Touring Charlotte's local Race Shops! This episode: Earnhardt Ganassi Racing!

           Living in Charlotte has its perks. Not only are we in the town of Charlotte Motor Speedway and the NASCAR Hall of Fame, but we also have many of the racing teams shops right here in our backyard. This series of blogs will review the racing shops in the Concord area. If you haven't visited a race shop before, they offer new insight into the racing industry. You can watch the team work on cars,  pick up your favorite driver's gear and race used memorabilia, and most of all- they are free admission! (None of the ones we visited charged for entry.) 

This visit was at Earnhardt Ganassi Racing 8500 Westmoreland Drive Concord, N.C. 28027  704-662-9642

My son and I did not know what to expect when visiting Earnhardt Ganassi. It was the race shop for which we had done the smallest amount of research. All I knew was that it was close to all the others, so why not give it a shot? Boy are we glad that we did. What a cool race shop!

First, not only did they have their show cars for Jamie McMurray and Juan Pablo Montoya in the foyer of the shop, but they also had their trophies sitting on glass tables- out in the OPEN! Every other shop we visited had their trophies behind glass, these weren't. Of course, you weren't supposed to touch, but having the glass removed made it a much more interesting experience. (And it made it much easier to take pictures with a flash.)

      Also, they had a couple of cool areas for us Nascar Newbs! They had a locker full of gear,  along with firesuits, that you could actually try on! My son really liked trying on the gloves! In a separate section, they had a tool chest full of different engine and car parts, helmets, steering wheel, etc. for you to check out and learn what each part does for the stock car. 

The shop itself was massive! Whoever designed this shop did a great job. They actually had an open-air platform that you were allowed to walk out on, right in the actual shop, that was surrounded by panels of five foot glass.  They had many winning cars sitting close to the glass so we could get pictures. But the only work that was happening was half-way down the building. We could see one of the engineers under one of Jamie's car, but that was about it. Hopefully you'll have better luck when you get a chance to visit.

Earnhardt Ganassi was a unexpected surprise! Visit when you are in the area!

NHRA Championship at zMax raceway!

        I have done some calculating and I figured that it's been around 15 years since I'd been to a drag race. The last time was during my college years at Moroso Motorspeedway in South Florida.  This week I was given some tickets by some friends of mine and we had a free weekend, so the four of us headed out to zMax Dragway after church on Sunday morning.  

         There were quite a few things that impressed me about our afternoon. First, every ticket was also a pit pass. We were able to walk right up to the cars and their drivers at almost every turn, except for when they were just about to get into their lane. I saw numerous people walk up to drivers and ask for photos right next to their cars. The teams do not have garages, so they simply set up their haulers, pull out the awning,  then work on their cars and motorcycles right there on the spot. So you can watch every team work on their cars when they are not on the track.
         The crowds were not nearly as daunting as a NASCAR race, so you can stroll through the vendors with much more ease and comfort and interact more with the people in each sponsor tent. For instance, we often stopped by the ARMY tent at the NASCAR races, but here we got a more full experience. One of the men working there offered to take this picture of me and the boys in front of their drag racer. The people working the tents seemed very hospitable and made a point to talk with the people who were wandering in their section, without being pushy.
     


      The people there were extremely hospitable. I know that some of them were trying to promote their product, but even the concession and the ticketing (and bag checking) and the workers in the kids/inflatables section were very friendly. My six year old even asked one of the TRAXX models to get a picture, and she was more than happy to oblige!
         






