Walking in on Sunday Morning

I honestly don’t remember what time we got to the track on Sunday- but I want to say probably around 9:00 again.  We perused the midway- partaking in free COKE ZERO samples as well as getting free Bobby Labonte flash drives preinstalled with the ask.com nascar tool bar wiget thingy mabob.  Mostly though we scoped out a place by the SPEED stage and waited.  We were there solely to see Jeff Gordon’s interview by the PRN guys- but be cause we also got to see Richard Childress and Kyle Busch during their interviews and we got to watch Hermie Sadler film one of the cut-away car segments-which was fun too.  I got a few mediocre pictures of Richard Childress and one of Jeff Gordon:

Richard Childress spoke about just about everything including the economy and hunting

Jeff Gordon told us a funny story about getting a speeding ticket...

Part of my photo issue is that I am short and there were lots of tall people and one blonde woman who kept stepping in front of me so I would get a great picture of the back of people’s heads- hers in particular.  Secondly I decided to use a different camera on Sunday than I used on Friday. On friday I used my trusty Canon I5 SI that I LOVE and am most comfortable with. On Sunday I decided to use my new-to-me DSLR canon Rebel (I don’t know the model off the top of my head…but its the silver one).  It has some sort of fancy lense on it (again I don’t know which lense) but this was my first real outting with the Rebel and while overall I got some great pictures- I was frustrated with it and my lack of knowledge of what the heck I was doing with it.  Apparently I didn’t get ANY of Kyle Busch and I didn’t even attempt Hermie because he was down at ground level and off to my right so there was just no way.

Anyway- after watching the interviews by the PRN guys we escaped the speed stage area we meandered about the midway some more- got another free sample of COKE ZERO and then wandered over towards the Petty Terrace to settle into our seats.  Pre-race started and we could actually see pre-race a little better this year because of our awesome seats:

Flying Elvii- their helmets actually look like elvis hair- cracked me up!

One of the pictures I am most proud of- the fly over after invocation and the national anthem. I took this picture! It rocks huh?

Then the command to start engines came and the cars were off lining up behind the pace car:

The field lines up behind the pace car...a shelby (yeah I know you can't see the pace car...I kinda missed it).

Then the race went green- but not for very long as Matt Kenseth brings out the first caution of the day.

I was pleased with Tony- he seemed to move well and maintain a top five position most of the day. The Office Depot team did great pit stops.

Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon approach their pit stalls during a pit stop. We had a great view of their stalls since they were more towards the exit of pit road.

Kyle Busch pits during the race.

I still LOVE watching the pits stops and find that if there is a car on pit road that I can see…I am watching it. I don’t know what it is about the pitting that I love but it’s really exciting and fascinating to me. So I have lots of pictures of Kyle, Jeff, Tony and Kasey Kahne on pit road since they were right there by our seats.

I finally decided that I had to use the restrooms. I mean I really had to go. When I left Tony was somewhere in the top five. When I came back he wasn’t even on the leaderboard any more (don’t think that wasn’t the first thing I checked when I came back).  BFM shook her head when I got back to my seat and said Tony pitted out of sequence and she didn’t know why (we don’t bother with race scanners although I wish we had them then).

I heard that some people thought the Vegas race was boring to watch on TV but not if you were there in person:

Menard's car gets towed in on the wrecker. Fun times.

And even when I did get bored during one of the cautions I was able to occupy myself taking pictures of the mountains behind Las Vegas Motor Speedway:

Who says the Desert is bland? I think these mountains are Gorgeous.

And finally Kyle won at Las Vegas- and if Tony couldn’t win, and Jeff Gordon (BFM’s favorite) couldn’t win I am glad that it was Kyle.

Kyle Busch did an awesome burn out...then jumped out of the car and actually kissed the start finish line. I think he was pleased to win in front of his home town crowd.

Find out why I am glad that if my drivers and BFM’s drivers couldn’t win the Shelby 427, why I was glad to watch Kyle win in the next segment.

Coming up tomorrow: The Shelby 427: Driver Appearances.