Tony Stewart feeds Osh the Elephant (Photo Credit: M Doran)

However, I can point you over to this great article written by Jerry Wilson about the event for the Examiner.  And I just want to point out one thing: when Jerry said that there was to be no autograph signing by Stewart…he isn’t kidding.  I know because when I was originally trying to work it out so I could go- I asked the marketing department for Infineon for more details about the event and that was one of the questions I asked and they made it very clear that Stewart would NOT be signing autographs at the event.  So it warms the heart of this Stewart fan to know that amid Tony’s very busy day (seriously just following the tweets of all his media obligations up in the big city made me tired) that he took the time to stop and sign autographs for the children in attendance. Everyone say it with me…AWWWW!

Osh the elephant hands Tony the green flag for the Toyota Savemart 350 at Infineon. (Photo Credit: M. Doran)

Anyway- on to the “Trackside With Tony” ticket package for Infineon Raceway.  The package includes a Sunday ticket in any area, a saturday ticket in Turn 7, Saturday access to the Club 7 Lounge in turn 7 (which is worth it because it can be HOT there at Infineon- and you might want to find a place out of the sun for awhile), and access to a  private Q&A  session with Tony Stewart in Club 7.  All for $114.  The best part of the ticket package is some of the proceeds of the ticket benefit The Tony Stewart Foundation and their work with animals, children, and injured drivers! That is actually a great price…considering you get Saturday and Sunday tickets and are helping Tony help endangered animals, ill children and injured drivers and their families.  Click here for ticket information or you can call

For those who aren’t familiar with the track: Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California is home to one of the only two road courses on the Sprint Cup Series schedule.  It’s located in what many California’s consider “wine country” and is surrounded by vineyards and wineries.  It’s actually not that far from me- all things considered and I have been to the track before and even sat in Turn 7 (a great view).  So if you want to head to California wine country for a race and possibly some wine- and are a Tony Stewart fan,  this package is right up your alley.

That being said I am down here on the Monterey Peninsula where I live, which is in the height of U.S. Open fever right now.  Every night on the news for the past two weeks or so has been golf this, U.S. Open that, Pebble this, Tiger Woods that.  Now I know very little about golf- especially professional golf.  I am going to admit that to you right up front.  I get the idea that you are suppose to hit the little white ball as few times as possible to get it into the hole and that my friends is where my knowledge of golf ends. Sand wedge, wood, iron, putter? Huh? Whot?  Even though we have a yearly celebrity pro/am hosted on the peninsula- I still don’t really pay attention. Golf has never been on my radar because it always seemed to me that watching paint dry would be more fun than watching golf because then at least- I would have the fumes to entertain my brain cells. But lately- golf has been in my face…and I can’t help but share some totally sweeping generalizations about golf vs. NASCAR:

• Traffic? Just as crazy.  I know because I have been getting stuck in golf traffic all week on my way to and from work. Much like a race weekend- golf traffic gets worse as the week progresses. They are parking the spectators just blocks from where I work because around the perimeter of campus there are lots of open space/parking lots that were here back when this place use to be an Army Base.
• Those guys hawking tickets outside the track? They do that for golf too!!!  I figure they pretty much do it for every sporting event though.
• There are also all these WELCOME GOLF FANS signs at all the businesses around here.
• Golf fans? They are so limited as to what they can take to the course! No signs, cell phones, NO CAMERAS (that seems insanely dumb to me), no bags bigger than 8x8x8, no containers, no food, no drink. Nothing. Just a jacket (needed here- it’s really foggy today), comfy shoes, and loads of money because you have to buy all your food/beverages there.  If you find yourself by a golfer? You can’t ask him for an autograph.
• Golf fans do not tailgate. No tents, no coolers or tables, no cornhole or barbecues  in the parking lot. No congregating with others who are not part of your direct party. Makes the parking lot pretty damn boring if you ask me.
• Golf fans do not show their loyalty outwardly- that I could see.  They do not have flags flying from their cars that say TIGER or TOM! They don’t have bumper stickers supporting their favorite golfer. And from what I tell they don’t wear shirts for their favorite golfer either.   The most fan advertisement for golfing I have seen– a TITLIST license plate frame.  Again pretty damn boring to me. Half the fun of going to a race is people watching.
• Not to mention the fact that I can’t imagine being at a sporting event where if you get a cough or a sneeze you might get yelled out or asked to leave. Seriously – those quiet paddles are intangible to me- if I wanted to be quiet I would go to a library (or apparently a golf tournament).  Of course I love a sport that is so noisy if I want to communicate with my friend I either have to YELL a centimeter from her ear at the top of my lungs or text her- even though she is sitting two inches from me.  I like to be able to HEAR and FEEL and TASTE my sports!
• Tiger Woods is to golf media/fandom, what Dale Junior is to NASCAR media/fandom kinda sorta….only less witty.

