“The biggest thing is just that we don’t have the concrete tracks figured out yet. It’s obvious. At Bristol and Dover, we’ve just struggled for three years now with Tony there. We just need to figure out what we need to do. It’s not because of a lack of effort. We’re going to keep trying to find a few things and keep fighting.” Darian Grubb, Crew Chief of the #14 Chevy Impala.

Also from the team report, I don’t understand the technical aspects of what Tony means when he says “even when we got the balance halfway decent we didn’t have speed.” Now shouldn’t the car have speed? It’s too technical for me to wrap my beady little brain around I guess. I do take some solace in the face that Newman seemed to be struggling too. I guess that they were equally crummy across the board leads me to think that it IS a technical issue that will be ironed out and hopefully soon. So the race really is NO fun to watch when you driver is struggling ALL race long just to attempt to be competitive.

To make this post a tad more cheery I would like to share with you a series of photos from photographer Glenn Bure who kindly shoots a couple of the NorthEast races and then kindly sends me his Tony pictures. I love this series by Glenn because they show off Tony’s helmet. Tony must have quite a few helmets and it seems to me that they all have different designs. I know he ran a cool patriotic design to go with his Richmond car- but I don’t know exactly how many helmets he has. I get frustrated because sometimes I want to see what his helmet looks like but never get to see it.  Glenn was able to get some shots of this one that I hadn’t seen before:

Tony Stewart futzes with his helmet pre-race at Dover. (Photo Credit: Glenn Bure for BadGroove)

Now the pink on the helmet is all reflection (I think) from the number on the roof of the car- which I will get to later. Here is a little different view of Tony and his helmet:

Tony and his helmet- pre-race at Dover. (photo credit: Glenn Bure for Badgroove)

Again I think the pink (except for the pink ribbon on the shield) is reflection from the number on the roof of his car.  Because the car was all pink-ified for breast cancer awareness month:

Tony Stewart, driver of the #14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet, drives on track during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway. (Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images North America)

Most of the Chevy drivers (not all- I didn’t see any pink on Jimmie Johnson’s car -but I did see that his crew chief was wearing a pink hat) had pink on their cars because October is breast cancer awareness month.  It was a little odd. However then I watched some football that afternoon- more pink in the football and then in the late evening I watched some bull riding and even the cowboys were either wearing pink shirts or had a pink bandana tied somewhere on their person (one guy was even wearing his like a pink cape).  But I totally digress.

Back to racing and Tony Stewart! Even though they had a bad run at Dover I still have faith that Tony Stewart and the whole #14 team can pull of a championship…they need to just #KeepDigging. Tony is currently tied for third in the points standings with Dover winner Kurt Busch and are only 9 points out of the lead.  Current chase leader is Kevin Harvick.

Notes:

Remember to enter the Office Depot 14for14 contest on the Office Depot Racing website this month the prize is the poster of Tony and the team and is autographed by Tony and team.  While you are there at the Office Depot Racing website, don’t forget to get the coupon to take to the Office Depot print center to get your NOVEMBER poster.  Does anyone have them all? I am missing June….and I am sad about it cuz I loved June- it was one of my favorite months.

Oh and here is another picture of Tony from Glenn:

I can't decide if he's thinking or if he's confused...but it's a silly face all the same. (Photo Credit: Glenn Bure for BadGroove)

#KeepDiggingTony and #GoTonyGo at Kansas next week.

I was encouraged by his little beginning of the race radio pep talk that he ended with: WE CAN DO THIS! I settled in and thought…of course WE CAN DO THIS!

Tony Stewart, driver of the #14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet, drives in the garage area during practice for the Sprint Cup Series Wonderful Pistachios 400 at Richmond. (Photo Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images North America)

It seemed at the beginning of the race that every two or three laps there was a caution because of agressive driving causing someone to spin someone out. I believe I proclaimed a couple of times that at this race the race wouldn’t be over until midnight west coast time (I told you I might have been tempted to fast forward during this race to see what the outcome was).  All my readers know that I was crossing every appendage I physically could in hopes of Tony making the chase. Apparently turning myself into a pretzel worked (yeah sure that’s what did it…I am sure of it).

I started to relax during the end of the race, when I was pretty sure that, barring some catastrophic accident (although I still worried about it slightly) and was able to actually enjoy the racing- but for 90 percent of it I was on pins and needles. PINS AND NEEDLES people.  Were you?  Tony seemed to be able to work his way forward through the field sometimes but other times he seemed stucked where he was.  But in the end- he ended up finishing 7th- well above the 18th place finish he would have needed to clinch his place in the chase.

