Ok, I am finally recovered from my 5am to 9pm day at the track on Sunday enough to relive it!  Honestly, I do not know how the teams keep these schedules but they claim it becomes routine.  So here is the report from the garage on Sunday!

When I arrived, I first checked in at the garage.  The crew was going over the car with a fine tooth comb and doing their individual checklists before final inspection.  It took them about 2.5 hours to work over the car.   While they were doing that I sauntered out to our excellent pit stall (the Miller Lite pit was the last pit by the main grandstands, right in front of Victory Lane with a huge opening next to it so I could get up nice and close as you will see...).  

I don't get to spend as much time with the over-the-wall guys as I do with the mechanics, so I reintroduced msyelf to the ones I knew and got to know the few I had not yet met.  They are also a great bunch of guys and were very entertaining in their answers to my questions for the website.   They are pretty stoked we are focusing on them for the new Miller Lite Racing.com website.   We also got a great video with Larry, the rear tire carrier, who walks us through everything they do to get the tires set up on race day.  He sounded like he had done it on tape a million times...several of the guys put a sign "Pit Tours By Larry" up during our filming so unfortunately you can hear me laughing on tape but Larry was most impressed by the fact he didn't cuss once. 

We had to book it back to the garage to meet up with the crew so we could finish the rest of the video about the shocks.  The inspectors remembered us from yesterday (in fact the inspector giving Luke bunny ears in the picture from the blog from yesterday worked the Miller Lite pit during the race).   They guys continued on through inspection and I went off in search of a few more interviews.  I was lucky to catch Pat Tryson, Kurt's crew chief, hanging outside the hauler (he is rarely outside) and he was kind enough to spend 15 minutes talking with me.  Look for a blog about that conversation where he was very candid about the car.   I also did an interview with the only female mechanic at Penske, Andrea Mueller.  She told me how she got started in motorsports and some reactions to women in NASCAR. Of course I will have an entire blog on that as well.

I also had the pleasure of finally meeting one of our own...RA6AN was in the garages on Sunday and she took a minute to peel herself off Carl Edwards to take this picture with me:

Yea!! FOXSports Bloggers Unite!!  It was an absolute pleasure to meet her finally.

My "boss" had a friend with him who loves NASCAR and got to be in the garage for the first time so she and I stalked out a spot right by the gate that the drivers had to walk through to go to driver introductions and we just stood there and watched the parade.    She is a big Tony Stewart fan but I swear Tony recognized me and definitely gave us the stink eye to not ask him for an autograph...the people behind us didn't get the message and got turned down.  Jeff Gordon had the perfect body guard, his daughter in his arms, and no one went near him!   Dale Jr and Schrub both bolted, literally ran from their haulers out the gate so no good pictures of them today...Jr must have known I was out there stalking!   Some of the pictures I took from intro's will be up in my Hot or Not blog tomorrow.

Just before the race started I got the best porta - potty shot yet!   LOL  

The race started off very promising with Kurt running up front for the first third of the race.  He was locking up the right front every time he had to stand on the brakes and was sliding around the turns with no grip but he thought if they took the bump stops out they might have a good setup.  Unfortunately, after the first caution, he got shuffled back to mid pack and ended up getting hit by Scott Pruett and it created a bad tire rub.  They had to bring the car in to fix it and Kurt went a lap down and never recovered.   It was very disappointing for the entire team.  Knowing how hard they work on the car all weekend and the tough luck this team has had this year, it was just a heart breaker.  I did however, get some great shots of the pit crew in action.  Here is just one of many that will be up on the website:

I am pretty much right there in the middle of all the action!   After the race, I remained in the middle of it all as the top 10 cars pulled onto pit road for post race inspection, guess who stopped right in front of me.  My buddy Tony!

