Sonoma Garage Report -- Qualifying

Greetings from Infineon Raceway in beautiful Sonoma, CA where it is "Bloggers weekend" - with six bloggers from FOXSports.com along with Valli, author of The Fast and The Fabulous all meeting up for a raucous good time!

Friday -- Qualifying Day
I made it into the garages around 10am after picking up my credentials and saying hello to the bloggers in attendance. One of the first images I came upon was Patrick Carpentier having some fun with the NASCAR officials "weighing" himself at the second to last inspection site. I have a feeling he was not heavy enough to even register!

I popped over to say hi to the Miller Lite Brew Crew in garage stall #5 and stopped by the hauler before heading out and taking in the sights. Marcos Ambrose was a very popular interview this weekend, here he is taping with TNT. Per the request of a fellow Aussie fan, I did chant "Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi! Oi! Oi!" as he walked back to his hauler. Marcos laughed and said, "good show!"

Of course, another popular driver this weekend is the defending champion of this race, Kyle "Thorn" Busch who was driving a super slick 18 car with an M&M's Transformers paint scheme.

I watched most of practice from the main grandstand with fellow blogger, RA6AN and then headed down to listen in to some of the drivers in the top 12 did their media interviews. Much of the questions centered around the economic situation and the recent cutback by Chevy as well as the new double-file restart rule. It was funny to hear the varied opinions on how the restarts would go here at the road course, from "we are all professionals, it will be fine" to "it is going to be a disaster."

I then got back to the Brew Crew who were just heading out to inspection. Above you see our engine tuner, Darin, posing for a laugh after working like dogs making numerous repairs to the Blue Deuce after practice searching for the right setup and fixing the splitter after breaking some of the brackets on the rumble strips. They were the last car out of the garage and had to cut in line in order to get through inspection in time to get the car out on pit road for their third-place qualifying spot. Interestingly, I learned in order to cut ahead of other teams you had to ask each team for permission. I thought the NASCAR officials waved you up. So our car chief, Jeffery, was running all over the place getting permission to jump in line.

I resumed my un-official job as the "tool cart girl" because the entire team was needed to steer and stop the car as it rolled off the final inspection site and down the hill to pit road.


I *love* being on pit road before qualifying - all the drivers are out socializing and not nearly as tense as before the race. Cousin Carl was getting a lot of attention next to us because his car failed the height sticks and weight inspection site a few times and he was without his Aflac ride right up until the start of qualifying. He joked that he might have to run around the track to qualify! Here are some driver shots.



And of course, our usual game of "Where's Junior" as he tries his best to be stealthy to get to his No. 88 ride.

Kurt went out third and had a great lap going until he went in too hard into a turn and went just into the grass resulting in ultimately a 27th place qualifying run. I found it interesting the lack of respect the No. 2 team gets from the media. They are in 4th place in the points, the only Dodge in the top 12 and yet Kurt didn't even get interviewed after his qualifying effort, instead the media flocked to Carl Edwards who eventually ended up qualifying way worse in 34th. Not sure what this team has to do to impress and get some respect!!

Up next...Sonoma Race Day!