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 2007  The Highs Of Lowe's Lou Demian President Lou Demian writes a detailed experience of attending the 2007 Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway. During 2006 and 2007, my wife Gwen and I planned to attend a NASCAR race this year since we missed out the year before. We moved to a new house during the summer of 2006, so that pretty much killed attending a race that year. We were deciding on where to go and it pretty much came down to Richmond and Lowe's. The scheduling of our vacations made Lowe's the better choice, so we booked the Coca-Cola 600 through a travel company; Action Jackson. We've been in the Charlotte area a couple of times before and love it down there. Someday we even hope to move there. We've toured the race shops in the area and even Lowe's Motor Speedway, but had never attended a race there. We left early Thursday morning for the long ride down to Charlotte. We would have liked to have left a few days earlier, but work responsibilities kept us from doing so. After about 9 hours, we arrived at the Speedway in time for Busch practice and then Cup qualifying. The Speedway sure looked a lot different from the last time we saw it, of course there was no race on at the time. After parking and paying $20, we made our way to the ticket office since we did not pre-purchase qualifying tickets. We noticed the SPEED stage in front of the track and saw they were taping Trackside Live. Kyle Petty was the guest, so we hung out there for a little bit. We even saw ourselves on TV for a little bit. After that we went to the offices to get our tickets. Kenny Wallace was inside signing his new book along with whatever else you wanted autographed. At the time I really didn't have much for him to sign, so we decided he could sign our tickets that we just bought. Gwen and I both took a picture with him and afterwards made our way inside the track. When we arrived inside we noticed they were having some Bandolero racing in the inner circle, much like the crew chiefs did prior to the All-Star race the week before. After that, the Busch cars took to the track for their practice and the Cup cars were pushed out to the starting grid for their qualifying attempts. The Busch practice was relatively clean but there were a few incidents during Cup Qualifying. Both Michael Waltrip and David Reutimann hit the wall and missed the race. Jeff Green also spun out during his attempt. Ryan Newman took the pole followed by his teammate Kurt Busch. We took quite a few pictures of the cars on pitrow and after it concluded, we left the track. Before leaving we stopped at a few of the souvenir trailers before they closed. I noticed Dale Jr�s trailer was selling the brand new Camouflaged Bud car that he was racing. I didn't even think the car would be available yet, so of course I snatched it up. Good thing too, because I later found out that regular retail stores were not having this car shipped yet. Afterwards we left to head to our hotel. We were staying at the Crown Royal in downtown Charlotte. It was a nice hotel, but the fact they made you pay $15 a night to park your car there was ludicrous in my mind. At any rate, we were kind of hungry when we arrived there, and unfortunately at that time of night, most of the restaurants were closed. We headed up a few blocks to the Speed Street Festival to find something to nosh, and when we arrived there it was complete pandemonium. Wall to wall people everywhere, it was crazy. There were plenty of food stands, but nowhere to sit. We didn't feel like sitting on the street with the crowd, trying to scarf something down. Finally we found a bar that was still serving food. It was loud, crazy, and crowded. But better than nothing I guess. Maybe we're just getting old, who knows. At any rate, we had some food, got out of there and had a long walk back to our hotel for some much needed sleep. There was nothing going on at the track on Friday, so we used that day to visit the local race shops. First on our list was Evernham Motorsports. The shop was having a fan appreciation day and a number of drivers were also signing autographs. When we finally arrived there, it was late morning. Unfortunately we did not know that they were giving out wristbands early in the morning for autographs, oh well. Still, they were giving away lots of free things there. We each picked up bags full of goodies. Outside on stage, Ray Evernham was giving a Q&A sessions, followed by Scott Riggs. We noticed Boris Said there in the crowd so we each took a picture with him. Unfortunately I really didn't have anything for him to sign at the time. The crew was in the back giving demonstrations of live pit stops, so we watched that for awhile. You could peek in the garages, tour a hauler, and check out the different cars they had on display. They even had a nice auction going of all different kinds of memorabilia. If I was a big Evenham fan I probably would have bidded on a couple of items. While we were there, Elliott Sadler came in, so we took a picture of him. The only person we did not get to see was Kasey Kahne, he must have been inside somewhere. After a couple of hours, we left there, had some lunch and went over to Roush Racing. Carl Edwards would be signing there but of course you needed a ticket which we missed out on. Well, we toured the