying in there.

As there is no mass transit available from the city to the track out in Avondale, and the park and ride ran only on the Cup race day on Saturday, getting to the track Friday morning so we could enjoy the day there while our friend was stuck working was an issue. I had shopped around, through cab companies and car services and shuttle services (most of the last would have required we take the light rail back down to the airport Friday morning to get a ride to the track, and STILL would have cost the same as we finally ended up paying), and even investigated for good deals on rental cars, but we ended up booking a cab from a company that offered us a flat rate of $50 to get to the track (almost 25 miles from our hotel) Friday morning.

Imagine our surprise when, not only were they willing to come pick us up about 45 minutes earlier than planned (jet lag/unfamiliar bed discomfort had us up at the crack of dawn that morning, and even after walking down the street for breakfast at the Eggery, we were still plenty early), but they sent a shiny black Lincoln Town Car as our cab!! We were ridin’ in style!! So I’m going to give a shout-out to that company right here, if you are ever in Phoenix and need to go somewhere, give them a call…the regular cab was kind of slow getting to us later that weekend (a later part of the story) but if you reserve ahead of time for a car, they will give you a good rate and ride in style. Budget Cabs Arizona, http://www.budgetcabaz.com/. I believe they even offered limos, but a town car was fabulous to us.

But showing up to the track in a limo….hmmm….imagine people’s curiosity….LOL It would HAVE to have 99 decals on it, though. LOL

Our driver, Bill, chatted with us all the way out there about moving, from his past in a moving company, telling stories of people who, he’d show up to load their stuff and move it, and nothing would be packed and they’d expect them to just do it all, to Sheriff Jo Arpaio, the infamous sheriff of Maricopa county who busted Kurt Busch for his bad behavior when stopped for speeding a few years back, and his methods and successes. It passed the time, and before we knew it, we were there. He dropped us right in front, in the “Deliveries” area….LOL yup, we were VERY important deliveries that morning!!

Hearing from Paige, who was already camping at the track, we headed into the track to look around, and on seeing that it was too early for most of the souvenir haulers to be open, we got our tickets and pit passes, and I checked in at the NASCAR Members’ Club tent for my later trip down to the stage for Nationwide Driver Intros, and then we headed down to pit lane. En route to the tunnel, the usual hawkers were there, and we scored coupons for 15% off oil changes and wheel rotations...WHOO HOOO!! Sometimes it’s the little things….

One quick trip on the shuttle, and we were on pit lane!! Cup practice had started, so we scouted out where were the best locations to get shots of cars, and preferably drivers.

I found out that my new camera with the 12x optical zoom and enough megapixels to choke a horse….well, o-kay, a cat at least (that is a HORRIBLE saying….LOL)…takes AMAZING shots from the bridge over the entrance to the garage, into the garage:

Carl:

Carl and Bob:

Dale Jr

Greg Biffle

Biffle was too fast for me, my camera couldn’t zoom back and adjust back to sunlight, and white uniform, from the relative gloom it had been focusing into in the garage bays, that quickly…kind of makes you think he resembles an angel a bit, doesn’t it. LOL Greg Biffle may be a great guy and an awesome driver, but an angel? No way!!! LOL

For more pics of the action on Practice/Qualifying/Nationwide day, watch for the photos link to join the list at the right…that means I’ve finally gotten through the 600+ pics I took, and they are posted. Be patient….did you not see, I said 600+? AND I’m moving this week. It MIGHT be a while.

Later, Nationwide practice started, and we joined the crowd at the primo spot on pit lane to get the most pics of drivers, and if you are lucky, drivers sign things for the fans there when they have the time or inclination: the main entrance to the Cup garage.