Ok that’s it…that is my thoughts on GOLF.  Now where are my cup car boys? Oh yeah…four hours north of me.  Dammit.  Go TONY Go!!!!

Yeah it was fathers day. And what do my BFF and I do? We leave our fathers at home and go to the races. Nice huh? Sunday was a long long day. We ended up having to get up pretty darn early (6:00) so we could be out of the hotel by 7:00 and on the way to Infineon Raceway. We did make a quick stop for breakfast on the way out- and it was a darn good thing we did because it would be the only food we would get until about 4 laps into the actual race. Once we got to the track, we parked (in gate 7 this time!) in a fairly good spot near the top of the biggest hill there and walked down to the shuttle area to get to the main grandstand area so that we could get our prerace pit passes/ driver intros pass. I think we actually strolled onto pit road about 10:30 or so that morning.

Now I don’t remember what I told you all about my experience with the pre-race pit passes in Phoenix earlier in the year but I pretty much felt the same in the pits at Infineon.  It was like I was invading someone’s work area. I was very cognizant of my surroundings and tried my darnedest to stay out of the crew guys ways (and I did a pretty good job of that if I don’t say so myself…except for one minor incident to stop and take a picture and apparently Brian Vicker’s crew guy was concerned that I didn’t know he was passing me and I didn’t so good job letting me know cuz I probably would have been squashed by whatever that thing was that they were pushing…some sort of tire rack thing- I am sure that is the technical name for it). We spent a good couple hours just wandering around the pits taking pictures and chattering amongst ourselves. Here are some good pictures straight from pit road to you:

Kyle Busch's tires. You know for some reason I have a fascination with taking pictures of tires...you should see my memory card in my camera..tires tires everywhere. Photo Credit: ME

Junior's got tools. Lots of tools. Sawsall? Check. Flashlight? Check. Baseball bat? Check. Photo Credit: ME

Kevin Harvick's crew members kick back prior to the start of the Savemart 350. Photo Credit: ME

I wanted to join them up there in the shade just to get out of the sun. Pit road has NO SHADE.  I was wearing a hat but still. We found a little sliver of shade at the opening of pitroad where it goes into the garage area…but we weren’t allowed to stand there. Darn.

Yes...that is a can of PAM right there with the other handy sprays. Photo Credit: ME

Turns out that cooking spray is sometimes used on the tires to cut brake dust. Who knew? (The Nascar Insiders- that’s who- thanks again guys for answering all of our questions every Wednesday).

Tony's Tire Dolly. Turns out...when I wasn't taking pictures of tools or tires? I was taking pictures of things with team numbers on it. Photo Credit: ME

The 24 pitcrew of Jeff Gordon is ready for a long hot day at Sonoma. Photo Credit: ME

Tony's tools nestled all safe in the Office Depot/ Old Spice pit box and crew chief Darian Grubb sitting on top of the pitbox chatting with crew members.. Photo Credit: ME

Not long after I took this picture (from inside the Office Depot/Old spice pit stall right on pit road), crew chief Darian Grubb actually came down from the pitbox and was speaking with some people and my friend grabbed him as soon as he was done and I got my picture taken with him. He was really REALLY nice.

