On February 22nd my new wife June and I took off to California for our honeymoon.  The trip out was one heck of a long day - 23 hours to be exact.  But I can't hold that against Nascar so I will keep that info to a minimum in here.  This website is for fans of racing so I will try and concentrate on our time at the track. 

Before we left for the West Coast I read up on the track and it's rules to make sure nothing funny came up.  We bought some nice seats and for a treat decided to upgrade to the 'Party Zone' that comes with pit-passes.  That was an extra $125 each.  That usually means you have to wear long pants and no open-toed shoes when you go in.  I had also read a number of people complain about traffic and the high cost when visiting the California Speedway.  Those were issues I could not do anything about till we were on-site so Boogity, Boogity, Boogity, lets go to California!

We got a hotel that was no more than 5 miles from the track.  How perfect is that?  If worse came to worse we could walk back to the hotel.  There were two ways to get to the track and a bunch of fellow hotel residents and the lady at the front desk said, ‘Stay off the freeway!  That thing is always a parking lot, doesn’t matter what time of the day.  You can actually leave three hours early for the race and never see one lap because you sat in traffic for 6 hours before you drove the five miles to the track.’

So we took the ‘back way’.  We took a right out of the hotel, crossed the freeway, drove a couple blocks and took a right.  That road there took us straight to the track.  Ran right into it a few miles up the road.  No traffic and there was plenty of parking.

Upon arrival we quickly came to realize that this place was VERY serious about not letting us in with beer.  NO aluminum cans allowed!  No alcohol allowed.  No glass allowed.  No umbrellas, nothing but clear plastic bags for your stuff.  And while the parking was free, there was nothing about our experience after parking that could be done without dropping some serious cash.  Since we couldn’t drink the 30-pack of cans I bought, I went and bought two under the bleachers - $16 dollars for two 12-ounce Lite beers.  The food prices were no better.  We bought a little bag of peanuts for $4.50.  A margarita - $15.  And that was only the half of it.  I am a Dale Earnhardt Jr. fan in need of some new stuff to wear since he changed teams and sponsors.

When we got to the Earnhardt hauler I quickly realized I was not alone.  For the Busch, err, Nationwide series his team behind the counter were real busy.  It was twice as busy on Sunday.  He has all the usual trinkets and clothes for sale and it has sat long enough that the paint has finally dried.  The stuff I got for Christmas was a different story all together.  The one problem I have is that I can’t get down with the green and white AMP color scheme.  The leather jackets were nice but mostly white.  I can’t justify buying something that will quickly begin to look dirty forever.  Thank God for his National Guard sponsor.  They had a great camouflaged jacket that was weather proof with a zip-out hoody.  With that, a new hat and a flag for the pole out front I was over $200 and done shopping for the day.  Sitting would be done gently for the foreseeable future.

The track itself is a beautiful facility that was kind of like a really big Richmond.  Everything was clean and moving to your seat was easy.  We couldn’t walk next to the catch-fence though and that was a bummer.  The seats along the front-stretch are the only seats – enough for over 100,000 people.  Due to the whacky weather it never filled up completely but at one time on Sunday it looked pretty well full.  It was announced later that only 70,000 were there.  That is half what Richmond gets, and there you can walk the inside of the track next to the fence until you get to your seat.

The best part of the whole experience is easily the view from your seats.  No matter where you sit the track is surrounded by a beautiful snow-capped mountain range.  It was absolutely stunning, in our humble opinion.  People who live in California take it for granted – but we couldn’t get enough of it.  Having never been to California my camera was trained on the sites when the rain clouds separated long enough to see them.  Unfortunately, that was not very often.  Qualifying was cancelled on Friday and the Busch, err, Nationwide series was cancelled on Saturday.  We did catch the truck race and a couple of laps of Cup practice before rain took that too.  Sunday was even worse.  We woke up to rain and cold as well.  The temperature was around 50 degrees all weekend.  Nasty little combo when you throw in the rain.  But no biggie, we are happy people and a little bad weather was not going to stop us from having fun. 

We got to the tent for the Party Zone and decided we would have some breakfast – was not currently being served.  It was right there in the pans over a flame but we were not allowed to have it.  They even had someone standing there with gloves on, but no, we would have to wait.  Some local DJ on stage gave away some autographed crap from Scott Riggs and Jeremy Mayfield.  We were given a Gatorade bottle with a pop-top as a gift (big whoop) and there were free drinks in the corner.  Pretty cool but certainly not worth the $125 we each dropped.  So we decided to rough it in the rain and make a trip to pit road and see the sites.  Again, unfortunately, there is nothing going on because everybody was inside staying dry.  We talked to the guy in charge of Goodyear Tires for a long time.  He assured us Nascar was just covering their ass but saying the race would start today but there was no doubt in his mind it would have to wait till Monday.

Eventually we were allowed out onto the infield between pit-road and the start/finish line to watch the rock band ZZ Top.  To me this was a thrill because I have always wanted to see them play.  They did not disappoint.  And finally, for once all weekend, something happened that made us happier.  The band and the crowd became one and we rocked those rain clouds away and the sun came out.  It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen!  We danced like idiots and sang ever lyric we knew in hopes that it would stay that way.  Unfortunately for Nascar, they should have made ZZ Top play all day because as you all know, this was a day full of delays until finally, as if to offer up a mercy kill, the rain finally came back to stay around 8pm that night.

Like a couple of racing pro’s we realized that would be it and dashed to our car – parked perfectly near an exit – so we could get the hell out of there before the traffic jam.  The plan worked perfectly.  We took off and with barely a couple slow spots got out onto the road and were headed for home.  While we did not get to see a full race, happiness was un-bridled as we figured we avoided the legendary mess that is post-race parking lot hysteria.  That was until about halfway home for whatever reason us sound minded humans can not figure out, the cops – well away from the track – diverted us all onto the freeway, where we immediately encountered gridlock on a 10-lane highway.  Not to mention the fact that we have no clue how to get back to the hotel now.  For the next hour-plus we plodded, circled and cursed our way around Fontana before finally finding our way back home.  We were so off track we took a right when we left the hotel and took a right to get back in.  We were completely on the other side of town than the track when we got back.

Note:  I must give props to my navigator and wing-man June.  She brilliantly used her sense of direction to get us home when we did.  To our surprise we beat everyone back to the bar next to the hotel.  It was then that we learned that everyone was diverted onto the freeway whereupon they got lost too.  Props to June.  Smooch!

I would continue to lament the decision Nascar made to start the race while water was seeping through the track only to result in Dale Earnhardt Jr. being collected up in a wreck, but I will save that for the Rogue Reporter.  Hope you all enjoyed a little look back at our trip to California.  If you ever wonder why they have trouble selling tickets to that speedway, maybe this story will help you understand.

Judd & June