A Dark and Stormy Night in Thunder Valley

Bristol Night race, 2010: Ponchos, (Driver) Pouting, and the Perfect National Anthem

Well, as many of you know, I have finally settled down (for the time being) in Knoxville, Tennessee, giving up my (not so) glamorous life as a travel nurse. I just decided 10 years was enough, and although I may travel again someday, I was soundly sick and tired of the moving involved.

Why Knoxville, you say? Well, aside from it being within a day’s drive of my family in Southern Ontario, and also my boyfriend in Iowa, I have several friends in the Deep South it will be nice to be close to.

Okay, the proximity to Bristol, Kentucky, Nashville, Charlotte, Martinsville, Richmond, Darlington, Atlanta, Talladega MAY have weighed in on my decision just a little bit.

So after my long summer vacation (during which I never DID get around to telling y’all my Infineon race day story! Sorry about that, but really, nothing very exciting happened. Good race, no sightings. Gateway was another story, but I just never got around to it, with all the vacation travel) and settling into my new home, I found I could afford a day in Bristol for the Cup race. 2 hours away??? You KNOW if it was at all possible, I was going to be there, come Hell or High Water (and believe me, the weather made the latter a distinct possibility!!).

The main problem I foresaw? NIGHT RACE. Probably over around Midnight. That 2 + hour drive back in race traffic (which means likely more like 4 hours) meant I’d be fighting sleepiness in race traffic alone. I’ve done this in the past…it’s just not fun. You end up doing a lot of talking to yourself to stay awake, and road rage may surface.

Jackpot!! I love Google!! I started my search of companies transporting fans up to the track from Knoxville. I mean, I have heard of many who stay in Knoxville and drive up, it’s one of the closest major cities near Bristol, and I had seen travel packages that offer this, so surely there would be a bus for locals going up.

It took me a couple of days playing with the wording of my search, (between shifts in the Baby Factory). This technique, changing the wording to fine-tune my search, is my specialty for finding deals on-line, and it didn’t fail me this time, either: Rocky Top Tours, leaving out of Pigeon Forge (near Dollywood) and stopping to pick more up in Sevierville (Dolly’s home town) before heading to the track, $30 round-trip. If I drove, gas alone would cost more than that!!

So I met up with a couple of dozen other sodden race fans (Knoxville’s weather was NOT promising!!) at the Sevierville Welcome Center, on a wet, wet, wet Saturday morning. No matter….I had packed in my trusty bottomless shoulder bag, with my scanner, camera, cushion and other necessary stuff (even sunscreen…the eternal optimist, that’s me!), my lucky rain slicker, a freebie about 5 years ago from RIR. Why is it lucky? Whenever I carry it with me to a race, it doesn’t rain!! That meant we’d leave the rain behind in Knoxville….

Sure. We DID drive out of the rain and arrive in an overcast, but dry, Bristol, TN, around 2pm. So far so good.

Stepping off the bus, it immediately started to spit. Uh oh!

Not to be deterred, as it got heavier and heavier (to the tune of the hawkers selling programs in plastic sleeves “Guaranteed to stay dry!” and t-shirts “Get your dry t-shirt!” LOL), I plunked my trusty Canada bucket hat on my head to keep my hair as dry as possible, and opened my bottomless bag to dig out the poncho, as it was going to be needed.

Only problem?? No poncho. Brain fart! When I first packed the bag for the track, I had thought about carrying my little cooler with some cold drinks, thinking it would likely be hot, and changed my mind about the cooler when I saw the forecast…and packed the slicker in the side pocket of that cooler. BLAME THE RAIN ON ME!!!

Best laid plans.

By the time I retraced my steps to the bus and got my umbrella (which I knew I’d have to forfeit at the gate…no umbrellas allowed into the stands…but it was old and starting to fall apart, so no biggie, and the rain WAS getting heavier and heavier) I was pretty wet, but as I returned to the track, I soon realized even THAT wasn’t going to be enough.

A flash of Sprint yellow in the corner of my eye showed a trailer selling yellow and clear slickers hand over fist, so I trotted over and got myself one. $5, not bad, and now, although steaming up with the greenhouse effect of the poncho over wet clothes, at least I wasn’t getting any more wet. I had my trusty waterproofed Dr. Marten’s on my feet, so they were nice and dry, having seen me through wetter and colder weather before.

But I now have a new wish….galoshes. I saw so many cute pairs of galoshes (we called them “rubbers” growing up, but that has a whole new definition as an adult, at least in America! LOL) at the track, I decided then and there I wanted some! Too late for this day, though.

Heading into the track, I knew right where I wanted to be….by the entrance to the track, where the pedestrian tunnel was, to watch the comings and goings of drivers etc. as they did their sponsor pre-race dances. Sure, this was clear around the other side from where my seat was, but I’d head over there later….

Dodging puddles, and indeed, giving up my trusty old umbrella at the gate, I gained the RELATIVE dryness of the area under the grandstand…well, if you didn’t count the waterfalls coming THROUGH the stands in spots! LOL

Making my way down to the track entrance, I started shedding the poncho as the dry spots got bigger, and my wind breaker, because although the rain was keeping it relatively cool, by Bristol standards, NOW I was starting to sweat!

Claiming a spot, I enjoyed the comings and goings. When the rain finally stopped, I headed up into the stands to get some pics, but always came back to my spot….I talked to a lovely young man who was one of many in red t-shirts hanging out in that area. No, they weren’t Kasey Kahne fans, they were National Guard, there to help with security…with all the rain there were few in the stands to patrol so they were in a holding pattern, but later, they were the ones who would be responsible for making sure fans didn’t scale the fences….in light of the guy we saw hanging like a monkey on the fence at Gateway in July when Carl won the race, I’d say they could have their hands full, and wished him good luck with that.

As the day wore on and drivers’ meeting time approached, the number of drivers, owners, etc, coming into the track increased, and I had a great time snapping photos.

When Jack Roush came through, all the fans there called out variations on “Welcome back, Jack!” to him as he walked by. He even paused long enough to make one young fan's day, with an autograph and a photo..

When Randy Fuller (Carl Edwards’ PR rep) walked out of the track alone, I called hello to him and wished him a good race. He said something back that I didn’t hear because of the ambient noise of all those people around, pointed over to the side of the walk-through area opposite from where I was, where some in Carl Edwards gear had gathered, and gave me a thumbs up, then headed on….it didn’t take me long to figure out he was letting me know Carl would be stopping with those fans, and to hang around if I wanted some pics. But then, you know I wasn’t leaving the one area all drivers have to go through to get into the track without seeing Carl, so I had no plans to move from that spot until he headed into the track.