You thought I was kidding about the tires didn’t you? Nope. I have a thing for taking pictures of tires:

Tony's tire sitting on pitroad. Photo Credit: ME

Teamowner Rick Hendrick has his own chair atop the Lowes pitbox. I don't know why but this is one of my favorite pictures I took on pit road. Photo Credit: ME

After a bit more of the back and forth on pit road we finally decided to go get a drink and seek a little bit of shade in the NATIONWIDE tent before heading over to pre-race/driver intros. After our brief hydration break we were off to the Pre-Race/Driver intro area- which basically let us on the track at the start/finish line area.

BFFM leaves her message for Jeff Gordon on the Start/Finish line at Infineon. Photo Credit: ME

Not to be outdone I leave a message of encouragement for Tony on the Start/Finish line as well. Of course- technically my message is upside down. Photo Credit: ME

Mostly then we hung out on the Wall and listened to the band play until they got ready to actually do the Driver Introductions. Being kind of short I had to stand towards the back to be able to get any decent pictures:

Jeff Gordon and Daughter Ella at driver introductions at Infineon Raceway. Photo Credit: ME

Tony Stewart at driver introductions at Infineon Raceway. Photo Credit: ME

Kyle Busch at driver introductions at Infineon Raceway. Photo Credit: ME

Kyle got booed so vehemenantly that it was actually kinda of scary. I am not gonna bore you with shots of each and every driver…but I do believe I got one of most of the field.  After they announced pole sitter Brian Vickers. I turned thinking BFFM was right behind me but unfortunately she had wandered away. I did find her leaning up against the wall taking pictures of Jeff’s car sitting on pit road and then she grabbed me and said “Look it’s Ingrid and Ella” (Jeff’s wife and daughter):

Ella with her mom (head down so all you can see is her hair) stand by the 24 dupont Chevy of Jeff Gordon. Photo Credit: ME

Then the guy next to me said “Oh look, there is Rick Hendrick” so I was looking looking looking and did NOT see the man.  Then BFFM grabbed my arm and said LOOK THERE IS TOM CRUISE:

Tom Cruise, Son Connor and wife Katie near Jeff Gordon's car at Infineon Raceway. Photo Credit: ME

Unfortunately I didn’t get that great of a picture because by the time I spotted Tom Cruise we were being ushered off the track by track officials.  We would miss the rest of the prerace, including the warm up laps, because we were trying to get to our seats in turn 7. We ended up just grabbing the shuttle again. By the time we made it to our seat? It was 4 laps into the race. We did get to see the fireworks go off fairly up-close-and-personal like because they went off right next to our shuttle. Fun.

I have been to a road course before…just not with NASCAR. Having seen Indy cars and Sports Cars run at Laguna Seca I knew that it’s pretty hard to find any spot where you can see the entire track.  We actually bought seats in Turn 7 on the advice of a coworker of BFFM and they definitely did NOT lead us astray as it did have a lot of action in that turn:

There were teammates chasing each other! Photo Credit: ME

There were three wide traffic jams...Photo Credit: ME

There was some rubbing...Photo Credit: ME

And there were crashes...Photo Credit ME

And even more crashes Photo credit: ME

Overall? We had fun. Of course we always pretty much have fun whenever we are together- so you have to take that into consideration.  After the race we started up the hill to the parking lot and that is when I realized…DAMN WHAT THE HELL WERE WE THINKING NOT TAKING THE PARKING SHUTTLE.  However I did see the MASS of people at the shuttle stop for the parking area so- I hiked up the hill. For awhile there I didn’t think I would make it. Seriously. Then I saw my car in the distance and was THANK YOU!!!

