July 3, 2004
We left the hotel around 8am, stopped by a Starbucks and headed to I-4 to Daytona. We got off of I-4 to Jacksonville, jumped on I-95 and got off the Daytona exit. As we're exiting, I can see the track. We arrived around 9:30am. I was so happy and so freakin' excited about seeing it. Being this is my very first race, I know it won't be my last. We're driving in front of the track and the fans were tailgating on the side of the road. The traffic wasn't bad so it was easy to drive around. During the race weekends, Daytona shuts down completely so they can use it as parking. We found parking for $30 and $40 while I saw one for $110. When Louis came to Daytona a couple of years ago with is buddy, they parked at a MRI Center for $30. We ended up parking in there and Louis saw his buddy he went with. They hung out for while, talked about Publix, had a beer and left. The really cool thing is that we're walking distance from the track and easy out.
We walked across the street to trailer town where all the souvenir haulers are located and walked around. I bought a ticket holder from NEXTEL and Louis got the NEXTEL flag for Joey's flagpole. Next to that was Jr's so I had to go there. I bought a
Bud hat and an "8" sticker for the car. We walked around some more and found a Dale Jarrett hauler so I bought Dad at shirt for $10. Louis told me to get Dad a XXL shirt so I did. Walked some more, finding some cool freebees [Got some Advil] and stopped at Jeff Gordon's hauler for Louis. He got a shirt and a "24" sticker for his car. Gordon had some weird merchandise. They boy has chap stick for 2 bucks! Who in God's creation will buy Gordon chap stick?! I didn't. We walked even more to see people change tires the fastest, took a picture of Tony Stewart's race car [it came with a door!] and pictures of other cars. We left the souvenir haulers and walked back to the car to drop off the stuff. OMG it was so freakin' HOT outside. I was sweating bullets out there. My clothes were sticking to me like glue. We just sat in the car for a good 30 min. to cool off. I wonder how many people got a heat stroke...
After our cool down and a call to Dad, we walked to Daytona USA. If you are a fan, you need to come to see this! Everything from the history of NASCAR [racing on the beach] to present day of Dale Jr. winning the Daytona 500. I had to take pictures of his car. You can see the dried up beer from victory lane [it's like dried up glue] and saw the signatures from the crew. I saw Teresa Earnhardt's signature [Jr's step-mom and car owner] but not his. We saw the highlight reel of Daytona 500. It was so cool to see racing from way back when. If only we can have those cars on the track today banging fenders. God, those were the days. We left and headed back to the souvenir haulers to see if any of the events were going on. We walked to the Pepsi stage to see if any bands were playing [none] and there was a LONG ass line to get a freebee from Pepsi's "soda machine" so I said forget it and moved on. I went to the NEXTEL area and nothing was thrilling so we left but I did get a NEXTEL magnet with the dates on it!
We walked to the track [and walked] to find our seats. I didn't know our seats were so far close to the middle of the track. We walked to our seats [front row baby!] and was in awe of the track. I stood on the wall holding on the fence and was just in shock of where I was! One word to describe it is incredible. We walked to the entrance where we go into the infield and pit area. To walk on the tri-oval was really cool. Need hiking boots but my Chuck D's did the job. I signed the start finish line while Louis took a picture of me doing that. I took pictures of the grassy null and I climbed up to the wall and took a picture of Louis [not a picture taker] standing on the grass. We entered pit road and the first picture I had to take was Jr's pit stall. Everyone was hovering over at Jr's pit box. Some of the crew members was signing stuff but I wanted Jr! I walked passed everyone and continued my sight seeing. I was watching the crew glue lug nuts on the tires and just hanging around. I have alot of respect for these guys because I was sweating but these guys were drenched working. I don't know how much they get paid but they should get more because of the hard work they do. Can't say about those pit stops though. We out of the madness of the pit area and walked into the infield. We made a left where the garage areas were and across from it was the motor coach's where the drivers are home away from home. I wasn't really paying any attention cause I was just wondering and Louis called out to me and the security guard told me to move away. I wanted to take a picture of the driver haulers. From where I was at, I more taking a picture of a fence then a trailer. The security guard saw was I was doing and called me over. I told him 'I was just trying to take a picture of the garage area' and he told me to come here. I was following the guy to an open gated area and took a picture of Gordon's hauler and I think some of the garages. I told the guy many times thank you and went back to pit road. We went down to the other end of pit road and I noticed that everyone was walking down this part of the area. So I wondered and I found the coveted fence that separates the fans from the drivers. I saw only Bill Elliott's Coca Cola C2 car and nothing else.