Other than the tall guy who insisted on being in the way of some of the photos I took, I wasn’t disappointed…Carl hung out with those fans, doing a Q&A, for a quite a while before heading in to the drivers’ meeting. As he went by I and the other fans called out our well-wishes.

Matt Kenseth and Jeff Burton were busy little bees, going back and forth to sponsor engagements throughout the time I was there, and even Junior Johnson went through to the pedestrian tunnel.

The previous nights’ Nationwide combatants came through not very far apart, which I found amusing…you’d think Brad and Kyle would stay as far apart as possible after all that.

After seeing Carl, I headed out for the trek around the track to my seat, going down by the start/finish line and right along the frontstretch for some photos, then made the climb up into the stands….as I was sitting in Pearson Terrace, WAYYY up, I took the first elevator I came to to get up there….Had I climbed, my out-of-shape butt likely wouldn’t have made it!! LOL

Finding a perch closer to the Start/finish line than my seat, with a better angle for shots of the trucks carrying drivers around the track, I waited.

I still say the highlight of the whole night was Brad Keslowski calling Kyle Busch an Ass while introducing himself during driver intros. THAT had the fans making so much noise, had there been a roof over that track, it would have been lifted off! I myself, no fan of EITHER driver, but aware of the fact that Kyle had dumped Brad the night before to win the Nationwide race, almost fell out of my chair laughing….And by some miracle, although I don’t know why I turned on the video when Brad was introduced, it was on…and I caught Brad’s opinion for my permanent collection.

Too too funny!!

A few intros later, I believe it was AJ Almandinger who said in his intro something to the effect of he just hoped he didn’t end up between Brad and Kyle. LOL

As many of you know, the drivers pick a song to play before they are introduced. Many I didn’t even recognize, because IMO, the track PA system didn’t play the song clips loud enough, so unless it was something immediately recognizable to me, like Mark Martin’s choice of Aerosmith’s “Walk this Way” and Carl’s “Why Can’t We be Friends?” (IMO, a little poke at his own troubled past with Brad! Also funny, considering how many friendships have been tested over the years by that little bullring, Bristol Motor Speedway), I missed it. Some just made me LOL (Todd Bodine’s choice was particularly amusing: the theme from “The Three Stooges”…considering his past in Cup series, when I use to refer to Todd wrecking someone as that someone getting “Bodined” that was particularly apt), and others made me scratch my head (Really, Jamie Mac? A country song??? Maybe because I don’t follow him enough to know what he prefers, I just never pegged him for a country music guy…but then again, who knew Mark Martin loves rap? LOL).

As race time approached, it was WONDERFUL to hear the kids singing the National Anthem, LIKE IT SHOULD BE, with no ad-libs or horrible tweaks as we have heard so often recently. Sadly, although if the rain came again I was going to stay good and dry, my seat was up under the suits in turn 1, and I could only hear the flyover. Also up there, if you’re not lucky, one of the support pillars will block part of your view of the track. So despite what I’ve always been told, there IS a bad seat at Bristol, depending on what you want to see.

The only highlight of the race for me was Jimmie Johnson getting wrecked. (ABJJ!! Or KB. Or BK. LOL). This wreck happened just after Carl’s pit crew missed a couple of lugnuts on one tire during the round of pit stops a few laps prior, causing him to have to come back in and go from running right were JJ was to back in the pack. On the plus side, as Bob relayed to Carl, the missing lugnuts and lost spots might have been a blessing in disguise, as if they hadn’t ended up back in the pack, it COULD have been them being wrecked by Montoya.

Hey, glass half full, why not?? At that point, they still had half the race to go, and a fast car, plenty of time to get back up to the front, right???

Unfortunately, the race settled into what you rarely see in a Nationwide or Truck race at Bristol, but which does occasionally happen during a Cup race since the track was resurfaced: a long green-flag run.

Now Carl qualified on the outside pole, his team selected the lead pit stall on the backstretch, one of the 2 best pit stalls at this track as in that stall: like the one on the frontstretch, there is no-one pitted in front of you…you just drive straight out, don’t have to worry about getting around another car in a pit stall in front of you.

I’m not 100% sure, but I think Carl wasn’t sure at what point during a green flag pit stop, when they enter the end of the pit lane their pit stall is on, and exit at the exit, instead of going all the way around both pit lanes like when they pit under caution, he could floor it after leaving his pit stall, while still on the flat. Bob told him they’d talk about it after the race on the radio, but I think Carl was supposed to just immediately start coming up to speed as soon as he left his pit stall, before merging into traffic in turn 4, and Carl said he waited until closer to turn 4 to really floor it….that caused him to end up back in the pack, and he almost immediately lost a lap.

Fortunately a caution FINALLY occurred, just in time for him to get the Lucky Dog pass. Sadly, though, another long green flag run spread out the pack, and Carl just didn’t have enough time to get up to the front.

The good news? Carl is now up to 4^th in points…Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart both having a bad night allowed his 13^th place finish to be enough to move up, so in the end, it was a good result from a fair night for the 99 team.

As the laps wound down, not wanting to fight through crowds down all those stairs, I worked my way to the ground level. Watching the last few laps from near the S/F line, I knew once again I was going to witness Kyle Busch winning. And THIS time, he’d finally get the Trifecta, winning all 3 races at a track in one weekend.

Nope, I was NOT going to watch that, it wasn’t worth fighting so much foot traffic out of the track, so I headed out to the bus, listening to the last couple of laps on the radio. Might as well get a head start on napping before they let the busses out of the lot an hour after the race finishes.

But all in all, getting rained on, Kyle Busch winning again, Carl having some bad luck and not ending up being in contention even though he had a car good enough to do so, I still say (as many many others do) Bristol Motor Speedway is one of the best tracks to be a fan at on the circuit!!! A bad day at Bristol beats a good day at a lot of other tracks any day!

Next time I’m sitting in the DW grandstand; I’m determined to find that set of seats perfect enough for me to consider buying season passes. I mean, come on, if I’m going to live this close for a few years, you KNOW I’ll be there!

Doing it Desert Style!!

Friday April 9 2010: Nationwide Race Day

Well, as I sit in LAX, awaiting my delayed connecting flight back from PHX to SFO (that would be Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco, for those not familiar with airport codes!), I figure now is as good a time as any to consolidate my notes, retained on my handy dandy Blackberry throughout the weekend (much easier than trusting my memory!!) and see if my weekend story is entertaining for anyone.

As I do this, I’m till pondering if I should do as my BF suggested and pick up a milk at Micky D’s for my AM coffee, since there are no 24 hour grocers between the airport and home, and this delay means I will likely arrive after they are closed. I HATE having to go to the store before my morning coffee!! (Turns out Micky D’s was out of milk….so I grabbed a single serving at the deli next door…at $3!!! Geez, and I thought NASCAR race track prices were bad!!)