We were lucky this day, Carl not only ended up on the pole for the Nationwide race, he spent a good long time signing everything thrust into his hands by eager fans along not only that area, but behind the fence on the other side of the entrance to the garage. What a guy…many drivers (Kyle Busch, Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick, to name a few) either completely ignored the fans (as the Shrub did) or waved at them as they went by, on to sponsor obligations or to talk to their teams about their cars or maybe just to relax for a few in their RVs before Cup qualifying later (note the names mentioned were running both races, but this was not always the case with those who didn’t stop to sign things. AND Carl was in both races, and stopped, as I mentioned, so that’s no excuse. But that’s just the kind of guy Carl is). There were a lot of drivers happy to sign things, so the few that didn’t did not dampen the mood much.

My new prized possession…the hat was a gift from my man…now it’s signed by my driver!!

As Cup qualifying progressed, I said good bye to Paige and Julie and the others down there, and headed out to join up with the ONMC group gathering for Driver Intros. As soon as qualifying was over, we would be moved down onto the track to make a corridor for the drivers to go through once they got off the stage.

Unlike other times I’ve been with the ONMC group for driver intros, this time there were only 20 or 30 of us, so by my past experience it was a small group. Heading down onto the track, we had to share the same narrow staircase with those exiting from the track, which necessitated some give and take. When the guys in front of me went through, I paused to allow a few to come back up and through.

Next thing I know, the gentleman down the stairs from me was waving me by, and I realized it was Robin Pemberton!!! I proceeded on down the stairs and said thank you, and then the security guard gestured that Mr. Pemberton could come on up the stairs, and he said “O-kay, I was just letting her go….” What a gentleman!!!

From what I saw, rounding people up into some kind of organization at one of these events is kind of like herding cats. They’d line us up, then someone would spot another driver coming up behind the stage, and break ranks to get a shot, or they spotted Mike Helton at the fence, and went to talk to him….LOL good thing there was only a small group of us to wrangle, those to gals from the Members club would never have been able to handle a larger group.

Finally, driver’s intros started, and people started squeezing into our line up, be they Mothers of the drivers waiting for their son, or just some guy who was trying to join in where not invited. Quickly, my nice straight view up the driver intros stairs degenerated into me trying, once again, to take pictures over the heads of people in front of me. I did still manage to slap palms with most of the drivers as they went by (except the one that took one look at us and dodged through the line to avoid going down the path we outlined. Chicken!! LOL)

Of course, being as he was on the pole, it was a long wait to see Carl, but at last, there he was!!

Carl peeking:

Carl coming across the stage:

As he went by, I stretched my hand out to slap palms with him, and then did the unforgiveable. In my book, at least.

You see, EVERY time in the past I have had the chance to do this with one of my favorites, bad luck has befallen him.

GET YOUR MINDS OUT OF THE GUTTER!!! LOL

But it really was a stupid thing to do.

I told Carl “Good Luck!!”

AUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!! It just slipped out!! Not “Have a good race” nor “Have fun tonight” or any of the other half dozen sayings I have developed for those situations when I have a chance to encourage Carl or Mark before a race; “Good Luck”

Yes, call me superstitious, but later that night, I was REALLY kicking myself, as Carl’s car went from BLAZING fast dominating, to running at the back of the pack just trying to nurse the engine to the end, thanks, we found out later, to a broken valve spring causing a cylinder to fail in the engine. AUGH!!! He sounded so disappointed on the scanner: “That was the fastest car I have ever had!! I wasn’t even running full-throttle!”

After this amazing show of well-intentioned stupidity on my part, I headed back up into the stands. The weather was sunny in the 70s with a lovely breeze, so as I didn’t feel the need to hide under the stands for some shade, I grabbed a beer and headed up to join Nan, who, out of sheer stupidity (her word) or just not caring, hadn’t bothered to put any sunscreen on. And was burned to a crisp.

