Pics: Samsung 500 @ Texas Motor Speedway
4/19/12, 08:16 PM
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Pics: Samsung 500 @ Texas Motor Speedway
Last weekend, a coworker and I went to the Samsung 500 NASCAR race at Texas Motor Speedway. It was my last chance to go before leaving Texas, so I figured, better do it up big!
I've been to a few races at Richmond and Talladega, and while Talladega remains my favorite track, this was by far the greatest NASCAR experience I've ever had.
I'll let the pics do the talking... well, along with my comments...
(Full gallery here: http://richtrost.smugmug.com/Sports/Texas-Motor-Speedway-14APR12/22534072_Hn7w2W#!i=1803011725&k=QnPxZX9 )
When we arrived at the track, we had basic tickets for seats in the grandstands, but got there early enough to get tickets to the pre-race concert on the infield... Foreigner was playing.
The passes were supposed to get us onto the infield and let us stroll through the pit area to get to the concert stage....
Tires everywhere...
Carl Edwards' pit
A look down pit lane...
Cheesin' for a photo op...
Foreigner! These guys haven't lost a thing in all the years they've been playing!
After the show, we were supposed to be escorted off the infield and into the grandstands... Here's the start/finish line.
Didn't feel much like going into the stands, so we hung out a while in pit lane, hoping no one would notice we had concert passes, not pit passes...
Pit crew member laying down a sticky layer of coca-cola in the box
Token black guy at the NASCAR race... Couldn't hear the conversation here but I'm almost certain it included the words "jive turkey"...
After looking around in the pits for a bit, we found the entrance to the actual garage area. There were some dudes actually checking for passes, so we ended up just hanging out, shuffling a bit, in the area between the garage and pit road... That's when we figured out we were about to be in for a show, as the drivers and crews started funneling out of the garages and into the pits...
NASCAR on FOX announcer Matt Yokum
The Sunoco gas station...
Matt Kenseth
Joey Lagano
Jeff Burton
Juan Pablo Montoya
Aric Almirola
Ryan Newman
Bobby Labonte
Mark Martin
Carl Edwards
Kyle Busch
Tony Stewart
Chad Knause (Crew Chief for Jimmie Johnson)
BIG BLACK!
At that point, we realized they were already doing driver introductions, escorting drivers around the track in truck beds, so we walked back up to the pit road right to where the drivers were being driven off the track and into the pit area.
Jeff Gordon
Tony Stewart
Carl Edwards
Dale Jr
Kevin Harvick
Jimmie Johnson
Brad Keslowski
At that time, driver introductions were completed. We still hadn't been asked to leave, so we figured we'd continue to press our luck. We walked the pits and got in pretty **** close to some of the drivers who were doing pre-race interviews alongside their cars.
Juan Pablo Montoya
Jeff Burton
Dale Jr - you may notice I'm on the passenger side of the car in this pic. I was promptly asked to return to other side of the white line... got scared they'd see our concert passes and tell us to GTFO. :uh:
Joe Gibbs
Denny Hamlin
Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knause
Jamie McMurray
And here is my personal magic moment of the whole event....
While we're walking through the pits, we come across legend Mark Martin again. As if by some miracle, the crowd splits and I get to take these shots of just the man looking over his car before the race. Then, he notices that myself and one other person are really focused on taking his photo, so he poses for us...
That's when it got super amazing. While standing just a few feet from a NASCAR legend, ON PIT ROAD, we hear the announcers come over the PA system asking everyone to stand for the posting of the colors and singing of the National Anthem!! :eager:
All of the teams lined up
Flyby of F-15's
I. Was. In. Awe. I still cannot believe we were actually standing in pit lane, 5 feet from Mark Martin, as the National Anthem played at a NASCAR race!! Freaking wicked cool!!
As quickly as it was over, the drivers started getting in their cars and putting their game faces on. I knew our stolen time on pit road was about to come to an end, and I really only was able to get a couple more pics before we were asked to exit the pits.
Mark Martin jumping in his car...
Hitched a ride with a Texas Tech AFROTC cadet back to the parking lot to fetch our cooler full of beer, since we couldn't have it on the infield. This guy was awesome, and not only took us all the way out to the car, but all the way back to our gate to get to our seats super quickly. We tipped him $20.
Our view of the race. 16 rows up, about 100-125 yds shy of the start finish line
Outside of a caution for debris on the field, it was pretty much green flag pit stops most of the night.
Restart!
Panning shot while under caution... good luck trying to get a clean and clear shot while at full speed!
