Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Sonoma Weekend

It's been a few days now since the race at Sonoma. You saw and/or heard the usual post-race posturing. Jeff Gordon mad at half the field. Martin Truex Jr. vowing retaliation against Gordon. Jimmie Johnson winning (again). Looking back, it was an awesome weekend.

Saturday: I picked up my rental car at FYI late in the morning (NO, not for your information; it's the code for the Fresno-Yosemite International Airport), a white Toyota Camry that was faster than the Joe Gibbs Toyotas they fielded at Sonoma. (Hell, I could have qualified in the 20's at Sonoma; the car was THAT fast and powerful.) I stopped outside of Fresno to get a bite to eat prior to setting off for the Ramada Inn in Vallejo. I left around noon, arriving in Vallejo approximately three hours later. The car was equipped with XM Radio (unfortunately, I couldn't get the NASCAR channel). I was about 10 minutes away from the hotel when Kristen called. I called her upon settling into my room and hung out with her, RA6AN, and Tez for a bit before we walked to Applebee's to catch the last part of the Nationwide Series race from Road America. Very interesting course. After the race, we momentarily parted ways to get ready for dinner at La Strada Nostra in American Canyon.


Sunday: I had initially planned to leave at 6:30 AM, but changed my mind and left at 6 AM. Good thing I did because traffic started backing up shortly after I arrived at the track. To give you an idea of early morning at Infineon, here are a couple of shots.

















A couple of random shots around pit road:













Notice that on the right, each member of Clint Bowyer's crew has a helmet with the Hamburger Helper hand holding a different tool. The tool corresponds to each member; the jackman has a hand holding a jack, the gas man has the hand holding a gas can, etc. It's the same way with the crew's firesuits.

My long-time friend Leon and I reuniting:















Leon, good to see you again my friend!!

The best parts of the race: the National Anthem/Flyover and Kasey Kahne taking the green flag to start the event.














The first half of the race looked like it was going to be a snoozefest, as Jimmie Johnson led the entire first half of the race. I thought to myself, IS HE GOING TO LEAD THIS ENTIRE RACE, BECAUSE IF HE IS, I'M OUTTA HERE. Thankfully, he didn't, as Marcos Ambrose took control of the second half of the race. Even Mattias Eckstrom led 8 laps! (I believe he was the first debut driver to lead laps since Matt Kenseth in 1998.) Smoke led a couple of laps during green flag pit stops.

Then it got VERY interesting. On the restart on Lap 67, Boris Said was slow on the restart, backing up a BUNCH of drivers, eventually leading to a huge crash. There were tires screeching, brakes locking up, and cars slamming into each other like bumper cars. (Thanks a lot, Boris!) Here's how the carnage looked in part:














The huge wreck ruined what was looking to be a huge points day for Martin Truex, Jr., as he was in the top 10 for much of the race and was stout. At right, Truex looks dejectedly at the damage his car sustained. If you could have seen him up close, he was like, UN-FREAKING-BELIEVABLE. He was an innocent victim, in the wrong place at the wrong time.

After a 20 minute red flag period, the race resumed with Marcos Ambrose in the lead. Ambrose was THIS close to snagging his first Cup win except for his idiot crew chief telling him to kill the ignition when Ambrose didn't have to; he had enough fuel to go the distance.
Here's the fateful shot of JJ about to take the checkered flag:














I was very upset initially, then when I saw the replay of Ambrose stalling later in the evening, I calmed down and realized that NASCAR did the right thing in handing Ambrose his penalty. That was a gift-wrapped win for Johnson. With Kevin Harvick's third place finish, it was a HUGE points day for Happy, as he leads Johnson by 110 points.

