Saturday Morning at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Sam’s Town 300 and the Kobalt Tools 400 practice.
Our first official NASCAR event. While I don’t personally follow NASCAR, like many of you, we have family and friends that do. I love to hear people talk about this driver, this car, that race or that sponsor. Getting an autograph from your driver or having a used tired in their garage.
We hit the road around 9am. Cars were lining up, crowds walking through the gate and choppers were landing. As we rolled through the tunnel at the Las Vegas Speedway, the sounds of the stock-cars practicing around the 1.5 mile track would draw us in. We parked in the infield, not to far from all the RV’s. We strolled through the Neon Garage, a band was playing, people were eating and talking about the Sam’s Town 300 that would start in a few hours. We hit the garages, teams were working and fine tuning the cars for the Kobalt 400 on Sunday. Fans lined the roof as they tried to catch a pic of their favorite driver. One fan dropped a life size cardboard cut out of a driver off the 2nd level tied to rope. He was hoping the driver would sign it, not sure if he did or not.
Each team had a beautiful semi-truck, decked out in the sponsors colors, tires, gas and tools lined the garage. Some teams were working on their cars, other more relaxed as all the work may have already been done. The scale of each team comes into perspective. The Kyle Busch’s M&M racing team was one of the teams at the end of an aisle. The semi-truck and I think they had 3 cars. Two in the garages and one near the truck. And tires, tires everywhere.
Sunday morning, this is where the real impression came into play. Same agenda, rolled out to the speedway, enter through the tunnel, checked in through the Neon Garage. Only this time the sound of 43+ Stock-cars racing around the track and 150,000 people. Being in the middle of it all changes your perspective. Fans grilled hot dogs and hamburgers, others sitting on top on RV’s in their lawn cars and children tossing a football. This is where the action and party is.
^ Tony Stewart Chevrolet Mobil 1/Office Depot
^ Jeff Gordon Chevrolet DuPont
^ Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet Lowe’s/Kobalt Tools. Jimmie Johnson is forced to a backup car after making contact with the wall during practice in turn 2.
^ A.J. Allmendinger Dodge Pennzoil
^ Aric Almirola Ford Richard Petty Fantasy Racing Camp.
^ Budweiser – Kobalt 400 Las Vegas Nv
^ Kevin Harvick Chevrolet Budweiser
^ Jeff Gordon Chevrolet DuPont 20 Years
^ Carl Edwards Ford Aflac
^ Matt Kenseth Ford Zest
^ Mike Bliss Toyota
^ Goodyear tires
