July 7, 2008
By Kim Roberson
Kim Roberson
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This weekend was another in the Daytona infield for me. Back in February I made my second trip to the “World Center of Racing”, however it was my first visit to the infield, and it was COLD! That said, it was an awesome experience, and when my host offered me the chance to come back again for this weekends race, I couldn’t say no.
Saturday was absolutely beautiful, with the rain skirting the track, and strong ocean breezes keeping the temperature down right pleasant. I have no idea what the official temperature was at the start of the race, but it felt more like early May than early July. I am sure the drivers appreciated the small reprieve as well, although from the driving, just because it wasn’t hot outside didn’t mean it wasn’t hot inside the cars.
While the race seemed to get off to a “slow’ start, once they got past the half way point, the craziness kicked in. It was almost as if when Tony Stewart got out of the 20 car, all bets were off with everyone else in the field. More than once I turned to one of the people I was watching in turn 3 with and said “This could get ugly”. And it wasn’t just crazy on the track, but the tension was being felt between the drivers and their crew chiefs.
Jimmie Johnson was snapping at Chad Knaus about how loose the car was, and apparently when asked how loose, he said “I’m spinning!”…and he was.
Michael Waltrip was having communication issues with his crew chief, Bobby Kennedy. When Kennedy claimed Waltrip wasn’t paying attention to his radio -- while Michael was running in the top 10 late in the race, Waltrip fired back “If I wasn’t paying attention I wouldn’t have this piece of S*%t up where I have it, would I?”
In the end, 13 cars (including Waltrip’s) were involved in the last two crashes of the evening, and it took the cool down lap to determine who won the race. To say the final result wasn’t popular would be a bit of an understatement; however, while I might not have been thrilled with the outcome, I didn’t have the urge to toss anything on the track….unlike some of the other fans in the stands. I still don’t understand the need for fans to throw things on the track. It isn’t only dangerous to the guys on the track, but for every can or bottle that makes it on the track, half a dozen don’t, and those usually end up hitting fellow fans. Not cool.
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Speaking of the crowd, it was much leaner than in February, and from what I am told, this was not normal. Someone mentioned that only half the seats had been sold for the race. While 85,000 people is a lot to some tracks, it isn’t half the number of people who were here five months ago. I sat in the Earnhardt Tower for the Nationwide race Friday night, and we had room to spread out, thanks to the empty seats around us.
The infield, which was wall to wall with people in February, had empty campsites littered through the area. The site next to ours was empty, so I purchased a $30 infield parking pass and went over and parked next to our camp.
A lot of what I heard led to the lack of people -- is the economy. It isn’t cheap to come to a race, especially a race where many people drive campers or trucks to set up housekeeping for the weekend. The tickets for this race aren’t as pricey as the ones in February, however for a family, it will make a dent. (Although not as much of one as a trip to Disney or Universal down the road in Orlando.)
One of my fellow campers in turn 3 commented that when he came in February, the fields and parking lots along international Speedway Boulevard were packed. When he made the trip into the track for this weekend, he said they were empty.
One of the hosts on Sirius on Sunday commented when he usually drives from the infield media center out to the press box (which requires a trip through the tunnel and onto International Speedway Boulevard) it takes 20 minutes due to traffic. He said on Saturday, it took him 9 minutes because there was no traffic.
Another person commented that there were spaces open in the infield that were the size of football fields, and much of that area was being used to toss not only footballs, but frizbees, and children and adults could be seen chasing each other with water cannons, and when the sun went down, setting off fire works. Some vendors were offering discounts to folks who were looking to buy certain kinds of memorabilia in an effort to garner business and at the same time allow people to buy something to take home from the race.
Sure, some of it might be the result of “unexciting racing”. I will admit, I was amazed at the lack of cautions on Friday night, and at how strung out the Nationwide cars were by the time the last caution fell, leading to the green-white-checkered finish. I commented to the friend I was with that it was a race between three cars: the 5, the 18 and the 20. It was exciting for a while when you had the 88 and the 99 among others in the mix, but in the end, it came down to pretty much the same cars it has all season.
And the funny part was, listening to the radio broadcast, they had a hard time remembering who was driving the 20 car this past weekend, just because regardless of who is in it, it usually wins. (I heard Tony Stewarts name mentioned as driving the car more than once, even though it was Denny Hamlin behind the wheel.) The Cup race was a considerably more exciting, but with the threat of rain, as well as the usual heat, maybe some folks decided to just sit in their recliner at home and watch instead of chancing mother nature by coming out in person.
I know the only reason I decided to make the trip was because I had to be in Florida for a class reunion next weekend anyhow. If I wasn’t going to be meeting up with the Jupiter High class of 88, I wouldn’t have even thought about paying the money to make the trip. And even though I did, I thought long and hard about how I was getting down for it.
Flying or driving were my two options, and then I had to take into consideration car rental vs milage on my personal car, and time. In the end, I decided to fly down one way into Daytona, walk across the street for the weekend, and then I picked up a rental car and drove to my folks house for the rest of the week.
Next week, I will drive back home with my mom, who is splitting the trip with me in order for her to get up to my folks new home outside of Charlottesville, VA. If I was looking at just coming down for the weekend, the round trip airfare would have cost almost as much as the one way ticket and rental car. As it was, I did pay to park in the infield on Saturday, but it ended up being money well spent in that I didn’t have to hike out with all of my camping gear to go get the rental car yesterday.
Personally, I was glad I was there, and think the folks who didn’t go to Saturday's race missed one heck of a chance to enjoy the race in person. The temperatures were perfect, the racing in the end exciting, and after all was said and done, we were treated to a wonderful fireworks display by the track.
To me, it was the perfect way to spend my 4th of July holiday, and I can’t wait to do it again next year.
The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.
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