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?!

Saturday September 8th. Nascar Nurse has a coronary, and Elvis is in the…Pit Lane??

Saturday, Anne’s flight arrived promptly by 10am, so I picked her up and we headed off to the track to get a decent parking spot. Another side trip to Subway and we had a nice lunch when we got there.

After eating and resting a bit, we decided to head in to explore the souvenir area, spend some money, and sign in at the Official Nascar Members Club, verifying we were here and ready to join the crowd for the post-race Chaser celebration in Victory Lane after the race. We were both looking forward to it, even though I had attended enough of these “special events” by now to know that they are often not as fun as we think they will be when we sign up for them. We can imagine all SORTS of great scenarios when given a chance at inside access that often the reality falls short of. However, no matter what, it was going to be cool to get to be down there while the 12 Chase Contenders are interviewed post-race.

Collecting up my things, I suddenly realized that my tickets, in their lanyard, were missing!

A horrible sinking feeling arose that maybe I hadn’t been careful with them when I got out of the car at Subway, and even that while we were relaxing and chatting with our neighbors in the parking lot at the track, someone had grabbed them off the seat of the car.

All sorts of plans were going through my head, including throwing myself on the mercy of the gals at Will Call, to be sure they would at least give me my pit pass, and buying whatever crappy ticket was left over for the race from a scalper, then sneaking up to find out who was sitting in my seat….to giving up our primo parking spot near (at least not a 3 mile hike) the gates in order to go back to Subway, hoping and praying if they fell out there, they still were….

We tore that car apart 3 times…but for some reason, the third time, Anne looked under the passenger seat…and there they were!!! I guess neither of us looked in that one spot. It’s always the last place you look…which makes sense, because if you found it in the FIRST place you looked, and kept looking, you’d seem a touch…off…

WHEW! Coronary averted!!! Had we NOT found them, I would have strapped MYSELF to the defibrillator!!!

Off to the track, where we said Hi to Mark and the gals at the souvenir hauler, and I waved at Randy as he walked by…of course, he had no idea who I was, but as you’ll see by my pics, I spotted him SEVERAL times this weekend.

Of course, being the pit lane addicts Anne and I are, we headed down there as soon as it opened, just hanging around, seeing the sites. We chatted with some of the pit crew guys, including John, who was having a heckuva hose issue…LOL
People at Nascar races are usually very friendly, and this day was no different. We met all sorts of people down on pit lane, and not just fans…Richmond is not far from Charlotte, where most race shops are, and crews and family tend to live around there, so I wasn’t too surprised to meet a few crew family members who had come up for the weekend, making time to be with their spouses or family members who they must not see very often, as many have “day jobs” during the week, then are gone all weekend, 38 weeks of the year.

The most…interesting…person we saw was…Elvis. Leading a pit tour!! Elvis is NOT dead…he’s just following the NASCAR circuit!! As he headed straight for the #8 pit stall, I suspect his presence had something to do with the fact that his face was plastered all over the #8 car that weekend. But he definitely was NOT camera-shy! I snapped a couple of pics for our Elvis-crazy Brandi, who was not on pit lane…what a day for her to not have a pit pass!! Before long the cars started being rolled through inspection and out onto pit lane, so Anne and I took up position near where they came out and snapped away…looking impatiently for the 99 car and crew.

Applause broke out along pit lane as the 31 car, proudly adorned with the AT&T logo across the hood, came on to pit lane...the car had started the race weekend with a blank orange hood, a result of the on-going battle between Sprint-Nextel and AT&T/Cingular over AT&T's right to have THEIR logo on the hood of the car they inherited when they bought out Cingular:

Sadly, getting up-close shots of the 99 car and it's crew was not to be. After several hours on pit lane, our water gone, the sun hot, we finally had to give up, after going down to see if the 99 car and crew was even close to coming through inspection…which they weren’t. We HAD to get out of the heat, or suffer the fate of hapless race fans every hot race weekend…heatstroke!!

So we headed to the hospitality area, and wonderful shade…watching the workers in the structure, with their cool fans, still fanning themselves, I wanted to say “You don’t KNOW hot!”, but as they were slaving over chafing dishes full of hot food, working, while we could sit and cool off, I decided that would be unwise. I guess I get mean when I’m overheated!!!

After a while sitting in the blessed cool, a little food, and a lot of cold beverages, we felt ready to head back out into the heat.

We found our seats, right at the start/finish line, easily enough, but almost had to CLIMB over bodies to get to them, as Daughtry was playing right in front of us. Not being an American Idol fan, or whatever, I didn’t know who the group was, but I recognized the songs, and picked it up later during my vacation…another Daughtry CD sold!!

After the concert, and people thinned out considerably, and we settled in to watch the pre-race festivities.

Unfortunately, our primo seats were NOT primo for driver intros…rather than move out the Daughtry stage, or use the same one, right in front of us at the start/finish line, they set up the standard Driver Intro stage down closer to turn 4…so we didn’t have a great view for that. But we made do.

As the race started and went on, it became apparent that Carl had a strong car…way to go Bob and crew!! BUT…sadly, we suddenly heard Carl over our scanners saying the engine was going, and the following troubleshooting session was almost more painful, because then we had hope that it might be something electrical, something they could fix and keep going with…but that big puff of white smoke across the track in turn 3 dashed our hopes.

After the requisite mourning period (you HAVE to mourn when your driver’s engine goes south!!), I turned back to the action…joking with the gals via text message that now that I’d lost my red flag virginity during the Busch race the night before, I had now, experiencing 2 more red flags during the course of the race, become a red flag HUSSY!!! LOL

Eventually, it was time to join the ONMC crowd down by the tunnel, as the laps wound down, in preparation for our trek into the infield and eventually out by the Victory Lane/Chaser stage. Even with my knowledge that we would likely be packed in and not have a front-on view (that would be reserved for the press…Anne and I SHOULD have flashed our CCN press/photo passes, I guess!) I was excited…and sure enough, despite some prime views of most of the Chasers, who came over and interacted with us (Carl even faked a stage dive!! LOL) for the actual shots of the group we were sadly out of view…BUT, when they cracked open the champagne and turned it on us, the fans to the side, as well as the Victory Lane guys filming on the other side of the stage (and the press, who were mostly out of reach of the champagne) I happened to be mid-shot of what I COULD see…and got an amazing shot, albeit blurry: Finally, tired but happy (mostly) with our race weekend experience, we headed out when it was apparent that the drivers were all leaving, so there was nothing else to see…

Back in the car, the traffic had thinned a bit, but was still pretty heavy once you got out on the road. I put my experience of the night before into good use, and managed to get into the lane that, after the Busch race, would have had us going straight down the road to our hotel….

And was disappointed to find that, even with the foresight of the night before, this time, with the bigger Cup race crowd, that lane, too, was directed north instead of south…so we once again were headed the wrong way.

This time, though, I knew which exit to take on the interstate to go the fastest way, NOT back by the race track, down to our hotel.

The moral of the story: NEVER expect that you’ve finally figured out race traffic, because it WILL change! LOL

Back at the hotel, we were still on a race weekend high, even though Anne had to head to the airport in a few hours, so we chatted and watched some of the coverage on TV…and before we knew it, we woke up and it was time for Anne to go.

The rest of my race weekend was pretty quiet. As I was bound for Toronto, home to my family on Monday, once I woke up Sunday afternoon, refreshed, I made a quick call to the airlines just in case there was a late flight out I could get instead, but they were all booked up…so I lazed around the rest of the day. Not a bad end to a race weekend!