Kentucky: The tour and the race

Over 10 years. The ownership, management, local residents and fans of Kentucky Speedway waited over 10 years to finally land its coveted Cup date. It took a change of ownership and and an agreement by a bunch of lawyers to stand down before it could happen. But both events happened, the Cup date was granted, and Darrell Waltrip got so giddy over the whole deal that on more than one occasion I'm quite sure he nearly pee'd himself.

New track owner Bruton Smith - who is not exactly a wallflower owner/promoter - gushed that the race would be the biggest event of the year. When the weekend was done, he was kind of right with his prediction. He likely hosted the biggest STORY of the season. Sadly, the weekend will be remembered for ridiculous traffic jams, a lack of parking, a breakdown of communications and commitment by track management and staff, and a complete abdication of responsibility by those in charge (e.g. Bruton joking about the snafus on pre-race shows, Bruton blaming I-71's condition and width, press releases stating the track "regretted" the situation).

Despite all the perimeter noise, the inaugural Quaker State 400 Cup race was run. And representatives of the Schaefer Hall of Fame and Ring of Honor were there to christen the event.

We arrived on Friday afternoon - primarily just to get a feel for the vibe of the crowd, scout some parking, tour the souvenir trailers, enjoy a Schaefer ... and maybe a second, etc. While roaming through the various sponsor exhibits, we spotted a replica of the car Michael Waltrip planned to race. It was skinned to pay tribute to Darrell Waltrip's first Cup win at Nashville Speedway in 1975. When qualifying was rained out, however, Mikey was left on the outside looking in.

Schafer HOFer Uncle Dave was excited to find the Robby Gordon souvenir trailer. I'm not quite sure why. Uncle Dave may well be the last fan ol' Robby has. I kind of expected Robby's souvenirs could fit comfortably inside a pull-behind U-Haul trailer.

In the early to mid 90s, Kyle Petty had some incredibly dominant runs at Rockingham Speedway - especially when sponsored by Mello Yello. After all these years, I think I finally found the answer. He was racing with organic fuel maaannnn. (reference to Cars 2 for those who don't get it).

I was fortunate enough to land a hospitality pass with Stanley Tools through Rick - who was recently inducted into the Schaefer Ring of Honor in May at Charlotte Motor Speedway. As we walked towards the hospitality tent, I snapped this photo of the Marcos Ambrose / Stanley show car.

As we settled in with a nice lunch, one of the Stanley guys announced some prize giveaways. "The first person to show me a photo of the Stanley race car wins a prize." I jumped up with a WHOO, showed him the pic on my Blackberry, and just like that earned myself a soft-sided Stanley tool "box" or bag. Shortly thereafter, they had drawings for garage tours. I had been told we could visit the pits, but the garage tour was an extra. Sure enough, I went two for two as my name was drawn to visit the garage.

Before heading down for our tour, Marcos Ambrose dropped by the tent to ask a few questions. He answered such inquiring-minds-want-to-know questions as "what is your favorite pre-race meal?", "will you put Kyle Busch in the wall for us?", "what is your favorite TV show?", etc. I got the privilege of asking one, and mine went something like this: In the 2-car drafting tandem at Daytona, you seemed to draft better with your pushing A.J. than when he tried to push you. Was that because of the differences in the cars or your individual driving and drafting styles? Unlike the other ones, he started his response with "well, that's a great question mate..." before explaining the answer as a little bit of both.

After Ambrose left, it was time for our walking tour of the garage. I'm guessing we were supposed to keep a healthy distance away from the individual garage bays. But I couldn't help myself. I wanted to get a couple of close-up shots - especially of the Richard Petty Motorsports Fords.

Here is the Porter Cable #9 raced at Kentucky by Marcos Ambrose...

And here is the famed #43. The Valvoline Ford of The Dinger, A.J. Allmendinger.

After roaming a bit more around the bays and seeing a few cars go through technical inspection, our group headed for hauler row. I lagged back a bit when I got to the Best Buy trailer. I was hoping to catch a glimpse of Allmendinger, The King, Robbie Loomis, Dale Inman, or someone else of vital importance I might recognize. Not seeing them, I still made myself at home a bit. Having a Schaefer in hand is a bit like being a V.I.P. - it gets you into interesting places with meaningful people. Don't believe me? Check out the expression on the dude's face in the white shorts. I'm quite certain he's thinking "Are you kidding me? I had to surrender my first born to get a hot pass - yet this guy just strolls in with nothing more than a Schaefer?" Yeah buddy, deal with it.

