Mixed Nuts

[RobInBigKC]

I'm glad you enjoyed the BBQ. We went to Outback last night and to see a comedian with some friends of ours. He (the comedian) was really funny. I will admit that I did my "Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman" laugh a couple of times, but nobody noticed because they were all laughing too.

I thought you lived in the outback, E?

-- Rob

 

[disneymama73]

Good morning Constructioners! Well, it's not too good so far, but it's still early, right?

 

[PrincessJasmine08]

Here's a pic of Friday's "Rosedale Barbecue" lunch (taken mostly for the benefit of PJ):
That's beef hidden under the ham. Rosedale BBQ has been open for over 70 years!

Gee, thanks, you shouldn't have.

Since I doubt you'll buy a full season ticket just to track me down, sure!

You wish!

What? Are you two communicating telepathically?

No, she called me, Rob because she likes me best. Just kidding, it was telepathic.

Have a nice Saturday, Title Under Construction pals.

I cannot call you people my Title Under Construction Pals. I simply can't do it.

I am cranky and sad so I'm going to bed, hope everyone had a nice day.

 

[PrincessJasmine08]

Nevermind

 

[RobInBigKC]

Nevermind

So, you're NOT cranky and sad and going to bed?

Don't be sad PJ!

-- Rob

 

[PrincessJasmine08]

So, you're NOT cranky and sad and going to bed?

Don't be sad PJ!

-- Rob

It's okay, Rob. Or it'll be okay? I don't know, I'll talk to you tomorrow. Go to bed, you nut.

 

[RobInBigKC]

It's okay, Rob. Or it'll be okay? I don't know, I'll talk to you tomorrow. Go to bed, you nut.

I don't think I know how.

OK, folks, since no one is here I'm going to hijack the rest of page 60 of this thread and posts pics of my Saturday outing. I'm using the whole page (hopefully) so that those Title Under Construction folks with dial-up access can simply skip page 60 unless they want to endure the pain of downloading all of the pics. I apologize for boring the rest of you.

Since this was my first time to a major automobile race, I took a lot of pics so I am only posting a relatively small sample.

We left home (actually, DS14's basketball game's locker room) about 3 hours before race time. Traffic going in was great -- from the time I hit any type of traffic whatsoever to when my car was parked was about 11 minutes.

Finally approaching the grandstand after hiking in about a mile from our parking spot:

ETA: Forgot to mention that the poles along the right hand side (and the left hand side also but they're out of view) are NOT light poles. They are speaker poles! Many, many very loud speakers are needed in order for the amplified voice/music to be heard over the noise of the roaring engines.

-- Rob

 

[RobInBigKC]

First thing DS14 and I did was check out the view from our section (it was straight in from the entrance we entered -- when does that ever happen?) to see how it was and what was going on (Indy Cars were getting ready for qualifying).

-- Rob

 

[RobInBigKC]

We then left our section and headed to the Vendor Midway where you can purchase souvenirs from/of your favorite League, Team, Driver:

-- Rob

 

[RobInBigKC]

After shopping the midway, we headed back and went to the section directly above the Start/Finish line to get this pic of the weekend's races' logos in the infield grass:

Qualifying for Sunday's Indy Car race had started (note the red Indy Car out on the track by itself):

-- Rob

 

[RobInBigKC]

DS14 and I then headed to the infield (i.e., the area inside the race track perimeter) to see what was happening there and to get some more pics.

Here's a close up of the "stats tower". Note the 214 on top which was (at the time as well as at the end of qualifying) the fastest lap speed of the day -- it was actually 214.118 MPH, the three digits to the right of the decimal being important if you were the second place guy with 213.992 MPH.

Here's a view of the grandstands from the infield:

-- Rob

 

[RobInBigKC]

Just to confuse Rob there were two red Target cars:

DS14 pointed out to me (AFTER consulting his cheat sheet ) that one is the number 9 car and one is the number 10 car. Check the difference on the side of their rear spoiler wing.

-- Rob

 

[RobInBigKC]

Is this Jean Girard? Not quite Ricky Bobby! It's Tony Kanaan who won the Twin Ring Motegi in Japan last week and took the pole position for Sunday's Indy Car race at Kansas Speedway. He was just a fraction of a second faster than Sam Hornish Jr.