Tony’s “Honoring Our Heroes” symbolic memorial paint scheme was BEAUTIFUL on the track. It looked like he had an equally amazing helmet.  This is the best picture I could find of it- if you have a better one- please share:

Tony Stewart, driver of the #14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet, sits in his car during practice for the Wonderful Pistachios 400 at Richmond International Raceway. (Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images North America)

Tony’s car was one of four cars in the field in the Saturday night race who raced a special commemorative paint scheme honoring the Stephen Siller Tunnel To Towers Foundation- a foundation that supports the families of first responders, provides scholarships for their children, as well as supports veteran’s wounded in conflict.  A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the diecasts of Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle, David Gilliland and Jamie MacMurray cars will go to the foundation.  Lionel NASCAR Collectibles presented the Stephen Siller Foundation with $125,000 as the first installment of the proceeds of the money raised from the sale of diecasts.

Notes About Richmond:

1. I was so glad that Dale Junior also made it into chase.
2. The race coverage by ABC – on what to most NASCAR fans considered a crucial race- wasn’t very good. It seemed to me like there were far too many commercial breaks and a lot of times, when returning from a caution we missed the initial drop of the green flag- to find the cars already taking the first turn of the race.
3. The race at Richmond had a record tying number of cautions: 15
4. There were just as many sparks off the tracks as on.  Tony got snippy with AP reporter Jenna Fryer at his media availablity between practices on Friday.  After the race Kurt Busch is reported to had to have been physically restrained in an argument with Joe Menzer (NASCAR.COM), then later exchanged further heated words in the media center with him and even later with Jenna Fryer, when it’s reported that he ripped a transcript from her hand then ripped it in half.  So you think that there were no emotions running high at that race (and after?).  (Ok so I found the video of Kurt tearing the transcript…it appears to me that Jenna just handed it to him- he didn’t “rip it from her hands”- he did tear it in half though.)
5. Tony helped the Office Depot Foundation donate 2000 sackpacks filled with school supplies to local Virginia children:

Tony Stewart signs a sackpack for a child in Virginia. (Photo Credit: Leon Rubin)

And finally- I just have to point out a favorite quote from the official team post-race report:

“It’s going to be a long 10 weeks, but every Friday when we show up at the track we start with a clean slate and just do the best we can. So, we’ll keep digging.” – Tony Stewart (emphasis mine)

That’s right: #KeepDiggingTony!

Next Race: Chicagoland

The #14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet of Tony Stewart sits in the garage during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Good Sam RV Insurance 500 at Pocono Raceway. (Photo Credit: Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images North America)

For awhile it looked like Joey Logano might get his second (rain shortened) race win of his career as mother nature poured down upon Pocono Raceway.  But- the race was not over as, soon the jet dryers were on the triangular track’s surface.  The sun even peeked out a couple times to help drying efforts.

Tony Stewart in the rains at Pocono (photo credit: Glenn Bure for Badgroove)

When the red flag was lifted for yellow- the best news all day was that Tony Stewart was the lucky dog.  The bad news is he was still in 28th place.  However, between Darian Grubb’s call for four tires when most took two and Tony’s tireless efforts- he was able to claw his way all the way up to 11th by the time the checker flag flew.  Tony retained his 9th place position in the points.

Tony Stewart in the garage area at Pocono Raceway. (Photo Credit: Glenn Bure for BadGroove)

Of course the big story of the race was Brad Keselowski- who after suffering a horrendous crash during a test session at Road Atlanta causing him a broken ankle among other injuries, overcame his injuries to win the race at Pocono.  Great news for Brad. Bad news for Tony Stewart, as he now must stay IN the top ten, or get a win to make the Chase.  This fan will be holding her breath. Maybe I should invest in maalox or something.

NOTES ABOUT POCONO:

AWWWW Alert:  Something I wanted to share with you- in case you missed it. Tony playing cars with Gavin Grubb (son of crew chief Darian Grubb) before the start of the race:

Tony Stewart plays cars with Gavin Grubb, son of crew chief Darian Grubb before the start of the race at Pocono. (Photo Credit: Copyright, CIA Stock Photography, Inc via Tony Stewart Facebook Page)

Also- Tony tickling Gavin’s neck during pre-race ceremonies:

Tony tickles Gavin Grubb during pre-race at Pocono Raceway (Photo Credit: Glenn Bure for BadGroove)

I know that is what he is doing because I do that to my nephews all the time.