What was not fun? The traffic leaving Infineon. I drove straight home from Infineon. What was probably a 2.5 hour drive? Took probably about 6.  Most of it was spent in bumper to bumper (sometimes literally) mostly stopped traffic.  Seriously I didn’t get home until 11:30 pm…driving straight through stopping briefly at 9 or so in Pleasanton for dinner. I dare say the traffic leaving Infineon has been the worse traffic ever at all four tracks we have visited now. I think at some point into traffic when were hadn’t moved in like 20 minutes and showed no promise of moving, BFFM looked over at me and said “We really should invest in a portable weber or something and just eat at the track before we leave like those people in Vegas we saw the first year.” Then I told her that there were M&Ms in the cargo area…and she jumped out of the car and got them right on the freeway/highway whatever. And true to their word- they melted in our mouths not in our hands after sitting in the car all day.

On Saturday we decided to skip practice at INFINEON and go nearby SIX FLAGS: DISCOVERY KINGDOM (it use to be Marine World when I was a kid).  Well I didn’t know we would end up having so much fun and we didn’t really even ride anything (neither of us like roller coasters).  Of course it shouldn’t really surprise me that we had so much fun- because we both kind of like going to zoos and the like.   Well we ended up staying a little later than we thought we would but that was ok. Here are some pictures from our fun time at Discovery Kingdom:

A dophin trainer and audience helper instruct the dolphins from the underwater window at Discovery Kingdom. Photocredit: ME

A camel observes us watching it! Photo Credit: ME

I spent a lot of time in the Butterfly habitat..only to find that it was really humid in there- and I had to squelch the instinct to swat at them! Photo Credit: ME

I don't know why but I LOVE Flamingos...Photo Credit: ME

I love this giraffe picture I took. Photo Credit: ME

After we were done at Discovery Kingdom- we grabbed a quick bite to eat nearby and took off to the track.  I honestly do not remember what time it was but I do know that we were flagged into the gate and drove up only to have trackworkers tell us to turn around and go in gate one…that gate 7 was now exit only.  We were cranky by this point and decided to go out looking for this vinyard in Calistoga that is owned by my mom’s best friend’s son-in-law because my mom wanted me to pick up a bottle of Cabernet for my dad.  So we drove and drove and drove…through all kinds of wine country…I don’t think I have ever seen so many grapes being grown ever! Anyway traffic was terrible during parts of the drive because of a fairly nasty looking accident at one point and it being Saturday I assume.  We finally get to the Winery only to find it closed. I have no idea if they were closed on weekends or we just missed them closing (we got there about 4:15ish I thing.  So I wasn’t looking forward to it but we turned around and drove back to the track only so we could then drive back to the hotel. I am sure there was a more direct route but we did it this way for two reasons:

1. The genius (me) who printed out directions didn’t think to print directions from the winery directly to the hotel. That was dumb.

2. On the way to the winery we spied a HUGE blue chair and decided it would make good picture fodder…so we definitely wanted to stop at the big blue chair on the way back.  How could we not:

BFFM in the Big Blue Chair. Photo Credit: ME

We also stopped at a cute little market to get something to drink because we were both parched as heck…and while we just picked up some diet cokes and two chocolate covered marshmallows on a stick for the drive- they really have a lot of stuff in that cute little store (although it was murder trying to turn left out of the market to get back on the highway).

So yeah we never actually made it out of the car on Saturday at Infineon…but we still had a lot of fun.

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I must say that after we got back from our entire race-cation I found out that Tony Stewart was at Six Flags but on FRIDAY! Damnation! I totally would have went had I known! URG!

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Stay tune for the final installment- hopefully up sometime Wednesday or Thursday (its a long one!)