I’ve also been nursing a sore heel this weekend. Nothing entertaining in the story about the heel…no wild nurse parties or San Francisco celebrity bashes to brag about a party injury about. Simply too much walking at work earlier in the week, and I guess twisted the wrong way at one point, and the next morning when I woke up, it was so painful I couldn’t put weight on it. As it loosened up, I realized I likely just pulled something, but ouch!! Therefore, I was still healing when my first race weekend of the year FINALLY arrived, and I didn’t cover as much ground as I have in the past.

Rather than pay for an extra night in a hotel room (in hindsight, it might have been a good idea, rest-wise) I left at 4am Friday morning for SFO to head out to Phoenix for the weekend, having gone to bed at 11pm the night before…and awakened at 1am, unable to return to sleep. I HATE having to get up so early for a flight, I NEVER get enough sleep!! My mind keeps waking me up, worrying about sleeping through the alarm, or did I remember to set it, or did I put my tickets in my purse, and where was my passport, when it should be just wandering through dreamland….

Anyway, the flight was uneventful, and arriving in Phoenix, I picked up my teeny little compact car (it was just me, all I needed was something big enough for my bags and me!!) and headed out to the track. I’m so used to a V6 engine (my truck) that when I got onto the interstate and wound that little V4 up to interstate speed (o-kay, a little over!) the noise of the engine kind disturbed me…but that little compact zipped along once it was up to speed.

Now my adventures begin. As I had purchased my Cup ticket and parking pass within 2 weeks of the race, they would normally be held in Will Call for me to pick up. However, since this time I purchased a parking pass for proximity to the track (I didn’t know when I did that, I was going to be attending with an injured heel; I just have feet that hurt a lot during all the walking in a race weekend anyway, and do what I can to cut down on that), they were going to hold them for me to pick up this morning in the Gate 1 credentials area, so I could pick it up there without hassles with parking.

Arriving at the track, I parked and went into the credentials area…The Holy Land for regular race goers, most of us never get hot passes or other credentials that require entering the credentials area, so we never see the inside of these trailers.

But which trailer was the right one? There were 4 of them…one where crews were going through and getting their weekend credentials, and one for Cup, one for Nationwide, and one for the series that had run the night before.

Still confused, and my deductive reasoning not nudging me and going “This is Nationwide Race day…try THAT trailer) I chose to enter the trailer that someone exited, figuring obviously someone was there, and at least they could direct me to the correct place if that wasn’t it.

I’d found the right place. The inside of the trailer was rather plain and unimpressive, actually. No big cushy chairs and big-screen TVs…just some plastic chairs, and a couple of people behind the counter. A bit of a let-down, that….and I bit my tongue as I watched the woman next to me sign for her Hot Pass….I just asked for my tickets and parking pass, because they weren’t going to give me any more than that, even if I tried to turn on the legendary Busch charm. (I know, I know…I descend from a DIFFERENT branch of Busches, no pun intended, than those 2 Busches!! LOL)

But as I was pretty sure this would be fruitless, I took my tickets, wished them a lovely day in their air conditioned (at least there was that!) tin can on wheels, and headed out to enjoy what access I DID have.

They’ve got some great stuff at the AFLAC hauler this season, but I resisted….thanks to Hertz putting a $200 hold on my credit card for any possible damages I might do to the car I pre-paid for (GRRR!) my spending funds were limited….indeed, I had to put the hotel on my debit card because of that. If I bounce any checks this week, I’m complaining to Hertz!!!

So I resisted buying any AFLAC goodies, and after enquiring if they had heard if Carl was going to do a signing there this weekend (they hadn’t, so it wasn’t looking like he would, at least not at the hauler) I headed into the track, browsing through the displays on my way to the shuttle to pit lane.

Arriving at Pit Lane, I went to see what action was going on in the garage, as Cup practice was on…busy busy….then headed out to pit lane, where Paige and Julie were already hanging out at the exit from the garage.

It wasn’t very long before Norris aka “Old Man” (hey, he calls himself that!! LOL) called me (he doesn’t text!) and I directed him to where we were.

As it was Norris’ first time at Phoenix, we showed him the prime viewing spots. After Carl set the pole speed in Nationwide qualifying, and finished his interviews, he headed our way to chat and sign things, as is his way when he has a few minutes and fans are around….and the official that was standing near us said “Hey, when he gets here, call out ‘Quack quack’” and see what he does!!” What the hey, we were game!!

So as Carl came to our end of the line of fans along the barriers, we called out “Quack Quack!!” over and over until he heard us….and he stopped and did a little 2-step or some kinda dance step, making everyone laugh…my only regret was I wasn’t in a position to snap some video, THAT would have been priceless….we’ll have to watch Facebook, see if it shows up there, if anyone happened to catch it.

Carl of course was his usual charming self, unlike a few other drivers who will remain unnamed, but I’m sure a few can guess, who walked right by and barely acknowledged the fans there, calling their names (Here Shrub, Have a Wreck!), and the fans were, as usual delighted.

As we were when qualifying was over and Carl was on the Pole!! YAY!!

I DO wonder who forgot to bring Jack’s straw hat, though:

Anyone who knows the Cat in the Hat knows the hat changes with the weather…straw in the warm weather, felt in cold……and as you can see, he was OBVIOUSLY wearing the wrong hat for the weather!! (Chuckling at the mental image of Jack Roush, on realizing he’s in 90 degree Phoenix Arizona, and his straw hat was back in North Carolina, doing a head slap and going “DOH!!” LOL )

By this point, my heel was howling, making me grouchy and feel antisocial, so I said my good-byes for the day and started working my way towards my seat, get something to eat, and just so I could take the weight off it.

Cup qualifying didn’t go QUITE as well for Carl, but I’m not going to complain about a top 10 starting spot…neither did he, I’m sure, considering some of the starting spots he’s had in the past.

By the time the Nationwide race started, my head was nodding, as I had been awake about 18 hours with only 2 hours of sleep by that point. As the race wore on and it became apparent that the Shrub would not be denied, so I left after the red flag for the big wreck the Shrub caused with his restart tactics. (I heard later that he vehemently denied slowing down to get those behind him to slow down before he jumps on the restart…of COURSE he denied it, because he’s been penalized for doing that in the past…I cracked up later when he got penalized for JUMPING the start…yes I was listening on the radio all the way to the hotel!)

By THAT point, the only thing I remember seeing in the previous hundred laps were the wrecks, and when the wrecks are the only things that wake you up…well, let’s just say I wasn’t enjoying myself. AND I was petrified that I would fall asleep and drool on the guy next to me. LOL

Plus, I HATE being stuck in post-race traffic when I’m by myself…there’s no-one to talk to.

