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closeStaff observations from Coca-Cola 600
Monday, May. 28, 2007
• The AATAC Official Recovery Vehicle towed Jeff Gordon's Chevrolet into the garage, and the way the front end had been smacked, it looked as if the car was smiling. The middle of the hood was pushed down and the metal on each side was pushed up. The Chevrolet looked like Batman's nemesis, the Joker. And the car wasn't the only thing smiling. A crew member from another team allowed himself a grin.
• Has anybody mentioned Jessica Alba in their Observations? Of course. But did Ron Green Jr. talk about her looks or did he write about her as a person? Maybe I'm too sensitive, but I believe looks are merely part of the package. If a woman isn't smart, if she isn't warm, if she lacks a sense of humor, what good is she? In unrelated news, tennis hasn't been the same since Anna Kournikova left.
• A white stretch limousine stopped in the garage area. A man stepped out, and then another, and then a woman. Something about them said, Hollywood. Each was decent-to-good looking, each dressed well and each lit a cigarette. If you believe the stereotype, they must be from southern Hollywood.
-- TOM SORENSEN
• Although Lowe's Motor Speedway's prerace show featured a stunning show of military force, it was a far quieter moment that produced its most lasting memory. Richard, Kyle and Samuel Bauerlein of Ventura, Calif., received the American Eagle Award during festivities honoring the actions of family member Staff Sgt. Rashe Ryan Hall. Hall, now stationed at Fort Bragg, has served in Afghanistan and Iraq and received a Purple Heart and numerous honors for gallantry. After receiving the award, Hall's family remained on the frontstretch for the rest of the show. Following the national anthem, the prerace stage pulled away and standing on the infield grass was Hall, who was quickly surrounded in a surprise family reunion.
• On Lap 63, a malfunction on the speedway's scoring tower listed just 12 cars running in the race. With the amount of cars that had already wrecked and were parked in the garage, 12 cars remaining didn't seem such a stretch.
-- JIM UTTER
• There has been a lot of talk about NASCAR's flat or declining television ratings and some empty seats at races this year but the sport looked plenty healthy Sunday at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Whatever the actual attendance -- whether 165,000 or 185,000 -- it was a bunch of people.
• In case you were wondering, yes, Jessica Alba is just as pretty in person.
Speaking of Alba, during a press conference in the media center Sunday afternoon, she was informed that Jeff Gordon wanted to meet her. At least he was up front about it -- and had time to visit after his spectacular wreck early in the race.
• Things you never thought you'd see again -- Bill Elliott leading a race. It happened -- briefly -- late Sunday afternoon. Cool.
• You would think coming to the track seven hours before the race starts would be early enough to avoid traffic. You would be wrong.
• It's a big race when it draws two blimps. There was the Goodyear blimp, which has been more places than The Rolling Stones, and the Ginn Resorts blimp which has its own big screen glowing in the sky.
How many blimps did Indy have?
-- RON GREEN JR.
• A few years ago, it nearly took an act of Congress to get permission to have a golf cart or any sort of wheeled vehicle anywhere near the NASCAR garage. A half-hour before Sunday's race there were 94 parked in the vicinity of the media center between the Nextel Cup and Busch garages. Somebody has to be breeding them. I suspect they work in television.
• I watched the Grand Prix of Monaco, almost all of it, and am still waiting on somebody to make a pass. Formula One cars are unbelievable machines. So is the machine that makes Tyvek at the DuPont plant just outside of Richmond, Va. Does that make it a great racing vehicle?
• Kyle Petty said it very well. He knew he couldn't outrun some he was chasing near the end of the Coca-Cola 600. But he stayed out, and his team's effort helped him finish third. All the guys who finished in the top five, including winner Casey Mears, used teamwork to do what they did in this event.
• Sometimes you know pretty early it won't be until the last minute that you figure out how things will turn out in a race. From the moment Jimmie Johnson's tire problem led to the big wreck on Lap 53, this race had that kind of feel.
• You have to be a special kind of sick to cheer when somebody gets hit as hard as Jeff Gordon's car did on Lap 62. It's fine to root for or against a driver, but these guys are human beings.
• If you download Darrell Waltrip saying "boogity, boogity, boogity" as the ringtone on your cell phone, you might be more than a redneck. You might need brain surgery.
• Jessica Alba is a very attractive young woman, but she has to get tired of the way people act when she's around. At least one race track public relations rep and one television network reporter needed bibs to catch the slobber during media opportunities with her. -- DAVID POOLE