The week before the June 2009 Nascar Sprint Cup race at Infineon found me:
1. flying to the Midwest to visit my boyfriend and his family, then
2. moving closer geographically to Sears Point/Sonoma (No apologies: even though "Infineon" has become an interchangeable reference for me, it'll still always be Sears Point!!) than I lived before. AND further from the NorCal coast...therefore less chance of sliding off into the ocean in earthquake territory.
Of course, the second one meant that the minute my job details were finalized 2 weeks before moving, I was on the Infineon website, buying tickets for the Cup race...are you kidding? Road course racing may not be my FAVORITE type of racing, but a race is a race. I was gonna be there, by hook or by crook.
Friday, having been so industrious as to have moved, unpacked, HUNG PICTURES to make my new digs feel more like home, and even found the nearest Costco and Target to stock stuff up, I found that I really had nothing to do. Since my parking pass for Sunday's race had not reached me by snail mail prior to my moving, I headed up to the track to pick it up there...heck, why not, and catch a little practice and qualifying too.
Now this day, I had acknowledged that my flying in those closed air-circulating system flying cans called airplanes to and from Nebraska the previous weekend, then finishing packing up, moving, unpacking and all that had done a number on my immune system, and although I had taken echinacea all weekend while travelling, as is my usual practice to boost my immune system when flying, I had slacked off with the moving when I got back, and forgotten to continue it for a few days after returning. As a result, I had a scratchy throat, the beginning signal of an Upper Respiratory Infection (aka "Cold") for me. UGH.
Not letting it slow me down, I headed for the track, to the gate 9 "Will Call" trailer the track's website indicated was the one used for NASCAR weekends, only to be told there that I needed to drive all the way back around the track to customer service at Gate 1. The gate I had already driven by once to get to gate 9. Great.
Coming back around the track to gate 1, and having never been in that gate (despite 2 years previously attending races at this track) I spotted Customer Service, and pulled over to the left to search for a parking spot there....as I realized there were none there, and prepared to turn around to head back out to where I had seen a spot along the side of the entrance, a sherriff walked up to me and informed me that I was blocking the exit lanes...OOOPS!! Blonde moment!!! Hey, it was NOT well marked, there was actually no-one EXITING at that time, and the parking slots were angled in the direction of those ENTERING, not exiting...it was an honest mistake!! So a quick U-turn, and I occupied the spot I had seen up further, and got my parking pass with no more incidents.
Heading into the track this time was a new adventure for me...I had always parked in what we had nicknamed the "Back 40" of Infineon raceway, way up over the hill behind the track, one LOOOOOOOOONNNNNGGGGGG walk down, or a long wait for a shuttle ride down. After having walked it once, we generally waited for the shuttle. LOL
But going in Gate 1 on this friday, I was directed all the way around the track to lot 13, just off the far end of the track from the Start/finish line grandstand, somewhere new for me. Still hills to climb, just not as many, and not as big.
I enjoyed perusing the merchandise in the souvenir haulers and browsing the midway at my leisure, then watched practice and qualfying from varying angles around the track, (and saw the evidence of Infineon Raceway's green initiative, in the forms of the sheep/goat droppings left behind by the "lawn maintenance crew" I had witnessed on driving by the track back in March...good thing I grew up on the farm...baked sheep droppings on the baked lawn gave me no qualms when walking across. LOL). After a while, I left to head home after getting an idea during qualifying of where Carl (not good) and Mark (better) would be starting. I managed to avoid any traffic there might be after the later Camping World West race (I think that was the series running that night), while listening to the rest of qualifying on my Sirius radio. Gotta love Sirius...and Sunday would be more than enough time to experience race traffic, I knew from experience.
After a relaxing day Saturday, trying to head off the cold I knew was coming, I woke up Sunday....REALLY sick. I wasn't coughing that much, but my lungs...well, let's just say, I felt like a 3400 pound stock car was parked on my chest. But I would not be deterred. After a stop at McDonalds for breakfast, I headed back out to the track.
Now, for $20, I had what they called "Turn 9 Tailgater Parking", parking on the turn 9 side of the track, rather than the free parking up in the Back 40, and I would be VERY thankful for that this day. There's no way I would have been able to hike up the hill to the shuttle that takes you over the hill and down to the track in the condition I was in.
Heading in, at my pace because of that 34oo pound stock car I was hoisting around, I made my way to pit lane, where I would hang out, watching what action I could see in the garage and on pit lane. Really, pit lane is the best place to be on race day...not even seeing the crews at work and all that, but the crowds down there are just a fraction of those you have to deal with in the midway and souvenir areas on race day. And you can usually find a place to sit on an available piece of pit wall, if you need it.
Jeff Gordon did a Q&A in turn 10-11 (the hair pin turn) that could be heard via PA system around the track...what was most interesting to me was his comment to someone's question about retiring and just enjoying his life: "I wish!!"
...very telling, IMO...now that he's a family man, I really don't think we'll see Jeff Gordon running full-time too many years longer...he's got more money than he'll ever spend (if he's smart), a gorgeous wife with a career of her own, and a beautiful daughter, and can safely retire and enjoy family life now. I really think the generation of drivers who will drive as long as they are competitive, as in Mark Martin, is almost gone, and this new generation won't run that long...they make more money, they don't HAVE to. At least, MOST of them won't. I wonder about Carl Edwards, though...the way he and a few others still race whatever they can get into, they MIGHT end up sticking around longer....but those like Jeff who JUST run the Cup series, and do it to win...I suspect those will be the ones who retire and move on to other things long before they are no longer competitive. Just my thoughts on the matter.