Race winner Greg Biffle on the final lap
And the mandated smoke show for the victor...
Like I said before, this was by far the best NASCAR event I've been to. I can't believe the access we got!
I've been to a few races at Richmond and Talladega, and while Talladega remains my favorite track, this was by far the greatest NASCAR experience I've ever had.
I'll let the pics do the talking... well, along with my comments...
(Full gallery here: http://richtrost.smugmug.com/Sports/Texas-Motor-Speedway-14APR12/22534072_Hn7w2W#!i=1803011725&k=QnPxZX9 )
When we arrived at the track, we had basic tickets for seats in the grandstands, but got there early enough to get tickets to the pre-race concert on the infield... Foreigner was playing.
The passes were supposed to get us onto the infield and let us stroll through the pit area to get to the concert stage....
Tires everywhere...
Carl Edwards' pit
A look down pit lane...
Cheesin' for a photo op...
Foreigner! These guys haven't lost a thing in all the years they've been playing!
After the show, we were supposed to be escorted off the infield and into the grandstands... Here's the start/finish line.
Didn't feel much like going into the stands, so we hung out a while in pit lane, hoping no one would notice we had concert passes, not pit passes...
Pit crew member laying down a sticky layer of coca-cola in the box
Token black guy at the NASCAR race... Couldn't hear the conversation here but I'm almost certain it included the words "jive turkey"...
After looking around in the pits for a bit, we found the entrance to the actual garage area. There were some dudes actually checking for passes, so we ended up just hanging out, shuffling a bit, in the area between the garage and pit road... That's when we figured out we were about to be in for a show, as the drivers and crews started funneling out of the garages and into the pits...
NASCAR on FOX announcer Matt Yokum
The Sunoco gas station...
Matt Kenseth
Joey Lagano
Jeff Burton
Juan Pablo Montoya
Aric Almirola
Ryan Newman
Bobby Labonte
Mark Martin
Carl Edwards
Kyle Busch
Tony Stewart
Chad Knause (Crew Chief for Jimmie Johnson)
BIG BLACK!
At that point, we realized they were already doing driver introductions, escorting drivers around the track in truck beds, so we walked back up to the pit road right to where the drivers were being driven off the track and into the pit area.
Jeff Gordon
Tony Stewart
Carl Edwards
Dale Jr
Kevin Harvick
Jimmie Johnson
Brad Keslowski
At that time, driver introductions were completed. We still hadn't been asked to leave, so we figured we'd continue to press our luck. We walked the pits and got in pretty **** close to some of the drivers who were doing pre-race interviews alongside their cars.
Juan Pablo Montoya
Jeff Burton
Dale Jr - you may notice I'm on the passenger side of the car in this pic. I was promptly asked to return to other side of the white line... got scared they'd see our concert passes and tell us to GTFO. :uh:
Joe Gibbs
Denny Hamlin
Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knause
Jamie McMurray
And here is my personal magic moment of the whole event....
While we're walking through the pits, we come across legend Mark Martin again. As if by some miracle, the crowd splits and I get to take these shots of just the man looking over his car before the race. Then, he notices that myself and one other person are really focused on taking his photo, so he poses for us...
That's when it got super amazing. While standing just a few feet from a NASCAR legend, ON PIT ROAD, we hear the announcers come over the PA system asking everyone to stand for the posting of the colors and singing of the National Anthem!! :eager:
All of the teams lined up
Flyby of F-15's
I. Was. In. Awe. I still cannot believe we were actually standing in pit lane, 5 feet from Mark Martin, as the National Anthem played at a NASCAR race!! Freaking wicked cool!!
As quickly as it was over, the drivers started getting in their cars and putting their game faces on. I knew our stolen time on pit road was about to come to an end, and I really only was able to get a couple more pics before we were asked to exit the pits.
Mark Martin jumping in his car...
Hitched a ride with a Texas Tech AFROTC cadet back to the parking lot to fetch our cooler full of beer, since we couldn't have it on the infield. This guy was awesome, and not only took us all the way out to the car, but all the way back to our gate to get to our seats super quickly. We tipped him $20.
Our view of the race. 16 rows up, about 100-125 yds shy of the start finish line
Outside of a caution for debris on the field, it was pretty much green flag pit stops most of the night.
Restart!
Panning shot while under caution... good luck trying to get a clean and clear shot while at full speed!
Race winner Greg Biffle on the final lap
And the mandated smoke show for the victor...
Like I said before, this was by far the best NASCAR event I've been to. I can't believe the access we got!
Last edited by black_bullitt; 4/19/12 at 08:19 PM.
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