Note that he is barely taller than the female on the platform with him. This may be completely untrue but my impression was that all race car drivers are tiny -- whether they be Indy, Nascar, truck or car. Their vehicles also seem smallish to me, at least the Indy cars and Nascar trucks I saw up close seem that way.

Speaking of which, here is one of the trucks that were racing later that day up close:

At this time, the Indy qualifying had wrapped up and the trucks were getting moved into position along the front of Pit Row for driver introductions.

-- Rob

 

[RobInBigKC]

Flag parachuting in is always fun and inspirational and deserves its own post:

\

-- Rob

 

[RobInBigKC]

Ok, grabbed some ice cream bars and it was back to our seats. Neither DS14 nor I had to purchase any $4 20-ounce bottles of Pepsi products because Kansas Speedway allows you to bring a soft-sided cooler (up to 6" x 6" x 12" in size -- basically six or seven cans) with your favorite beverage of choice into the grandstands. No glass bottles but you can bring in alcoholic drinks if you wish to do so. Quite a savings.

Here's some general shots from our seats...

I'm not sure how popular Nebraska Furniture Mart http://www.nfm.com/ is outside of the midwest but the building that, seemingly, is just behind the row of billboards is their only location outside of Nebraska:

Note that there are two sets of garages, one set on the left in the pic above and one set on the right in the pic below. This is how Kansas Speedway can host two separate races with completely different drivers/vehicles in the same weekend and still provide them garage space -- a fairly unique setup I've been told (don't really know if that is true). This weekend, the Indy cars were on the left and the Nascar trucks were on the right:

Garage spots are assigned according to where the driver is currently ranked in his league's standings. The top points leader gets Garage Bay 1, the next Garage Bay 2, and so on.

Note the recreational vehicles in both the infield and on the hilltop:

-- Rob

 

[RobInBigKC]

Our view of Turn 4:

Where we were relative to the Turn 4 end of the grandstand:

Our view of Turn 1. Note all of the hospitality tents, i.e. companies hosting customers/vendors party tents, on the hilltop:

-- Rob

 

[RobInBigKC]

Getting ready to roll (note the presence of the Pace Truck at the start of the pack):

Let's go racin' boys! Pace Truck is gone and, in about 200 more feet, the race is on!

-- Rob

 

[RobInBigKC]

Mike Skinner had won the last three truck races this season and would have made Nascar truck history if he had won on Saturday. Sadly, he finished fifth. On the other hand, I had on my Ford ball cap and Ford trucks finished First and Second (as they always should) on Saturday. Erik Darnell won his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory ever.

Here is Mike Skinner making his first pit stop of the race, on lap 59 (out of 167 needed for completion). He was leading in a big way up to this point when, according to Skinner, he took on what he called "a horrible set of tires" and he never climbed higher than third after that.

-- Rob

 

[RobInBigKC]

Some women kept getting in the way of my camera when I was trying to take pics (a similar thing happens on my beach trips -- women in bikinis blocking shots of my kids ):

One did twice (while I was trying to capture her smile which was amazing):

-- Rob

 

[RobInBigKC]

There were a few exciting things that happened but it wasn't that exciting of a race overall. I think there were three single-car spinouts and one completely blown engine. Interesting learning for Rob: A Nascar truck engine holds about four gallons of oil instead of four to six quarts so when it blows and spews oil, it really spews oil. Squiddy would have been proud of the sprayed output (even if it was oil instead of ink).

The winner won by a track record 10.44 seconds which is a lifetime in auto racing. Aside from the very slim chance of a wreck happening, one pretty much knew who the winner was going to be with 12 laps to go.

Actual time in traffic going in: 11 minutes. Coming out: 59 minutes!!! It was 59 minutes from the time I left my parking spot to the time I was moving at more than 20 miles per hour. Worst exiting traffic I've ever seen in my life, mainly due to the fact that (1) the parking lots are grass and do not have any curbs which means there are hundreds of mini-intersections and merges as people drive wherever they want and (2) when you do get on the roads/driveways that border the lots, there were no traffic cops directing traffic at the intersections.

Still, all in all, I'm glad I went. It was worth both my time and money. I'm not addicted (yet?) but I'm also not writing it off either. I'll be interested in seeing the contrasts when the Indy cars run on Sunday and also in September when the NASCAR cars (both Busch and Nextel Cup) hit town.

-- Rob