Daytona 500

We didn’t have much to do on Saturday, so we were able to relax and to lunch at Bonefish Grill.  We were looking for a bakery that was supposed to be across the street, and we ended up in the wrong place but I thought this office park was so cool!  These are all office buildings, like insurance companies, etc. It felt like we were back in Alabama.

On the day of the race, we got up and ready and left the hotel by 7:45 AM. We had to drive under the track to get to the parking lot. We couldn’t resist taking a picture with this DeLorean that we saw near where we parked. If you look closely, you can see a hoverboard in the front seat.  

The building that Kroger had rented was very nice.

 

There were plenty of tables and chairs and they had a nice breakfast set up. Tad from JTG Daugherty Racing got up and talked to everybody and then turned some time over to Mark and Doug, who are the main Kroger health guys. They talked about how food is medicine, and what we eat is very important. We also heard from Brad Daugherty who says he was having anxiety because the car 23 people kept talking trash about how they were going to win. Then Joe Gibbs talked to us for a while and told us some stories. He’s been around for a while. Apparently, he was a Hall of Fame football coach first. He talked about the first time they won Daytona and they didn’t realize they needed to stay for the winner’s circle and they just took the trophy and left and went to Steak ‘n Shake. He said that’s their tradition now. After that, we finished our food and sat around talking for a while. Michael did an interview. 

Then we walked over to the Midway area, which is on the west side of the speedway. Michael Jordan was supposed to be with the car 23 people, but it didn’t look like he had been there or maybe we had just missed him. We got a golf cart ride back to the parking lot by the building. 

At about 1:30 PM, they brought out lunch. We all ate and then headed over to the pits. It was pretty cool to have the VIP passes and get through wherever. They took us past the garages and to the field where we could walk right up to the car. 

Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. arrived and everybody had pictures with him, including us. 

Then they took Michael and me to the pit box so we could watch and listen up there. It was really cool to watch everybody. The Pennzoil guys next to us were doing calisthenics or something to get ready. I guess they have to be in shape, too.  I had the headphones on for quite a few laps and then when I finally took them off and I could hear the cars, it was overwhelmingly loud. It didn’t hurt my ears, but I could see how sitting like that for a long time you could get a bad headache every time the cars go by. Ricky was in the top 10 pretty much the whole time. Sometimes he fell behind. When they were almost done with stage one, which is at 65 laps, Michael and I came down out of the pit box. 

We walked back to the Kroger building. I walked back to the pier and took some video. It was kind of weird that there was a lake in the middle of the track. That was actually a really nice place to watch it because you could see so much of the track from the other side. 

We stayed and watched the race on TV for a little while. Then when there were about 30 laps left, we headed back over to the pit. Ricky made it to first place and it looked like he could win the whole thing. When there were only six laps left, the guy behind him bumped him and he spun out. That was heartbreaking! I really find it hard to believe that there’s absolutely no penalty when someone does that and knocks you out of the race. What’s to stop somebody from doing it on purpose? Earlier, we had watched the car in the pit next to us. The guy crashed and everybody in the box and in the pit just packed everything up and left. I thought that was kind of sad, then it was our turn to do that. After Ricky spun out and there were only six laps left, they immediately started packing up. 

We walked back to the building. 

Liz and Stacey had stayed behind at the building and watched on the big screen on the back patio. Apparently, Ricky‘s parents were also there watching right along with them. We hung around for a couple of hours waiting for the cars to clear out. I think it was around 7 PM when the race ended and about 9 PM when we went to our car. We drove back to the hotel and got gas and got to bed as quickly as we could so we can get up super early the next morning. It was an amazing day and I’m so glad we were able to experience it!

Here is what the car will look like in the Atlanta race. It belongs to our marketing director and he had it wrapped in the same logo that will be on the actual race car.