NASCAR Sunday

This will be a long entry, lots of exciting stuff and pictures!
This past Sunday, Mary, Ron (Nick's parents) and I headed down to Homestead, FL to watch the final NASCAR race of the season. Nick couldn't make it because he had to work. The tickets were compliments of the company my dad works for so we got the "hook up"...hospitality tent with food and beer all for FREE!

Ron & Mary are avid fans and watch races every Sunday. They even have a little internal family competition with Mary's sister and her husband to see who can name the weekly top 5 for points. At the end of the season, the winner gets a special prize...I'm not sure what it is yet. Even though I don't watch the races anymore, I still consider myself a Jimmie Johnson #48 fan. Actually I'm more of a Chad Knaus fan (Jimmie's crew chief).... I always admire the "brains" behind everything.

We arrived at the Homestead Speedway bright and early at 8am. The weather was a bit chillier than we expected. I certainly didn't think it would be cold in the southern-most part of FL, but it was. After walking around outside the gates looking at all the merchandise trailers we decided to head inside to catch breakfast at the hospitality tent. We had a busy agenda for the day.
Inside the speedway there were tents for all kinds of sponsors giving out free stuff. By the time we made it to the hospitality tent for breakfast, Ron had a full bag of freebies!

We had looked over our tickets the night before and we were all looking forward to the highlight of the day which was the special pass to go down to pit road and watch where all the cars are set up. I was jealous because my parents actually had access to the garages rather than just pit road. However, it's still a treat to be able to walk across the track "backstage". Soon after we arrived at the hospitality tent, they started guided tours to pit road. At first we weren't sure if having a guide would be as good as being on our own but we thought if anything we'd take our own tour afterwards since we had a few hours to spare. As we walked through pit road, I wondered where all the "big name" cars were...all the crews that were set up were not the big names and I wanted to see Jimmie Johnson's and Jeff Gordon's crew but they were nowhere to be found. Lots of tires in the pit area...this is my attempt at an "artsy" picture.

The tour guide promised that he would take us to as many places as he could....and he delivered! Remember how I wanted access to the actual garages....well as a result of .. call it a "security breech or lack of communication" the tour guide was able to get us into the garages. We got kicked out on our first try but then he took us through another gate and that security guard let us all through.

This was definitely the highlight of the day. As Mary would say, "that just doesn't happen everyday, you know". Normally only owners, family and crew (people with credentials) are allowed back there, but there we were behind the scenes. The guide did tell us we could get kicked out at any time so we took advantage of it. Here is where we found the BIG names; they were lined up on the back side of the garage facing their trailers rather than pit road. We saw the idolized Earnhardt crew, Gordon's and of course Jimmie Johnson's!

We walked up and down but we didn't spot anyone we recognized. As we were getting ready to leave, Ron said, "let's walk by Jimmie Johnson's trailer one more time". I really didn't think I'd see anyone but when we got there....there he was: Chad Knaus, Crew Chief. He was working on Jimmie's car and you are not allowed to ask for autographs while they are in the garage. I took a picture of him while in the garage...you can barely see but he's on the left behind the guy you can see clearly.

Not too long after he walked out of the garage and a woman stopped to talk to him. I shyly stood close by and I asked Mary, "Should I ask for an autograph?" and she said "YES!"..,so I did. He was very nice and gracious as Mary says. Ron took a picture of him while he was signing my ticket. I know this is strange to say but I was surprised to see that he had on really nice shoes. I thought he would have on "garage" shoes but they were nice....Nick said "of course he does, he makes a lot of money"....which is true I guess. Anyhow, that was the highlight of my day! After he signed my ticket I think I got a little starstruck!

After that we headed back to the hospitality tent for lunch and the chance to see a special appearance by Jeff Gordon. The hospitality tent was sponsored by Pepsi (one of Gordon's sponsors) so they got him to stop by and answer a couple of questions. We didn't get any autographs from him...there were way too many people at the tent and he was only there for 10 minutes it seemed. Nonetheless, we got to see him.

I was surprised at how fast the day went by. The race started at 3pm. After a quick meeting with my parents, we were curious to see where our seats were for the race. We had pretty good seats....high enough to see the entire track. We were on the 42nd row of the bleachers, that's a steep climb. It was a good thing that we had eaten and gone to the bathroom before seating because it was a hike you didn't want to make twice. We were definitely a little closer to the sun, it was no longer chilly, it was HOT! Mary and I got sunburned through our jeans....I didn't know that could happen!!!

Before the race started they had a demonstration of "precise landing" (I don't know what the official name is) skydivers from the ARMY Black Knights. It was very impressive how they maneuvered to land one after the other at the exact same spot.

We watched half the race and then we decided to head back home to avoid traffic. We were told if we stayed until the end, it would take us 3 hours just to get out of the parking lot. Being at the race definitely makes you appreciate the drivers more. It makes you feel and hear the power and speed. However, we all agreed we prefer to watch the race on TV where we can actually follow it. It's very hard to follow the standings once the cars fall out of their line-up; plus the noise makes it impossible to hear the announcers.

We made it back home safe and sound but exhausted. It was a very long day but well worth it.