Charlotte infield #1

We left the Statesville KOA on Wednesday morning, destined for the Charlotte Motor Speedway infield. As we got closer to the speedway there were some fingers fling in the air--a little road rage!! There were absolutely no signs for the staging area but we only had to backtrack once to it in line less than an hour. The coach got searched and I mean searched. The security guard opened all of the cupboards in the kitchen and above the windshield. Also the refrig and freezer. They were looking for firearms and extra people!! Oh, and dogs, too.

Here is our site #370. JHB bought the site from a lady in Myrtle Beach.

Isn't this lovely? We swept the water away so we could have a dry patio!!!

We're set up.

The driver's coaches are a stone's throw from our site. Plus we are on the main thoroughfare for important traffic to travel right by us.

JHB was one of the few people who had a map of the layout of the sites. He spent the majority of Wed and Thursday helping people find the place they were suppose to be.

These people hand painted these two Toyota signs along the side of the track. It took well over 4 hours. Must be a low budget operation.

The haulers came in the tunnel under the track and then around on the track to their location in the infield. Tony wasn't the first one in but he made the front of my list!! Plus it was his birthday yesterday, May 20th.....The old 39!!

I only managed to get the end of #11's (Hamlin) truck! Sorry, Brenty.

Here are a few of the sites so far. More to come I'm sure!

The neighbors have a pet squirrel. You don't see that every day!!

We have seen Richard Petty drive by in his black charger with his license plate RP43. JHB saw Mike Helton, the big boss, drive by twice. Joey Logano was riding around in a limo. JHB also saw Tony go by in a black GMC with a blond bimbo.. leaving the track! (That was while I was loading this pictures.) And he just saw Jack Rousch drive in. Better get outside and check out the action. The trucks are practicing now and soon it will be the Cup cars so I bet Tony will be driving back in soon!!! It's clouding up with a 40% chance of rain today and tomorrow!!!

More NASCAR garages

We started out today visiting the Stewart-Haas garage. Now you know that this is Tony's (#14) garage, as well as Ryan Newman's (#39).

Wow..me between 2 of Tony's cars!
Lots of pictures with little narrating...

Tony's trophies

Tony was the winner of last years All-Star race! $1 million buckeroos!!

A great visit here at this garage. The gift shop lady said Tony usually comes to the garage about once a week but unfortunately the day wasn't today. I bought a few mementos, of course!

Next was the Hendrick's shop. His complex was by far the largest.
Henrick is the owner for Jeff Gordon (#24), Jimmy Johnson (#48), Mark Martin (#5) and Earnhart, Jr (#88).

There are several cars displayed in the team shop, along with alot of mementos to purchase. Used tires were marked $20 a piece. They looked useless to me.

Pretty cool paint schemes..

We stopped at the #88 building to meet up with Kevin who is a MN boy. He has worked for the Hendricks organization for quite some time. Presently he is on the #88 team but previously on the #5 team when Terry Labonte and Kyle Busch drove the car and now Mark Martin. We met Kevin last year at Talladega and again this year when we were there. His brother, Jason, was in our 4 RV camping party! Kevin gave us a personal tour of the facility. We were very lucky to be able to take him away from his work.

I think this is the car that was Kevin's first win with driver Terry Labonte!

This building has Jimmy Johnson's personal offices.

This is Jr's car for the race this weekend. Doesn't look ready yet.

Mark's and Jr's car haulers getting equipped for the race Saturday.

Two cars fit on the top part of the hauler, with all of the replacement parts and crews gear inside below the cars.

Going inside Jr's hauler.

Jr's helmet.

Each driver cannot have more than 14 cars at any one time. If they want to make a new car and already have 14, one has to be taken apart. That ends our tour at Henricks. Thanks, Kevin.

We next went to the track to figure out where we need to go tomorrow. Then we found the new Richard Petty garage. The drivers are (in case you don't know) are: Kasey Kahne (#9), Elliott Sadler (#19), AJ Allmendinger (#43) and Paul Menard (#98). They don't have their showroom completed so we could not view any of the shop proceedings. They didn't even have a gift shop.

One car on the showroom floor...taken in honor of our brother-in-law!!

Right across the street is Roush-Fenway. Their drivers are Greg Biffle (#16), David Ragan (#6), Matt Kenseth (#17) and Carl Edwards (#99). We didn't go in the shop, since we have no followers in our family. Tomorrow is the pit crew challenge, which is part of the All Star festivities. They were practicing in the back of the shop.

That ends our garage visits. Tomorrow we will pack up and head to the infield of the Charlotte Raceway. It is no longer known as the Lowe's track. Later......