It was a great day at the race track.
04/08/2008
It was cold and overcast when I left in the morning but turned into a beautiful day for racing.
I had layers and layers on but opted for shorts instead of jeans. I took off the layers as the day progressed. By the start of the race, the temperatures were great for racing, the sun was shining and the track warmed up.
I managed to do a bit of Robby stalking first thing. I got a new visor to match my outfit and I got it signed. There was a long line of fans again this year, great for him, bad for the long time fans. I wish there was a way autographs could be done differently.
I headed back to the car to grab my gear and headed over to Speed TV to watch trackside live. I love Kenny, he is always so on. So excited to be there, there was a lot of chit chat going back and forth and I learned that the splitters were catching on the turns, I didn’t see that in practice or happy hour. Hum…..
The pre-race show included the Doobie Brothers, they were great! I was dancing in my row. It got me even more pumped up for the race. The spotters and scores were heading up the grandstand to the roof. A few stopped and chatted with us on the way up. It is always fun to have the seats I do.
The race was exciting, it is a long one and with the wide open track, the speeds are usually quick. There were a few cautions along the way, Robby Gordon didn’t have a great day, but it wasn’t horrid either. He bounced off the wall a couple of times: he was using the high grove all day and couldn’t seem to get the car on the bottom. I listened to my favorite drivers, spotters and crew chiefs on the scanner. I did like when one of the teams thanked there Texas fans over the radio, that was a nice touch.
The first caution of the day was for a T-Shirt that ended up on the start/finish line from the “full throttle fan” giveaways. Somehow they sent it onto the track instead of the stands. The safety crew had to go and retrieve it.
The finish of the race ended up being a green/white/checkered. I thought at first Robby brought out the caution by hitting the wall again, but it was Martin Truex’s car that blew up. Carl Edwards ended up winning the race with Jimmy Johnson and Chad running just behind, they just couldn’t make the last lap pass. Clint Bowyer ended up sliding through the start finish line and it looked like he had a top 10, but there was some confusion with the scoring so I will wait until the official scoring later today.
Brother and I hung around and waited for the traffic to clear and then left and got a great dinner. I ended up driving around the Dallas/Fort Worth area on Monday morning for hours: from the hotel to the airport, from the airport back to the house. I ended up dodging all the travel trailers on the way back down I-35 until I could hit the toll road. I was glad, I had to make a couple of phone calls and with all the traffic, I didn’t get the opportunity until then. Oh, I did stop at the outlet malls in Hillsborough and get myself a couple of treasures.
It’s back to the office to get caught up on the weekends paperwork. I called in on my way home to see of I was needed: the office was quite busy when I was gone. No need said the boss, see you on Tuesday morning.
