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!