Lastly, the actual drivers were super friendly! My wife and son were watching the motorcycles make their way back to the pits and one of the riders asked my four year old son if he wanted to sit on the bike. He courageously hopped on and Hector Arana Sr. pushed him about 50 feet back to his pit stall. My son smiled and waved at the people who walked by as if he were in a parade. About halfway back to his hauler, a random lady stopped in front of his bike, which made him stop, and she asked him what happened. It didn't take us long to realize that he had just LOST his race and was no longer in the competition; but here he is smiling and giving my kid a ride. Needless to say we are now fans of the Lucas Oil team. One of his sons that was also in the race, Hector Arana Jr., ended up winning the competition. The incident with Hector reminded me of the time that Nationwide driver Jeremy Clements took time to get my sons name and talk to them, like a real person, and not a fan. (See here and here for JC blogs.) It's guys like these that keep the sport alive for the fans.

And oh yes! The RACING!  They say a picture is worth a thousand words- but how about a video or two? Here's one of the regular drag racing cars and another of the funny cars. We casually grabbed a seat about 14 rows up and enjoyed the races. We are definitely looking to repeat our NHRA experience next year!

Touring Charlotte's local Race Shops! This episode: Stewart-Haas Racing!

           Living in Charlotte has its perks. Not only are we in the town of Charlotte Motor Speedway and the NASCAR Hall of Fame, but we also have many of the racing teams shops right here in our backyard. This series of blogs will review the racing shops in the Concord area. If you haven't visited a race shop before, they offer new insight into the racing industry. You can watch the team work on cars,  pick up your favorite driver's gear and race used memorabilia, and most of all- they are free admission! (None of the ones we visited charged for entry.)   First stop: Stewart-Haas racing. They are located at 6001 Haas Way Kannapolis, NC. 

While I am a personal fan of Smoke, this was my first visit to his shop, and honestly, I had low expectations. I'd visited the big-wigs of Hendricks and Roush, so I figured that Tony's home would be less appealing. While it was smaller as expected, the Stewart-Haas shop had a sense of charm and tradition that was a breath of fresh air. While the outside was industrial, the interior had a "contemporary farm" feel that appealed to me. Once in the front door you will be automatically greeted by a few of Tony's cars. Behind them the shop sits on the other side of huge, glass windows. We could easily see Ryan Newman, Danica Patrick, and Tony's cars being worked on. 

We were so enamored by the shop, we almost missed Tony's Orange County Choppers motorcycle in the corner. I wonder if he ever rides that home and then back to the shop?  After spending some time checking out the cars and the motorcycle, we headed into the gift shop and was surprised by how many race used pieces scattered the store. We saw front ends from Bristol and Daytona (only $300!), rear end, spoiler, splitters, tires, etc. They also had shirts and other memorabilia with cool, updated graphic designs for the Stewart-Haas family of drivers.  While none of the drivers were sighted on this day, we heard that it was relatively normal to see them around during race week. My son and I will definitely try back in the future!

Touring Charlotte's local Race Shops! This episode: Roush Fenway Racing!

            Living in Charlotte has its perks. Not only are we in the town of Charlotte Motor Speedway and the NASCAR Hall of Fame, but we also have many of the racing teams shops right here in our backyard. This series of blogs will review the racing shops in the Concord area. If you haven't visited a race shop before, they offer new insight into the racing industry. You can watch the team work on cars,  pick up your favorite driver's gear and race used memorabilia, and most of all- they are free admission! (None of the ones we visited charged for entry.)   Next stop: Roush Fenway, 4600 Roush Place NW Concord, NC.

