May 2009

Hello Nascar fans.  Hope everyone is having a great week.  I just got back home yesterday from Lowe’s and although the weekend was disappointing in that I was unable to attend the race on Monday, things werent so bad after all.  Here’s the weekend breakdown.

We left Thursday afternoon about four and headed up 95 towards our destination.   The trip was uneventful except for some blinding rain in South Carolina that briefly delayed travel.   We arrived in Charlotte about 10am and checked into the hotel so we could head out to Lowe’s.   Not only Lowe’s but lots of other stuff in between.

When we first started out Friday the original plan was to try and attend the barbeque at the track that afternoon, but as fate would have it, that wasnt to be.  We had plans to have lunch with my buddy racecar John, who as you may know because I often mention my good friend RCJ as we call him works for Sprint.  Well he got called to a charity go kart event and so that sort of changed the order of things.  Instead of landing at Lowe’s that afternoon, I found myself in what I can only describe as a dream land for me, Hendricks Motorsports Museum and their race shops.  I couldnt believe it.  It was incredible.  There were cars and trophies as far as the eye could see.  In the museum they had the drivers areas with cars on display including four of Jeff Gordon’s winning cars.   They also had the drivers suits on display.  One of Jeff’s was sticking out and I couldnt resist touching it and then rubbing my face with that hand!  haha!

Over at the race shop, there were all these trophies and more cars.  There was a seperate area you could go into that you could actually see the cars in production and in different stages of development.   It was incredibly cool.  There were actually two buildings for the race cars.  One building housed the stuff of Gordon and teammate and friend Jimmy Johnson.   The other houses the cars of Mark Martin and Dale Jr..   It was all pretty spectacular.  Inside the Jr./Martin building you could see guys in the back area applying decals to one of Mark’s cars.  Just on the other side of the viewing glass, there was a primer car with a five on it and a gentleman was doing something to the car involving a floor screen, we deducted that it was possibly a scale used to weigh the cars during the assembly process or something.   At any rate it was extremely cool.

In front of the buildings they had a stand set up for a raffle involving some sort of Jeff Gordon keg o que and barbeque set.  It was really cool looking and so I filled out a ballot and dropped it in the box with the other 5 bazillion entries and wouldn’t you know it, I got an email today that says that I actually won the keg o que and barbeque set.   I cant believe it!  What are the odds of that??   So anyways it should be on its way to me soon.  Thanks Jeff Gordon !!!   I really do love you Jeff!!  hahaha!!!!

Anyways, then Saturday we decided since we got word from Racecar John that the shops would all be open this weekend, we decided to check out a few others since we had the chance to do so.  We googled the directions to Stewart-Haas and Roush Fenway and we headed out early.  We went to Stewart Haas first.  Located in an industrial park in an isolated area, the shop is nestled among trees and natural beauty.  It is really cool.   We toured their facility and they gave us some free samples of Old Spice deodorant and body wash.  I guess they want fans to be clean and smell clean as well as race clean.  Stewart Haas is a real “clean” organization.   haha   Just kidding, but their facility is really neat as well.

After spending a short time at Stewart Haas, there isnt much to see yet until Tony does some more winning.  Although his check from last week was already in the display case with some other Stewart memorabilia.  Anyway after that we headed out to Roush Fenway’s racing headquarters.  All I can say is that it is a huge place.  It was incredible and awe inspiring.  There was tons of memorabilia things like Carl Edwards truck and his suit from his very first win in the truck series.  There was alot of memorabilia from Matt Kenseth and his history with Roush and some other stuff too.  Greg Biffle’s car was there and some of his stuff as well.   It was incredible.  Their complex is huge.  They have different buildings for everything at Roush.   It was definitely something to see.

We headed to the track after that and hung out doing the sponsor thing and winning some cool stuff there as well.   The rain came and then let up and they were able to dry the track for Saturday’s race.   We were positioned just to the left of the start finish line.  They were really cool seats and I liked sitting in view of the guy who waves the flags during the race.  That was really cool.   Congratulations to the winner Mike Bliss.   I couldnt believe it.  I was pulling for Carl when he was winning but then Kyle Busch came along and messed that up.  Haha.  Anyways, we had a great race and a great time.  Except for the drunk cowboy doing the bump and grind in the stands.  That was a little weird.   But we did meet one of Concord’s finest and a colleague of one of my favorite cops on Speeders, Sargeant Hartsell.  We couldnt find him but were happy to find a co worker who actually knew him.  You gotta love the show Speeders, after all, the drivers are stopped for going fast.  In Nascar they just dont get stopped but it is all about the speed.   Plus its really funny.

So we got up Sunday all excited, it was the big race day!  I could hardly wait to get to the track for the race.  We started the day out at Joe Gibbs Racing hope to repeat the prior day’s festivities at another location.   Well that was not to be as they were closed on Sunday.   We were able to view what we could have seen from inside through the glass windows that lined the front.  We got pictures of Joey Logano’s guitar trophy for what I cant remember but it was cool looking so I took a picture.   We got some pictures of the cars that were inside, Hamlin’s #11 FedEx car,  that guy who drives the #18, his car was there too!  Haha!  Along with Joey Logano’s ride.  It was all very cool.  Their facility is in Huntersville which is several miles away from the Concord area where most of the shops are found.   Hendricks shops are actually the closest to the track being just off the road before you get to the track itself.

Well we tried to get to the track early but got stuck in traffic for like 2 hours trying to get to the track.  I will say that Lowe’s has tons of free parking.  I was happy to not have to pay out the nose to park that’s for sure.  So we finally got there and  were tooling around the sponsor area and stuff just checking stuff out and waiting for time to go in.  Then it started raining.  We figured we had some time before they started the race since they were drying the track and all so we went to the van and got some food and listened on our fan views to what was happening with the weather situation.  We waited and finally decided to go into the track and hope for the best.  Well needless to say, that didnt go so well and after sitting in the rain for over an hour waiting patiently for something to happen, I was over it.  It was nasty and yucky and it was obvious to me that it was time to go and there would be no race tonight.   Within the hour Nascar confirmed what I had already known when I decided to leave,  they were postponing the race until Monday.

Needless to say I was very disappointed.  I drove all that way and then the weather keeps me from  my goal!  I felt so cheated!  We got home yesterday in time for me to watch what there was of the once again, rain effected race.  I could hardly believe it.  I was very disappointed that I missed being there when Harvick crashed in turn 1.  My seats were by turn 1.  Grrrrrrr!   I really was mad that I had to miss that wreck!  I  really dislike Harvick and am happy to see his chances dashed at any race.  Over all, I was disappointed it had to end that way, once again rain delayed and then cancelled once they got past half way, but pleased that the victory went to such a great guy as David Reutimann.   We have had the pleasure of meeting him and my daughter thought he was extremely nice and so did I.   So congratulations to David.   Not the most glamourous of wins but a win just the same.

Well that was our adventure in the land of Lowe’s.  Once again I had a great time even though we didnt get to see the race live.  After all we did get to go to all the shops and see all that stuff and thats something you just cant do at any track.  If you decide to make a journey to Lowe’s anytime soon, the next race is October for them, I strongly suggest you visit the shops.  The price of admission is right, they are all free to get in, and they are a real treat to go through and experience.  I do think that the Hendricks shop has a lot more to offer than the others though as far as history and just some darn neat stuff.  I will see you back here tomorrow and we will take a look at next week’s track and review the standings in the race for the chase.  Until then Nascar fans, have a good one.

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