It is midnight here in MI and I am finally done with Hot or Not and my Miller article for the week, so unfortunately that means the quality of this blog will suffer as a result!  But I wanted to get it up...forgive me, I am exhausted!!

I got to the garage when it opened at 8:00 AM and immediately found the crew hard at work finishing up their checklists so they could get through inspection.   While they finished up, I headed out to pit road to say hello to the pit crew who had just arrived at the track that morning and were busy setting up the pit box.   We were in pit stall number 4, nearly at the exit of pit road and right next to eventual race winner Carl Edwards pit.  Here is a shot of the crew celebrating.               

For Tyler, I asked them about pitting the car last weekend at Watkins Glen where pit road is “backwards."   Larry Robinett, the rear tire carrier, said they only practiced for 3 days at the shop because they didn’t really want to get out of their regular rhythm too much just for one race.  Despite not having any problems pitting the car, the change slowed their stops by several seconds.  The biggest problem was for the rear tire changer Travis, and Larry  to avoid the gas man and catch can man.  They were definitely happy to be back to pitting “normally” this weekend.   One other note, Larry was picked by ESPN to be on camera during his pit stops so you may have seen him in action.  Here he is posing with the helmet they gave him to wear that was rigged for sound and video.   

I also had the pleasure of spending a quick but fun 15 minutes with fellow FOXSports blogger Gerrel and her husband Craig.    It was great to meet you!  Could you see me in the No. 2 pits from your seats??  LOL

After meeting Gerrel, I headed back to the garage to follow the crew as they pushed the car through four main inspection sites (without incident) and out onto pit road to be lined up for the race.   After the car is on pit road, the crew can finally relax for a bit.   They tend to have several hours because they are consistently one of the first cars through inspection on Sundays.   They head back to the hauler for an always tasty BBQ lunch served up by Cindy and hold their team meeting.  

I was also enjoying Cindy's cooking out front of the hauler and watched as David Stremme had a long conversation with one of Penske's brass...HMMMmmmm, perhaps an announcement will be coming very soon.   Also the crew had a blast showing me odd parts for the "Guess the Car Part" feature I will put up on the MLR More 2 It Debate blog.   There are several that are sure to stump you guys!

Just before drivers’ introductions, Kurt and Eva stopped by the hauler and I got a chance to ask Eva about the horse Kurt bought her for their anniversary.   ‘CJ’ is a beautiful grey Arabian that she plans to show next year.   She laughed as she said Kurt’s golf game might improve because she will be spending more time at the barn. 

 

I followed them out to pit road  for driver introductions and stayed behind the Miller Lite pit box the entire race.   Kurt had the Blue Duece in the top 10 for much of the first half of the race  and was looking good until a two tire pit stop altered the handling on the car and he started sliding back.   Then  the No. 96 car hit Kurt on a restart and sliced the left rear tire.  Before Kurt could get back to pit road the tire blew spinning him through the grass.  He quickly saved it and got it on the apron so no caution was thrown, but that only sent Kurt down another lap.    Here is that tire still smoking...you can see the inner liner held up just fine.

They finished a disappointing 36th after another rough day, but the fact that they were up front early is a sign they are figuring out how to set up this car better.    After watching Carl do his flip and Victory Lap I watched the pit crew tear down the pit box and headed slowly back to the garage.  There were tons of teams picked to go through post race inspections and the dyno after the NW cheating scandal yesterday so the garage was crazier than usual and no one was leaving.  I watched for a bit but then remembered once they finished I would be stuck leaving behind all the team haulers so I said my goodbyes and skeedaddled out of there!

Despite the disappointing race for Kurt and the Brew Crew, I have to say MI was a great race to be at.  Good racing and lots of drama added to the Chase.   I'll have a week off and then will be traveling to Fontana in 2 weeks so more garage reports will come!  

 

During the race weekend at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, CA I was lucky enough to catch Pat Tryson, the crew chief of Penske Racing’s No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge for a little chat outside the team hauler.   The Sonoma race marked Pat’s one year anniversary with the team and to date he has enjoyed three trips to Victory Lane (Pocono and Michigan in 2007; New Hampshire in 2008) with the Brew Crew.   Pat is an intimidating guy around the garage, kind of the strong silent type, but really he is easy to talk to, has a great sense of humor and a lot of Pennsylvania pride!

Pat has been hanging around racing garages for a long time.  At age 16, he got his first taste in the garage at the drag racing strips with his father, who was an engine builder.   Pat didn’t only get his education in the garages though, he graduated from West Chester University of Pennsylvania with a B.A in Business Administration (but really he went there to play football!).   He moved to North Carolina and worked with the Allison brothers building chassis and then landed a job as the car chief/mechanic on Kenny Bernstein’s top fuel dragster. 