Gratuitious Tony Picture 1:

Tony Stewart during driver intros at Pocono Raceway (I love the reflection in his sunglasses). (Photo Credit: Glenn Bure for BadGroove)

The post race action between Jimmie Johnson and Kurt Busch was fun. I wanted to see Jimmie get a little more physical with Kurt…but I had to settle for watching Jimmie’s crew hold him back from Kurt.

Speaking of Jimmie Johnson- did you all  catch “mini-chad” on Jimmie’s pitboard for the race? They had it on the national broadcast. It cracked me up- because I had been following the exploits of  “mini-chad” through out the week via Jimmie’s twitter account. Humor!

Public Service Announcement/Plea: I have someone who greatly desires a “mini-chad” (as seen here on Jimmie’s twitter) or a “half-chad”  (he’s taller than mini-chad but only half the man)- so if you can get me one…HUGE brownie points and accolades to you.

ESPN seemed to be having some major technical issues during the beginning of the race broadcast…it was kind of funny. Someone would say something and it would cut them off midsentence play a commercial then come back to them.  So we missed half of what was said. Oh well.

Special thanks to Glenn Bure for providing some of his pictures from the race at Pocono just for BadGroove- Glenn Rocks!!

Gratuitous Tony Picture 2:

Tony Stewart, driver of the #14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet, sits in his car during qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Good Sam RV Insurance 500 at Pocono Raceway. (Photo Credit: John Harrelson/Getty Images North America)

Next race:  Watkins Glen!

I have tons and tons of road trip stories I could share with you. There was the time my bff and I took in 3 concerts in 4 days in 2 states. We were so doughy at the end of that lengthy road trip we were  singing The Ants Come Marching at the top of our lungs on the way home.  Then there was the time I lost the directions to PIR when we were staying all the way over in Scottsdale.  Let’s just say I am not allowed to be in charge of the directions anymore when Misty and I go on road trips because that wasn’t even the first time that I had done that.  There are all the times I have gotten us lost- because apparently I was born with a broken internal compass (I can get lost in a paper bag that has both ends cut off).  Of course I am forgetting to mention the time that Misty and I bonded with a roadside call box in the middle of the desert in the summer because we RAN OUT OF GAS because our rental car had a faulty fuel gauge (not to mention a slipping transmission to make the mountain passes uber fun).

My point is that everyone has a road trip story of some sort! You might as well use yours to try to win some free gas for goodness sake! Just visit http://www.shell.us/roadtrip to enter now!

***

Now the people at Shell kindly provided me with a Kurt Busch prize back to give away! Isn’t that awesome?  This package includes a Kurt Busch license plate, a Kurt Busch car flag, a Kurt Busch travel mug and a Kurt Busch can coolie (wow that is a lot of Kurt Busch in one sentence)!

To enter for the Kurt Busch prize package all you need to do is comment on this post. You could share a road trip story, just say hi, tell me you love my site,  doesn’t matter what you say…just comment by the drop of the green flag for Sunday July 17th’s New Hampshire race to win the Kurt Busch Prize pack.  Your comment must have a valid email address for me to contact you.  Only one comment per person will be counted but feel free to comment as many times as you want.  After the drop of the green flag on Sunday- all entries will be placed in a hat and a winner will be picked at random for the Kurt Busch prize pack. (Remember commenting only gives you a chance at the Kurt Busch prize pack…for a chance at free gas you must go to shell.us/roadtrip)!

I am going to admit something right here…Misty and I played hooky from Infineon on Saturday and played tourists in San Fransisco so I really have NOTHING to tell you of Saturday.  Valli has a post about Saturday though if you want to check out what she was doing (plus you can read about how Dale Jr tried to scare her just like Jimmie did to us the day before).

We were up with the chickens on Sunday- grabbed a quick bite in the room and headed right to the track on Sunday morning and it wasn’t even early enough because the race traffic heading into Infineon was in full effect!  I remembered this from the time we came in 2009 and thought we had left in plenty of time- apparently not.  Not that we were late- but we were later than we wanted to be. So we get into the track plop our stuff down in the media center (I LOVE having a place I can ditch my stuff at the race so that I don’t have to carry all my belongings with me everywhere I go) grab both of my cameras and we decide to spend the morning just wandering before the start of the race.  First we wandered over to the driver introduction stage to get some pictures of three greats: Richard Petty, Ned Jarrett and Bobby Allison. I have to admit…Misty got THE best picture of Bobby Allison:

Bobby Allison talks with PRN host before the race at Infineon Raceway. (Photo Credit: Misty Bethany)

