My California 500 Trip! 1999
By The Valvoline Cowgirl
(click on the thumbnails to get a better view of the pictures)
Ok how do I tell you all about the most exciting weekend of my life? I had never been to a NASCAR race yet so I guess I was a NASCAR virgin. But I guess I went all out in style to "bust my cherry".
Day One ( Thursday )
I took my best friend Richard (aka Tomahawk) with me cause he and I are the only true NASCAR fans in our small town of Mariposa, Ca. We were fortunate to get tickets at the last minute for Sunday's race (thanks Nicole!). So I rented a car and I planned to leave on Thursday because Mark Martin was going to make an appearance at the Malibu Speed Zone in Puente Hills. So Richard and I flew down in 3 hours (a trip that would normally take 4 to 5 hours). Richard did his best "spotting" for me! When we got to Puente Hills I didn't have a camera so I told myself I had to buy one, so we went to the nearest Target and fortunately they had a digital camera on sale, so I bought it. When we finally get to the Speed Zone, I find out that JEFF BURTON was going to be there too!!!! OHHH MYY GOD!!!!! TOO COOL!!!!
Richard and I had a few hours to kill so we went on the dragsters, played video games, and a game of darts. The dragsters were totally cool!!!
Well it was coming close to the time MARK MARTIN and JEFF BURTON were about to show, so we started standing in the autograph line. We were third and fourth (not too shabby huh?). A really cool family of MARK fans stood behind us, Rick and Laura. This is a picture I took after we had our autographs.
Well it was time and MARK and JEFF flew in via helicopter and Richard took these pics of them getting out. Check out MARK! WOOHOO!
MARK and JEFF did a private party thing..then they were suppose to sign autographs. But JEFF BURTON decided to have fun and rode on the little cars the rest of the time he was there. He didn't sign any autographs which pissed me off, but HEY! HE WAS THE POINTS LEADER, so I cut him some slack.
Ok here was the moment I had been waiting for...MARK MARTIN!!!!!! My God he is so little! I make him larger than life and he is just this little guy! He went through some side door and I yelled "Mark! You rock buddy!" and he gave me a thumbs up! I took my FORD Racing shirt and my hat for him to sign and Richard got our tickets signed. When Richard was taking my picture he wanted me to look that way but I couldn't keep my eyes off of MARK. I told him "Good Luck Sunday ...sir *gulp*" And then he shook my hand. He was smiling the whole time. He was so cool!
If my whole trip would have ended there, it would have been worth it.....BUT..........
Day Two (Friday Rain Day!)
Well I knew I was suppose to get DALE JARRETT's autograph at some Target store later that evening so I wore my DJ shirt, but I had my Mark hat on. I needed a new jacket so I was definitely going to fork out the money to buy one of those cool Valvoline jackets, but alot of people had one so the first trailer we saw was the Exide trailer and a bought a Jeff Burton hat, shirt and a COOL EXIDE JACKET! GOD I LOVE THAT JACKET!!!
I wanted to do all my shopping first. I had stuff to buy for the people back home, so Richard and I checked everything out. Well I got teased about having three different drivers' stuff on so I changed into all of my Burton stuff. I was definitely " The Exide Cowgirl" that day!
We waited all day in the rain for qualifying..well as you all know it never happened! But we were back in the pit area standing in the rain ALL DAY waiting to see some drivers and hopefully to get autographs. I saw this guy with the coolest hat on....his name is Tony. Tony the hat guy!! Everyone wanted his picture and he ended up being in serveral newspapers the next day. He was with his friend, Keith. We kinda hung out with them all day. They were pretty cool. Oh and I can't forget Kathy..the Terry Labonte Fan! Here's some pictures of them..and the last picture are the crazy drunk Army guys who were standing by us too.
OK NOW THE BEST PART OF DAY TWO.....DALE JARRETT!!!!!!!
Well we didn't have to go to the target store to meet DJ that day cause he walked right by us to go to the press room which was right above us on the other side. When he came back down the stairs, I yelled for him and went to go get his autograph. OH MY GOD! HE IS WAAAAAAAY CUTE! He is definately a HOTTIE! He signed my pit pass. Then he stood out in the rain and signed autographs for everyone. He is totally cool! The pics are him coming down the stairs, him signing my pit pass and where he was standing right in front of me.