His first year as a NASCAR crew chief came in 1997 for Geoffrey Bodine and then in 1998, he was the crew chief for Geoff’s brother, Todd Bodine.   In 1999, Pat was snatched up by the Roush organization where he started as Kevin Lepage’s crew chief.  He left Roush in 2001 to work for the Wood Brother’s as the crew chief on the No. 21 car with Ricky Rudd and Elliott Sadler but returned to Roush in 2003 as the crew chief for the No. 6 team and Mark Martin and then for Greg Biffle before joining the Miller Lite team in June 2007.   

Pat worked his way up through the ranks but it has come with some sacrifices.   His schedule is grueling as he works at the Penske shop Monday through Thursday, when he gets the afternoon off and then leaves with the team on Thursday evening and is on the pit box until Sunday night.   Pat admits the hardest part is not spending much time with his wife and seven year old daughter, but unfortunately, it comes with the territory of being a crew chief on a top team. 

Pat’s experience has given him a wealth of knowledge but admits the new car (the “Car of Tomorrow” or COT) which was introduced full time this year by NASCAR means starting over with setups.    He spoke candidly about the difficulty setting up the car since NASCAR regulates nearly everything it has taken away much of the crew chiefs’ creativity and tools to set up the car.  Drivers who are used to setting up the car’s to their “liking” and who are used to a certain feel of the car through the turns seem to be struggling the most to adapt to the COT and there is not a happy crew chief in the garages as far as I can tell.   The main problem for the No. 2 team has been getting the car to turn without blowing the right front tires out. 

Both Pat and Kurt Busch believe there is an easy fix—raise the splitter 3 inches and eliminate the bump stops.   However, NASCAR isn’t listening to the teams because Pat says, “they won’t admit they are wrong.”    He said moving to the COT was not really about safety as NASCAR advertised, although safety improvements have been included in the new car, it was instead an attempt by NASCAR to get IROC-style (International Race of Champions-where the cars are set up exactly the same) racing results.  But instead of side-by-side racing, NASCAR got a car that cannot pass. 

According to Pat, NASCAR has been hearing the teams loud and clear, loud enough to call a halt to the complaints in a special drivers meeting several weeks ago.  So look for NASCAR to make it seem like they didn’t make any mistakes with the car, but instead advertise only “improvements” like their newfound idea to give unlimited tests (read- the teams can’t figure out the set ups but NASCAR can’t be wrong so let’s just test more!). 

Pat and the Brew Crew won’t stop trying to get creative with the setups and working hard to get Kurt the best car possible.  I know they will be back in Victory Lane again very soon.    Thanks for the inside scoop Pat! 

Check out www.millerliteracing.com  in the Team Forum to see my first behind the scene's video with the Miller Lite Crew.

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!!

This edition of what the heck is going on in these photos from the Phoenix garage focuses on interesting pairs of people...without further delay...here are the next set of pictures to caption!

(Ray Evernham and Martin Truex, Jr....hmmmmm)

(Mark Martin's crew chief ,Tony Gibson, and Dale Jr's crew chief Tony Eury, Jr.)

(Hollywood Hammond and David Ragan)

(Landon Cassill and unidentified person...)

You guys have been on fire with these, I expect great things again!  Have fun!  Oh, and I just updated the last blog with pictures to give you the real scoop.

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! 

With HotFootLori’s blogger challenge in mind, I dusted off the ‘ole Magic 88-Ball I used  so successfully during the last blogging contest.   I peered again into its murky window asking aloud “Who of my non-favorite drivers will win the 50th running of the Daytona 500?” 

Of course, predicting with the Magic 88-Ball isn’t easy, and it takes a LOT of shaking to get that silly floating triangle in there to tell you anything.   As HotFootLori suggested, I “embraced my passion” for all my non-favorite drivers and did my level best… 

(shake, shake, shake)         High Line-Go Lowe

(shake, shake, shake)         Hav-o-in-the-middle-line

(shake, shake, shake)         Smoke is triple wide   

What the heck?   This thing is clearly all scrambled thanks to the mixed message I must be giving it…a non-favorite of mine win the biggest race of the season?  Impossible!  We all know NASCAR has already written the script and hand picked its favorite AMP’ed son to win the 500 and the Championship.   I already have my ‘88 in 08’ Championship hat!  

Confused and dismayed, I figured I can’t let HotFootLori down, so I try one more time…  

(shake, shake, shake)        DEAD HEAT 

My Magic 88-Ball falls in super slo-mo out of my hands, spinning towards the floor as I finally realize the prediction.  Mildly nauseous, I stare off in horror as I imagine Larry Mac screaming “they are coming to the line! they touch! they touch!” as I picture a blur of blue, black, and orange racing towards the checkers.  Apparently it is true you can’t make a pass in the COT…  

In the spirit of good sportsmanship, I truly wish these three gentlemen and the rest of the drivers the best of luck but remember, my Magic 88-Ball also picked Gordon to win the Championship in 2007 so...

