Friday, March 31

Mom and I planned to be at the track by 6:00 AM to watch the haulers go in. I've heard that the sight of them, all lined up, amber running lights glowing in the pre-dawn, is, well... awesome. So we wanted to be there, cameras in hand, to get lots of pictures. Unfortunately, my alarm didn't go off, I over-slept, and for some reason, I hadn't packed my gear up the night before, so we were running late, late, late. We were close to an hour late when we finally got to the speedway.

We thought we would just park in our usual spot across from the helicopter pads. It's not very convenient to the grandstands, so most people don't park there until the other lots get full, but we like it because it's close to the North Tunnel where we usually enter the track. But on this day, the gates were closed and you couldn't go in, as was gate after gate all around the track to Petty Place, the road leading right up to the front grandstands. The outer gate for the grassy/dirt parking area there was open (or rather, someone knocked it down), so we headed that way, thinking we could drive straight down to the inner ring road and get to our spot from there.

Not so. Driving down Petty Place, we got to the gate where the public (dirt) parking ends and the VIP (paved) parking begins. That gate was also locked. There was no way to get to the inner road. Now this was beginning to really puzzle me, because I had an infield pass, and it was supposed to get me in starting promptly at 2:00 PM on Wednesday, and I wasn't quite sure how I was supposed to do this if I couldn't even get to the gate!

We finally wound up on the south side of the track and pulled into a paved parking area there. Loaded up with cameras and gear, we quickly walked to the South Tunnel entrance and were stopped by a security guard who had seen us park and said we couldn't park there -- it was reserved for VIPs. I thought to myself, "Of course it is reserved for VIPs, it's paved, isn't it? If it was for use by the general public, it would be dirt!" We did argue with him that all the other parking lots were locked up, but he didn't care, and just repeated several times that the regular parking lot gates would be opening at 8:00. We finally just drove around to Petty Place, got as close as we could to the paved parking area, and started walking. It really made me angry because Mom has a bad knee, and I wondered what a handicapped person would have to do, and it really made me wonder what Bruton Smith and Eddie Gossage were thinking. It certainly wasn't the comfort and enjoyment of the fans!

We couldn't get into the grandstands at this hour, so we opted to walk around the track to the South Tunnel entrance. We wandered around in the infield for a couple of hours, taking pictures and watching all the hustle and bustle of activity in the garage areas.

Just outside the Busch Garage, we spotted the #24 Pepsi car hauler and crew. I don't keep up with the Busch points all the time, so I'm assuming that team was pretty low in the point standings and so they didn't get a spot in the garage. I probably could have gotten a lot closer, but I was afraid I would get in their way, and I didn't want to risk getting tossed out.

And here's a peek through the Busch Garage fence at Adam Petty's Sprint hauler.

Around the corner, near the Busch Garage gate, we spotted these Winn Dixie crewmen waiting to be let in.

On down the road a bit, a few of the Winston Cup teams were heading out in search of ice. Here's one of the Valvoline crewmen.

Some of the #45 Sprint team were getting ready for Adam Petty's Winston Cup debut.

Looks like the Penzoil team needs ice, too.

We had a great view of Jeremy Mayfield's motor home.

And here's a shot of the #91 crew of Todd Bodine hard at work. That's Todd himself sitting down on a stack of tires by the right front side of the car.

The Penzoil team of Steve Park is one of my favorites.

Adam Petty was often visible around the Sprint hauler. Here you can see him standing just inside the door.

Joe Nemecheck's Oakwood Homes car.

That's Ken Schrader walking past the #91 car.

Here's the #8 car of Dale Earnhardt, Junior, my second favorite driver! (Hey, I was a fan before he won his first Winston Cup race!)

Kyle Petty's Hot Wheels #44. That's Ken Schrader with his back turned to the front of the car.

I just love getting good, close-up shots of the cars. Here's Matt Kenseth's #17.

Kyle Petty gives his son Adam some advice.

The #1 Penzoil car comes back from inspection.

Michael Waltrip's #7 car.

Dave Blaney

Is that NASCAR's own Mike Helton?

And here's the #66 of Darrell Waltrip. Guess this is the last time I'll be seeing this. Bye-bye DW, it's been a wild and wonderful ride!

We headed up into the stands to watch the first Winston Cup practice session. As a matter of fact, we were in the pedestrian tunnel which goes under the track at the end of pit road when the cars started rolling out. The last time I was in that tunnel, it really gave me the creeps. Rain and mud had washed down into it and there were little bits and pieces of concrete scattered all over the floor which had obviously had sprinkled down from the cracks and holes in the corrugated tin above. It looked like it was about to cave in at any minute and I sure didn't want to be in it when it did. This time, the tunnel was much cleaner, and it was obvious that the holes had been patched or something, because it didn't look nearly as bad. When the cars started rolling by overhead, you could only feel the slightest little vibration and there was no dust or chunks of concrete falling down around us, so I guess it's pretty safe. Still, I really don't like it.

We had some pretty good seats for practice and qualifying. About row 17 or so, right near the start/finish line. Unfortunately, I must have mis-loaded my camera or something, because it felt like it wasn't advancing properly all day. I took two rolls of film sitting in those grandstands, and got basically nothing. Ward Burton brought his wrecked car to rest almost right in front of us, and the pictures didn't turn out! ARGH!

I did catch one little tidbit over the scanner as Dale Earnhardt finished up his qualifying run. He said, "Damn, I wanted to run 190 f------ miles an hour." Sorry Dale, I wanted that, too!