Although I didn't see anyone of vital importance at the Best Buy hauler, I did spot one quasi-celeb. Look again at the above photo - over the left shoulder of the guy whose back is to me with a #7 shirt and blue shoes. Recognize him? Its Paul Menard, sideburns and all.

Allmendinger's trailer - still in its Best Buy colors vs. the 1-off Valvoline sponsor for the weekend - was sandwiched between the haulers of Menard and Juan Montoya. With those two flanking the RPM hauler, it was amazing the 43 didn't get wrecked while being unloaded!

As we wrapped up our tour of the garage and headed for pit road, we passed by a booth where a radio broadcast was taking place. When I walked by, I heard the announcer say "we're glad to have Jerry Carrol here with us", and I paused.

Carroll built Kentucky Speedway and lobbied for years for a Cup event. The lobbying later turned into a lawsuit against NASCAR. As long as the lawsuit continued, Carrol had about as much a chance of landing a Cup date as drivers named Regan and Ragan could each win a race and in the same season.

Wait - check that. Regan and Ragan both have won races this season, and Kentucky did get its Cup date. So miracles do happen. But of course, it required Carroll's selling of the track and getting the lawsuit withdrawn to make it happen.

A view of the upper portion of pit road. Look carefully near the center of the picture, and you may be able to see the pit board for the 43 team.

A view of the start-finish line with the grandstands, suites and Indiana Tower behind it.

After completing our tour, I returned to the hospitality area. I downed a water, cracked a beer and said so long to some of the folks I'd met at my table. Not long after I returned to our own tailgating site, SROH Rick called me to say they were going to have more drawings. Knowing I'd already won the toolbox and garage tour, I figured my luck was exhausted and/or was ineligible for more. Apparently not. A couple of hours later, he returned along with the guys from the table with more swag - some of it autographed by Marcos. They told me my name had been drawn again, but I had to be present to win. So *oof* - a swing and a miss for me. Sure, it stung. But I'd been lucky, I was thankful for the freebies I already won, and there was no sense crying over missed opportunities or autographed swag.

It was now race time! With qualifying rained out, the field was set by practice speeds. As such, Allmendinger started about half-way through the field. He is shown here leading out the second pack of cars for a couple of pace laps.

Sadly, that's about as well as the 43 car would run all night. The team was off its game from the time they unloaded. I call it the Valvoline curse. Don't get me wrong - I appreciate the company's partial sponsorship of Richard Petty Motorsports. But it seems anytime the 43 is skinned in Valvoline colors, the car runs horribly. He ran the same scheme at Vegas in 2010 when I was there - similar type of result.

The race was pretty uneventful. Kyle Busch set the pace early - with his only significant challenge in the early stages coming from brother Kurt. In the mid-laps of the race, Brad Keselowki put the blue deuce out front for an extended segment. Yet we knew the 18 was still very much in the thick of things. Sure enough, as the race hit its three-quarters mark or so and the cars cycled through green-flag pit stops, KyBu's Toyota returned to point.

The finish. Sorry for the blurriness of the cars. A Blackberry 3.2 megapixel camera isn't quite up to par with a Nikon. But that is indeed Kyle Busch winning with David Reutimann in second and Jimmie Johnson in third.

Kyle is no question a polarizing guy. Many, many people still boo him. He does have some passionate fans - though I suspect most have just crawled aboard his winning bandwagon. But you have to give the guy his due. He sets 'em up and knocks 'em down - trucks, Nationwide, Cup. He can win them all on any given weekend. And I don't think anyone can match him on burnouts.

One of these days, I half-way expect him to pull a Chris Angel stunt. Light 'em up, create a tire smokescreen, and disappear into thin air before the smoke clears.

Once the checkers fell and the burnout smoke cleared, SROH member Chet and I made a beeline for the car. We had made the decision to drive throughout the night back to middle Tennessee rather than staying somewhere overnight. We made it as far as Louisville before the weekend caught up to us: road stare, excessive yawning and hunger.

Just as is often needed during a long race, it was time for a green-flag pit stop. Waffle House! Say it with me: Waffle House!

Yep. Nothing soothes the stomach and wakes the soul quite like an All Star at 2AM.

Next: The Schaefer Hall of Fame and Ring of Honor celebrate and induct many new members.

TMC

A POSITIVE Kentucky parking story

I continue to read with amazement all the stories of horrific traffic and parking at Kentucky. Its even more amazing to me because we were there and had minimal problems at worst.

I plan to post a handful of blogs about the race in the days to come, but I'll start with the number one issue of the race weekend: traffic and parking. Yep, a whole blog devoted to the heart-pounding theme of ... traffic. Yet, this entry has a good vibe to it vs. the rotten one many experienced.