I write this with Southern Cindi close to heart as she was often the voice of respect for all drivers and their fans. 

I wanted to share some of my personal experiences meeting some of the NASCAR drivers from the 3 weeks I spent in the garages as the Miller Lite Next Great Sportswriter.  I also have some thoughts on how we relate to them as we head into the 2008 season.   These are only a fraction of the drivers, and notably Kurt Busch is missing.  Since I had so much access to him, he will get his own blog in the near future.  If you want to know about your favorite, just ask!

Jeff Gordon  -  I was very impressed with Gordon in person. He has a presence in the garage, and is very approachable.   He was also the only driver to do his media interview outside his hauler without his sunglasses on!  His PR guy was very clear Jeff was only available for 15 minutes, but when time was up, after the main media outlets had most of the time, Jeff said he would stay for as long as it took to answer everyone’s questions.  I would have never gotten a chance to talk to him if he hadn’t stuck around for longer.   

When I finally did get to ask my question, he made eye contact and spoke directly to me, just like we were having a private conversation.  He allowed me to follow up naturally and we had an actual conversation.  He was one of the only drivers I met who spoke to each individual asking the question, not just the camera. 

The perception I hear a lot is that he is “whiney.”  Quite the contrary, Gordon spoke well of himself and others, took responsibility for his mistakes and gave praise where it was due. 

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. – (AKA the ghost)  I rarely saw Junior in the garage area and when I did he was surrounded by fans, media and his “handlers.”  In the three weeks I spent in the garage, I probably saw him once a weekend.  He would appear at his car for qualifying and disappear from it just as mysteriously.   I saw him once outside his hauler doing PR with the NAVY and his PR team had a boundary set up so you couldn’t get anywhere near him due to the crush of fans trying to get a glimpse.  

I did get a front row spot during his press conference at Homestead to announce the new paint scheme on the NAVY car and Brad Keselowski’s extended contract for his Busch team.  Junior seemed shy, quiet, and a little uncomfortable in the formal press meeting.   He did an excellent job of keeping the questions away from himself as a driver and squarely on the Busch team.  He cracked a big smile when Brad said, “Gee, you know its an important event when you see Junior wearing a button down shirt!”   He also seemed much more at ease unveiling the new paint scheme and doing the pictures.  The media absolutely bombarded him afterward, so instead of trying to get in there, I spent some quality time interviewing Brad instead.  Brad and I had a great 10 minute private conversation about his upcoming year, his goals, and what it was like to drive for Junior.   That young man will definitely be one to watch! 

I also got to talk to Kerry Earnhardt for quite a while as he sat on the steps of Truex’s hauler next to us.   We started the conversation trying to figure out i####uy in the garage was Tom Cruise.  Kerry said he couldn’t tell from the back…he didn’t look at Cruise’s butt that much!  Too funny.   He said his brother was pretty emotional going into his final race with DEI and that he was a little worried about him. 

The biggest eye opener I had about Jr is that he is truly “hunted” and has so little privacy, so few he can trust, and it made me kind of sad to see the high price he pays for being so popular. 

 

 Matt Kenseth- Matt was very business-like in person, but very patient and thorough in his answers.   He was never in a rush with fans and had a good sense of humor.    When I asked him who his biggest competition was at Phoenix he laughed and said “I have no idea.”  Stupidly, I also asked if he thought he had a shot at the pole and he replied, “Well, we are terrible at qualifying but you never know…”  I was happy he responded good naturedly to something I should have known about him.   I am sure the drivers get very sick of answering not only stupid questions, but it also seems as if they answer the same questions over and over too.  

I also had a chance to chat with Robbie Reiser, Matt’s crew chief at the time, while they were waiting to go through inspection.   I just happened to catch Robbie’s eye and asked if he was excited about his new job.   Robbie proceeded to respond as if he knew me from long ago, dropping names like I should know who he was talking about, and really honestly engaging in the conversation.   He was openly excited about his new gig and clearly wanted to share it.  In fact, all the crew chiefs were much more laid back than I had anticipated and all of them were willing to talk to fans as long as they were not busy.

What I learned from Matt and others is the amount of patience they all must have in dealing with the press, some of whom never follow NASCAR, but who have the power to change our impressions of them with a strike on the keyboard.

 Sterling Marlin- At one practice, many of the drivers got into their cars and lined them up early so they were just sitting there with the window nets down waiting.  I moved along down the line and towards the end came upon Sterling Marlin.  I am a big fan of Sterling and I slowly approached him as he was talking to a crew member.  He told his crewman to get out of the way, took his helmet off, grinning, so I could get a good picture and then took the time to talk to me.  I told him how much I enjoyed watching him race and fans loved him.  He said he would hang in there as long as he could and it was still fun.  He was definitely happy to hear people were still rooting for him. 