Ned Jarrett (photo credit: Misty Bethany)

The King- Richard Petty. (Photo Credit: Misty Bethany)

My instinct was to say at the driver intro stage until driver introductions were over- but Valli kindly told us we should check out pit road instead.  And that is what we did.  We walked up and down pit road repeatedly.  It was crowded and I was starting to get hot and cranky with all the people because at the time pit road was a madhouse.  So Misty and I picked a random pit stall and sat down for a tad on the wall.  It just happened to be next to Joey Logano’s pit stall and the crew were  busying themselves prepping for the race when I got this AWESOME picture:

Pit helmet and Radio (Photo Credit: Amy Marbach)

Just getting that shot inspired me to get some other cool shots:

Under Pressure (Photo Credit: Amy Marbach)

Flammable (Photo Credit: Amy Marbach)

Three little gas cans sitting in a row...(photo credit: Amy Marbach)

No Ethanol For Carl Edwards (Photo Credit: Amy Marbach)

Tire shot- with US ARMY crew. Almost every race I get at least one tire shot- it's my thing. (Photo Credit: Amy Marbach)

Then after the track and event security cleared pit road of fans we continued to wander- only much more freely. It was at this point where I started feeling really conspicuous and kind of out of place.  Misty and I were trying to decide where we should go at this point. Obviously we have different favorite drivers so we started off over by Jeff Gordon’s car just in time to see his family arriving at the car:

Leo Gordon arrives for Pre Race ceremonies (Photo Credit: Amy Marbach)

Ella Gordon arrives for Pre-Race (Photo Credit: Amy Marbach)

So it was kind of fun to witness the filling in of the drivers families and crews to the cars on the raceway grid on pit road.  It was kind of weird because every time I would look up I saw SOMEONE.  Misty and I decided to move down pit road a bit at one point for instance and I look over at her to ask her a question and Misty is walking side by side with Gene Haas…and had no idea because she was paying attention to me and not who was next to her.  I didn’t snap a picture because Misty probably would have wondered what I was doing plus I thought it would be an odd thing to do at such a close radius without actually asking to take the picture.

We finally ended up near Kyle Busch’s car:

Samantha Busch stands by Kyle's Car. (Photo Credit: Amy Marbach)

Now we had three very good reasons for staying in the Kyle Busch area and none of them had anything to do with M&M’s.  One is that Tony’s car was on one side of Kyle.  then of course, Dale Jr was on the other side of Kyle.  And lastly, pre-race was about to start so we had to settle in somewhere and Misty and I felt most comfortable hanging off towards the side of Kyle’s car…I can’t explain why.

Dale Jr. stands next to his Amp Chevrolet on Sunday at Infineon. (Photo Credit: Misty Bethany)

Mr. Hendrick, Dale Jr., and Steve Letarte talk prerace on Sunday at Infineon Raceway. (Photo Credit: Misty Bethany)

Tony was pretty much impossible to get a shot of before the pre-race ceremonies started. The reasoning for this?  He was pretty much surrounded by people and then by crew (Although I did miss my opportunity to get a great shot of the crew huddle/prayer circle whatever you call it as it was just breaking up when we got there). Also? He got in his car BEFORE pre-race.  I don’t know if he was hot or sick of people hollering at him for his attention (there was this one guy who was loudly yelling for Tony’s attention and unfortunate for my ear drums he was right next me- my right ear is still ringing- TONY TONY?! HEY TONY!)- it was kinda strange to see him already in his car before the ceremonies started but he was.

A NASCAR official talks to Tony Stewart who sits in his car prior to the race at Infineon Raceway on Sunday. (Photo Credit: Amy Marbach)

Then the pre-race ceremonies started.

PreRace Ceremonies. (Photo Credit: Amy Marbach)

Pretty much I was standing off to the side towards the pit wall between Juniors and Kyles car at this point.  We stood there looking  all somber as one tends to do during invocation and the national anthem.  As soon as it was over we started high tailing it back to the media center.  As soon as we got there we ended up catching Ingrid Vandebosch taking little Leo for a walk in his stroller:

Ingrid Vandebosch and baby Leo go for awhile while they fire up the engines. (Photo Credit: Misty Bethany)

Then we took our seats in the media center to watch the race.  We had a great view of turn 11 – which as you know is where the action was ALL day long.

We all know now in hindsight that Tony pushed Vickers on purpose because he felt he was blocking. I had no way of knowing that in the media center though- to me it looked like Vicker’s checked up and Tony accidentally spun him. I even tweeted it. And then promptly forgot about the incident and continued to watch the race. It was really kind of hard to hear the national broadcast in the media center actually.  That was my biggest complaint…and I coudn’t listen to my Sprint Cup ap on my phone because I didn’t have headphones and didn’t want to disrupt the entire media center.