facility and went across the way to Boris Said's No Fear Racing shop. While we were there, the secretary said that Boris was on his way there to sign some autographs. He'd be there in 10 minutes, so we could wait. We just saw him at Evernham, but didn't get his autograph. They had picture cards there at the shop, so we could have him sign that. They also had Full throttle energy drink which was free. So, we all sat in leather easy chairs in the lobby, had our free cold drinks, and waited about 10 minutes for him to arrive. Now why can't all autograph sessions be like that? Boris arrived on time, so we got our autograph, took another picture with him and then left. By that time it was getting a little late, shops would be closing in a few hours. The next closest one to us was Hendrick Motorsports which was near the Speedway. Before we went there, we stopped off at Motorsports Authentics who makes a lot of the NASCAR diecast and clothing. We hadn't been there since they bought out Action. Outside the facility, they had a tent sale with some decent things there. Unfortunately Action used to have a nice retail store inside the building, but since MA bought them out, they closed the store for some reason. Bummer. From there we headed over to Hendrick. We had been there a few times before, and not much was different about the place other than it being very crowded. So we went around to all the different buildings there, took pictures and took off. We could only stand being there for so long after all. By then it was getting late; Some shops we knew would be opened tomorrow so we would hit them before heading back to the hotel for our bus trip for the Busch race. However, we had enough time to hit one more today, that would be the new shop for Jr. Motorsports. It was nearby Robert Yates Racing.. who had already closed for the night. There were quite a bit of people there at Jr's shop, no surprise. After arriving there, we checked out some of the cars he had on display and noticed there was a gathering of people from his site, Infield Parking there. I met a couple of members there that I talked to online previously, so that was nice. Inside the garage, QVC was setting up there for a private taping of "For Race Fans Only". Host Dan Hughes was there talking with some people so I took a picture of him. Of course I spent some mucho money in Jr's souvenir shop. I picked up the Jr. Motorsports Grand Opening diecast. I had this car on my list to buy and like the other car, didn't think it was available yet. Too bad we didn't get to see Jr at the shop, but we would be rewarded the next day. After leaving the shop, we figured we'd just go over to Concord Mills Mall, shop, eat dinner and call it a night. I wanted to go to the Bass Pro Shops they have there since they have a nice NASCAR section. Spent more money there of course. We ate dinner, walked around the mall and afterwards headed back to the hotel. Saturday was the Busch race, but we wouldn't be going on the bus until 2:00. That gave us time to head out to some more race shops. First was Joe Gibbs Racing since they opened the earliest. Unfortunately we got there too early so we just walked around the area and hung out in the parking lot until they opened. When they did, we went inside took many pictures, checked out the garage and the souvenir shop. From there we headed over to DEI. We had visited DEI before in the past, but wow... is it different during race weekend. First, you couldn't park in the normal parking lot, You had to park across the street in a dirt lot. There was a huge line of people outside the doors, just waiting for them to open up. With all the people there it was harder to really take your time and look at all the exhibits. There were some new things there like Martin Truex Jr's 2005 Busch car that he won his 2nd championship. Dale Jr's Daytona 500 win car was still there as well. I was hoping to see the black #8 car, but it was not there unfortunately. Of course I went crazy in the souvenir shop... more diecasts, shirts, and other items. Even bought a new desk lamp. With the traffic and having to stop for lunch, we figured we could only hit one more shop before heading back to the hotel. That was the brand new Michael Waltrip's Racing World. This was definitely the best shop we had visited... too bad they are struggling so much. You could see everything here... all the different rooms functioning rooms, the massive garage, and tons of exhibits. You go up to the 2nd floor to look down at the workings of the garage. You can go outside and take a look at the real haulers, heck, you can even see into most of the offices of the employees. We arrived there at a perfect time because Michael Waltrip was down in the showroom talking to people and signing autographs. Gwen and I both took a picture with Michael and he signed our ticket. Aftewards we left the, got lunch and headed back to our hotel to catch the bus. We finally met the members of our tour and had some nice conversations with a few of them. The bus arrived and took us to the track. After arriving there, we needed to have our pit passes validated. This was the only sour part of our trip, because for the life of us, we could not find out where to go. Seemed like we walked around forever and a number of people who worked there could not give us accurate directions. Finally we found someone who