My Most Memorable Moments From NASCAR's Auto Club Speedway Weekend

Now that the first race of the year at Auto Club Speedway is behind us, I wanted to take a moment to look back at the past week or so and see which of the moments I will carry with me for a lifetime.

Every race weekend has its moments, some good, some not so good. Some are exciting, some pretty boring. And a few of them are moments you will never forget. Most are a mixture of these things.

This picture, for example, is rather innocuous looking. This logo was everywhere you went and if I want to see it again, well, I drive right by the track every day going to and from work.

But this picture is one of the "Auto Club Speedway" signs that sits in the media center. The day I went to pick up my press credentials and then head to the media center to stake a claim to a seat was the first thing I saw walking into an empty media center office.

No one from the track had arrived yet and the media center was empty. So I snapped this shot, as it was the only time in two visits that I had been in an empty media center.

I knew then that I no longer had pinch myself to make sure it was all real. I had arrived and would be spending the next few days doing everything I could to both have fun and work, writing about the sport I love so much.

This week marks not only the end of my second race covered for Bleacher Report, but also the beginning of my seventh year of NASCAR fandom.

I only watched the occasional Daytona 500 until I went to the Las Vegas Race weekend in 2003 with some friends who were fans.

Thanks to those live races and those friends teaching me a few intricacies of the sport, I now have another sport I love, and another hobby all rolled into one. And I get to write about it.

My Ticket In

This is fairly self-explanatory.

This is the press pass that I picked up at the credential office two days before any cars hit the track.

Behind it is the "Cold Pass," allowing me access to most everything else I needed.

I will remember picking this up as clearly as I remember picking up my first press pass last Fall.

Actually, I hope to remember it a little more, as last Fall I was far more unsure of what I was supposed to be doing and what was about to happen at any given moment.

This brings up a moment not captured in a picture here: The day I received the email saying that my request for media credentials had been accepted. I knew right then it was going to be a weekend full of memorable moments—moments I would never forget.

The Tunnel Dream

It doesn't matter how many times I have driven through this tunnel under turn four at the speedway heading into the infield, I'm still in awe and am reminded of how lucky I am to be one of the relatively few who ever get to go even this far to the garage, the pits, or the press box.

The Calm Before The Storm

This may seem like a rather boring shot to remember, but how many moments have you had at a track during a race weekend when you were the only one as far as you could see, and the only sounds you heard were the sounds of your own shoes?

Here I stood on pit road right where most of the cars come out from the garage, headed down toward turn one, and getting back on the track, looking down toward the entrance.

No haulers were moving in the garage, no one was in the stands, no cars were starting or running.

Yet with all that silence, I could mentally project what I was going to hear, particularly right about at this point, where the engines rev high, and wheels spin as the drivers head back out to the track. It was "the calm before the storm," in more ways than one.

Temper Trailers

It's no great secret that I am a fan of both Kyle Busch and Danica Patrick.

Most of my articles on Bleacher Report are about Kyle and on more than one occasion I have discussed how much it would mean for someone with the stature Danica holds in the racing world to come to NASCAR.

And on Friday, which was qualifying day, I went first to check out the merchandise trailers behind the stands in the Opportunity FanZone. Only a few hundred yards inside the gate, there they both were, one right behind the other.

Of course, Danica's had far more people at it than Kyle's (and nearly all the others put together—another fact I won't soon forget), but seeing the trailers of THE two drivers I wanted to see the most side-by-side, I won't soon forget.

The Sprint Cup, Miss Sprint Cup, And Me

For those who have never covered a race, there are generally certain rules that are about the same at every track.

High amongst them are not wearing any apparel directly related to any particular team or driver because we are there as "press" first and "fans" second. And the press should at least attempt to seem objective—at least while they are "on duty."

Two other seemingly hard and fast rules are that driver autographs and pictures with the drivers and/or crew members are highly frowned upon. Again, the press is there to do a job, not to bug the drivers and teams.

Outside in the FanZone, however, the rules are a little different.

Yes, I am still not wearing the apparel of my favorite drivers or teams, but I am getting my picture taken with a NASCAR celebrity—Former Miss North Carolina and Miss Congeniality in the Miss USA Competition—Miss Sprint Cup Monica Palumbo.