I was in Arby’s drive-thru, ordering greasy fried goodness when I heard the end of the race. I’m not going to lose any sleep over not seeing Kyle Busch win, yet again.

I don’t really remember my head hitting the pillow that night…that lovely greasy fried goodness and an ice-cold Dos Equis, and I was out like a light…I was just thankful I remembered to set my alarm clock first. LOL

Saturday April 10, 2010: Cup Race Day

Now, let me just preface this by saying, even when it’s a night race, I’m not one who can sit at the hotel and hang around in the morning, when I could be getting to the track for a primo parking spot…even if it means napping for an hour or 2 in car at the track that was progressively getting hotter and hotter, despite the lovely desert breezes.

Hey, this day, I had 9 hours of sleep under my belt…I was ready to go!! (O-kay, so I could have easily slept until noon, but then I would have had to put up with all those annoying people who wait until a NORMAL time to come to the track!!)

So after my nap in the car, and some more browsing of the souvenir haulers (during which, yes, I DID break down and replace my Jeff Burton era #99 earrings with the more current Carl Edwards ones…although I did resist the more expensive gold ones! Plus, you can just NEVER have enough pens…especially AFLAC ones…believe me, NO-ONE at work will steal those from me!! LOL) I went inside the gates and enjoyed a cheeseburger and a Shock Top from the Budweiser tent (it’s a beer, and yummy…Jeff and I were introduced to it when we did the tour of Budweiser in St. Louis last summer, and both took a liking to it, so it’s one of my “special treat” beers) and some people-watching. It never ceases to amaze me the sheer range of people who show up at the race track….Hippies to hillbillies to pit lizards to executives. Too much fun to watch.

When Anne (who needed her sleep more than she needed to avoid traffic to the track! Being someone who loves to sleep, I get that!) arrived, I chatted with her for a while, then headed to pit lane to find Paige, who was already down there hanging with the crews and soaking in the pre-race atmosphere. The sun was strong, as it tends to be in Arizona, and I had been doing my best to stay out of it as much as possible, as even with the breezes keeping the temperatures below 90, it was still a very warm day. Springtime in Phoenix!! LOL But I had my SPF 70 on, and hoped that would be enough this hot day.

Down on pit lane, I found Paige chatting with the 99 guys, obviously done the bulk of their work and now relaxing in some chairs behind the 98 stall next to them….so we chatted with them for a while, then I spotted Norris and flagged him over. Later when the 99 guys headed back to the garage, I presume for lunch and to get ready, and no-one claimed those chairs…

We three Edheads sat there and chatted for a while, just watched what the crews were doing, and the other fans, and just rested…Paige got Bob to smile for the camera again, and introduced me as the gal who designed the infamous “Smile Bob” shirts, and I blushed and grinned…he grinned back…and got her a picture with PK, too…it was nice, just sitting and relaxing, even as the desert sun burned down on us…and we had all drunk all of our water and whatnot by this point, and believe me, the cases of water and vitamin water sitting around behind the pits sure looked tempting, but we resisted….and before we knew it, the officials were moving those without hot passes off the pit lane area.

Since we had never been on pit lane during a race (I was the closest to having the experience, having sat behind the fence at Indianapolis, behind pit lane, so had witnessed pit stops) we hung around as close to the 99 pits as we were allowed for the first part of the race…Randy gave us the thumbs up when he saw us there, but there was no chit-chat during race time. However, you don’t stay in the infield and expect to see much on track action, I know this from my one experience camping in the infield at Daytona February 2001 and experienced it again this day (but it’s the atmosphere that’s so interesting to those of us who don’t work on pit lane), so once we had seen what we could of the first pit stops from back there, we separated and each headed to our own seats…

By this time I had been so baked in the sun for about 3 hours, I no longer had to pee (my body, in a fit of self-preservation, had reabsorbed that fluid LOL) and the beer I bought at the concession stand (after draining a bottle of water) was THE BEST TASTING BEER I HAVE EVER HAD!! There’s nothing better than a cold beer on a hot day. (I also would later discover that even SPF 70 sunscreen doesn’t always fully protect a nose on a sweaty Canadian face unless you re-apply…which I did not. Fortunately, that was my only crispy body part after the weekend. LOL)

When I stopped to grab a bite to eat before heading up into the stands, I was absolutely flabbergasted to see a man carrying a baby who couldn’t be much more than a month or 2 old, with headphones on the baby’s head to protect the ears (at least he was smart enough to do that). Who in their right mind (other than the drivers, who have those lovely rolling hotels on wheels in the infield to keep them safe in) brings a child who has NO IDEA what is going on, because he/she is too young, to the track? Heck, even the buddy who turned me into the NASCAR fanatic I am today waited until his son was 8 or 10 years old to take him to his first race. I just shook my head. If you are going to spend the money for race tickets and all the other costs of a race weekend, spring for a babysitter!! Believe me, your baby will be a whole lot more comfortable at home than at a race. JMO, of course.

This was such a long race that by the time I got up to my seat, it still was not the half-way point, so I settled in for a good bit of race watching still to come, and on THIS night, I had no problem staying awake!. Well, other than during the usual lull in the middle when the drivers seem to settle in and just ride….but THAT had nothing to do with lack of sleep, and my Blackberry kept me occupied.

Carl had a good run on this day, as he has in many recent days, and I see such an improvement, although it’s been so gradual that many Edheads are still complaining (hey, I wanna see the backflip, too!!) but it IS an improvement. Many races last season, it seemed that the car would just fall off, become so uncompetitive, Carl would get mired back in the pack, and it seemed that nothing Bob and crew threw at the car helped…now he’s getting top 10 finishes again. I think it’s just a matter of time before the 99 is back in victory lane, and with Carl’s foot all healed, we’ll see a heckuva backflip!

And it’s always fun seeing a driver who hasn’t won in a while make it to victory lane….rather than the ususal suspects lately (18, 48). Congratulations to Ryan Newman, the 39 team and team owner Tony Stewart…it’s about time!!

So back to LAX…..we FINALLY got on our flight after a 4 hour delay, so I got home that night, so all is well in the NASCAR world for me. Back to the real world with it’s real fun and problems.

Topless Bars, Delayed Gratification, and Are My Eyebrows Still There???

November 12-15 2009

I know, I know, you’re thinking “What the heck kind of blog is this turning into??? Topless bars? What gratification??? And missing body parts??? WTH???”

LOL The title is very self-explanatory, and will, as with my past blogs, become very clear as you read along.