He and Juan Pablo Montoya were commiserating about being wrecked and not being able to win.  I thought for sure Tony would be going after Harvick but he seemed incredibly restrained...I moved up the row of cars to where they were interviewing Jeff Gordon, Casey Mears and Clint Bowyer.   I heard a rumor that you could see me on TV in Gordon's post race interview!   On my way back towards Victory Lane, I stopped and grabbed as many lugnuts as I could fit in my pockets, ya never know when you'll need a stocking stuffer!  I managed to get close enough to get this shot of Kyle and crew:

It was very funny to see them all drinking wine.   I was completely sunburnt and exhausted by this time and at least 5 pounds heavier from all the lugnuts in my pockets, so I headed home.   Words can barely describe what it is like to be in the garages with hot pass access and I cannot thank Miller Lite and the #2 enough for being so good to me.   The next race I will be "working" is the August race at Michigan so I hope to keep us entertained with some more detailed blogs from my adventures in the garage.  Also, if there are particular driver pictures you would like to see just let me know in the comments and if I have them I will post them.   As always, thanks for reading!

We had a bit of a cooling trend today out at Infineon, it was only 98 degrees this afternoon!   Luckily both Cup practices were run before noon today so the drivers and crews missed the worst of it but it made for an early start today.

I made it to the track at 7a but then walked the 30 min to the garages and arrived just about the same time the drivers were pulling into the garage in their rental cars.  Jeff Burton was stylin in a giant white Caddy!  Also, in early was Ryan Newman who had three Make-A-Wish sponsored kids visiting with him.  The kids were having a blast in the garages with big smiles all around.  I headed over to the Miller Lite garage stall to find the crew already at work.  They finished the tear down and rebuild of the car last night and were pretty much set to go for practice. 

During the first practice, the Miller Lite team worked to fine tune the shock package that they hit upon yesterday for qualifying.  We watched with the crew near turn 12 (the 180 degree turn) and held our breath as several cars got squirrelly and almost hit the outside wall, while many others were locking ‘em up and sliding through the entire turn.  The most notable accident was by David Reutimann, I didn’t see where he wrecked or how but I have pictures of them pulling out the back up car.  The nose on his primary car was punched in and the splitter completely gone. 

Unfortunately, Kurt’s teammate, Sam Hornish, Jr. also took a wild ride and ripped his splitter off.   Most of the mechanics on Kurt’s team and Ryan Newman’s team headed over to the 77 garage stall and the entire Penske team worked to get that splitter back on so he didn’t have to go to a back up car. 

With the two practices so close together (9:30a to 10:30a and then 11:00a to 12p) the drivers were milling about the garage like I have never seen before.  It was like a photo/autograph bonanza!  I basically ran up and down garage row for that 30 min sneaking in with the pro photographers and darting back out before security saw me.   I was in fan heaven.  I think I have shots of everyone’s favorites!    As I said in the last blog, I will post all the good driver pics soon but here are a couple teaser shots…

Time was flying by and Happy Hour came quickly.  The Miller Lite crew was working on fuel mileage as were most of the teams.  Lots of crews pushing their cars through the garages and a few didn’t make it all the way around the track.   Early in the first run, Pat Tryson (Kurt’s crew chief) radio’ed him to come on in for some changes and Kurt radio’ed back saying he was feeling “pretty sporty” out there and stayed out longer.   It is a further reminder that we can’t always make conclusions about practice times, especially when we don’t know what the crews are working on each run.  Here he is getting some data from the team about his runs during Happy Hour.  Let’s hope Kurt and the #2 car is ‘sporty’ tomorrow!  

After practice there were more driver encounters as most of them walked back to their haulers from the Sunoco station at the very far end of the garages.   I did my very best to get an autograph from Mr. Stewart as he walked by.   I said “Hi Tony, can I get an autograph please” flashing my best smile and he said “I haven’t even spoken with my crew chief yet!”  I said “ok, sorry” and off he went…I tried for all you Smoke fans on FOXSports but my only conclusion was he wasn’t signing anything for someone dressed head to toe in Miller Lite gear. 

Immediately after Happy Hour ended the engines cut and the BBQ’s fired up.  The entire garage basically took a lunch break and boy did it smell good in there.  The Miller Lite crew grabbed some chicken wings off the grill and headed in for a team debriefing inside the air conditioned hauler.  The three Penske drivers, crew chiefs and team engineers all meet in one of the team haulers and went over what they learned and help each other out with setups. 

I was on “special assignment” immediately after Happy Hour.  I followed Luke, the shock specialist, from the moment he removed the shocks from the car until he turned them into NASCAR.   We got the whole process on video and it will go up on the new and improved Miller Lite Racing website as our first behind the scenes feature.  