On Friday on a semi lark,  we left my home, drove to Santa Rosa to see Tony’s show car:

Tony's Show Car at Office Depot in Santa Rosa, CA. Did you know that the office depot car is sparkly? It is when you are up close to it. Photo Credit: ME

From there we were off to the hotel. We were staying in in Concord, CA. All I can say is that HOTWIRE has not led us astray yet. This was a nice hotel- centrally located for our purposes. After a moment to refresh we were on our way to Infineon to check out the track- get our bearings and hopefully catch qualifying since we definitely did not catch practice.

You all know I have a fear of heights.  Its actually a fairly intense fear- so much that I the Ferris Wheel at Disney’s California Adventure made me cry (as an adult). Well this fear also extends to extremely tall bridges…and I knew we would have to be crossing one so I was a little freaked out to have to drive across a bridge. I must have been envisioning like the Bay Bridge or The Golden Gate- because this one didn’t freak me out at all.  So YEY there- since we would have to cross it several times.  The other thing I would have to deal with that I have never dealt with before would be a toll! $4.00!! That is crazy- or so I think anyway! That would be 20 bucks a week if I had to cross that bridge everyday for work or something! Of course I would also have one of those fancy fastrac things and not have to wait to hand my money to a person.

Anyway- we follow our directions to the speedway- and in trying to find the parking area- end up by passing the track and the parking area only to end up in nearby Petaluma. Whoops.  I never said I had a great sense of direction. So we get turned back towards the speedway and I see that I totally missed the parking area turn off- and get turned into the speedway and parked (next to a pasture filled with sheep and goats I might add).  So we walked up to the shuttle stop and just as I was cresting the top of the hill I hear what sounds like my car being pelted with pebbles. I turn to see a jerk in a car peeling out of the gravel lot and peppering my car (which was parked in an end spot) with dirt. Both my friend and I turn and instinctively yell “REAL NICE JERK” and apparently we did it loud enough they heard cuz the passenger turned towards us.  I mean seriously use your freaking head people.  Anyway, we just happened to hit it right so that the shuttle was there at the stop and made our way down to the grandstand area of the track. We were going to watch qualifying in our Turn 7 seats…but problem there was that we were kinda late by the time we made it to the grandstands and it would require either quite the hike or a shuttle ride!! So we took a place right next to the start/finish line about halfway up- which was actually the optimum place to watch qualifying:

Martin Truex Jr. Qualifies at Infineon Raceway. I really liked Martin's blue car for Infineon. Photo Credit: ME

Denny Hamlin takes the green flag at the beginning of his qualifying run. Photo Credit: ME!

Jeff Gordon qualifies. I have to say that Jeff's car is extremely pretty in person. It stands out well. Photo Credit: ME

Junior makes his qualifying attempt at Infineon. Photo Credit: ME

I am going to have to admit that it was a little more disorientating than I thought it would be to be sitting in stands on the “wrong” side of the track. By that I mean that the grandstands at the startfinish line they are on the side of the track that would be considered “infield” at an oval. That was just a little odd to me.

After qualifying we wandered through the tunnel to the merchandise area (you can see it on the otherside of the track over there in the qualifying pictures). I don’t know if it was me or not but there seemed to be signifigantly fewer merchandise haulers at infineon than elsewhere. I don’t know if the others were located somewhere else but I didn’t see that many. When were done with merchandise we wandered back over to the shuttle and left for the day.

Next Up: Infineon: A Road Course Adventure Day 2: Saturday

Ok…not really. I came away having a great time. And I did get a sunburn (after wearing – I kid you not- SPF 100 sunblock). I also got 4 gigs worth of pictures at the track alone (we also spent some time at a nearby Six Flags).

So stay tuned for the race report direct from the track…coming hopefully soon (as in probably tomorrow)!

PS. VALLI- I wasn’t ignorning you. My phone is a cheap phone so while I can twitter out- I can’t really get my twitter responses into it. Cuz you know…its a little cheap phone and I can’t upgrade for free til October. ]]> http://www.badgroove.com/index.php/2009/06/22/i-went-to-infineon-and-all-i-got-was-a-sunburn/feed/ 1