We arrived at Kentucky Speedway on Friday around 1PM. Schaefer Ring of Honor member Chet and I arrived from the south/Louisville direction. The rest of our crew came from the north/Cincinnati side.

I got off I-71 at exit 55 (one of 2 exits for the speedway) and waited about 15 minutes for our Schaefer HOFers to arrive. Once they caught up to us, it was easy money rolling into the track. As a matter of fact, we drove all the way up to the front of the track and parked.

We set up a canopy, cracked a Schaef (or two or...), met a lot of great folks around us from places as varied as North Dakota and Vermont, and toured the souvenir trailers and special exhibits.

The Nationwide race was not in our plans. We mainly used Friday as our scouting expedition - determine the right exit, spot a lot, enjoy some fun, and then leave. As the race began, we slipped out against the flow of traffic - again back to the mile marker 55 end with no problem. As we turned north on I-71 and headed towards Cincy, it was quite apparent there was a problem. Just as reported, cars were lined up on I-71 trying to get off at exit 57. Interestingly, no consistent pattern of traffic seemed to be going the extra 2 miles to exit 55.

Because we were staying about 90 minutes away from the track, we made the decision to leave my car parked overnight. I locked my doors, loaded a bit of our gear in the big ol' GMC Suburban, said a quick prayer that my car would be in the same spot and condition Saturday morning, and left the speedway property.

We got back to the track around 10:00 Saturday morning. As we approached exit 57, the interstate was already backing up about a mile and a half. We stayed in the left lane & buzzed down to exit 55 where pretty much no one was coming in - including from the south/Louisville direction! Just as with Friday, we turned on Speedway Boulevard and drove about a half-mile in. Then it got a bit interesting.

One of our planned objectives Friday was to find a desired lot for Saturday. Two realities, however, negated that objective.

• One, the temperature was hot on Friday, and we had Schaefer. So roaming around looking for future parking simply became a non-starter..
  
• Two we knew we had to avoid exit 57 and anything near it at all costs. We really didn't care where to park on Saturday as long as it wasn't on that side of the track.

So as we crept along on Speedway Blvd. Saturday, we still didn't know the best place to park. The desirable place to park was where we were Friday - right behind the Kentucky Tower grandstands and where my park was (hopefully) still parked.

SHOFer Philly got out of the Suburban and started walking as he tried to scout us a place. Options were minimal because all the good lots we saw were for reserved camping - not general parking. Like a Star Wars tractor beam, however, we were beginning to get pulled up the hill with a high likelihood of us being routed to the wrong side of the track.

Philly called to say the cops weren't going to let us go back where we had been unless we had a parking pass (which we didn't). So the decision was made to turn around because we were not going near that exit 57 mess.

After getting to the road leading to where my car was (hopefully) parked, we told a cop we needed to turn around, but he said "no". So we took it up a notch and said all we wanted to do was loop back. Again, a firm "no" was the reply. Finally, a second cop said "c'mon, c'mon, turn it around and GO! Let's move!"

Our crew let Chet and me out of the truck quickly so we could walk to my car and move it to wherever we were going to park.

After no more than 20 paces or so, I heard "honk honk" as our Suburban zoomed past the two of us! I said "well, I'll be a sonuva..." under my breath because I immediately knew what had happened. Sure enough, a short walk later we found our guys parked even closer than we had been Friday - just about 50 yards from my car.

Philly said as they were trying to turn around, he noticed the cops already had turned back to focus on in-bound traffic. He said to his brother-in-law who was driving "if you have any stones, you'll hammer it RIGHT NOW".

When the dust settled, we went from exit 55 to being parked in about 45 minutes. We were 20 yards away from port-a-johns without long lines, 100 yards from hospitality village, and only about 1,000 feet from the front gate!

See the blue and checkered flag canopies next to each other? That was our spot.

After the race ended, we had all planned to meet back at the truck, fire up the grill and wait out the madness. But when Chet and I got back, the rest of our boys were already gone! My phone rang, and Philly said the road was empty so they struck while the iron was hot. They headed for mile marker 55 - not 57 - and said they had no problem getting out and turning back north towards Cincy.

We weren't quite that fortunate, but it still only took maybe 45-60 minutes to get to (you guessed it) mile marker 55 on-ramp. From there, it was smooth sailing all the way back to Tennessee. I opened my front door at 4AM CT Sunday - 250 miles away from the track. Sadly, many folks didn't get off speedway property until 3AM ET ... or later.

Why in the world they didn't re-route more traffic to 55 - before and the race is beyond me. It was so underutilized compared to 57 - at least it seemed that way at the time of our two arrivals. I feel for those folks who sat for hours - both Fri and Sat - both before and after the race.