So I joined a miserable Nan, and we watched the race, reveling in Carl’s dominance early, (when the replay of the wreck of Michael Waltrip showed Mikey getting loose in the turn, and as such, losing momentum, and Carl running right behind him in the turn and NOT getting loose and NOT losing momentum, resulting in the nose of the 60 car under the tail of the 99 car, and Mikey into the wall, a guy in the crowd behind us calling out “AFLAC!!”, making us chortle.), then sharing our disappointment when it all went south. (He was SOOOO fast…but I always get leery when that happens, because it seems when I’m watching a race, and either Carl or Mark is stinking up the show because they are faster than everyone else, that old adage ends up applying: “It’s always fastest before it blows.”. Sadly true again this time.)

I ended the race cheering Greg Biffle on to the win, while Nan, no Biffle fan, cheered for the guy behind him. LOL

After it was all over, we met up with Anne at the souvenir haulers, and headed back to home base. However, trouble, of the electronic type, was brewing. The night before, Nan discovered that her phone charger wouldn’t charge her phone….and now it was dead. And we knew of no-where near our hotel to get a new charger.

Cellular Disaster, a Rare Event, and the Scrapbook FINALLY gets delivered!!

Saturday April 18, Cup Race day

As the gates at Phoenix Interational Raceway didn’t open until Noon on this race day, we had a remarkably relaxed morning before heading out to the track.

Or it SHOULD have been relaxed.

Nan had realized through the night that without her cell phone, there would be people worrying about her, and we would have no way to communicate if separated at the track…heck, she couldn’t call for her ride when she landed at the airport back home!! Isn’t it amazing how, in just a few short years, we as a culture have become so totally dependent on cell phones that just the thought of not having a functional one can send us into a panic?? But that’s a subject for another story.

So she found on-line that there was a Verizon store a couple of miles away, and called a cab to run her down there to pick up a new charger before Anne arrived to take us to the track, so she’d have a bit of time to charge it first.

Best laid plans. Remember that cab company who had treated us so good Friday morning? Well, after waiting 20 minutes out in front of the hotel with no sign of a cab, Nan returned to the room and called them…and was told it would be at least another 20 minutes. Which would about coincide with Anne’s planned arrival to take us to the track.

So she cancelled the cab, and I called Anne, who agreed to come down a little earlier and run Nan down to the Verizon store.

I should have made sure Nan knew which DIRECTION down the road the store was, because before long I had a call from Anne…what was the store address again?

Turns out Nan had directed her in the wrong direction down the road. See why when we have a rental car on race weekends, she usually drives and I navigate? LOL

Anyway, disaster averted, and Nan’s cell phone cheerily charging from the lighter port in Anne’s vehicle, we were off to the track.

This day was to be exciting. For the first time in a long time, Carl had a pre-planned signing at his souvenir hauler that afternoon. So we wouldn’t be going far from souvenir row until that was over...he hadn't at a race we'd been to in so long, this was a true rarity. We Edheads got spoiled those first couple of years, when he had the time to sign at the hauler almost every weekend.

Added to this excitment was that Anne, who had carried the Edheads 2008 scrapbook, with its photos lovingly contributed by Edheads around the country and assembled painstakingly by Anne before the start of this season, intended for Carl, to 3 different tracks now, in the hopes of getting a chance to give it to him, would FINALLY have that chance!

Paige, our “scout” at the track, had managed to obtain a ticket for the signing, and offered it to Anne so she could give the book directly to Carl, instead of flagging down Randy or Carl’s mother, Nancy Sterling, when she saw them around the track. Thanks Paige, you’re awesome, we could never have made it to the track in time for the 8am hand-out of tickets, and the chances of actually being able to talk Randy (Carl’s PR guy, and well-known to the Edheads) into letting us meet Carl after the signing were slim. Not that Randy wouldn’t allow it, but we knew, since we had last seen Carl do a signing at a Cup race, his popularity had grown immensely…there would likely be no feasible way with all those fans milling around, short of going through the line to get it to him.

After browsing the souvenir haulers for a while, doing some shopping, and grabbing a bite to eat (Mini hot dogs! Yum!!), we relaxed a bit in the car, and then met up with everyone at the 99 souvenir hauler for Carl’s signing. Paige and Julie were there, so it was a good group of Edheads hanging on the periphery.