          When we first pulled into Roush, we saw some of their cars off to the side in their pit road practice area. My son and I walked over just to watch them start the cars and pull back into the garage. It was toward the end of the day, so we'll have to come back one morning and watch them practice. It was worth the small walk to feel the rumble of those engines and take a brief whiff of the ethanol fumes.  This area of the facility was by far the best "pit road practice" area of any of the race shops. Hendrick Motorsports has a pretty nice pit practice area, but it's not obvious- you'd have to ask someone to see if the crew was allowing spectators on that morning, then they'd direct you to that area.  This one is obvious and, while there is a fence present, you can still walk up pretty close to the action.
         Here's the one downside to Roush, there's no glass windows for onlookers to watch them working on the cars.  Lucky for me, I have a former student who is now one of the "simulation engineers" on Roush Fenway's team. Unlucky for all of us, they wouldn't let me take pictures inside any of the facilities... apparently they are very covert in their operations at Roush. (I've heard rumors over the years of engineers dressing as tourists down in Daytona, just to get good pictures of their competitors cars!) No matter, we had a great time walking through every building of the Roush factory. We saw where they actually manufactured the chasis and went from room to room to see how they built each car from the ground up. I think we saw over 60 cars that day- from naked chasis to complete and ready to be loaded on the hauler. This of course, is not the average Roush experience, so I'll take you back to the museum.
        The Roush museum and shop is pretty impressive, even without the view of the engineers at work.   They have numerous cars from past and present drivers, a large auditorium with a movie playing about their team, multiple trophies, this amazingly wrecked #60 (in picture), and my sons favorite part, their race simulator. Notice how gingerly he turns the wheel and the car has already spun out. In all honesty, I tried after he did and only made it to turn two, but I took a few cars down with me in a blaze of glory. It was the end of a day, and there were hardly any  other people there, so we spent about twenty minutes on this game and it was the highlight of the museum.



On a last note, Petty Motorsports is in a smaller facility right there on the grounds of Roush, but on this day they just happened to be closed. We'll have to stop by another time!

My first true Nascar SWAG! (I need help identifying a signature!)

          I got an interesting email about a month ago by a person who does marketing in Nascar (well, actually for Walmart). She said she'd found my blog online and asked if I'd be willing to promote Walmart's and the fan's involvement in the Pocono race (seen here). Heck, I'm never been to any of the Pocono races, but I am always willing to help the Nascar machine keep running, so I obliged. A few days after I posted this, they asked for my address, then today I got this from UPS. How cool is that? My first true NASCAR swag!!!    

       A #48 Jimmie Johnson calendar and magnet, a Denny Hamlin Hot/Cold mug (I really needed one of these!), and a note reading, "Thanks for your support. Drive fast, Take Chances!" from Doerl Kiergy - at least, that what it looks like to me. Do any of you have any idea what Nascar brass- or intern- this could be written by? It's on NASCAR letterhead, so I thought it'd be cool to figure it out! Any ideas???

Heck with Danica and Stenhouse, I'm looking forward to the Gyrocam!

A few months back I had a life changing experience. Ok, it wasn't that influential, but it did forever change my view of Nascar and the driver's experience. My family and drove our Astrovan around Charlotte Motor Speedway. I dedicated a blog and a video here: CLICK HERE!

So, what does that have to do with this year's racing? Fox has included a new weapon in it's arsenal against monotonous NASCAR races: the Gyrocam. It's been used for some time in the motorsports world (mostly on motorcycles), but now they've mounted a few inside our favorite Nascar driver's cars.
Take a peek at this simulation here:

Immediately when I saw this I remembered how it felt to drive our own vehicle around the speedway. The tilt helps me to have a better understanding of the relationship between car, driver, and road. Now the viewer can see how difficult it must be to pass and turn on such a high degree turn. What the video doesn't show, which I explain in more detail on the blog I mentioned above, is that the banking actually forces you down the track, so you have to steer somewhat toward the wall to keep from falling down on the apron. Whatever you are thinking, just know that it's not a simple U-turn.

 For our NASCAR Newbs out there, the degree of banking (what Nascar calls the angle and tilt of the turns) has a proportional affect on the speed at which the drivers can travel. So, the more banking, the higher the potential speed.  Here's a great article on that nascar fact, as well as the difference between dirt and track racing: HERE.

Once we have some actual racing with these cameras, I'll post a video below, and while it's against what's socially acceptable in NASCAR to want to see a wreck, I can't wait to see the result of a gyrocam in a flipped car.

Pit Passes: Pay or Pass? A Newb's look at buying tickets to the Pits.