Well, we had a great view of the restrooms in the garage area..so we saw quite a few drivers making a pit (piss) stop. Most of them waved, some of them only waved on the way back. Guess they were in a hurry. The first one we saw was Jeremy Mayfield. He was cool and waved back. The others included....Jack Roush, Richard and Kyle Petty, Wally Dallenbach,Bill Elliot, Elliot Sadler, Mark's crew cheif, Jimmy Fennig, Steve Park,Geoffrey Bodine, and some others. Those just walking around in the same area we were allowed to go included Ned Jarrett, Benny Parsons, Buckshot Jones, Chad Little, Kenny Schrader, Joe Nemechek, and Kevin LePage. Here's the pics of Chad Little and Kenny Scrader.
Now back to the bathroom story....I did get to see Jeff Burton go into the bathroom and I yelled and yelled and pointed to my hat and jacket, and I know he definately saw me cause I was the only Burton fan out there. He did smile and wave at me but I couldn't get him to come over! Well ...guess who else went to take a piss and had a whole crew to help him take a piss...None other than Golden Boy Jeff Gordon! Well when he was done he got into a car and drove off. And the next person to go was Ray Everham. We yelled at Ray to come sign some autographs and he was more than happy to come over there and do it. I was the first one to get his. He signed my pit pass. Even though I can't stand Jeff Gordon and his crew.. I thought Ray was pretty cool. Even during practice on Saturday he still signed autographs when he could. The other pic is of Jimmy Fennig, Mark's crew cheif.
We did get to see the Busch Grand Nationals practice and here are some pics of Dale Earnhardt Jr's car, Adam Petty's car and of course my man, Jeff Burton's Track Gear car.
SATURDAY (day 3)
Well Saturday was pretty cool. We left early and hung out at the pits and got to see the Winston cars practice before the Busch Race. I think that was the most exciting part actually getting to see them drive by so close to you. Richard got Ray Evernham to sign his jacket. While I stood by the strairs patiently waiting for Frank Stoddard ( Jeff Burton's crew cheif) to come back down the stairs to sign my hat. Well he never came back down that way dang it! But Friday I did get two of the Exide pit crew guys to sign my hat. I'm gonna try to get them all to sign it and try to get Jeff and Frank to it too. Well I did get a pic of Dale Earnhardt's car and Jeff Burton's car going to practice. I couldn't get Mark's ...too many people around to get close.
Later on before the Busch Race we got to walk around some and see some cars that were by the vending trailers. I took the 44 car pics cause my son, Miles loves Kyle Petty. And there's a pic of Matt Kenseth's car. He won the Busch race that day. Talk about an exciting race!!!!!!!!!!!!! Little E almost had it on Jeff and Matt.
Here are pics of Mark and Jeff's tires. We took this pic on Friday when it was raining. And I took a pic of the TRACK GEAR pit area before the Busch race.
SUNDAY!!!!!!!!!!
As we were walking to the gates Terry Labonte drove by us in a golf cart thingy so he could get to his breakfast thing. I yelled "Good luck today, Terry!" He smiled and waved back!
I didn't take alot of pics during the race because my digital camera doesn't do well taking pics of the cars going fast. Here is what I got during the parade lap. Of course it was fun booing Mike Skinner, Kenny Irwin and Jeff Gordon!! The pics of me and Richard were taken where we were sitting. SECTION 3 ROW 6 RIGHT ON START FINISH LINE!! THEY WERE RAD SEATS!!! Fortunately for Richard our seats were right in front of Jeff Gordon's pit area.
As we all know what happen...it was pretty much " The Jeff and Jeff Show" most of the race. I was pissed when Mark blew his engine. But was so proud of DJ coming from the bad luck he was having that day to end up 5th. It was a pretty cool day! When we finally found our car in the parking lot, these guys were partying in the car parked in front of us. They were cool! And they were all really cute! I think Kyle was the cutest! ( Hi KYLE!!) Each one liked a different driver. Kyle was the Bobby Labonte man, Mike was the Mark man, and the other two will probably shoot me for not remembering their names but one was a Rusty fan and the other was an Earnhardt fan. Then there was a family in the truck next to us that were cooking hot dogs and they invited us to eat. We had a great time! Here's the pics of everyone!
God I wish I could find Kyle now!!! He's such a hottie!!
The last pic is of my son in his Kyle Petty jacket and hat I bought him and of me in my EXIDE jacket.
Well thanks for letting me share my FIRST NASCAR RACE experience with you!
Thanks for the great time!!!!!!!