Why the periphery? The crowd was HUGE!!

This is just the front half of the crowd, as seen from our side of the hauler:

Some of those people must have been waiting there for hours! Boy, was I right in my speculation that arranging to give the scrapbook to Carl after the signing would be impossible…no way were this many people going to leave him alone until he left the area. Thank God Paige got that ticket.

So we plotted that Anne would join the end of the line to give him the book. It made the most sense, and would possibly allow a few seconds longer with Carl than if there were other fans waiting impatiently in line behind her.

We stood off to the side, near the next souvenir hauler, right by the gap to go around back behind the haulers and join the line, and suddenly someone put his hands on Anne’s shoulders and moved her aside…

Leaving a space for Carl to step through!!!

We were pretty much speechless, as often happens to most normal people when someone famous unexpectedly steps into their midst, and then we went off with a flurry of “Hi Carl!!!”s, to which he responded Hi back, and asked how we were doing…and as he turned to head around behind the hauler to go in, one of our group thankfully started thinking again, and flagged him back down. Anne took that moment to present him with the scrapbook, which he looked at and said “This is for ME??” and Anne said yes, from the Edheads. He thanked us profusely, but unfortunately before we could get our brains fully functioning again, he took off into the hauler, before we could ask him to pose for a picture.

Oops. I guess we needed that ticket after all.

So the original plan went back into action, and we watched Carl’s signing and enjoyed his Q&A for a bit, then Anne joined the end of the line. She had to have a picture of Carl with the scrapbook!! We ALL did!!

So she went through the line, and when she got up near the front, I joined her as the “Official CCN Photographer” and got the picture.

Carl was great, donning his headset so he could be heard through the crowd, answering questions, and when he asked if there was anyone there from other countries, someone in the crowd yelled out “Canada!! Nova Scotia!!” And after chatting about that for a minute, by this time Anne and I were up front, he said, “So, other than Canada, is there anyone else foreign here??” To which I called out “What, we’re not foreign enough for you???”, making him laugh and backpedal a bit. Then someone in the crowd yelled out “Switzerland” and Carl responded “You, sir, win the prize!”

Now I had recently acquired a bag for holding my scanner and new, smaller camera, as well as other necessities, while at the track, and it had screamed Aflac to me when I saw it. It is canvas and covered in blue, green and black dots on a white background. To that I added my collection of Carl pins, and voila!! Aflac race purse!!

When I was right in front of Carl, Randy and the Aflac representative with them, taking the picture of Carl with the scrapbook, the Aflac rep apparently noticed my Aflac-colored purse and it’s collection of pins, and pointed it out to Carl and Randy….he said something like “Now, she’s REALLY an Aflac fan!!” This brought grins from them all.

The scrapbook delivery was successful, and the entire behemoth crowd laughed when a guy at the back yelled out something like “Go out and win tonight, Carl!”, causing the entire crowd to erupt in cheers. Carl shot back “Thank you. I’d cheer too if you weren’t wearing a 48 cap!” LOL

Carl, being the guy he is, stayed after all the ticketed fans were done and signed things for about 10 more minutes for other fans, then disappeared out the back, down behind the haulers, away from where fans were waiting around front….I don’t blame him, had he come out the front, he likely would have been mobbed.

Our boy is a superstar, the crowd was HUGE!! And he won even more fans when he stuck around to sign more. What a guy!!

After that, we separated, and I went down to pit lane with Paige. After some hanging out, chatting with crewmen (I told the 99 guys that we were sitting straight up from them in the stands, and that we didn’t want to see any more pit stops than necessary!! He laughed and agreed, that would be best) and other fans and enjoying the pre-race energy, the 80 degree temps really started to get to me, and the breeze wasn’t nearly as refreshing as it had been yesterday. So I said good-bye to Paige, and grabbed a bottle of water and a beer at the concession stand. I found a spot at a picnic table where another gentleman was relaxing, and we chatted for a bit. He was there with a Hot Pass to watch the race from pit lane, full access to the garage, through his company. Soon some of his friends joined and we had a lively chat…he disappeared for a short bit, then returned and handed me a stack of driver hero cards from the garage. He had just gone down the row from Carl’s garage and grabbed a handful.