I also had the pleasure of watching qualifying sitting on the pit road wall next to his crew.  They were, unfortunately, sweating bullets trying to get Sterling into the race because they were out of the top 35.  They said that rule was killing the single car teams and that their boss wouldn’t field the car for the full season if Sterling couldn’t get in the top 35 next year.   Sterling laid down a great lap and made the race, but only time will tell if he can keep racing and keep his team employed. 

Sterling and his crew showed me first hand, how much pressure the sport creates, how much the rules affect the small teams, and how many people are directly affected if they don’t make a race.

 Tony Stewart- Unfortunately, Tony’s dislike of the media is not a myth.  All drivers in the Chase were mandated to meet with the media each weekend yet Tony seemed to figure out ways to make that as difficult as possible.  He was the only one who scheduled his interview time “immediately after his qualifying run” and I never once caught him.  

He was present in the garage and tended to linger by his car until a mass of people surrounded and trapped him in there.  Then he would appear to toy with the fans as he would turn around, talk to various crew or sponsors, turn to leave, and then go back and read the computer scoring again.  He would then put on his game face and power through the crowd, rarely stopping despite lots of requests for autographs.   In fact, once I saw him tell a guy to “get outta my face if you don’t have a Sharpie.”  The guy was clearly a guest of one of Tony’s sponsors, because another guy grabbed the hat and went right up to Tony who was strapped in the car by that point and made him sign it!   Tony was clearly not very happy with the reprimand. 

This is a great example of how “owned” these guys really are and why it is no wonder they express frustration on camera at times.  Could you imagine people doing that to you at work all day every day?

 Kasey Kahne- I was lucky enough to be able to interview Kasey for his Busch race at Phoenix driving the Doublemint Car.  When my camera crew asked me to test the sound, all I could come up with was “Oh my God, he is cute!”   The other funny thing was that the local newscaster deferred to me (remember I am NOT a real sportscaster!) so I got to interview him first.  I launched into my first question, “So Kasey, can you drive and chew gum at the same time?”  Kasey looked at me with complete shock and then laughed saying, “yeah, I think so!”   I then asked him, “How many pieces of Doublemint do you need to blow a bubble?”   He thought, “at least 3 or 4” as he laughed along with me.  I then started asking him about his Busch ride and more racing topics.  Kasey was great about it and seemed to enjoy not having to be so serious all the time. 

Again, it was very interesting to see how unusual it is for these guys to let their guard down with the media.  They all seem to tread so carefully because they have so little power to change their image.  It also made me sad to see how careful they had to be at all times. 

 Ryan Newman- I had the pleasure of a private interview with Ryan during the Penske announcement event for Sam Hornish, Jr.  Ryan was very laid back and was the only driver who noticed, “I haven’t ever seen you before, who do you work for?”   I told him briefly about winning the contest and the grand prize and he said, “don’t be nervous, just ask ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions!”   I also saw Ryan being interviewed by a young boy in the garage area.  Ryan took the time to let the young man ask questions and answered them seriously.   Meeting Ryan definitely won me over as a fan since I had never seen that side of him on TV before.

Again, my impression of Ryan had always been that he was the “engineer” who was always serious.  Actually, he was one of the most laid back drivers and had a great sense of humor!  

One of the biggest lessons I learned is that they are all just people too.  I left with a whole new respect for all of the NASCAR drivers after spending so much time in the garages last year.   They are under a tremendous amount of pressure to perform on and off the track.   I witnessed them trying to just do their jobs and having to run the fan gauntlet between their cars and haulers like hunted animals.  It was clear not many people could put up with that kind of attention all the time.  

Many will argue that they get paid MILLIONS to deal with the fame and pressure, but really, they are being paid for their talents to drive a race car.   They are only human, trying to do their best and making mistakes all under tremendous scrutiny from fans, media, their sponsors, and owners.  Would you do it?

The only other time I was truly horrified while at the track was when I witnessed fans screaming insults and personal attacks at the drivers during driver introductions.   The insults and personal attacks we hurl at drivers from the stands, in the garages, even in our comments on these blogs and articles, are simply unacceptable no matter how bad you “hate them.”    

Remember, the media is our main access to the drivers and I now know many of my perceptions were skewed, yours could be too.  Be careful “hating” someone you don’t actually know and remember they are only human and those comments hurt.  They are also someone’s son, father, or husband and its painful for their loved ones to hear the comments too.

I know NASCAR thrives on good rivalries and rooting for and against drivers and teams, but next time your taking glee in “hating” on a driver or watching him wreck, ask yourself if you would say the same if you really knew him.  Have fun with it but let’s respect ALL the drivers for their talents AND each other no matter who your favorite is…