Thursday Garage Report – Daytona

Let me begin by saying sorry for slacking on getting the blogs up so late.  Once you read the non stop fun to be had you’ll understand why…

First, let me give you a little background info…my amazing trip to Speedweeks was born out of a conversation about bucket lists between my Uncle and his friends who happen to have a condo in Ponce Inlet, just south of Daytona Beach.  None of them had ever attended a NASCAR event and going to the 500 came up.  My Uncle said if they wanted to get a real NASCAR experience they should include me and told them of my exploits.  The invitation shortly followed (Thank You Uncle Frank, Terry and Ellie!!) and we eventually became the “North Turn Crew” named after the restaurant just up the road on the beach where NASCAR used to race.   I was dubbed the “crew chief” and my crew consisted of my Uncle Frank (rookie rooting for #39), Terry & Ellie (rookies rooting for #48), Tim (rookie rooting for #24), DJ (young gun rooting for #24) & Bob (who we all know as Dwindy1 rooting for #18 of course!).

Here we have L to R DJ, Tim, Terry, Ellie Frank and Bob!

For more exploits of the North Turn Crew (NTC) at Daytona see Dwindy1’s blog here:  http://dwindy1-walkingeagle.blogspot.com/2011/02/daytona-500-experience.html

On Thursday, most of the NTC were still traveling in for the race so I spent the day at the track in the garages.   After picking up my credentials I headed to the infield of the famed raceway.   I was shocked to find the race track sitting on the main drag with shopping and restaurants right across the street.   Every other track I’ve been too it’s a good long ride out of town to get there.   Not the World Center of Racing – it is the town.

After hoofing it to the garage area, I was welcomed by our favorite crew all decked out in their new colors and sponsor.   It sure was odd to see them in yellow and red but worse was seeing the Miller Lite guys walking around and waving at them and them looking back at me like I was crazy (I only know a few of those guys)!    I had to get new pictures of everything and found out our mechanics don’t even have their official uniforms yet.   I wore my Penske Racing t-shirt and was about to head out to the merchandise hauler to gear up but before I could TR (Kurt’s fabulous PR guy) dropped some sa-weet swag in my lap so I was good to go in our new colors.

After winning the Bud Shootout, Kurt was probably the most popular interview in the garage and he had more appearances than any other driver through the weekend.  I couldn’t keep up so instead spent time asking about the changes to the car and meeting the new guys on our crew.   Sadly, we lost hauler drivers, Cindy and Stump, to our old buddies Pat Tryson and Luke Cunnington over on #56 team.  They are very happy in their new racing family and we now have George and Greg, who drove the #77 hauler teaming up to get the Pennzoil Dodges to the track.  They told me the #22 hauler is really the #2 from last year and the #2 hauler is the #77 from last year because the #12 hauler was the oldest.    Lots of repainting going on in the off-season at Penske.   

We retained our entire crew of mechanics but added another team engineer.  He was not at the track by the time I arrived and had already been sent home to work on the cars for the next 5 races as Dave Winston had the engineering at the track well in hand.  Kurt also has a new coach driver, Craig who has been around the sport for many years. We did have a few changes on the pit crew – we lost Travis as the rear tire changer and now have Jonathan Billy coming from the #29 team.   We also have Paul who was in training to be a gas man for the #77 who moved over to work behind the wall passing and catching the new larger gas cans during pit stops.   

Speaking of the gas cans…did you know they weigh 90#?  Yikes!  No wonder our guys dealing with them are huge.   Chris, our gas man, said Penske is working hard on improving the flow out of the cans and doing a ton of research on them to get them as efficient as possible.   I am not so sure about the gas being environmentally friendly though – gas seemed to be spouting out of the gas cap area on every car in the garage and most of the garage stalls had puddles of gas behind them.

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I decided to watch the duels from on top the hauler for a better view of the racing action which I must say was super.     Just as Duel 1 started up the ladder comes a Miller Lite pit crew member.  I freaked out asking “why the heck aren’t you pitting the car?” and he had to remind me that we were no longer Miller Lite (again!).  Duh!   

As you know, Kurt was driving the wheels off the Pennzoil Dodge and came sweeping off turn 4 with me screaming like a banshee jumping up and down with Terry LaBonte on the hauler next to us laughing at me.   I have never EVER gotten off the top of the hauler faster (those steps down are really steep!) and ran up pit road to Victory Lane.   I was going so fast my sunglasses flew off and I made it just in time to follow a familiar fire suit in … and for once I didn’t confuse Brad with Kurt!  (Only because I knew Kurt was in the car! LOL)  

I was SO excited to be there finally and was kinda happy not to get my new shirt drenched in Gatorade (since it was our 500 car we didn’t want it to get all sticky) but Kurt was not so lucky…

I was such a dork I had Billy (our interiors mechanic) take my picture while up on stage and then had Ms. Spring Cup take this one…

I sent these pictures to my parents and later they asked why I sent them…(HUH?) well didn’t recognize ME in red and yellow and in a hat (my patented visor is not available until Vegas!)   In fact, it took a few days for some of the officials who I know to recognize me since my “inverted bob” hairdo was hidden by my Pennzoil hat.  

I got to participate in the hat dance and now have an awesome new hat collection.  My favorite is the black Gatorade Victory Lane hat that Kurt was kind enough to autograph for me later…sa-weet!    I watched Kurt on SPEED being interviewed after the race and had to chuckle that they were sponsored by Sunoco.  

Time out for a funny story…because Sunoco is the official fuel of NASCAR, Pennzoil/Shell has to focus on marketing the oil part of their business and minimize the gas part.  You all are familiar with the giant “Pennzoil” on the hood of the car and may have noticed the seashell –otherwise known as a Pecten– is considerably smaller.   Well, apparently, Kurt’s uniform has also been redesigned several times to make Sunoco “happy” and Kurt noted the other day “Hey my pecten is so small!” and Addington told him “that sounds like a personal problem to me.”   Now that is funny.   Pecten is also the name of the chassis that won the Budweiser Shootout.

Kurt was kind enough to pose with me by the hauler after his Duels win while the crew got to work changing engines.     

 

There were several Penske powerhouses to choose from and the crew put me to work.  They asked me to block the engines from view and stop folks in the garage from taking pictures while they made the swap…like I am wide enough to block an engine but I did my best…and I got this “Digger” shot of Stretch.                  

 

Soon after Mr. Penske himself came down to congratulate the entire team.  He and the rest of the Penske brass were super happy to start the season off “2 fer 2.”   Mr. Penske was (rightfully) very proud of our spotter – Chris Osborne – who proved to be one of if not the best out there this weekend.    I have now dubbed him “The Voice of Victory” – feel free to use it!   =)

 

Thursday ended with me and our favorite official who works the shocks inspection station meeting up with the NTC for dinner.   We ate at Caribbean Jacks which happens to be on property owned by the France family and right next door to Brian France’s private yacht club.  Wow. Spoiled Rotten.    The NTC were stoked to pick his brain and learn about the sport from a “professional.”  

All in all an unforgettable first day at Daytona I must say…

One last picture - here is one of the official photo's from Victory Lane...see if you can find me! LOL