Nannette and I put our heads together when she recently showed back up on the Left coast, where I have been residing for the past few years, and we agreed that as NASCAR fans, we just HAD to get to one more race weekend this season…my last one had been Infineon in June…for Cup that is…Gateway is it’s own entity, a weekend of fun with friends, and the Truck race at Iowa Speedway with my boyfriend in September…well, sorry to the Truck fans, but that just didn’t count...if I don’t see Carl Edwards or Mark Martin with my own eyes in a race weekend, then it’s not a real race weekend for me; it’s just a race. But after the number of races I had attended in previous years, this year was a bit of a drought for me, as I wrestled with the reality that going to races is costly.

Nan’s last race weekend had been Phoenix in the spring, so she was even more in withdrawal than I was.

As luck would have it, we compared schedules, and we both had the Phoenix race weekend in November off!!

Added bonus, one of those flight coupons I received for giving up my seat on the plane when returning from Phoenix last spring made my flight basically free, so things were falling into place.

Include an evening spent cruising the ‘net that took us from $129/night for the hotel alone to a deal through Cheaptickets.com (yup, a shout out to them, they’ve got some GREAT deals!!) for less than that for both a rental car and a hotel, albeit a 1 star hotel. Whatever, as long as it’s clean, and has a horizontal space for me to sleep on, I’m happy…that’s all I need for a race weekend.

Sadly, the first hint we had that just perhaps this hotel MIGHT be slightly less comfortable than we would like would be the Topless bar right next door, complete with neon outlines of the female form and martini glasses…shades of Las Vegas!! Add in the industrial yard across the street, and we pretty much decided we weren’t leaving the hotel room after dark!! LOL

Checking in, we lugged our (o-kay, fatter than necessary…neither of us are really light packers!!) luggage up to the second floor room we were assigned (no elevator in this one-star establishment, of course.). Opening the door to our room, we were hit with a wave of Pine Sol scent. That actually was reassuring…not much can survive a good dousing of Pine Sol, I have found.

And the dead roach in the corner seemed to support this…I wonder if it suffocated on the fumes. Considering a roach could probably survive a nuclear holocaust, I doubt it, but I like to think that’s what happened.

Whatever, there were no signs of any other bugs, so we shuddered, and moved on….

Only to have the bathroom door’s door knob fall off when touched…..

And the toilet required the handle be held down the entire time to flush whatever is in it…

The final straw was when I looked up and saw that, despite what looked like a spotless bathtub and shower (not a spot of mold or mildew or other to be seen…thanks PineSol!!) there was no shower head. Just the pipe protruding from the wall, headless.

Sorry, 3 strikes…I made a quick call to the office and requested another room, listing everything that was wrong EXCEPT the dead roach. (THAT I hoped they’d see that themselves!)

Downstairs we went, in our PJs, because after working all night and not sleeping much before hopping on our flight Thursday afternoon, we were beat, and had immediately jumped into our comfy clothes upon entering the room….so PJ-clad, we lugged the luggage into another Pine Sol scented, but dead-roach-free, functioning-door-knob, toilet-and-shower-head-in-place-room…oh the shower head sprayed all over the place, but 90% of the water hit the person in the shower, so we were happy.

After a feed of pizza, we were out before our heads even hit our pillows, dead asleep, and awakened refreshed and ready to go…at 5 am the next morning. I’m blaming it on jet lag. Yeah, that 1 hour time difference between Arizona and California since we fell back totally messed up my sleeping….yeah, that’s what happened. LOL

Whatever, we had more than 8 hours of sleep under our belts, so after a leisurely catching up on world events (once I realized the reason my laptop wouldn’t connect to the wireless internet wasn’t because the hotel misrepresented that amenity in their advertisement, but that I had not yet turned on my laptop’s wireless switch) and showering off the travel detritus, we changed into our pit-lane ready attire, we headed out, arriving at the track by 9am…..

Now Phoenix International Raceway, as I have said before, has the best deal for pit passes of almost any NASCAR track I’ve been to…$50 for all 3 days on pit lane (in addition to the cost of race tickets, but with $7 ones for Friday, the Truck race day, and $15 ones for Saturday, Nationwide race day, from what I’ve heard from fans attending races at other tracks, they’re in the forefront of tracks cutting ticket prices to fill seats, and other tracks need to pay attention!!), and they let you stay down there during practice and qualifying, seeing all sorts of drivers and crew chiefs and owners and other NASCAR personalities (and even non-Nascar ones….Rumor has it Arsineo Hall was there!! I don’t know, I never saw him, but the rumor was in the wind….) so we looked forward to a day full of sightings and sun and fun on pit lane, and we weren’t disappointed.

Numerous Carl Edwards, Clint Bowyer and Jack Roush sightings were had between the Nationwide and Cup garages as those drivers went back and forth (Kyle Busch, aka “the Shrub”, seemed to find ANOTHER way between the 2 garages, because we never once saw him.)…Paige reported that she saw Bob Osborne later in the day, and even got proof that he’s got teeth…yes, Bob smiled!!

Down towards turn one, where the Cup cars come off the track and pull back into the garage, there’s a spot behind pit lane where intrepid fans who aren’t scared that the cars will spin out and hit them as they come around the corner off pit lane to go into the garage that is an awesome vantage point to stand and snap pics of the cars. You SO know I was there! LOL

Add to that excitement, the trucks were lining up in that area to go through inspection for the truck race later that day, their teams pushing them, unpowered, around the corner from where they’d been working on them on pit lane, in the pit stalls, and turning them to go through inspection. So busy. It was GREAT!!!

I wondered, if a team member accidentally runs a NASCAR official over with his unpowered truck, how bad is that for his/her NASCAR career?? LOL Because they came darned close a couple of times, the official directing them skittering out of the way at the last second when they went too far. LOL

Anyone who has watched NASCAR racing long enough has noticed at times, either while under power or turned off, there are flames licking out of the exhaust pipes of these vehicles. A newbie might go “OMG, it’s on fire!! Tell someone!! Get an extinguisher!! It’s going to blow up!!” because that’s what flames anywhere near a car on a TV show or movie cause, right? BOOM!!

Well, those who have been around a while have heard the explanation for those flames…that sometimes excess fuel runs down into the exhaust pipes, where it just burns off, causing those flames, and they usually just go out on their own.

As one Truck team positioned their truck to the left of me to go through that truck inspection line, I lifted my camera again to snap a photo of the car coming around the corner to the right….got the pic, and as I was lowering my hands to scan pit lane for another car leaving the track and heading our way, suddenly, as the car went by about 10-15 feet away from me….

Well, the best way to describe it is, have you ever run the gas a little too long on your gas BBQ with the top down, before opening it and lighting it? Remember that fireball that cost many people their eyebrows and bangs over the years before they learned not to do that???