In our case, however, it was better to be lucky than good - though I think we had some of both going. Will I go back? Well, the jury is still out. While we were both lucky and good this year, I'm not so boastful as to believe we could pull of the same coup a year from now. Besides, we were there for a race which wasn't a great one in its own rights. But we'll see.

More race stories to follow...

TMC

Happy Birthday to King Richard

Richard Petty turns 74 today, July 2nd. The King is still just as cool today as he was in his prime driving years - maybe more so.

Source: Forbes.com

Richard has been going to Daytona in the summer for the majority of his adult life. The first summer Firecracker 250 (later Firecracker 400 and eventually Rotating Soft Drinks 400) was in 1959. Other than 1961 when Petty Enterprises was still rebuilding their business from major crashes by Richard and Lee in February's Daytona 500 and 1965 when Richard didn't race because of a factory boycott by Chrysler, Richard's birthday has been celebrated in Daytona.

Here are a few photos of birthdays from years past.

1970

1971

1972

1975

1976

Source: The Sporting News

1978

1982

1983

Photo courtesy of Jerry Bushmire

1986

1988

1989


TMC
Edited July 2014

2011 Scharlotte Schaefer Schindig

A twenty-year tradition was renewed Memorial Day weekend on the grounds of Charlotte Motor Speedway. The Schaefer Racing Hall of Fame and Ring of Honor gathered once again for plenty of NASCAR racing, good times, great eats, renewals of friendships and cold Schaefer beer.

For many reasons - some known, some unknown - our numbers were down this year compared to prior years. Cuba, our 2010 Schaefer Hall of Fame inductee, had to work all weekend. This reality claimed not only himself but also several of his customer representatives who he hoped to host at the track. Even members of the military who normally drop by to hang with us were nowhere to be seen. Perhaps all have been deployed from places like Fort Bragg and Camp Lejeune. Though we may have been smaller in number, however, we were large in spirit.

Friday

After arriving Friday afternoon, one of the best sights for me was to see SHOFer Uncle D. return this year. Our Cleveland Curmudgeon, our master chef, our designated driver, our procurer of SHOF/SROH shirts.

After unloading cars and packing coolers, we headed for the World of Outlaws sprint car race at The Dirt Track at Charlotte Motor Speedway. On the way to the track, however, a monster afternoon thunderstorm flooded our tailgating area, unleashed a torrent hail on our trucks, and for the second year in a row washed out the night's event.

Saturday
After Friday night's rains, Saturday and Sunday were wonderful - wonderfully HOT. But for racing and tailgating, dry and hot is always preferable to rain.

SROHer Bruton joined us Saturday morning. We cheered at his arrival - partially to see him but mainly because he trucked many cases of Schaefer for us from south Georgia. To complement the Schaefer delivery, Bruton also brought some bottled Schlitz. We figured old school brew was deserving of an old school photo technique.

Late morning and early afternoon was filled with great food from Uncle D's grill, swapping of race stories, the arrival of SHOFer Rookie and packing coolers for the afternoon's Nationwide race. Matt Kenseth won the fairly uneventful Nationwide race.

Afterwards, we moseyed over to The Dirt Track to see the event postponed from Friday. On the way there, we shared a Schaefer with this nice couple passing through. For a moment though, we thought the late NASCAR driver Bobby Hamilton may have returned from the great beyond.

We've gone to the World Of Outlaws race for about the last 4 years or so. As someone who follows NASCAR fervently and other series such as Indy Car or F1 from a distance, I think I've got a reasonable handle on how a race event works.

But the whole WOO event loses me. They run a series of hot laps that apparently matter for fast time. Then they run a series of heat races where the top X number of finishers advance to the main event. Then I think they've got some sort of "hooligan race" where the castaways from the earlier heats have a second shot at the main event. For the A Main (?), they seem to line up based on those original hot laps vs. finishing order of the heats. Its just a big mystery to be watching it once a year. Plus after a day of consuming multiple Schaefers, thinking clearly is not one of my strengths.

But its racing so its all good. One car that caught my eye was driven by Donny Schatz. While not exactly day-glo red and Petty blue, seeing a red and blue STP race car on the track is still a very cool sight.

In the end, the event was won by Paul McMahon from Nashville by-cracky Tennessee! So in the end, I left happy with the victory by a fellow middle Tennessean.

Sunday - The main event

The most talented and Schaefer HOF innkeeper - and SROH member in her own right - Lanie free-handed a great banner for us to schelebrate our 20th year of this schilliness.