As many of you know, NASCAR confiscates the rear shocks from all the teams after Happy Hour and returns them before the teams go through inspection on Sunday before the race.  NASCAR does this because they found teams pushing the limits with the pounds per square inch.  Before NASCAR takes the shocks, Luke has to put them on the shock dyno to test to make sure the shocks are working properly.  Then he takes out all of the pressure from the shock and then walks them over to the inspectors.   Luke has to fill the shocks to whatever the team decided between 25 psi to 75 psi as NASCAR rules dictate (today Luke filled them to 75 psi) in front of the inspectors.   The inspectors then test the pressures, if they pass, they put a yellow tag on them and put them on a cart that they keep locked up.   I will be back first thing in the morning when Luke gets the Miller Lite shocks back from the inspectors and gets them back in the car to complete the process.   I must say, these inspectors were very cool to let us film this and Luke knows his stuff!  Here is my favorite shot...

The Cup garage closed at 2p today and the crew was excited to get an entire afternoon free to go have some fun.  The pit crew was flying in this afternoon, which they do for races on the West Coast, otherwise they just fly in the morning of the race.   Several of the crew were going golfing and one was going sailing on the Bay.  Still others were looking forward to a nice dinner and getting some rest for a busy day tomorrow.  The hauler drivers, Stump and Cindy for example will be in the garages when it opens at 7am, will work all day (Cindy is also the team’s official scorer), pack the hauler after the race and are planning on driving all night with the hopes of getting to New Mexico for breakfast on Monday.   I am exhausted from being in the garages for 2 days, I can’t imagine doing their job every weekend!   

Tomorrow will be another hot, busy day at the track.  I hope to get a garage report up tomorrow night but will also have to work on Hot or Not from pit road so everyone hope my laptop doesn’t overheat!    If Kurt wins, I have been told by the crew I will be in there so keep your fingers crossed!!

Greetings from the garage at Infineon Raceway!  As many of you know, Miller Lite has secured hot passes for me to attend some races this year and this is one of them! 

My day started off with the traditional long dusty walk through the cow pastures to get to the track.  I made it inside the garage just as the Miller Lite team was pushing their car through inspection.   Thankfully, the Brew Crew were all happy to see me and I met the new spotter for the team, Chris Osborne.   I told them we were hoping to get some good video and interviews with them for the new and improved Miller Lite Racing website and warned them I would be bugging them all weekend for the inside scoop. 

Security was pretty aggressive in the garage and they were keeping everyone, even photographers (!) behind a line about 10 feet back from the garage stalls.  Eric, one of the mechanics, saw that they weren’t letting me up to the garage, so he went over and told the guard to let me go by the car and like magic I was in!   It was pretty cool I must say…I feel like I have 10 big brothers now!

As the crew was prepping the car for practice I asked them details about several incidents that plagued the Miller Lite team in recent weeks.  If you recall at Pocono two weeks ago, the Miller Lite crew expertly fixed the splitter after Kurt spun and took a wild ride through the grass.  I asked Bill, one of the mechanics, to show me how they re-attached the splitter arms to the front bumper so quickly.  At Dover, both the #2 and #12 teams had problems with their fueling system.  Steve, the “Underneath Mechanic” opened up the deck lid and showed me exactly what went wrong.  He also gave me his first hand account of what was going through his mind when the pit caught on fire at Lowes after a lugnut got run over as Kurt was leaving the pit and ignited some spilt fuel.  Steve is the catch can man on Sundays (his son, Chris is the gas man) so he was extra concerned as he was stuck holding a can full of fuel.  He also said he got hit in the leg by the red hot lug nut so he was 2 for 2 that day…I will post a blog with pictures and more details about these mishaps.

I watched the team setup the Miller Lite Dodge for practice.  I was a little concerned that there was something wrong with the car because they were shaking it violently on the jack stands but Darin, the engine tuner said “not to worry” that whenever they lowered the track bar they had to “shake” the car until it “settles in to place”.  Did you know that there are 3 antennae on the roof of the cars?  One of them is for the team radio and the other two are for NASCAR timing and scoring.   Every car also has a round hockey puck looking camera in the front on the roof.  Only a few of them are actually cameras, the others are “false cameras” so every car has the same aerodynamic "disadvantage."  Back to practice…Kurt ran most of it in race trim and made only two qualifying runs.  After practice the crew set the car up for qualifying and grabbed some grub.

