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.

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!!!

More Blue Men, Driver Intros, and the Cup Race

Sunday, March 2 - Cup race

BRRRR, the weather man was right!! If it weren’t for the sun shining, I’d say I was home in Canada!!!

After another uneventful trip to the track, we bundled up in our layers, and headed to the Speedstage to see what time Raceday was going to be on. Those guys are a hoot to watch!!

Getting there more than an hour before the show was to start, we got a spot right up beside where Steve, Jimmie and Kenny would be sitting…no-one in front of us!!

We saw ourselves several times in the boom camera shots of the crowd, but other than that, short of having a tall sign to stick up behind the guys, we didn’t get on. However, we enjoyed the show for a while, and the warmth of the crowd around us. Body heat helps!!

Rather than pay the almost $300 for a 3-day Neon Garage/pit pass (atrocious) we had opted for Saturday only, and bought tickets for Sunday to be in the crowd down on the track in front of the stage for Driver Intros…and a return engagement by the Blue Men Group. They are such a hoot, worth seeing if you ever get the chance.

So we proceeded down to the start/finish line to stake out our spots on the pavement, the banking allowing us slightly-taller-than-average gals to see easily over the heads of those in front of us, and sat, having a couple of hours to while away now that we had claimed our spots. Added bonus, the pavement was warm enough that my hands quickly felt warm for the first time all day!!

After all the hoopla and Bruton Smith’s “2! 2! 2! We want 2 races” working of the crowd, we got to enjoy the shorter pre-race performance by the Blue Man Group (I find it hilarious they started out as an advertisement for Pentium 3 computers!!) and the driver intros, we climbed back up into the stands to our seats to enjoy the race.

There’s that body heat again! We were so packed in, we immediately took off our coats because that cold wind couldn’t reach us….out of the wind, it HAD to be 70 degrees. But when you went up to the concourse to use the facilities, BRRRRR!!

Finally the Cup race started. It was marred by several wrecks, including LF’s beloved Tony, and the “Anyone but Gordon”’s Jeff took a vicious hit on the backstretch, which we didn’t see until we were back at the condo watching news later.

The trend of the race? Carl Edwards and that STRONG 99 Dish Network/Office Depot car! Front to back to front again, no-one could match him. I think Greg Biffle was closest to Carl speed-wise, but as he had had several incidents and penalties that resulted in his going to the back twice and having to work his way back to the front, he was never able to get far enough forward to catch Carl. 88, 24, 17, all those fast cars, the 99 passed with little difficulty again and again.

Then, that fateful pit stop. If you watched the race, you KNOW which one I am talking about. Tiregate.

Cheering my guys on from our position in the stands directly across from their pit stall, I was snapping away, when I heard “OHHHH!!” and looked up….

To see a tire rolling onto the Trioval grass from the direction of the 99 pit stall.

Oh, no, he’s going to have to go to the tail end of the longest line and work his way back to the front, and no matter how strong that car is, there just AREN’T enough laps for him to be able to do that!!

Crushed, we waited, listening on our scanners tuned to the 99 frequency, for Bob to say those fateful words: “Go to the back of the line, buddy. We got a penalty”

Imagine our surprise when Bob came on and said “We’re clear, no penalty. Go get ‘em!” and explained in brief exactly what had happened…if you watched any of the news shows, you know what happened. A race photographer got too close and got in the way of the crewman who was supposed to catch the tire as it was rolled to the wall…he couldn’t catch it, and away it went.

Knowing that that was going to be the topic of conversation around many a water cooler this coming week, we went back to cheering Carl on to the win…WHOOO HOOO!

My first Cup flip!! AWESOME!!!

As the fans started flowing out of the stands around us, we stood on our seats and videotaped that flip, not so far from us….



(Yup, that's me, "Whoo Hooo"ing in glee!) then waited to hear the interviews before joining the crowds to the parking lots. I mean, as experienced race-goers, we knew we weren’t going to get anywhere quickly in those crowds, so why rush??