knew what we were talking about and we found the ticket counter. After getting them validated, we had more trouble finding out where the tunnel was to get to the infield. After more walking, more bad directions, we finally made our way there. Of course when we got there, we were in the middle of the infield and couldn't even see pit row. We were like... "Is this it??" However, we walked through it and eventually found our way to the garage area, the media center and pit row of course. We stood out there for awhile as Cup practice was going on. I found a nice position by the gate where the cars were coming out and got some nice shots. After practice was over, we started to see some drivers walking around the garage. This was a new experience for us because this was the first time that we were amongst all the action. At Pocono we were behind an iron fence the whole time, the only time we could get close to a driver was when they decided to come out and sign some autographs. First I see Mike Bliss walk by me and then I see J.J. Yeley across the way. Yeley was signing something for someone but by the time I could get something ready for him to sign, he was gone. Bummer. I saw Juan Montoya, approached him and asked if he could sign a card for me, but he said he didn't have a sharpie. Of course, I thought mostly all drivers walked around with a sharpie. Bummer than I didn't bring one. As I said, we were used to drivers coming out to signing autographs, not approaching them in the garage. At this point I was getting a little frustrated since I didn't have a sharpie or I wasn't quick enough. We needed to get some rest in the shade since it was so hot out. Fortunately they had a souvenir trailer back there and they sold sharpies, so I bought one. We formulated a plan that we would stake out a good spot and wait for drivers to come out. We didn't have real garage passes that allowed us into the actual garages, but we could go up to the gates. A nice spot near the media center and between both Cup and Busch garages was a nice place to set up camp. Gwen and I worked together so that she could get the good pictures of the drivers and I would work on getting autographs for our growing collection. We saw quite a few drivers come and go. Some were on golfcarts and were too fast that you couldn't even get near them. However, I did get autographs from Sterling Marlin, Greg Biffle and Bobby Labonte. We saw lots of drivers though... Tony Stewart, Mark Martin, Jimmy Johnson, David Stremme, Elliott Sadler, Tony Raines, Reed Sorenson and others. At one point during our stakeout, came the ultimate prize. I had my back turned the other direction waiting for some drivers to walk this way and I hear Gwen yell out.. "JR!!" Boom! there he was, I couldn't believe he'd be coming out this way. Quickly I fumbled through my cards and found his. He already had a sharpie in hand because he's used to constantly getting hounded for autographs. By some miracle there weren't much people standing around at the time. He walked a brisk pace but we quickly kept up with him. Gwen gave him a #8 hat for him to sign and I gave him my card. He didn't say anything, just kept walking, but we thanked him and wished him good luck. Like a blur he was gone behind one of the building, off to his motor home. It happened so fast, it was just a big blur, but finally after seven years, we were finally able to personally get an autograph from him. That was something we were trying to do for a long time, and finally we had triumphed. After that I didn't even care if we didn' get any more autographs, but we stayed for awhile longer over there. Busch Drivers were starting to come to the media center for the drivers meeting. As they were arriving on foot or golfcarts, I got some more autographs from Clint Bowyer and Casey Mears. We saw quite a few more drivers like Carl Edwards, Kurt Busch, Shane Huffman, Robby Gordon, and more. We even saw Mike Helton and Brian France. We finally left the garage area and made the long walk to our seats. From there we watched the Busch race which was very good. Kasey Kahne finally won his first race of the year in either Cup or Busch. The good thing about taking a bus is that you don't have to fight traffic leaving the track. We let the bus driver do all the work which actually didn't take too long at all. We were back at the hotel within a half hour! The easiest traffic I've ever had to dealt with after a race. Sunday - time for the Coca-Cola 600 and of course hottest day yet. The bus picked us up at 10:00am so we didn't have time to do anything else. On the bus nearly everyone took part in a $5.00 pool where you would randomly draw a number which would in turn be your car for the race. The number was the starting position of that car. If that car won, you'd win $105.00. 