Yup. Big fireball as the car went by and the driver hit the gas to enter the garage, obviously having some overflow in the exhaust pipe…. It was toasty warm for a fraction of a second!!

The truck team to the left, waiting in line, witnessed this, as well as the other fans hanging out to my left looked at me, and when they saw, after a shocked moment, that I was o-kay, they gave me a thumbs up and looks like “You o-kay??” to which I responded by running my fingers over my brows, checking, then returning their grins and thumbs up…..my only regret was that I didn’t have video going at that very moment…that was AWESOME!!! (Since I still have my chemically enhanced blonde mane…although I wouldn’t want to experience it again) LOL

One of the most commonly asked questions of drivers that I have heard is what do they do during a race if they have to, errr, relieve themselves. Well, I discovered from one of the vantage points over the Cup garage, just exactly what they have to do if they have to do so while in the garage: Stand in line!!

Yup, that would be Matt Kenseth, standing in line with everyone else, to use the facilities, AND Marcos Ambrose holding the door for Kurt Busch as they emerge...this restroom became especially busy just before Cup practice started. I often wondered if any of them just popped into the women's restroom beside it, because due to the lesser number of women in the garage, that was lineless...but none did, while I was watching. Hey, it's one of the spots at PIR that you can be assured that many many drivers and other team members will be seen, sooner or later, during a long day of practices. LOL

Around 3 or 4 pm, Nannette and I both realized our day of little sleep the day before had caught up to us, despite a good night’s sleep the night before, so we headed back to the hotel and just vegged out. After a good feed at Johnson’s Big Apple, good down-home cooking, we were once again out like a light before ConAir was finished.

Saturday once again promised to be perfect race-going weather…..Sunny, 70s….oh, sure, there was the chance of showers early on, but that would clear up.

After a little shopping on souvenir row, we headed down to pit lane. This is the day that is the most fun to be down there…the prime spot by the exit from the Cup garage to pit lane? Fans line up on one side, and as the NW cars qualify and are impounded on the OTHER side of that entrance, and the drivers will often walk over and sign autographs on their way back to the garage. Carl especially is very good at doing this, stopping not only at the barriers, but along the fence into the garage to sign anything he can. Often with his PR rep, Randy, trailing behind, frequently checking his watch. LOL

Later, while having lunch, we spotted Brendan Gaughan getting cash out of the ATM behind pit lane at the concession stand, and my first thought was “What, Brendan, they don’t feed you on that team, you have to buy your own lunch??” LOL My second thought was “He’s in his driver’s suit…where’s he putting the cash???” LMAO

He obviously had time to burn before the next Nationwide practice, so he stood around and signed autographs and posed for pictures….but he was the least of our sightings that day.

We chatted with the military pilot who would be piloting one of the helicopters in the flyover later for the race, flying by at 1000 feet altitude….considering the stands must go up 500 feet, they come pretty close to the top of the stands.

We also spent a little time in the ladies room, the only covered building open to the public, as it rained in the desert!! Enough to cancel one Cup practice, and probably because, for the first time in years, I forgot to bring my rain poncho….heck, I didn’t even have a hat!!! I’m a superstitious type….every race I have carried that rain poncho to, just in case, in the last 2-3 years, it has NOT rained. This was my first time caught in the rain since getting doused in Dover after the Cup race a few years back!!

Of course, it wasn’t a “gully washer” or anything like that….just enough to dampen the dust (and the hair)….so before long, we were back out, enjoying the sunshine again.

There are so many great angles to see things that we just wandered around, snapping photos, until it was time to head up into the stands to watch the Nationwide race.

I was ecstatic to find that our seats were directly across from the 60 pit stall (Lucky #13) on pit lane…however, the positioning of some cables made the view frustrating…so I moved down a ways later for a more unobstructed view of a pit stop. Otherwise these were great seats, for $15. PIR rocks when it comes to deals on tickets.

The cherry on top of the day was watching Carl win…It’s been so long since I saw Carl win a race, live, the last being the previous year, that it was just a relief. I know he’s still capable of winning, despite the critics and fans that seem to think that his current Cup slump means he’s all washed up.

Unfortunately, that slump continued on Sunday, but we had fun anyway, scoring a garage tour where we were able to chat up Randy, Carl’s PR rep, and wish Carl a good race in person, and after the initial disappointment when his race ended up NOT being that good (like the majority of the 2009 season) we still had lots of fun.

All in all, a great weekend in the desert, watching and hoping, and visiting good friends…even though we missed a couple of them this visit around.

And in regards to the season Carl and the 99 team had, I look at it this way…the LAST time Carl had a spectacular Cup season with multiple wins and was battling for a championship (2005), ultimately tying his teammate Greg Biffle for second place (the stats say 3^rd place, because Greg won more races, but in points it was a tie), the next year he went winless and missed the Chase….then he rebounded with another multiple-win season, followed by 2008’s spectacular season. The same thing occurred in 2009. 2008, 9 wins, contender for the championship, bridesmaid again. I can handle an off-season where he still makes the Chase, as long as he and his team continue to rebound that way.

On to 2010, which will bring new adventures and challenges for Carl Edwards (including the BIG adventure with his wife Kate…parenthood, to commence sometime around Speedweeks!) that I’m sure he will excel at, and for myself. We’ll just have to see, but that parenthood thing?? Nope…I’ll stick to Aunthood…..works for me!!

And as my personal "I Survived the Big 4-0...Is That All You've Got??" tour comes to an end in less than a week, I'm going to make a birthday wish.

That all my friends and fellow Nascar fans have a wonderful New Year in 2010, and that Carl and Kate have a blessed and uneventful delivery of their baby Girl, BEFORE Speedweeks (as I am pretty sure will be scheduled....)....maybe on Feb. 9?? (Yup, that's the day I picked in the Edhead's fun little guessing game on the Roush boards.) Oh, and that I get to attend some more races this season.

Have a Happy New Year!!

Edheads, High Hopes, and Weed B Gon

Gateway International Raceway, July 2009

After a quick trip down I-680 through Dublin and Alamo (not “THE” Alamo, just Alamo!! LOL) to the airport in the wee hours of the morning Thursday, just prior to the Gateway weekend, I was happy to have an uneventful flight to St. Louis for this gathering of friends supporting Carl Edwards…Diehard Edheads. The majority gathering were of the most supportive kind of Edhead…from his home town and surrounding area, there to cheer on their hometown boy.

During my flight, the unimaginable happened -- I got off my plane in Denver with less than an hour to find the next gate and get on the plane for the second leg of my flight, only to find that Denver airport actually does what no other airport I’ve been in does (Are you LISTENING, Phoenix….Atlanta….?????)….you actually get off at a gate in one terminal, then just walk a short distance to the next gate IN THE SAME TERMINAL, instead of having traverse the entire length of the airport to get to your connecting gate!! Someone send a memo to these other airports.