In the long inspection line before qualifying, I had a chance to ask the crew some questions for the new website.  They are going to be featured so I got some info on their favorite food to wash down with a Miller Lite, their favorite track and their best memory with the Miller Lite team and more. The new website should be up soon so you can read all their answers…like who eats “sweaty and sweet” chicken wings?!

I sauntered back to the hauler and who is there talking to Kurt’s PR guy…the one and only Mike Helton.  We were introduced and you KNOW I had to ask Mr. Helton why there were no psychologists on NASCAR’s staff.   He didn’t respond right away and then said they have plenty of amateur shrinks on staff, they are called crew chiefs.  I pressed on and said I have to be believe having an in-house Anger Management course would be cost and time effective and that I would be happy to consult but he wasn’t biting…ah well…I tried!

For qualifying, I just acted like I belonged with the crew and joined them right out by the car on pit road.  I have some great shots of Kurt getting in as well as many of the other drivers, esp. the road course ringers, as they came out of the garages and got into their race cars and even one of Brian Vickers coming out of a portapotty.   Look for a pictures blog soon! (Tez- I have some amazing shots of Marcos for you!)  Kurt missed his mark in Turn 2 but laid down a great lap and qualified 3rd for the race on Sunday.  The crew was stoked and I am hopeful for a trip to Victory Lane!  

I sauntered around the garages snapping pictures of the drivers who were now in street clothes and heading out.  I must say, if you ever get garage passes, hot or cold, be sure to be able to recognize the drivers in street clothes!  It was really funny to watch them just walk through the garages with no one recognizing them.  I also stopped and snapped a picture of the fuel prices at the Sunoco pump.  For the 116 octane leaded fuel that the Cup teams use, the going rate was $9.99 per gallon!  Yikes!  When you figure a team uses about 115 gallons of fuel for the race here and another 50 or so gallons for practice and qualifying it adds up to a pretty penny.   Sunoco does not charge the Cup teams but the SW touring series and the other teams racing this weekend do get billed.  Ouch! 

I walked around and finally found the Miller Lite crew near the inspection area all laid out (literally on the ground lying in the shade under the tent) waiting for qualifying to be over. 

As most of you know, the first three qualifiers and all of the Go or Go Homers must go through inspection again after qualifying.   They were exhausted after the long hot day (it was 99 degrees this afternoon) but still had to clear inspection and then tear the car down like normal afterwards.  They were hoping to leave the track by 7pm and will have to be back at 7 am tomorrow.    I left the crew to finish their work and headed back to the Miller Lite hauler.  I had just walked up when out of the mirrored doors walks Jamie McMurray and Kurt both in street clothes snacking on Twizzlers…for some reason that just cracked me up.

I headed out and made the long (30 min) walk back through the cow pastures to the car and made it to my hotel by about 7:30p.   I was checking in right along side AJ Allmendinger…ah, I just love it when NASCAR is in town.   Off to bed for me, its an early day tomorrow with practice and Happy Hour all before noon.  Look for another report from the garage on Saturday night! 

Here are two more pictures from the garage area at Phoenix for you to guess what the heck is going on...I have edited the first blog to tell you what was really going on with Kurt and Tony.   Give these a try!

(In case you cannot tell...this is Kasey Kahne)

(here you find Dale Jr in the back, and Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin talking)

Give it your best shot!  Have fun! 

WHAT WAS REALLY GOING ON...

So the first shot was of Kasey talking on his cell phone outside his hauler about 2 hours before the race.  He sat out there for easily an hour on his phone flanked by two young girls who did not leave his side.  I didn't see him touch either of them in a GF kinda way (things still looking up for you YeeMum!).  More amazing, no one in the garages bothered him at all, it was a cold garage at the time so plenty of fans in there...