This was a slightly faster trip back to the condo, taking any road across town BUT Flamingo Road, we relaxed the rest of the evening. Checking out the 11pm news before turning in, I was disappointed to learn that there had been “an issue” with the oil reservoir cover on Carl’s car, and that they were going to ship the entire car back to North Carolina to take a closer look.

Meaning: gonna see if that lid came off by design, or by accident.

Forget wheelgate, I now knew EXACTLY what those water-cooler discussions where going to be about.

Nothing I could do about it now, not even any internet access to be able to commiserate with my fellow Edheads and Diehards about it…in the morning, it’s 6 trips up and down to the truck, then off to the hometown of Harvick and Mears, my new home for a while.

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

Sunday November 11th

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

Busch Race Day - Hikes, Cakes, and Rattlesnakes

Saturday, November 10th

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PIR - Over hill and dale, dodging tumbleweeds, and the Blimp...doesn't soar?

Nov. 9-11, 2007
En route to PIR for the fall race weekend, I had driven up from San Diego to the Palm Springs home of my friend LeadfootRN, Thursday night…the trip up there was fine, although driving through mountains in the dark is not my favorite thing, especially in company of a bunch of big trucks, but it was otherwise uneventful, and Friday morning we headed out bright and early for Phoenix.

Now, as my friend’s nickname might indicate, since she was driving, we made AWESOME time, and arrived at the track in plenty of time to Truck qualifying, and later Cup qualifying, with only a few narrow misses…fortunately, when we passed police officers on the road, we were stuck at traffic speed.

On the way down Avondale Blvd to the track, we saw a symbol that anyone who is familiar with Nascar is immediately recognizable, although at this point, it was in a slightly different perspective than we usually see it:

Now PIR pit access is an AWESOME experience, even for those who have had access at other tracks. As I had been to the track in the spring and it was LeadfootRN’s first time at PIR, I knew exactly where to take her for up close and personal mingling with the drivers and crews. When they emerged from the garage or took the shortest route back TO the garage, they had to walk by one area where quick fans could be on the front line.

We were pretty quick. The hike into the infield was a bit much for her long-time RN knees, but once we got there, she quickly forgot her discomfort. And me, in a blonde moment, I kinda forgot to mention that there was a tram…

LeadfootRN’s Tony Stewart hat was quickly filled by autographs of truck and Cup drivers returning from or heading out to their qualifying runs, as did my camera card, of pics of the same…most had no problem signing the hat, even if it was not their souvenir, but a few balked (even my fav, Carl Edwards, who seemed to have no interest in signing a Tony Stewart hat…hmmm, I wonder why that is???), so on the way out of the track later that evening, LeadfootRN’s goal was to pick up a standard NASCAR hat for the next day.

As qualifying ended and the officials started shooing fans off pit lane, we walked out to pit lane, supposedly to cross the track to the stairs, rather than trek all the way around again, but a crowd gathering to the side distracted us. Quick thinking and politeness soon found us standing in that crowd, gathering in front of the Bud Pole Award banner, awaiting the Pole winner…Carl Edwards!!! I saw his mother, Nancy, and greeted her with the enthusiastic applause of a fan happy for her driver, then we quietly settled in to the crowd to wait, not drawing attention to ourselves in the hopes of grabbing a few shots of Carl as he posed for his award.

Then it was on out to the Speed Stage for Trackside, where we planned to get the Edhead banner on TV for the final times this year…it would be sent back to another Leadfoot after Homestead, and she planned to send it to Carl for his memories, as he had seen it several times throughout the season at the track; we Edheads did our best to let him know we supported him with it.

In the Trackside crowd, I met up with a long-time friend from another message board, a friend whose wife and son I had met before, but I had not met him in person before. He’s my computer guru, and despite being a Jeff Gordon fan, a pretty good guy.

Then Anne and her Mom, Paige, Julie, LeadfootRN and I all gathered as close to the stage as possible and got the banner on Trackside several times…although I personally never saw it on the telecast, because for whatever reason my DVR chose not to record it, despite it being scheduled…Go figure!!

Karen16 snapped this pic of the banner in the crowd:

Tired from our first long day, we headed out to find our hotel, and dinner, and settled in to rest up for the next day, an entire day on pit lane. Where ELSE would we be?!