Friday was bright and sunny, and the weather forecast for the race weekend actually appeared very promising, starting with this day…it was a very pleasant mid-seventies with a breeze. The Edheads met up, as is tradition, at IB Nuts and Racing in Columbia, to peruse the Carl Edwards merchandise (and some yummy snacks…got me some Mo Munch that my coworkers and I really enjoyed at work the next week!) and support Carl’s home-town economy….then headed off to Billiards on Broadway for lunch.

After a fun lunch with the traditional drawing for original CCN merchandise (Thanks so much for that Commodore!) and a surprise visit by Carl Edwards Sr (AKA Mike), we dispersed, some to head to the track for practice, others for other fun things…Jeff and I dropped in to visit MK, Commodore’s wife, as I had not seen her since last year….Gene and MK were nice enough to put up and feed Jeff while he was down earlier in the week for the Bike Ride with Carl for Sam, and I think they deserve the Hosts with the Mostest Award, because they cannot be beaten in that department!! Right Jean Marie, Jen and Logan??

After dragging ourselves away from their place (and yummy food that we didn’t need so close to lunch, but you can’t beat MK’s home cooking!!) Jeff and I made the 2 hour trek back to Gateway International Raceway to meet up with Amie, Jean Marie, Jan, Chrissi, Jamie Jo, Lisa (yes, Jeff was remarkably outnumbered!), Michelle, Tony, LeeAnne and her son to watch practice.

En route back to St. Louis from Columbia, we had our own little Nascar race on I-70 that ALMOST resulted in a Kyle Busch-type incident…someone getting wrecked. This guy in a Ford Sable was driving along in front of us in the fast lane, but obviously did not have cruise control, OR a stable gas pedal foot. He would speed up, and Jeff would no sooner get the cruise control set, content to draft along behind him, than he would slow down, resulting in Jeff having to slow down, turning off the cruise control. After several miles of this, the road widened another lane, and there was room for someone to move over, so when this guy didn’t move over to let us pass, Jeff went over a lane and passed him.

Apparently he didn’t LIKE being passed, because he proceeded to tailgate us so bad that Jeff pulled over again to let him pass, and we ended up coming up on a Chevy truck (go figure!) and had to slow down. But instead of continuing the pass and driving on, this guy slowed down right beside us, effectively boxing us in….

So Jeff slowed down more, and got back in behind him, a tad frustrated now, and showed it by tailgating this guy back. Only to get brake-checked by him!!

As you can imagine, by this time “You’re # One” hand signals were flying, then Jeff saw a break in the traffic, pulled back over behind the Chevy (who had pulled ahead, thanks to this guys crazy antics) then pulled over another lane right, gunned it, and flat outran this guy in the Ford, who got trapped behind ANOTHER slow mover in the fast lane.

WHEW!! Close call…I was glad Jeff wasn’t carrying. But we saw no more of the guy in the Ford.

Arriving at the track, we headed in, and Jeff peeled off on Frontstretch.com business, so we gals (and few guys) congregated in the stands. Of course, I had to stop and give Cowboy a hug hello, and see how he was doing. Our favorite security guard and fellow Edhead was glad to see us.

We enjoyed practice, but this would be the first hint that the weekend was going to be cooler than I am traditionally used to (I’ve almost melted both weekends I was there previously!)…the breeze was definitely cool, and poor Amie in her skirt, sandals and t-shirt had not brought a sweater. Her toes were blue!!!! (well, actually, at first it was just her blue nail polish, but as practice ran on and the cool breeze continued, she realized they REALLY WERE getting blue!! LOL)

After practice wrapped up, a few of us headed back to Ruby Tuesday’s, then to a bar that had been recommended to us as a “happening place”…and boy was it. After being patted down for weapons (YIKES!!) and paying a $7 cover, our spirits were raised to enter a large space where people were line-dancing (fun people-watching!) and $1 longnecks (after 2 beers, we’d made our cover back!) were available. We enjoyed the dancing (a few even joined in, but I have 2 left feet, and don’t get line-dancing) and the band was good, so it was fun. Around 12:30 a few of us left a group there and headed back to our respective hotels, because even though it was not going to be an early morning the next day (Gateway’s parking doesn’t open until around noon, or whenever the cars start backing up onto the road), it was going to be a long day.

By leaving so “early”, we apparently missed an event that, according to the remainder of the group, bordered on pornographic…a thong contest. And NOT the footwear. SOOO sad I missed that. (Sarcasm, folks!!)

The next morning, we rendezvoused in the line-up for parking in Orange West…Commodore and crew and Michelle and crew had inside and outside pole positions, so things looked good for the group getting a decent tailgating spot, and sure enough, after passing some time snapping pics of the abundant number of dragonflies at the side of the road, they opened the gates early (the cars were backed up onto the road, which HAS to violate some kind of law!) so we moved like cattle into the corral to grab what real estate we could. Other than a few strays that had to park up a bit from the main group, we got a great spot with room for tailgating right by the main gate into the track, so we scored again.

Get a bunch of Edheads together and not only have you got your tailgating site set up quickly, but you also end up with WAY more food than the group can eat, and GOOD food at that!! We even shared the burgers later with a group that came in by limo Hummer. Their monstrosity of a vehicle was just travelling through the lot, trading cold beers for food, and they had to make the sharp turn at our gate onto the parking inside the gate….THAT was a tricky maneuver!!

High points of tailgating:

Getting called “EGGheads” by an inebriated Harvick fan across from us. (She was harmless, just having fun!)

Converting a young Kyle Busch fan:

Making our “Ortho Weed B Gon” sign (Exellent Shrub control!!), to see if waving it around at a race worked as good as posting it in a chat room:

Just hanging out with a bunch of really great people. A core group have attended races at Gateway for years, and every year new Edheads join the group, so aside from seeing old friends, we got to meet new friends, too.

When the gates finally opened, we rushed through with 2 goals:

Attempt to get one of the prized tickets to get things signed by Carl later in the afternoon at a Q&A/Signing at his souvenir hauler. Last year, only those who went through early because they bought the Track pack had gotten them in time (they traditionally only pass out 100), and Friday I had stopped by the souvenir hauler to enquire about getting one for the 7 year old (Logan, Jen’s nephew) in our group. He declined to give me one (which is his right), so I explained that last year when they handed out the tickets AT 2pm, like the plan was this year, those of us at the gate into the track waiting for it to be opened and let us through, at 2pm, had not gotten through in time to get tickets…they were gone by the time we cleared security and got to the trailer.