I had spoken to her very briefly last fall on pit road during a qualifying session, and took pictures of her snapping photos herself of the drivers, ostensibly to put the pictures up on their Facebook pages, on Twitpic or a similar site.

I posted one of those pictures in a story I did last Fall and received a comment that I must have a camera with image stabilization because it wasn't blurry, and being that close to Miss Sprint Cup must surely cause some amount of trepidation—enough to affect my motor skills, if you'll forgive the pun.

This year, however, we were both in the FanZone, where my job hadn't yet really begun, other than to look for story ideas, but she was on the clock. She was there along with the No. 10 Sprint Car and the Sprint Cup engraved with all the winners' names—an announcer joked it should be called the Jimmie Johnson Cup as of late.

She was there with a microphone, but she wasn't speaking into it much. She was far too inundated with requests for photos with people who must've known who she was, and had probably seen her in one of her many appearances or in Victory Lane every other week or so.

So it is not every day that one gets to talk with and have their picture taken with one of “NASCAR’s 50 Most Beautiful People” as listed by Sporting News. Our short chat, and this picture, along with a couple of others including more of her and the Cup, will not soon be forgotten.

The Silver Fox-mobile

To be honest, I'm not quite sure what the event was but the Auto Club of Southern California put on a display of cars, old and new, stock and funny car. The most noticeable were the rows of cars from the 60s like this one—the No. 17 1969 Ford Torino raced at Talladega by the Silver Fox himself.

Again, to be honest, I don't know if this was the original, something rebuilt, or a replica, but it didn't matter to me.

To me, I was looking at a car run by the great David Pearson. And his name was only one of many amongst the cars on display. The King's STP Car was there along with over a dozen more. I'm not a car buff, but seeing all those cars lined up like that is definitely something you don't forget quickly.

Here Comes The Champ

Once inside the garage, I became keenly aware of the spectacle going on around me. The day before the whole area was essentially empty. Then, overnight, the circus came to town and was in full swing.

And like a kid at the circus, this NASCAR fan immediately began to look for recognizable faces, from the Sprint Cup Champion to crew chiefs to recognizable members of the media and more. It just so happened that this year, the first "celebrity" I came across, besides Miss Sprint Cup, was Jimmie Johnson, who walked by where I was and headed into his garage area.

So seeing last year's "Athlete of the Year" standing right in front of me, just a few months after I asked him and his crew chief Chad Knaus questions in the post-race interview after their win last Fall, was definitely a memorable moment.

I only wish I had taken it as a sign of something along the lines of "well, I saw him before anyone else so he will probably finish before everyone else—quick, someone call Vegas."

Just Killin' Some Time

One of the big reasons I was excited to be covering this particular race weekend was that it was originally slated to be Danica's entry into the NASCAR world. Even though that ended up happening the week before in Daytona, Danica-mania was in full effect nearly everywhere I went.

One happy side-effect of this fact was that with so much attention focused on Danica, I was able to wander the garage area much more freely than last fall, so much so that I was able to walk up next to my favorite driver's car and snap this picture of him waiting in his car during Nationwide Series practice.

It would not be the first nor the last of such opportunistic events to come my way that weekend, but it will definitely be one that sticks with me the rest of my life.

Danica Pets Dog

Actually, I guess a more appropriate title would probably have been "Dog Pays Total Attention To Danica" in which the dog could have been interpreted as a metaphor for the press, for the "Danica-maniac" fans, or just for a dog ("Sometimes a dog is just a dog.")

There were many occasions to get pictures of Danica throughout the weekend, and even more occasions to get pictures of Danica-mania in action. I got many of them—from shots of her being interviewed in the Driver's Meeting Room to shots of the throngs of fans pressed together at her merchandise hauler or behind her garage area during practice.

In fact, a photo-essay of those pictures might as well be my next story. I have so many as it was so pronounced. But this moment I wrote a story that I posted here on Bleacher Report.

Satirical in nature, the story was on how much everyone was focused on Danica and how little they focused on everything else—including each other. Photographers were literally falling over one another coming out of her interview on Friday to find her crouched down petting a dog.