Now for “THE incident” – I followed Tony’s drive down the straightaway and into the turn.  I glance back to the straightaway and saw Vickers flying into the turn way too fast. I knew no good would come of that.  Then, of course, was the retaliation hit.  All I could really see was tire smoke and then Tony hanging off the tires.

Tony in the tires at Infineon. (I DID NOT TAKE THIS PICTURE...I borrowed it from TonyStewart.com)

Now, I let a few not so nice words escape my lips.  I CAN’T HELP IT.  Really I can’t. I get wrapped up and I can’t help it when this happens.  The worst part was that, as I mentioned before, I couldn’t really hear the television that was airing the national broadcast, so I didn’t know what was going on and Tony seemed to be hanging on the tires a really long time. It was all I could do not to SHUSH the entire room so I could hear. The best thing? My Twitter peeps were keeping me informed as to what was happening for the most part there. My absolute favorite tweet I got while I was sitting there though? Was this one:

Branden Williams: I sure hope @badgroove isn’t at the track. Because Vickers better run if she is. #justsaying

He had no idea I was sitting in the media center.  My Tony Stewart fandom OBVIOUSLY precedes me- and I am proud of it.  Truthfully,  I actually did have an urge to run down to the garage area because I figured they would have to bring the car in and I honestly wanted to see how damaged Tony’s car was.  But a good portion of the media center was already down there trying to get a sound byte, so I figured I should stay put because I didn’t think they wanted MY sound bytes because invariably they would be flying and they wouldn’t be pretty.

After Tony’s day was pretty much crushed into smithereens in the tire barrier, the rest of the race seemed long and drawn out. That is until the end, when Jeff Gordon started flying through the field at the end. I am still not sure how he passed Carl Edwards there at the end…but I know Misty was quite pleased when he did.  After the race we packed up our stuff and headed downstairs to the press conference room and waited for Jeff Gordon and Carl Edwards to do their post race:

Carl Edwards checks his voicemail before the start of the post-race press conference. (Photo Credit: Amy Marbach)

Jeff Gordon and Carl Edwards share a laugh at their post-race press conference at Infineon Raceway. (Photo Credit: Misty Bethany)

Jeff Gordon is joined by his daughter Ella during his post race press conference at Infineon Raceway. (Photo Credit: Amy Marbach)

All this was going on while Kurt Busch was celebrating his victory in Victory lane outside.  They were still there when Misty and I left, trying to get an early start on the traffic. Our early start was not so early.  However, I will say that our new way leaving was much much quicker than in 2009 when we sat in nearly dead-stopped traffic for over 3 hours.  So YEY.

And there you have it.  This experience was great fun! There are some videos I will post soon as well.

After checking into our hotel, Misty and I went to Infineon Raceway Thursday for like 10 minutes- just to pick up our credentials and remind ourselves how to get there because it had been a couple years (2009 to be exact- where the first time we were there we got misguided and ended up in Petaluma).  We returned bright and early Friday morning  got ourselves situated in the media center- grabbed something to drink and headed out to get some pictures before things filled in. We even wandered through the area of concessions behind the grandstands at the Start/Finish line – which was kinda creepy actually since most if not all of them were still closed.  We got a good look at the Infineon Hall of Fame…which honestly should be called the Wall of Fame…but that’s just semantics I guess.

Rick Hendrick, Infineon Hall Of Fame tile (Photo Credit: Misty Bethany)

After a while we headed back to the media center and got ourselves a handy dandy driver availability schedule and sat down and mapped our day according to driver availability.  We didn’t have anything solid planned- so we were just going to drift from driver press conference to driver press conference until the action started.

We started off by catching the tail end of Marcos Ambrose’s driver conference:

Marcos Ambrose and a special young guest, Infineon Raceway Media Center Friday. (Photo Credit: Misty Bethany)

We then moved on to Kurt Busch who let us know in no uncertain terms that he was still upset with Jeff Gordon about last year because Jeff Gordon didn’t apologize to him:

(Kurt Busch Friday at Infineon. (Photo Credit: Misty Bethany)

That made Misty nervous for Jeff all weekend I can tell you that!  Little did we all know that Kurt wouldn’t be the one we would have to worry about (we all know how this story is going to end but more on that in Part 2).  Then Jimmie Johnson talked about his Helmet of Hope program and took media questions:

Jimmie Johnson and the Helmet of Hope (doesn't that sound like a fabulous children's book title?) Friday at Infineon Raceway (Photo Credit: Amy Marbach)

Weird thing about these two press conferences is someone asked both Kurt and Jimmie about Kyle Busch.  I understand asking Kurt…they are brothers after all but not Jimmie. That was just bizarre to me. Now after Jimmie I believe practice was about to get underway.  So we went out into the garage to see what we could see…and ran into Valli from the Fast and the Fabulous (which we always appreciate because we always end up asking for her guidence about something and she is always nice enough to help) and Valli introduced us to Kristen from TheHotPass (whom I might add had a very good weekend considering Kurt ended up winning the race…you can read her fun perspective here).

It was fun watching the cars get lined up in the garage and get ready to go out.  I got some cool shots:

Martin Truex Jr's car in line for first practice. If you look closely in the little side view mirror you can see him in the car. I love this shot. (Photo Credit: Amy Marbach)

Jeff Gordon waits in line for first practice to start. (Photo Credit: Amy Marbach)

Tony waves heading out to first practice at Infineon. (Photo Credit: Amy Marbach)

When I am in the garage like this I always worry about being in someones way.  It’s a little unnerving sometimes but I just try to keep an eye or ear open and between Misty and I, we can usually warn the other if we think we are going to be in somebody’s way.   I thought we did pretty good staying out of the way of crew guys because let me tell you, a hot garage is a busy busy place.  When the cars were rushing in and out of the garage, there was actually a nice place to stand that we scoped out that was kind of between the Jimmie and Carl Edward’s hauler areas by some tires. We were WELL out of the way from the garage stalls which where right across from each hauler. We were standing there between Jimmie and Carl Edwards hauler areas trying to decide what to do next and chatting and I was, of course, snapping pictures here and there…like of this one of Junior coming in for some adjustments:

Junior comes in during first practice, Friday at Infineon. (Photo Credit: Amy Marbach)

Anyway- Misty grabs my arm and is like “LOOK OUT” and kind of pulled me back away even further towards the haulers. Why? Because Jimmie Johnson decided to swing way wide to get into his stall. He hadn’t swung that wide before.  I think personally he was trying to get a rise out of Misty and I (we were the only two there at the moment) but we just hustled back a bit and adjusted our location a little. (Jr apparently did the same thing to Valli and Kristen on Saturday). Maybe Misty and I looked too engrossed in our conversation and weren’t paying Jimmie’s comings and goings enough attention? Either way it didn’t help my complex about being in the way in the garage- thanks Jimmie.

While Misty and I had been in the media center in Las Vegas in March and witnessed the press conferences before our turn at Infineon, we hadn’t really tried our hand at a hauler press conference before.  We decided we would start with the first one of the day, which happened to be none other than Dale Jr (now I am backing up a bit here because now that I think about it I am pretty sure Dale’s was pre-practice and Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon’s were post practice). Talk about a crazy noisy mess.  What am I talking about? Well I am kinda short so at Junior’s press availability this was my view:

My view of the Junior press availability (Photo Credit: Amy Marbach)

I was kind of excited to be able to get that close because I know I have a couple of Junior fans that read BadGroove so I wanted to get some pictures and sound bytes. That was until I got caught up in this mess. I really am not a push/shove, wiggle my way in kinda girl.   I am a more reserved, stay out of every one’s way kinda girl, so between the throng of media and Junior’s staff making sure multiple times that we were indeed suppose to be there- this was mayhem at it’s finest to me (not to mention daunting).  And Junior is apparently pretty soft spoken because I couldn’t, from my vantage point, hear a darn thing that was said. I did however manage to get one semi reasonable picture of Dale on Friday:

Of course, its semi reasonable only in that you can see a majority of his face...and not like a blurry ear and a bunch of other peoples hands which are a majority of my pics from Junior's press. (Photo Credit: Amy Marbach)

After that experience I was a little gunshy to get to Tony Stewart’s after practice hauler press conference. And honestly I don’t have a reason to be that gunshy around Tony, having interviewed the man three times now and him being totally gracious and nice each and every time.  But interviewing Tony at an Office Depot event away from the track is a different (and much much preferred) than interviewing Tony at the hauler because it frankly went fairly similar to the Jr one.  I couldn’t really see Tony, couldn’t really hear him when he was talking, and I was again, stuck in the back and not feeling right or comfortable about needling in between people just to get closer. The only difference was I didn’t get asked repeatedly if I was media.  Having experienced what a GOOD interview experience (or three) with Tony is like – this kinda disheartened me and honestly I kinda gave up after awhile. But I am glad I did (whot? Keep reading, I will explain).