...very telling, IMO...now that he's a family man, I really don't think we'll see Jeff Gordon running full-time too many years longer...he's got more money than he'll ever spend (if he's smart), a gorgeous wife with a career of her own, and a beautiful daughter, and can safely retire and enjoy family life now. I really think the generation of drivers who will drive as long as they are competitive, as in Mark Martin, is almost gone, and this new generation won't run that long...they make more money, they don't HAVE to. At least, MOST of them won't. I wonder about Carl Edwards, though...the way he and a few others still race whatever they can get into, they MIGHT end up sticking around longer....but those like Jeff who JUST run the Cup series, and do it to win...I suspect those will be the ones who retire and move on to other things long before they are no longer competitive. Just my thoughts on the matter.As the airshow went on overhead, I gave up on seeing the 99 car rolled out onto pit lane: the 99 guys were, as per usual, taking their time back in the garage and making sure everything on the car was exactly right, so they had still not gotten the car into inspection and onto pit lane when it was time for me to get in line to go down front for Driver Intros, part of the pit/track pass at Infineon, and something I still really enjoy doing. I think all tracks that sell pit passes should do the same thing, and make them track passes, too, allowing those who purchase them access to driver introductions during pre-race.
While waiting for pre-race festivities to wrap up, and driver intros to start, I wandered away from the stage to find a garbage can to put my now-empty water bottle into....I found one, between the track wall and the pit wall, there are 2 walls there, and they had set up a couple of garbage cans in between them, right across from the entrance from pit lane to the garage....and while disposing of my debris, I FINALLY saw the 99 car being pushed out onto pit lane!!! Wearing my "Smile Bob" t-shirt, I snapped a few pics...and saw PK looking at me....hey, those t-shirts are originals, there are only a few out there, and the crew has seen them before....so I waved at PK, and he went on about his business, helping the guys get the car positioned on pit lane.
I always enjoy fans' unique ways of showing the drivers they love/hate....the days of fans hanging Gumby are long gone, this weekend I saw several examples of fans who were showing their dislike of the Shrub (aka Kyle Busch):
And one couple who so love Smoke, this year when they returned to the track, their paint jobs changed to reflect Tony's new sponsor colors:2008:
2009:
Driver intros were fun, as usual....to emphasize my theory that Jeff Gordon, the family man, won't be running Cup too much longer, the doting Daddy brought baby Ella down the stairs with him.....AWWW!! Some things ARE more important than racing, I guess.
By race time, hopped up on Robitussin, I TRIED to climb the 32 rows to my seat....but only made it about 19 rows (Someone move that danged car off my chest, please!!)....fortunately, in this recession, there were plenty of empty seats, so I just claimed that one, and proceeded to enjoy what I could see of the race.
My seat was in the section overlooking Victory Lane, so it was cool to see Kasey Kahne, and "The King" in Victory lane, from that vantage point....It's hard to believe it's been so many years since Richard Petty has been in Victory lane, as an owner or a driver. I watched for a while, to see if he'd remove his trademark cowboy hat to participate in the "hat dance" drivers and teams do after a victory, but while I was watching, he kept his hat firmly in place....I have a sneaking suspicion that perhaps the full, thick, curly head of hair of his youth is no longer there, but he us just vain enough (like Jack Roush, who often jokes about being embarrassed by what's under his hat!) to not want the public to see it.
Post race, there was a track walk that you could make a donation to Speedway Children's Charities for. I generally LOVE the track walks, and love the idea of this one being done after the race, so as to thin out the number of people trying to get out of the parking lots all at once...Anne and I did the full track walk 2 years ago when I first attended, and it was eye-opening to see just HOW really hilly that track is, while walking the same surface our heros had competed on just a short while before. I think more tracks need to institute this program....it raises money for worthy charities, and although some do it through the Nascar Foundation, those that I have been on at other tracks have always been pre-race....and sure, there would be impossibilities at some of the smaller tracks, where immediately after the race, haulers are pulling out across the track, and there aren't that many places for someone on foot to enter the track, how do you organize everyone amid all the fans leaving....at least at Infineon, the sheer size of the track allows for numerous entry points for fans for a track walk...but some of the bigger tracks why not say "O-kay fans, if you want to walk the race surface your heros just drove on, and avoid some of the post race traffic, for just a $5 donation you can...enter the track at such-and-such location"....I think it would be doable at a lot of tracks. But I digress, thinking out loud....
Anyway, I joined the other fans out searching for blue and gold lugnuts (these were scattered around the track, and you got a prize if you found one), scavenging lugnuts (which I gave to kids nearby) and meandering my way (by this time, anything faster than a meander made me huff and puff) around the flat hairpin turn to the turn 9 exit from the track (I knew I wasn't going to be able to make it up and down those hills with this cold, walking the entire track), then hitched a ride on a golf cart to the top of the one hill between myself and my parking spot (WORTH the money, that parking pass!!), arriving back to the truck just in time to sit in unmoving traffic for a half an hour.....but at least once it started moving, other than a bottle-neck where the traffic was merging onto I-80, it was smooth sailing all the way home....
Where I collapsed, sunburnt (SPF 70 my butt, for whatever reason the new bottle of sunscreen I bought did NOT work the way I am used to, and my nose was crispy!!), winded, but happy....it would take more than a little cold to make me give up a day at the track!!!
