Despite The Heat, The People, The Traffic, and The Parking We Saw a Good Race

Man the Michigan race was one hot one and to be honest with you it was probably one of the better races I’ve been to a MIS since I started going there 15 or so years ago. One of the other best Cup races I’ve seen there was the one in 1999 where Dale Earnhardt had a top 5.

My son and I were sitting in Turn 4 near the entrance to Pit Road so we had a good view of the track and could see almost everything going on. I wish I had brought my binoculars though, but I decided to leave them in the car because it was so hot I didn’t want to be carrying a bunch of stuff around all day. I could have left everything in the car and had gone back to get them but we were parked so far away from the track it would have taken too much time to go back and get everything so I edited what we were taking with us right when we got there.

Those of you who are familiar with my kids (my son and my daughter) will be happy to know I’ll be writing a detailed account of my son’s exploits on this trip later - perhaps tomorrow.

Despite the incredible heat we managed to have a good time watcing the race. I do have a few complaints about MIS, things that I’ve never really encountered before at MIS - except the traffic that is.

Let me tell you I was surprised to find out they spent 50 million on their traffic problems only to find out nothing really changed - the traffic was still there, they still blocked off the roads and they still used the cones to create more lanes. The only thing that I did different was that it took me longer to get my car and leave the track. Usually I park over by Brookfest and get to my car within 15 to 20 min after the checkers fly and get out and on the road in pretty decent time with no real traffic problems, but this time around I was forced to park about a mile away from our seats and it took us about 45 min to an hour to get to our car. We could have taken the tram but the line-up for that was so long it was faster to walk.

Imagine my surprise when we passed 4 parked trams on our way to the car. Four perfectly good trams sitting there not being used when the line-up to get to the parking lot was over an hour long. Enough said.

One of the other problems I had this time around were the people sitting around us, not just on one side but all around us. I’ve never had that before at MIS and I know it isn’t MIS’s problem, people are people, but holy cow man some people are just plain ignorant, selfish, inconsiderate of others, and a few of the have some drinking issues on top of that. And they all sat around us.

Anyway, back to the race. I brought my scanner so it was great to listen in on the drivers and crews as they discussed their situations on the track and tried to work out various issues like fuel milaege, wrecks, and strategy. One team I really enjoyed listening to was Carl Edwards’ team - man they talk all of the time.

I listened to Kurt Busch after his wreck and was pleased to hear him apologize to his team and admit that the whole wreck was his fault and that he was sorry for causing it.

Another interesting scanner moment was when Robby Gordon hit the wall bringing out the caution - Ok that man can cuss it up with the best of them and if ESPN were to replay his radio communication it would sound something like this “bleep bleep tire! bleep bleep fan in the bleep window! I can’t bleep believe this! bleeep bleeeeep! bleep bleeep bleeeeeeeeeeep!” and so on.

The race also provided us with a good ending, but one thing that has left me a bit puzzled was why would the 5 team gamble on fuel mileage like they did? If they don’t make it into the Chase it will be because of this race, plain and simple.
Regardless of the heat, the people, the traffic, etc. I still enjoyed the race itself and the time I spent with my son.

More later.