Jeff Gordon happened to be not only the next hauler press conference, but his hauler was right next to Tony’s.  Figuring that Jeff was going to be just as crazy as Junior and Tony,  Misty and I thought if we moved over to Jeff’s early maybe we would get a better vantage when it came to the final hauler press conference of the day. So that is exactly what we did- moved over to Jeff Gordon’s hauler before Tony was done and I was glad we did because I got a couple of awesome shots of Tony from afar after the throngs of press yearning for that perfect Tony quip started thinning out:

Tony Stewart taking media questions at his hauler on Friday at Infineon Raceway. (Photo Credit: Amy Marbach)

Tony Stewart doing media Friday at Infineon Raceway. (Photo Credit: Amy Marbach)

Of course I can’t think too hard about it because then I start regretting not staying and actually talking to Tony for a second.  After the whole deal was over Misty had the same regret.   Because I think as the crowd of media started to thin out, we would have been able ask him a question or two (although would worry that he would have been repeating himself because like I said it is noisy as heck in the garage and I couldn’t really hear him). But hindsight is always 20/20 right?

So then we waited and waited. Jeff Gordon’s press conference thingy was actually like 30 or 40 minutes after Tony’s and Misty and I were standing our ground to get a good shot. Only a couple of TV crews (ESPN) kinda shoved past us- so pretty much we were golden for the Jeff press conference:

Jeff Gordon takes questions from media at the #24 hauler on Friday at Infineon. (Photo Credit: Amy Marbach)

Jeff Gordon Friday at Infineon. (Photo Credit: Amy Marbach)

Interesting things about Jeff’s hauler press conference compared to Tony and Jr.’s.  First off- they hung a backdrop to cover the reflective doors. That was nice from a photography standpoint because less glare. Thank you.  Also? I know Jeff is a little shorter than a lot of the drivers (but still taller than me…but who isn’t) and he stood on the first step going up into his hauler. This made him more visible to us shorties who might be stuck in the back, so thank you again.  Also? Thank you for taking your sunglasses off to talk to us. I always like that.  I know why drivers tend to wear them but I always like when they think to take them off before talking to people (whether those people be press or fans).

After the garage excitement of the day we went back up to the media center to watch qualifying. Then we left.

Stay tuned for Part 2 .

The two car tango that we have been seeing at the plate tracks brings with it two “issues” that seem to be on everyone’s mind. Of course you know I am going to throw my opinion in the ring.

(Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images North America)

The first “issue” is pod racing versus “pack” racing.  I honestly don’t know what “pack” races you are talking about…because before the two car break aways when I think of Daytona and Talladega I think of this: Two long freight train lines- one in the upper groove and one in the lower groove.  I always found that kind of racing boring and extremely frustrating- especially when your driver, in an attempt to pass would get shut out of being able to get back in line and end up falling from 11th to 35th in one poorly timed swoop.  I think that the pod racing makes the track more maneuverable and thus you get more racing action. So the cars are stuck together…who cares. Not me. We only see this at the restrictor plate races- so it’s not that big of a deal. It might be a different story if they raced like this at all the tracks.  To me it is much more fun to watch the cars move more freely on the track than being relegated to the top groove or bottom groove and this train is faster than that train kind of race.  Plus the pod racing has it’s own strategies in place.  It’s important to time the swap from pusher to pushee at an opportune moment.  Pitting with your partner if you want to stay with that partner is important. Communication is really important since the pusher can’t see around the car in front of him.

That brings me to the second issue- radio communication.  A big deal was being made about drivers wanting to communicate with drivers of teams other than their own.  I honestly think that this is a non-issue.  I am of the opinion that if a driver feels comfortable with having the possibility of taking to 16 different drivers, 30 different drivers, whatever- then let them.  As long as it doesn’t creat too much of distraction where it becomes like a driver on the interstate texting while driving, I have no problem with it. Obviously it is always best to try to draft with your teammate but that isn’t always possible depending on where they each qualified.  Honestly it’s not like drivers are going to be working with multiple drivers at the same time- at least not for very long.  Once a driver picks a dance partner he’s usually stuck working with that particular driver as least until the next caution.  I think that this is something that should be based on the driver’s personal comfort level with who is in his headset.  Again this is something we usually only see at restrictor plate races- so I don’t that it is that big of a deal.  I really don’t.