We left pit area to get something to eat. We sat under the seats [no kidding that's where everything is] and leaned against the fence. The cool draft felt really good but that's because the gray clouds started to come. After we ate, we went back to the seats to see the track again and I felt drops coming down. Then the drops came faster and I ran for cover under the seats by the stairs. By that time all hell broke loose. The water was coming through the seats and people who where walking were getting drenched. I was getting wet too but that was from the splatter and mist from the stairs behind me. This all continued for 2 and a 1/2 hours. I met a fan from Alabama in the process of the rain delay in the afternoon.
We went back to the seats around 6:30ish and I saw some cars were already on pit road.[Jr's is one of 'em] The grassy null was like a pond and it was wet all over. The announcer on the speaker gave everyone on pit road a 5 minute warning to leave so the jet driers to dry the track. Those things a freakin' loud. Every time they came around, I had to close my ears. Then, it started to drizzle some more and more and during this process, half of the cars weren't on pit road yet! The race I was seeing was between a red Dodge and about 10 tow trucks hauling ass down the track. The time: past 7pm. Race was supposed to start at 7:00pm TV time while green flag drops around 7:30pm. After time goes by and all, we started to race around 9:30pm. Total rain delay pt.2: 2 and a 1/2 hours.
Racing under the lights is so awesome. Jeff Gordon was the pole sitter and Michael Waltrip was on the outside. The first 10 laps were caution cause we had some dry spots in the corners and then we went racing. In the early laps, I saw smoke on the exit of turn 2 but dunno what happened. Caution came out [I was right by the flag lights before start/finish line] and I saw Ken Shrader down pit road first with front end damage, then Ricky Craven turned into the garage area [near the entrance of that too], Ward Burton did the same and trailing to pit road was Matt Kenseth.
Goes green again and it was just racing from there. Mickey had the lead and then Jr got him loose and passed him and as he was exiting turn 4 everyone was screaming that Jr got the lead! That's my boy. Someone's car came by and scrapped the SAFER wall [I think John Andredi] in front of us and some of the break stuff was all over the track so caution came again. Then it was green flag pit stops. [1 of many to follow] Brian Vickers made a rookie no-no and pushed Jr out on the grassy, water filled null and lost a bunch of spots[one of many from crew]. Then another green flag pit stops where all Hendrick cars [5] pitted at the same time. I sat down and said that's it we're done. Jr. had no way in hell to win that race and Gordon had an awesome car and yes, he was the car to beat not DEI. Great pit strategy from Hendrick and it paid off. Jeff Gordon wins the race and does a burn out a section next to us. Everything that happened, happened in our area so that was so cool.
We saw the fireworks show, took pictures of that and headed for the hills. We got out from the track but there were people already covering the roadways. They had the road blocked to if people were going to move, it was going to be awhile. Cars vs. 180,000 fans? I have money on us fans. We had to go around Daytona to go back on I-4 so that took 45 min. and when we got to I-4 it took another 45 min until we were on a stand still. Traffic was moving very slowly. We were only 2 exits away from getting off and it took an hour more to get back to the hotel. When we passed the traffic, the accident was for a car that went into some trees...
We went to McDonald's for some food. I didn't know they served breakfast at 4am. We took it to the hotel and with the first bite, my tooth got very sensitive so I had to chew on the other side of the mouth. After that I took a shower from all the debris and sweat from the day and sleep.
Overall, this is one experience I will always remember. On the first race lap, I lost my hearing and received whip blash. It was also funny when people would walk along the fence when the cars would come by. A woman had a tub of popcorn and when the cars came by, the popcorn went all over the place and also when people hats will fly off. But I never, ever saw so many rednecks packed into one part of the city. Plus, some of them were already drunk before the rain even came! Ah, memories.