Monte Dutton - syndicated NASCAR beat writer, Sirius radio host, author, musician, and friend - hung out with us for a couple of hours to tell old school NASCAR stories, share a few opinions about new school racers, participate in our 20th Annual Schaefer Scha-LOOT toast, and play many songs. He sung many of his originals as well as covers of artists as diverse as Charlie Pride, Tom T. Hall, Marty Robbins, and Townes van Zandt. Before the race, he filed a column with his paper that discretely referenced our party.

SHOFer Rookie brought out his first-time-used, custom-built, parquet Schaefer cornhole boards. We have a ton of fun on Cup race day. But its also a time to get seriously competitive. The bar is raised with each year's cornhole games.

Here is the builder of the official cornhole boards of the Schaefer Schelebration, tournament commissioner, and Schaefer Hall of Famer Rookie presiding over the afternoon's tourney progress...

Eventual winner Will The Thrill coming at you with a magical toss.

As the tournament proceeded, things began to turn a bit weird. I didn't pretend to understand it - I merely tried to embrace and document it.

As happens each year, various folks joined us throughout the day - some for the first time and some vets. But with each arrival, all agreed to schare in the Schaefer experience. The most commonly uttered response as the first swallow of Schaefer passes their taste buds is always predictable: "Hey, its not that bad!"

Will The Thrill partnered with Havana Montana to claim the 2011 Second Annual Schaefer Racing Cornhole Tournament Trophy. Much like a wrasslin' tag team, the team was supposedly managed by SHOFer Uncle D. He claimed a nagging shoulder injury prevented him from full participation - yet he did want to participate in the victory ceremony. Havana did an exceptional job keeping the trophy in the family as her husband, SHOFer Cuba, won it a year ago.
After the awarding of the trophy, it was time to announce the 2011 inductee to the Schaefer Hall of Fame. With unanimity, it was decided to move Rev. Randy, Esq. from the Ring of Honor to a full-fledged Hall member - with all rights and privileges bestowed upon him.

Our tradition has been to give Rev. Randy the floor to eloquently say a few words about the year's inductee - whether he knows who its going to be or not. He was a bit surprised this year when he found out the praise he lavished on the 2011 inductee was actually about ... himself.

As race time drew near, I wanted to snap a pic of a special Schaefer Ring of Honor member. Jes is our only second generation member of the SHOF/SROH - being the son of SHOFer Padook. The Schaefer Hall of Fame is proud of him for his accomplishments to this point of his life. But our pride is going to another level as we've learned he will be reporting to Officer Candidate School for the United States Marine Corps this fall.

Jes - my man - we couldn't be prouder of you. Be safe and evangelize the Schaefer. Jes gets bonus props for the weekend as well. While cleaning out my garage a week before the race, I found a can of Schaefer Light under my work bench. I have no idea how long it had been there. Rather than throw it away, I simply brought it to the track and splashed it in the cooler. Without a question, Jes downed it.

Race time!

SHOFers toomuchcountry and Uncle D - thanks Lanie for the photo!

The Coke 600 is the longest race of the Sprint Cup Series. Its hard on the drivers and crews from a mental and physical standpoint. Its tough for the fans because of the heat and humidity and frequent stretches of the race without a lot of passes. In those instances, one's mind tends to drift elsewhere. We're pretty sure SHOFer Philly was caught pondering:

Hmm, should I pop a Schaefer ... or a Schaefer Light?

Photo courtesy: SROHer SHOFer Rev. Randy Esq.

Charlotte has always been a track ahead of the curve with upgrading its facilities for fans. This year, the track debuted an unbelievably large and equally clear HD screen on the backstretch. The picture was spectacular - both during the daytime portion of the race and after darkness fell.

SHOFer Rookie is a huge Dale Jr. fan. When it looked as if he might break his long losing streak, he was on cloud 9. But then it happened. No more fuel, and he had to coast helplessly as Kevin Harvick streaked by for the win. Rookie's emotions turned dismal in the blink on an eye.

As a life-long Petty fan though, I was elated to see the 43 car of A.J. Allmendinger aboard the leader board early in the race. It didn't last. But as seldom as I've been able to see a competitive Petty car in person, it was still a great experience.

When the night was done, Richard Petty Motorsports' cars of Allmendinger and Marcos Ambrose finished 5th and 6th, respectively. Its been a long, long time since I've seen two Petty cars finish so well.

So, another chapter of the Schaefer Racing Hall of Fame comes to a close. As always, we had a monster time. Meanwhile folks, remember:

Schaefer ... Its not just for racing anymore.

Thanks SROHer Rick for the photo

TMC