The second shot of Dale Jr, Kyle and Denny was taken in between practices on Friday.  Jr was engrossed in conversation with that crew member of Kyle's for a long time and he never acknowledged Kyle or Denny's presence.  Kyle and Denny definitely appeared to be comparing notes on setups and how their cars drove in practice.  Very unusual to get 3 drivers in one picture...there were cameramen and fans 5 people deep watching them like they were in a zoo.  I of course ducked down and crawled between 2 Fox camera guys to get the shot!

In an effort to keep us all entertained in the off weekend, I figured I would post a few pictures from my time in the garage at Phoenix and have you all use your creative minds to guess what is going on and caption it.   A big thanks to Miller Lite Racing for getting me those hot passes!!   So without further delay, I will start off with some easy ones!  Here are the first two:

I'll tell you what was really going on after you all have had a chance to chime in...I have enough pictures for lots of posts so hopefully I will get your favorite driver up here soon.  Have fun!

WHAT THE PICTURES REALLY ARE...

So the first one is of Kurt Busch with Sammy Hagar in between practice on Friday.  Kurt drove Sammy around the track in a pace car as he is apparently on a quest to scare all the members of Van Halen.  (He drove drove Eddie Van Halen around last year at PIR).   The shot is in Victory Lane, the bleachers are usually full of photographers.

The second picture is of Tony Stewart after the race with a couple of fans in front of the #20 team hauler in the garage area.  Tony was in the process of  signing the guy's orange shirt at the time.   Tony proceeded to walk right past me and I wanted to ask him to see his waxed back but since I was decked out in all Miller Lite garb I thought better of it!

Sorry for the delay updating you all from the garage on race day in Phoenix.  As many of you know, my family resides in Phoenix and after two long days at the track I finally got to see them! 

I arrived at the track around noon on Saturday and you could tell it was going to be a hot one.   The Miller Lite water cooler was being raided frequently not only by our crew but many of the neighboring ones as well.   Today our goal was to test the quality of the small video camera and shoot some interviews with the over the wall guys.   Last year I didn’t really have the opportunity to talk to them because they only fly in on race day and are usually quite busy.   The long day before the race provided a perfect opportunity to catch them this time around.

My Miller Lite boss and I headed out to pit road where the crew was setting up the pit box.  Lots of pit tours were happening and we talked tires with some fans from the Bay Area…hope you guys enjoyed the race!   We did an on camera interview with Travis, the newest member of the Miller Lite pit crew.  He is the rear tire changer and joined the team last July.   He told us about his schedule and the try out process at Penske as well as how he preps for pit stops.  We also got some great information from Larry, the rear tire carrier on little tricks they use on the tires to help them during the pit stops.  We did another video with Dave, the front tire carrier and the senior member on the crew.  He has been on the #2 pit crew for 7 years!   He had lots of insights and gave us a tour of the pit box and is going to help us create a “name that car part/equipment” game that we want to do for the Miller Lite website.   I will be doing more in depth blogs on the pit crew when the video comes out. 

Afterwards, we headed back to the garage and caught up with the crew working on the car.  I got a few more details and they let me take some pics that I had not had before like the chassis number on the inside roll bar.   I promise to get some pics up mid week!    

I also asked a veteran employee of Penske racing who has worked in NASCAR for many MANY years about the “Move Over” flag.  This blue with yellow stripped flag came into play several weeks ago when McDowell was in the way of the leaders.  NASCAR displays this flag when they want a car to “move over” and let the cars on the lead lap through, but it is not a mandatory flag.   The Penske employee said that NASCAR racing has always been based on respect and really it is up to the drivers to respect the leaders.   He said NASCAR will display the flag as a courtesy or a suggestion to “move over” and if that flag is ignored for too long, NASCAR will throw the Black Flag and it will result in some sort of penalty.  NASCAR is already accused of controlling the outcome of the races and they do not want to police how they race, so it is unlikely that the Move Over flag will ever come with a penalty.   If that is not a good enough answer, let me know and I will ask a NASCAR official next time! 