Get down to Turn 4 to enter the track for the track walk. We knew Carl wasn’t advertised to join this year, but doing a track walk is always fun, and the money is always for a good cause, so I try to do it every year, at any track I’m at where one is available. Besides, Kenny Wallace was scheduled to do it, so that would be neat.

I don’t know if the souvenir hauler driver paid attention to what I said and delayed a few minutes in starting to give out the tickets for Carl's signing, or the people at the gate decided to let us through a few minutes earlier, but those of us inside early AND those who went through right at 2pm and went to get in line all got tickets for the signing!! YAY!!

This was especially cool for those of us there who had been there last year. Tony had taken it upon himself to have 8x10 pics of the Edheads in Victory Lane in 2008 blown up for each of us. That was really AWESOME of him, especially since I had printed out a copy of mine in case I got a chance to get it signed, but had forgotten it at home. NOW I had something to get signed!!

Also, Tony had blown it up to a larger size, and those of us there from last year signed OUR autographs above it. This would be presented to Carl at the signing.

Heading on down towards turn 4, I tried to slow my rather long legs to match Michele’s rather short ones, and along with Jen and Logan headed the rest of the way to the tunnel to join the others on the track walk.

As I predicted, the track walk was fun, however, Kenny Wallace had a signing outside the track as soon as he was done, so he didn’t even wait for all the walkers to get through the gate before he started the walk…by the time we got through and onto pit lane to head into turn 4 (the walk at Gateway goes clockwise, backwards to how the cars actually drive it), he and the main group were already in turn 4.

We never did catch up to the main pack, but those who got through and managed to stay with the main group got a special treat…Carl joined in! He told the group they had been out for a drive, and came back and he saw the group on the track, so he thought he’d join in.

We back markers got a great view of the track and the fun of each others company, but that’s it. Poor Michele really wanted Kenny’s autograph. And it WOULD have been nice to walk with Carl again. Fortunately Michele lucked out and got Kenny’s autograph afterwards at his signing outside the track.

After some more tailgating, we headed back in to be ready for Carl’s signing. He was qualifying 7th, and was scheduled to come to the hauler after he’d finished his run. We were told that if he won the pole, he MIGHT have to cut out early to do the media stuff involved with winning the pole, but he had said he would come back as soon as he was done. What a guy.

As Tony planned to give Carl the picture from last year, we joined the end of the line, staying out front for a short bit first to let the rest go through the line up, and enjoy some of Carl’s Q&A. When Carl arrived, he did a group thing with some kids from the Dream Factory behind the hauler first, and then came in to hang with us regular fans.

It’s amazing how quickly Carl can sign 200 items (2 each for 100 tickets…although I know for a fact a few in line didn’t have tickets. LOL) and THEN, because he had time, he stuck around afterwards to sign for others. I was glad to see him continue this practice, as he had done in Phoenix, because a gentleman and his deaf son had tried to join the line, but were told they needed tickets, which they did not know. The man had a photo of Carl with his deaf son that he wanted to get signed…I told him to hang around out front, that Carl always signs for more than those who have tickets if he has time.

The laugh of the signing was Carl showing the photo Amie had brought to be signed…the one of him and Amie on the bike ride, showing him pointing at her t-shirt, towards her chest, because she dared to wear a Kansas City Jay Hawks shirt. How dare she? LOL Anyway, Amie had decided that that particular moment in history needed an autograph…and Carl had to hold the picture up for the crowd and explain it to them, and emphasize he was NOT pointing at her “anatomy”, which she had been teasing him about. Too fun.

Carl seemed really appreciative of the photo of us from last year in Victory Lane, and I suspect it will find a home somewhere where he’ll look at it from time to time, but there was more. After we were all done, we congregated behind the hauler, and Randy agreed to allow Chrissi give Carl his other gift when he came out. You see, a few of us had invested in “Edhead pit shirts” earlier in the season…very expensive shirts designed like a pit crew shirt, by a company that does pit crew shirts, with the design silk-screened right in. VERY limited edition, because of how much they cost, and as it was a company that did team shirts, it kind of got delayed while they worked on other products, but we finally had them, just in time for Gateway….and Carl was getting one, too:

We knew Carl was hanging around out front to continue signing autographs; we had to wait patiently for a short while until he was done to do this.

Finally, he came out the back of the hauler, and Chrissi got a great hug from him for the shirt, after she explained all the logos (honoring lost Edheads)….I’m sure Chrissi won’t ever forget it.

Back at the campsite, the grill fired and we enjoyed a lavish spread before heading into the track for the race. Jeff was “working” for Frontstretch.com, and as such would be watching the race from inside the track, as he snapped photos mainly from Turn 2, so I hung with my buddy, Logan during the race.

He was my honorary sign bearer of the “Weed B Gon” sign I had drawn up during dinner, and was enthusiastic in his duties, taking them very seriously…so much so, we had to explain to him that he shouldn’t hold the sign up while the race was going on, so that people behind him could see the race. I didn’t see it in the telecast when I watched it back at home, but one far-flung Edhead told me on Facebook she had seen it during the race, and had gotten a chuckle out of it.

He nodded his understanding, but later, he asked me something during the race that I couldn’t hear, so I just nodded and smiled (dumb move with a 7-year old...he could be asking ANYTHING!!) and next thing I know, it was up and waving again. LOL

Apparently “Weed B Gon”, intended for Kyle Busch (aka “The Shrub”) was more powerful than we thought…because, although it missed the Shrub, Kevin Harvick, Carl’s OTHER main competition this night, ran out of gas shortly after this sign waving incident.

Of course, the first inkling I had that Carl would not win this race was that HARVICK had chosen HIS pit stall, right across from the start/finish line and with the opening to the garage behind it….the pit stall that Carl and crew had used the 2 times he had won there. Right in front of us. At least we got to witness first-hand Harvick and team's frustration in trying to get that car restarted.

Thankfully, Weed B Gon stopped his charge, even if it wasn’t intended for him…I firmly believe in the power of Weed B Gon…but it never slowed the Shrub down. Bad aim, I guess.

After the race, some braved the traffic while some hung out at the site, waiting for traffic to thin out, and checking out each others photos. A great way to pass the time, rather than sitting in traffic.

Aside from it being my first time at a Gateway race when Carl DIDN’T win (and Logan’s tears when he realized he wasn’t going to get to see Carl do a back flip had us all a bit choked up!), the people made all the difference. You can go to a race, or GO to a race, and with the Edheads, it’s always the latter, and always great fun, no matter the end result of the race.

Infineon: What Good is a sick NASCAR Nurse?

AKA How bad have YOU got it???

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.

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!!!