       We'd been going to races faithfully at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the past two years and wanted to try something different. After briefly visiting the pits with my wife and in-laws for last year's Coca-Cola 600 (see here), I thought it would be interesting to get pit passes for the Bank of America 500 in October. I obviously wanted to return to the pits, but even more so, I wanted my 3 and 6 year old boys to get close to the racing action.
        Honestly, I was completely clueless (a true nascar newb) when it came to the pits. Most of our time we spent wondering around, eating all of the free Cargill Hamburgers we could handle, and simply soaking in the sights of pit road. While we did not have a hot-pass (the pass that gets your right next to the drivers' garages) but the basic pit pass still gave us some serious access to the cars, pit boxes and even the drivers themselves.  

Joey Logano about to do practice laps

       There were many favorite moments with these pit passes over the weekend, I don't know how to pick, so I will mention more than a few! Two of these moments were on the day before the "big" race. During practice and qualifying, there was around 50 people lining pit road with my son and I as we hung out and and watched the big dogs line up on pit road and make their way onto the track. They came out in segments and we watched our favorite drivers as they slowly went by. It was almost like a mini-personal parade of NASCAR.

Thaddeus is in Nascar Heaven: Snow Cone
and the Biggest LCD screen!

       Secondly, an hour or so later, my son and I noticed a bunch of people over by the main building in the infield at Charlotte Motor Speedway, like bugs to a zapper we were attracted. After standing in the midst of 40 people, the doors on the side of the building flung open and a bunch of drivers walked out in their fire suits. We had unknowingly camped right outside of the pre-race meeting for the Nationwide  drivers. I lifted my son up and he watched as Ricky Stenhouse, Austin Dillon, Danica Patrick, Elliot Sadler, and Sam Hornish Jr. walked right by us. I don't mean that they were a few feet in front of us; they literally squeezed through the crowd (like the freshman do in the hallways of a highschool.) The best part was the surprise of it all. We went from hanging out with random Nascar fans, to being surrounded by Nationwide drivers in a matter of seconds.
       On the day of the Bank of America 500, things got much more chaotic on pit road, so we took a few minutes to wander to other areas of the pits. Another one of our favorite memories was having an Italian Ice and watching the largest big screen LCD screen in the world. It was one of those relaxing moments, where you enjoyed a treat and just soaked in where you were.

Nick Wallenda walks the tight rope across
to the infield at Charlotte Motor Speedway

     
A few hours before the start of the race, the family and I were hanging out by the camper. I realized that we only had an hour before the race started, and had forgotten that there was supposed to be some pretty impressive events before the race. One of those events was that Nik Wallenda was going tight rope walk from the roof of the upper deck to the infield. My son and I decided that we wanted to get as close to Nik's performance as possible. We went down to pit road and noticed that he was about to start! While we rushed to see Nik's performance, I noticed that golf carts passed us with passengers in firesuits. Suddenly, the golf carts got clogged and I looked over at the golf cart next to us. Who was sitting there in his jump suit with water bottle in hand? Mark Martin. I am usually the type that does pretty well with famous people. This time was not one of those times. I honestly can't remember what I said, but it was probably something silly like "Have a good race." He was very cordial, but I think I'd like a redo.

Clint Bowyer over my son's shoulder!

          We followed Mark Martin's golf cart and it led right under the crane holding Nik Wallenda's tightrope. We were apparently, again, at the right place at the right moment. Not only did we get to watch Nik's decent from the top of that crane, my son and I also watched over half of the drivers getting dropped off right at the gate to go out to driver introductions.   I have a bunch of pictures of my son and drivers walking (or driving) by, but I chose this one of Clint Bowyer in his 5 hour energy fire suit because he ended up winning the race that night.  As a fan, I don't know how much closer to the action I could have been without actually sitting on a pit box for the race.
        Obviously, in my opinion, if you've been to the races before and are interested in checking out the pits; the pit passes are definitely worth the investment!