Luckily, no one tripped over me and I was able to take this picture, and save this memory not only for me, but also for anyone else who wasn't there to see it. And for posterity of course...

The Red Bull Girls

One of the things to come from my NASCAR fanhood has been not only a love of watching racing, but also a love of participating in racing, even at a very amateur level. To that end, I spend far too much time and money at the only indoor kart track running gas-powered karts in the area, Fast Lap of Mira Loma.

I had hoped to have an incredible memory borne in that very arena last Fall when it was announced that the Kyle Busch Foundation was going to hold a fundraiser where for a donation I would be able to race against the likes of Kyle himself, Joey Logano, and Scott Speed.

Unfortunately, that was the one weekend of the year Kyle was so ill that he didn't finish any of his own practice sessions or races.

This year, I stopped by after qualifying had concluded and found that Red Bull and Fast Lap had teamed up to hold a competition for those under 19—a competition in which the winner would receive two free tickets to Sunday's Auto Club 500.

Although I had hoped that Scott Speed or Brian Vickers might show up, they were not scheduled. But Red Bull did send over free cans of Red Bull handed out by these beautiful "Red Bull Girls" Jill and Val, who were scheduled to do the same thing the next day at the Nationwide Series race.

Again, it's not often one sees two beautiful women walking around with big cans of Red Bull strapped to their backs. So, as Fast Lap's unofficial photographer, I snapped shots of them along with the other Red Bull paraphernalia set-up around the track.

Roundy-Round Wins The Red Bull Classic

Known to most of us around the track by his racing nickname of "Roundy-round" on the leaderboard, college freshman and local racer Jeff Peterson won the two free tickets to the race hands down.

Here he practices for his future in racing by participating in a very short "hat dance," wearing a Red Bull hat and holding a can of the product for the camera.

Danica-Mania At Her Merch Trailer

As one of the few, if not the only Nationwide only drivers to have a trailer, Danica blew away the big boys in the merchandise lot, even if she didn't do so during the race itself.

This is one of a series of pictures of the crowd packed in at her merchandise hauler. Should I continue on and write the "Danica-mania" story for the weekend, I would then show the shot of the trailers I saw when I turned around from this point of view, which were essentially a desolate wasteland compared to this.

Even with the decent crowd at Jimmie Johnson's trailer, I'm convinced that you could add up all the people who purchased something from all the other trailers combined, including her boss, Dale Earnhardt Jr's, and still not match the number of people who made purchases at this trailer alone.

And for all I know, this was not the only one of these trailers filled with her stuff at the FanZone. In fact, I saw that there was some Danica merchandise alongside Jeff Gordon, Johnson, and Junior paraphernalia at most of the "track" sales points as well.

I had purchased a shirt for a friend the day before, when there were far fewer people, and noticed how quickly items and sizes were becoming unavailable. They either got in another shipment or were holding back as they were full-up when I took this picture while my friend—attending her first NASCAR race ever—waited to buy even more.

If "Go-Daddy Green" made me look healthy rather than more jaundiced than I already look, I might have purchased one myself, but my "Danica's First Win" shirt will have to remain my only Danica apparel for the moment.

Mo' Danica-Mania

Here is a shot of my friend waiting patiently through the line at Danica's merchandise hauler—a shot that will most likely get me in trouble for using it...

The lines were so long and she was so patient that I was able to wander up and down a couple whole rows of other driver's merchandise haulers, cataloging their lack of customers compared the the teeming masses in front of this trailer.

One interesting thing I will remember about this portion of the weekend is the seemingly equal proportion of people buying their first bits of NASCAR gear, and those waiting in line already wearing something purchased at their past or current favorite Sprint Cup driver.

Also, the ratio of women to men at the trailer was not as disparate as I thought it was going to be.

My Favorite Truck In The Fan Zone

While my friend Kirsten waited patiently for her chance to purchase a piece of history, I went around the corner to my favorite merchandise hauler where I had a chance to speak to the people who have been working in it for at least all the years I've been going to the track in Fontana.

I always love the expressions of the M&Ms painted around not only this hauler but his car haulers as well.

My other memory of this moment will not be that the vendor, compared to most others, still had a pretty sizable crowd for a Saturday race, but that I didn't buy anything, mainly because I already owned nearly everything they had...