I thanked him profusely, and promised him I would find them good homes, so as I headed back to my seats, whenever I saw a child with gear on that indicated he was a fan of one of the drivers I had in my stack, with the parent’s permission I’d give him or her one…and soon had given them all away. Well, except for the Carl ones, which I didn’t find any kids wearing his gear (sad!!) and a couple of others I kept for friends. (Anyone want a Carl Edwards Subway hero card? I have 3 extras!)

The Jeff Gordon, Jimmy Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr ones went fast, anyway. I even joked to one Jr fan that likely I could have sold them on ebay for a pretty penny.

But the look on those kids’ faces when I gave them their driver’s hero card made my day. I was sad though, when one little guy who was a Juan Pablo Montoya fan had to settle for a Jimmie Johnson hero card, because Juablo was not in the stack I had been given.

In the process of looking for kids to give these to (and adults, too! It was a quite a stack), I spotted one family of 4, 2 parents and 2 small children in a double-stroller, all decked out head to foot in Dale Jr garb. I guess the family that cheers together, stays together. LOL

I of course was down front at the fence for Driver introductions, my favorite place when I can’t swing being in the crowd in front of the stage, and I noticed a couple of inconsistencies…I think they put Joey Logano and Reed Sorenson in the wrong cars:

Now I don’t have a loud yelling voice, so when my favorites come by, I’m usually just one of the crowd…but when Carl came by, and I yelled out “Go Carl!!!”, I was surprised when one of those weird split-second silences that only occasionally happens, when in a noisy place, at just the right (or wrong) time, occurred. You know, the one that usually happens when you have raised your voice at a party to be heard by a friend, saying something inappropriate (I NEVER do that! LOL), and it just happens at that moment, as you are saying it, everything goes silent for a second, causing your comment to ring out through the room??

Well, that’s what happened in this case, and my “Go Carl” rang out loud and clear. I know, because he turned and looked right at me as he was waving, and his grin, I swear, it got bigger.

Who knows, maybe it was the cute girl beside me he was grinning at (hey, he’s married, not dead!!), but I choose to believe that he heard my heartfelt “Go Carl!” and grinned back at me!

Finally it was race time. Carl never really seemed to get close enough to the front to contend. The 99 team had one slower stop because Carl himself admitted on the scanner he flat-spotted all the tires and slid too far in the pit box, and another late in the race that no-one explained on the scanner, so I’m not sure what exactly happened, even as I was watching the pit stop from my vantage point right in front of me….he never dropped below 20th, and finally ended up 10th after working hard all day for it….Phoenix, because it tends towards long green-flag runs, is one of the harder tracks to pass a lot of cars at.

But a special thing happened, one thing that in my 10 years going to NASCAR races has never happened to me. In 10 years of being a Mark Martin fan, then adding Carl in when he came along just as Mark cut back on the number of races he would run a year, likely in preparation for eventually retiring completely, I have never seen Mark win a Cup race live. One truck race, yes, but a Cup race, no.

So I finally got to see my first favorite win a Cup race, and he DOMINATED!! I would loved to have seen Carl up there fighting him for it, but that wasn’t to be, but it was an amazing experience….even as they took the checkers, with Tony Stewart dogging his heels, I thought there was one more lap to go…and cheering him on, gasped as I saw him slow out of turn 2 and Tony pass him, after hesitating beside him.