(Photo Credit: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images North America)

Okay- now that I have that off my chest- onto more about Tony’s run at TallafreakinDega.  Tony (and teammate Ryan) had a stellar practice. As in they were first and second fastest.  Then there was severe weather that called off second practice (tornado warnings).  The next day was qualifying.  I don’t know what happened but Tony pretty much tanked in qualifying. I wasn’t concerned for two reasons- Tony isn’t a great qualifier usually anyway AND it is Talladega- the track whose catchphrase might as well be “it’s not where you start it’s where you finish.”

At the beginning of the race, it seemed like no one wanted to be Tony’s partner.  He seemed to be floundering there alone for several laps.  Honestly it was hard to tell because the national broadcast wasn’t paying to much attention to Tony- I am guessing because he was in the back. I finally got sick of trying to figure out what was going on with Tony and got my phone so I could use my Sprint Cup  Mobile. It drains my battery, so I don’t use it too much but I was sick only knowing where Tony was when the ticker marched by.  By the time I got my Sprint Cup Mobile, he had already hooked up with David Gilliland and they seemed to be working spotter-to-spotter for communication.  They seemed to be pretty comfortable just hanging out where they were trying to avoid getting into any trouble, saving their cars for a planned charge to the front towards the end.

(Photo Credit: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images North America)

It almost worked too.  A late race caution broke them up temporarily but they found each other and the two of them (whom I dubbed Stewiland) began another charge towards the front and were actually visible in many of the national broadcast shots. Unfortunately something happened and Gilliland lost the back of Tony’s car and for some reason unbeknownst to me, Kurt Busch (I will have more to say about him later in the notes) decided to give pushing Tony a shot. Then a few minutes later he abandons Tony and shoots up a groove on the track to push someone else.  I couldn’t tell you who because I was cursing such a blue streak that all I could see was blue for a few minutes.  What could have been a top ten finish ended up being a 17th place finish, which dropped Tony back down to 12th in points.

The finish however, between Johnson/Earnhardt and Bowyer/Harvick (with Gordon/Martin in the middle) tied for the closet in series history (since the advent of electronic timing) with Johnson beating Boywer by the skin of his teeth (I think they said 2/16th of an inch or something like that?) The win catapulted Johnson to second in the series standings.

Gratuitous Tony Picture Alert: I had to add this one because it’s a funky angle. I can’t decide if it looks like he is lifting his leg to pee on the car like a dog or if it looks like Tony is doing some sort of newfangled NASCAR YOGA!

(Photo Credit: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images North America)

The ‘Dega notes:

• I have watched the video and seen the stills in question…and I do NOT believe that Jimmie dropped under the double yellow. At most he had one tire ON the yellow line but he was not over it and his tire was on the line for maybe 10 seconds? I don’t think that counts as advancing position by going under the double yellow line and Johnson’s win and points should stand. That is all I will say on that subject.
• I think your best bet to win restrictor plate pod races is to hook up with your teammate and try to stick with him throughout the race- like Jimmie/Earnhardt and Gordon/Martin.  (HINT HINT – Stewart-Haas Racing- something to think about for Daytona and fall Talladega).
• Did you know that if you are in a tornado warning and don’t really have any place to take cover that the best thing you can do is get into your car, buckle your seat belt and turn on the engine? It took me forever to figure out that you needed to turn the engine on so your airbags will deploy in case you end up being tossed around like a sock monkey in a dryer. The things you learn on twitter while hoping the fans in the infield are safe.
• Kurt Busch seemed like he was trying out for the highway patrol and not racing at Talladega with as many people as he pitted. It was for this reason alone that I was NOT pleased when he jumped between Tony and David. Of course I was even less happy when he up and abandoned Tony. But yeah- just because your car is yellow Kurt doesn’t mean you need to try to cause all the cautions- just sayin’!
• That was some driving by Ryan Newman to save his car from hitting the wall not once but twice late in the race.  Good job- but maybe we should rethink greasing the bumper next time.
• One FUN aspect of the pod racing is coming up with cute monikers for the duos.  I already told you my one for the Stewart/Gilliland combo (Stewiland) earlier in the post. Here are some others I came up with: Johnshardt (Johnson/Earnhardt), Boyvick (Bowyer/Harvick), and Ham-man (Hamlin/Newman).  Play along with me…can you think of any good ones?

The Sprint Cup Series takes a break this weekend and then takes back up Saturday April 30th with night racing at Tony’s favorite track: Richmond.  Go TONY Go!

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* Title inspired by Trace Adkin’s song “Ala Freakin’ Bama”