The SPEEDTV Stage

I watch it for hours every week but hadn't seen it up close and personal for years: The NASCAR on SPEED stage where the majority of their shows and marketing occurs.

As this will still fairly early on Saturday, not much was happening at that particular moment, but just seeing it each week on TV will bring back memories of being there.

The Holy Grail

The day after chatting a bit and getting my picture taken with Monica Palumbo, a new "Miss Sprint Cup," Paige Duke, was signing autographs at the Sprint Experience. As I didn't yet know her and she was quite busy with a large line of people, I took a chance to get a shots of the Sprint Cup on display, along with all the name etched on the nameplates around it.

Although a few of the announcers at the Sprint Cup Experience referred to it on occasion as "The Jimmie Johnson Cup," this year the slate was wiped clean and it's up for grabs again. However, Jimmie's luck and his eventual win on Sunday seemed an awesome prognosticator of things to come...

Throwin' the Danica Sign

Here my friend Kirsten, attending her first ever major NASCAR race, throws the new "Danica 7" sign popular amongst the kids nowadays...

Although her family had been involved in racing for many years, she had never been to a NASCAR race before the Nationwide Race on Saturday. The main reason—hopefully besides the fact that I make for great company—was Danica. To get her in the proper frame of mind I purchased her that shirt the day before so she could have it to wear on race day.

I'm glad to report that like me after my first live race—The Sam's Town 300 in Las Vegas in 2003—she too is now hooked. Not only is she now addicted to the big track, but after going karting a few times, we have become locked in mortal combat over which of us shall rule the track.

She is quite a bit lighter and can get down the straightaways much faster, but I'm older and have experience on my side... More on this later...

Danica & The Classic 'Vette

Here it was. The culmination of weeks, months, years of rumor and conjecture, posturing and deal-making.

Danica was in the house, in her firesuit, and in one sweet Corvette during driver introductions.

True, it was an early Vette to make the rounds as she started well back in the field and stayed there throughout the day, but in this writer's opinion, she did what she set out to do. She knew she wasn't going to win the race and her main stated goal at her interviews had been simply to finish and hopefully win the respect of some of the other drivers.

She told a number of stories throughout various interviews including one where the rookies were taken around the track in a street car. She was surprised at how much information everyone was willing to share with her and the other rookies on where the lines were and other such tidbits designed to help the rookie out.

The best part had to be her near total lack of knowledge of so much about stock car racing—things that anyone who had followed it for any amount of time would know. But like the drivers of the open-wheel invasion a few years back, she was quickly put in to "run with the big dogs."

Questions about how many races were run each year along with mispronunciations of driver's names were both somewhat infuriating to those who have worked their whole lives to have the seat she occupies, and charming at the same time.

And for those who think she just fell into that seat, my only rejoinder would be that she put in just as much time if not more than guys who came over a few years back all the way to guys who probably put in less time—her time was just put in in a totally different kind of car.

Bottom line, it was definitely a moment to see. Her making that introductory lap with that "Go-Daddy Green" firesuit clashing with whatever color you call that on the Corvette. I know there have been many women racers going back to the first few NASCAR races, but nothing has matched the fanfare and hoopla associated with this. And the time to see her prove herself had finally come.

I know she finished outside the top-30 but by avoiding trouble and driving a smart, if slow, she built up her track time and learned more about the cars, how they handled, on-track etiquette, and much more I'm sure. And I'm sure that fans there only because of the Danica phenomenon even paid attention when she went a lap down, then two, then three, and how many times she was caught speeding on pit road.

But for fans like me—with proven favorites like Kyle Busch and Joey Logano—it gave us two parts of the leaderboard to watch. I could root for my JGR boys at the top and keep an eye and hope she could manage to work her way back into the 20s. And she came close.

Anyone who was there, to see Danica or to see someone else, will probably never forget the day they were at the track when she suited up and made the lap in that Corvette.

Rowdy's Ride

While Danica rode in a classic Vette for her lap during driver introductions and was, if I remember correctly, the only person to do so, Kyle was definitely sporting the Z-Line look in his more modern late model Corvette.