NO MARK!! THE RACE IS NOT DONE!! (Mark fans know that this happened to him once before, thinking the race was done and it wasn’t, slowing down and getting passed, losing the race that way)….but then I realized the race was over, and Tony had pulled up beside Mark to congratulate him. LOL

Even funnier, as Mark drove that #5 Hendrick car (Ugh, that STILL grates a little…I can no longer say “Anyone but Hendrick!!!” LOL) down in front of us, and turned towards the wall to do his Polish Victory Lap, he had to stop to back up in order to complete the turn, and I thought for JUST a second he might plant his nose against the wall and do a burnout, as some of the young ones have done in the past. But no, that’s not Mark’s style.

And how cool was it to see all the other drivers and teams, including Jack “The Cat in the Hat” Roush, Mark’s former boss who some worried was no longer friends with Mark, coming to Victory Lane to congratulate the “crazy old man”. That brought a tear to my eye…I really wish I had been down there to see it myself.

What a fun day, not the greatest day for Carl but an AWESOME day for Mark and a great day to be a Mark Martin fan. And that terrible old adage didn’t rear it’s ugly head this time….maybe it only applies to Ford engines???? LOL

Now, if I can ever get Mark’s autograph, I will be fulfilled.

POST SCRIPT:

After spending Sunday at the airport, giving up not one but 2 seats on overbooked flights voluntarily for the bonus of 2 free flights for use down the road (and I could have gotten a 3rd one the next morning, but I really needed to get home by that time…a free night in a nice hotel after a free dinner was cool and all that, but I was still in the same clothes I had wandered PHX airport all day the previous day in. At least I had my toothbrush and make-up in my carryon, and was able to pick up some deodorant at the hotel, so I wasn’t COMPLETELY grotesque!! LOL) and spending most of Monday moving my stuff into my new apartment, I was watching my recorded copy of the Cup race as I rested my weary body, and I noticed something.

I remember that at the track, NASCAR messed up...that last pit stop, when Mark came out with the lead, the 18 came out second, and then the 18 was penalized "too fast exiting"? Nan heard Tony (who had come out in 3rd behind the 18) on the scanner, yelling “No way did he get out in front of me without speeding!!!”, or something to that effect…of course, he used words I won’t repeat here. LOLWhat I had noticed was that they didn't even MENTION the screw-up on TV that occurred: the statement that blared over the PA system and flashed on the jumbotrons that caused my heart to stop.

Immediately after Nan heard Tony say this and reported it to me, and we were speculating as to who Tony meant as we waited for the cars to come back around so we could see what the running order was, because as far as we knew, MARK was the only car that came out in front of Tony.

That’s when they announced that Mark was being penalized for too fast off….OH NO!!But as the cars came back around, we saw that the 18 was in second, which meant the 18 had passed the 14 on pit lane…as we were reasoning this all out, they then announced the 18 penalty. Much to the distress of the four Shrub fans sitting behind us who had gloated at seeing Mark's penalty posted on the screen. THEN we began to realize NASCAR had messed up. Mark never came in to serve the penalty, and they never mentioned it again...I switched over to Mark's scanner, and didn't hear Alan say anything to him about it. NASCAR also never corrected the error over the PA system, at least, not that I heard…they just penalized the 18, then went on with the race, like they hadn’t screwed up in the first place.Mark had all of one pit-stall length or so from his pit box at the exit of pit lane to the exit line, his was the first pit stall on pit lane, thanks to winning the pole on Friday.....so no way could he have been speeding. Those cars are powerful, but they need more than that short distance to speed up past pit lane speed.

The initial announcement of Mark’s penalty never made it onto the television broadcast. Interesting.

The look on the four Shrub fans’ faces behind us was priceless….we chose not to gloat back at them. LOL

ANOTHER POST SCRIPT:

Walking to the Metro Light Rail Sunday morning, we saw what we had not seen in the darkness when we arrived Thursday night….a wireless accessories store, less than a block from our hotel. Go figure, after all the rushing around Saturday morning, and Nan freaking out because her phone had died, had we just walked down the block….