While hanging out by the Miller Lite Hauler I also was finally formally introduced to Eva, Kurt’s wife.  She was very nice and we have a love of horses in common.  I enjoyed hearing about her riding exploits and the story of how she met Kurt.  For those of you who don’t know…Kurt’s friends, who set them up, told her he was a veterinarian. (Too funny!)  So she was telling him all about her cats and horses and he was looking at her with a blank face (and he admitted he was pretty worried about how he was going to get outta that one).  They were in a restaurant and his face came on the TV and his bluff was up.  I asked if she was mad at them for lying to her and she laughed and said she was sorta bummed he wasn’t really a vet!  

The drivers seemed to be hanging in their street clothes outside their haulers a bit more during the day.  Kasey Kahne was outside his hauler most of the day lounging with Ray Evernham and a couple of cutie girls.  I also caught Ray Evernham talking at length with Martin Truex, Jr….HMMMmmmm.  Clint Bowyer was walking around the garage and no one really even recognized him.   

The pre-race activities seemed to last forever and now I know why…I wasn’t anywhere near a TV with sound so didn’t hear about the delay from the baseball game until later.   Felt bad for the crews in the fire suits, they were sweating bullets by then.   We knew the Miller Lite team had a lot to overcome as they were first too loose and then too tight.  Seemed most of the teams were struggling with the right front suspension and tires, and the #2 was no different.   Kurt passed a ton of cars on the track and used pit strategy to get all the way up to 3rd but really had a 20-something place car all night.  Still a huge improvement from 39th!   The team is working very, very hard to figure out the car and I am confident they will soon. 

Kurt’s pit was across from the start/finish line again so I had a great view (unfortunately! LOL) of Jimmie winning AGAIN.  I have more pictures of him in Victory Lane from behind the cactus!    On my way through the garage after the race I walked with Tony Eury, Jr. and kidded with him about getting Jr into Victory Lane next week for us.  In the dark garage, there were drivers and cars everywhere! I saw Jr out of his hauler and NOT mobbed but was too slow with the camera to catch him…and for all the Tony fans (ah, that’s YOU Lori!) I spied him talking to a fan not 5 feet from me and then he walked right by me.  He looked a bit peeved so I didn’t ask him to show me his sweaty waxed back!  I promise to get all the pictures up soon. 

Hot or Not will be coming to you live this week from the pits, I will say it was much harder to write from the race but I wouldn’t trade it for the world!  

Greetings from the garage at Phoenix!  As many of you know, Miller Lite has decided to send me to several races this year to do some more behind the scenes reporting on the Miller Lite Racing team.   It sounds like I will be doing blogs as well as some video interviews focusing on the team and their new slogan "More 2 It".  I should also have some time tomorrow to get the answer about the "move over flag" and follow up on some of the current issues with the crew like tires, substance abuse policy, and "Parts-gate".

Unfortunately, I missed qualifying day but was at the track as soon as the credentials truck opened today.   It was so great to be remembered and welcomed by the crew, all of which are the same guys from last year except for the tire guy.    I even got a hug from Kurt who chatted with me about his live SPEED interview just minutes before about his first trip to PIR and this great picture of him in Rusty Wallace's pit (see it here:  www.trpr.com).  

I took tons of pictures of the new teams, colors, sponsors and manufacturers and will share them with you in upcoming blogs.  Jr was mobbed like never before and Stewart was looking "fit" in his new Subway ride.  LOL   I found Landon and introduced myself and said hi from all of us here at FOXsports.  He autographed my hot pass for me too.   It was great to see the FOX broadcast team in action but saw surprisingly few Digger shirts! 

It was a tough day for the Miller Lite team as they struggled to set up the car.  Most of the teams were making a lot of adjustments, all of the cars seemed to be in the garages more than on the track during both practices today.   With the high temps expected tomorrow and the changing track from day to night it will be even more difficult for the teams to hit the setups.  Should make for some interesting racing.

Just before Happy Hour, Kurt met with Sammy Hagar and took him for some hot laps around the track in the pace car.  I was invited to tag along (not in the car...) to take some pictures and was shocked when they let Sammy drive Kurt around!   My guess is they will show this on the pre-race or on SPEED at some point this weekend.   Sammy seemed pretty impressed and said he was surprised at how hard it was to drive at speed.    I will get these pictures up soon too!

I will do my best to to check in tomorrow...Enjoy the race everyone!