What struck me most about this was not that he was in a new Vette, but questions about whether they had actually planned the fact that his fire-suit would match the Corvette or not. My guess is yes, but that begs the question, did that black and red Vette show up that way or did the sponsor or team have it painted or wrapped to make the match so close?

I have watched Rowdy race hundreds of times, seen dozens of interviews, and been to nearly a dozen races he was running in live, but that was the first time I had ever really noticed him during the driver introduction lap. Yes, I had heard the boos many times, but never had paid any attention to what the drivers did during the lap. Now I know and I doubt I'll soon forget.

Having A Heart To Heart With Kyle

Thanks to an incredible wild finish to a race that is usually a runaway for one driver or another, I was able to be in the Driver Meeting Room for the post-race interviews. I had a chance to see what Kyle is like throughout a full Victory interview and hear first hand his sense of humor.

I also had a chance to ask him a question and get an answer (even if they didn't quite match up), and take pictures essentially of him talking to me. I didn't get that chance in the Fall, as every time he was pulled from the car during practice or a race he was whisked back to his motor home for rest.

And although that might sound "fanatical" to some, given the fervor with which people either love or love to hate the guy, being a long-time fan it was a moment I won't soon forget.

After the interview, as he was being whisked away to meet with another reporter, I had a chance to go up and shake the man's hand and thank him for answering the question and tell him "good job out there," which I did for all drivers who answered a question I asked.

And for me, to meet the driver who has kept me so interested in races in all three NASCAR series, it was a privilege, even if I had nothing other to talk with him about other than the fact that we both grew up in Vegas, but in totally different decades.

Again, another item to mark off on my NASCAR "bucket list" of things I'd like to do related to the sport before I shuffle off this mortal coil.

JGR Boys All Over Town

As mentioned before, last Fall there was to be a fundraiser at the Fast Lap Indoor Karting track in Mira Loma, just a couple of miles from the track. At that was supposed to be Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, and Scott Speed. But due to illness, Kyle was unable to make it and my chance to race him never came.

Saturday night, however, we were back over at the karting track when I looked up from my kart after I had strapped in and saw some guys who looked like like they had come over from the track. And one of them I could have sworn was Denny Hamlin.

It was.

After my race I went over, introduced myself, made a bit of small talk and got back to my friend while he hung with his.

At first they raced together on the track without others as they had a fair size group, but there were a lot of people there that night, so soon we were on the track together. Although he had been to the track in Vegas before, as a picture on the wall shows, he had never been to this track and its configuration. And he was fast right out of the gate.

Toward the end, we raced where I believe he started ahead of me and took the whole race (10-12 minutes) to come around and pass me on the poorly named "cool down lap," which on this track is usually the fastest wildest lap of the night.

He passed me with just a couple of tight turns to go and was catching Kirsten in front of him when we came upon the entrance to pit road. He held his left arm up with his left hand clenched in what I believe to be a signal that he was slowing to get on pit road so I wouldn't plow into him.

At the time it didn't seem like much, but later I thought to myself, Denny Hamlin signaled me, a thirty-umpteen year old amateur kart driver who was riding his bumper, that he was slowing to get onto a pit road. How many people in life can say that? I'm sure it's a fair number, but most of them are probably either racers, team members, or close friends.

Had I not been out in the area covering the race, it would have never happened. So even though I had been beaten, I had been beaten not too badly by someone who gets paid by Brinks truck to drive a race car. I definitely won't forget that anytime soon.

The Driver's Meeting Room

At the end of the weekend, the cars were being loaded onto the haulers, crews and media alike were making mad dashes to get to Ontario airport to catch flights home before any more serious rains came, and sadly, another race weekend had come to an end. I looked back and took this shot of the driver's meeting room, where almost all the driver Friday and post-race interviews take place.

I got to spend a lot of time in there, with only a few people at times or with throngs of journalists and photographers for the likes of Danica. I got to ask Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton, Jimmie Johnson, Chad Knaus, Joey Logano and others questions in this room and record their answers while snapping photos that most people never get a chance to do.

That's when the post-weekend depression began to set in, as I never know if I'll be asked back. Not that I did anything particularly unsavory or wrong, at least not that I would admit here, but because for sports fan journalists like me, who do this not for money but for the love of the sport and the love of writing about it. Next time is by no means guaranteed.