Then we waited awhile for Kristen to emerge from the #2's post-race inspection. She emerged and we chatted about the race, Kurt Busch and his near run-in with an obnoxious fan, Busch's post-race meltdown, etc. We met a couple from Kansas that made the trek to Infineon. Then later we posed for a group pic:














As Tez and I were waiting for the shuttle to take us back to my car, I espied the Infineon Girls coming my way. (Do I still have the touch or what?) Here's two of my favorite pics:




Tez and I finally arrived at the car around 5:00 PM, roughly 2 1/2 hours AFTER the race ended. Because of the enormous amount of traffic, we didn't return to the hotel until 6:45 PM. I called a friend of mine prior to meeting Tez for dinner at Applebee's. I have to give a shout-out to Brett, one of the servers that took care of us both Saturday and Sunday. Great job Brett! Good luck and God speed in your new position! Another shout out goes to Kate (Ekaterina), who wryfully said, "See you next year." She's cool. The weekend ended on Monday with me giving Tez a ride to SFO to catch his flight and returning to Fresno at 5:45 PM. I arrived home approximately 7 PM. Let's plan this next year!

18 comments:

tezgm99 said...

nice post and pikkies, Jon!

the traffic sucked, man! I knew Kristen would beat us back but I didn't think she'd be able to get a post done as well before we got to the hotel, LOL!

and yep, Brett and Kate were nice and friendly...allowing the channel change for us to watch the NW race scored big points if you ask me :)

the lineup for security at SFO was huge! I thought check in was bad enough but sheesh. At least the line was moving pretty well, that was where I bumped into Mikey, lol

photogr said...

Sounds like you all had a good time. Post race traffic home can be a real bummer.

jmayer1843 said...

Very cool article. Posts like this always make a race feel real, and not just something on T.V.

jon_464 said...
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Dwindy1 said...

What's in the jug Jon?

klvalus said...

Hey Jon! Read this yesterday but a client walked in before I could comment. Sounds like you had some fun with the hottie grid girls after we left you, you devil you!

You got some great pics! Shall we start the countdown to next year?

jon_464 said...

Dwindy, water! Or what's left of it! (There wasn't much left.)

jon_464 said...

Hey Kristen! The Grid Girls were way cool! Yeah, let's start the countdown!

RA6AN said...

Hey Jon!

Props go to Chris at Infineon's ticket office for being able to seat us all together! Had a great time hanging with you again, and K & Tez!

Glad you were able to get the shot of all 4 cars in the crash. I was busy picking my jaw off the ground to catch the action.

You know I'm good for next year. Count me in!

Gene Haddock said...

Mmmmm, Infineon Girls! You old playa you!

Hope you checked the brakes on that rental before youi floored it...lol

Why was RA6AN sitting down for the group photo? X)

jon_464 said...
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RA6AN said...

Hanny is not invited!

jon_464 said...

I was EXTREMELY remiss in not acknowledging the staff at La Strada. The dinner was EXCELLENT as usual. And even though I ate appetizers at Applebee's earlier, I managed to eat most of my meal. Major props go out to the staff at La Strada. And major props go out to the Brew Crew for a couple of their members giving us the grand tour of the pit box. My bad on both counts.

tezgm99 said...

get rid of that question mark next to my name :P

jon_464 said...

Tez, you got it! As of now, NO more question mark!

jon_464 said...

Tez, thanks! Kristen's quick, that's for sure! Brett and Kate definitely scored big points on Saturday when they got the okay to switch to the NW race. I figured the line would be long at security!

Photogr, we had a BLAST! Traffic's not so bad when you have good music, lively conversation, and a GOOD A/C!

JM, thanks. I wanted to give that real feeling of the reader being at the race. I think Truex expressed it best in that pic.

jon_464 said...

Hey RA6AN! I sure had a BLAST hanging with you guys! Chris definitely deserves props for seating you, Tez, and I together. I heard screeching and instinctively got the camera ready for those shots. Truex was both dejected and pissed off. So far it's you, Kristen, Tez, and I.

Hey Gene! You know I'm the OG playa! The brakes definitely got a workout negotiating the hills around the speedway as we were exiting. I thought I was going to have to call Kristen to have the Brew Crew put in some brakes! As for RA6AN, I'll let her answer that!

Kate Dunkin said...

Great post Jon it certainly looks like you had a blast! I look at sonoma county vacation rentals every year with my family because we love wine and we absolutely love it there because of all the events they have. Thank you for sharing your story and pictures with us!