20th place was $55 and last place was $25 I believe, so you had a chance to win money at various points in the finishing order. I drew Kurt Busch while Gwen had Jimmie Johnson. It looked like Gwen had a great shot at first place, but of course that didn't come to be. The tour group would also be having a tailgate party at 2:00, but we knew we wouldn't make it back for that. The first thing we did after leaving the bus was to check out all the exhibits in the area... and of course get some free goodies. At the Jack Daniels tent, we saw that Jimmy Bedford, the master distiller of Jack Daniels was having an autograph session. You may have seen before in some Jack Daniels commercials. So what the heck, we got his autograph; He even personalized it. After hanging out in that area there for awhile, we went into the track and into pit row. This time we knew where it was, so it was a lot easier. There was also another entrance open which provided quicker access onto pit row. It definitely was a lot more busier on Sunday than the day before, but that was to be expected. We strolled down pit row for awhile, took pictures and then headed over to our spot. We weren't expecting any more autographs but we did get lucky twice. First we saw Richard Childress who was getting on to a golf cart. Richard was kind enough to sign our Cup tickets. I was also able to get an autograph from Carl Edwards who was walking towards the garage area. While standing there we saw quite a few drivers rushing around. Drivers were more hurried today and didn't spend too much time signing autographs for fans, but that was fine; We got a lot more than we expected. We just spent the rest of the time taking pictures. We saw WWE superstar John Cena in the garage area and at one point the cast of the new Fantastic 4 movie passed us by. Always nice to see Jessica Alba in person! Too bad she went by too fast and in a crowd that neither of us could get a real good picture of her. We stayed by the gate to the other media center where the Cup drivers were going and got some more good pictures. After a few hours we decided to head up towards our seat since they were starting the pre-race festivities. We got to our seats just in time to watch the sky diving show. There were tons of skydivers doing all kind of stunts, including the Silver Surfer from the above mentioned Fantastic Four movie. There was a nice tribute to the troops since this was Memorial day weekend. There were tons of troops there and most of them were down on the field at one time. Lee-Ann Rimes sung the national anthem and finally we were able to get the Coca-Cola 600 started. Ryan Newman started on the pole but was eventually passed by his teammate Kurt Busch. It was actually looking good for me in the bus pool... but of course this is Kurt Busch. He eventually ended up spinning out and that pretty much killed any hopes that I had. Gwen didn't have much luck either. Jimmie Johnson was the favorite to win this race, but didn't. Dale Jr. was strong and ran in the top 5 nearly all day, so that was a treat for us. It was also nice to see Jeff Gordon crash out of the race. He had a vicious hit to the wall and thankfully was ok, but took the Dupont car out of the race. For shame. The longest race of the year turned into a fuel mileage race at the end. After many drivers had to pit and some planned to stay out, we knew there would be an upset. There was of course, with Casey Mears winning his very first race. This was the 2nd race that we attended where we saw a driver get his first Cup win. The other race was the Pepsi 400 a few years ago when Greg Biffle won. After a long night we made our way back to the bus. Surprisingly enough, it didn't take very long to get back to the hotel even with all the traffic from the Cup race. Monday was time to go home, our trip was almost at an end. Since it was Memorial day, most of the race shops were closed. We knew that Richard Childress Racing would be opened, so we planned to stop there before driving home. First though, we stopped back at DEI since we were nearby. We took more time looking at everything since there was less people there. We even bought a little more at the gift shop of course. We headed over to Kannapolis to see Dale Earnhardt's tribute statue. It was very surprising to see the large Textile mill where Dale Earnhardt and his father worked, completely torn down. There was a huge medical research campus being built there that would completely change the change the city after it would completed in years to come. After leaving Kannapolis, we headed up to Welcome, where RCR is located. We got there at a perfect time because in the museum was none other than Chocolate Myers himself. Chocolate was hanging out for a few minutes, talking to a few of the workers. We chatted with him for a bit and he was nice enough to take a picture with me. It had been a few years since we had been at RCR. Last time the museum emphasized mostly on Dale Earnhardt. This time while most of the emphasis was still on Earnhardt and probably always will be, the 2nd half was devoted to the current drivers of RCR. It was nice to see the transition from past to present. After visiting the museum (and gift shop of course) we drove around the area there. We never knew how many building Childress actually had, and they were still building there. Those weren't open to the public, but it still cool to see... plus we saw some of the haulers and cars bodies in the back. Well, it was time to head home after that. Our race weekend was over, but we already started talking about the next track we wanted to attend. While we enjoyed Lowe's Motor Speedway a lot, we still want to go and check out other new tracks. Looks like Richmond might be the next one, we're just not sure when yet. Hopefully it can live up to this trip.
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 17 Feb 2004 |
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