So whether or not I ever get to cover another race, that last look back will be a memory etched into my memory.

Post-Victoy Lane Inspection

Walking out of the driver's meeting room for the last, time I turned to my right and the winning car, the Lowe's No. 48 Chevy Impala, was being run through early post-race inspection. It was covered in confetti and had I gone close enough, I'm guessing champagne and Gatorade as well.

I have a die-cast of one of Kyle Busch's "raced cars" that is covered with little bits of confetti. It has nowhere near this amount of confetti nor does taking it out of the box and looking at it or taking a picture of it come anywhere near producing the same feeling one gets being this close to the car that just beat them all.

Inside Looking Out

As during the Nationwide practice, it seemed that access to the cars was a little easier this time around. It probably was the same as before, but I was more comfortable taking my camera and getting a little closer this time.

I have hundreds, maybe thousands of shots of the cars looking into the garage from the outside, but before this weekend I had none like this.

I might have received a second look or two from Dave Rogers while walking right into the garage to take this picture of Kyle's car with the scrapes down the right side (just like on my die-cast), but he said nothing and went about his work.

So there I was, inside my driver's garage taking a picture of the car I had cheered for all race and getting a great shot of it. Again, how many people can say that. I can now, and even when I'm not saying it, I know it.

JUN-YERRRRR!!!

Usually the only car harder to get close to than Danica's was this weekend is Dale Earnhardt Jr's.

Even when he had a problem with an axle in the middle of the race and stopped briefly right outside the terrace box press window before racing to the garage, tons of media members who had been sitting pretty still for hours as the race went on jumped up, ran out the door, and prepared for an interview or at least a status update on what was going on with Junior's car.

When I first came to NASCAR in Vegas in 2003 and 2004, the Busch Brothers were my choice of drivers to follow for many reasons, not the least of which was the fact that they were from Vegas as well. At that first race I only bought one t-shirt because it looked cooler than all the others at the time. It was a Dale Jr. No. 8 car done in ghostly wire frame—a shirt I still have to this day even with the rips and holes it has accumulated over time (and no, I didn't put them there on purpose after a particular Richmond race).

Living in Vegas, it added a little excitement to put five dollars on a driver or two each race and probably one-half the races for those two years I put five dollars down on Kurt Busch for me and five on Dale Jr. as I was a fan (he had a recognizable name for someone like me who didn't know much about the sport at the time) and for my now ex-girlfriend (and again, no, she's not an ex because she was a Junior fan).

Those two years were good years for both of those drivers and although I didn't make a mint or buy a mansion from my meager winnings, it definitely had me cheering for both of them every race, always a little more for the hometown boy Kurt than Dale, but not for any other reason.

So being able to get inside his garage area and get an almost identical shot of his car to the one I got of my boy Kyle's was a treat. I expected to be told to get out, or ushered off the premises at any given moment but it never happened. Most of the guys even went so far as to move a bit so I could get a better shot.

And that, to me, is what NASCAR behind the scenes is all about.

I got to see drivers I like, drivers I don't like,and drivers I don't have strong feelings for one way or the other. I got to meet media members whose names I know and who I've seen on television—on SPEED, Fox, ABC, or ESPN. I got to ask questions to all of them and take pictures of everything; I even got to get a hot pass on loan from the media center to allow me to wander the garage and the pits during practices and races.

And at the end of the day, it didn't really matter who had won or who had lost. Of course, it would have been nice to have been there had Danica shocked the world and won her first non-restrictor-plate race. It would have been nice had one of the Busch brothers won the Sprint Cup race. And Kyle did win the Nationwide race, giving me an extra chance to interview him.

But at the end of the weekend, it was about the experience. It was about the feelings and emotions every time someone wronged my driver or every time he (or she) managed to move up in the standings.

It was about the roar of the engines and the smells of the garage. It was about the memories of the weekend as a whole—getting to the track, working with the staff (who were incredible once again), spending time with friends at a one-of-a-kind experience like a race, and running into racers in the area completely unexpectedly.

It was about the many memories I took away from the experience, including in particular those I've shared here with you all.

I hope you enjoyed my recreation of them half as much as I enjoyed experiencing them.