racewriter's Blog

Photo Gallery From Daytona

With this being Speedweeks at Daytona International Speedway, the excitement is beyond describable. Of course getting caught in traffic is par for the course at any big sporting event, this being no different at 7:00 a.m. on Thursday morning. But if you ask most folks, they could care less, they’ll sit in the lanes of bumper to bumper traffic with their radio’s blasting and their windows down, laughing and hollering about how their driver is going to whoop somebody’s else’s driver when the race gets going. They are so full of anticipation that it’s quite possible that nothing…well almost nothing, can interfere with their happiness.

I joined the line of slow moving vehicles that were trying to get to the infield and we eventually made it to the entrance. Once inside, me being directionally challenged and all, I missed the “media” turn and ended up wandering around through the 9 million RV’s and tents. Folks were already up, fires started, some making their way back from the showers. I saw little doggies, which I think are a no no in the infield, stretching their paws next to their owner’s big fancy motor coaches. It was quite a show…I thoroughly got lost in the moment, but then realized I had no clue where I was and better head back to find a parking space. I asked a security guard and he sent me around a corner that I had missed the first time. As it happened, of all the thousands of vehicles in there, I pulled up right beside one of my media buddies. That was nice.

We walked at least a hundred miles to the media center, and got there just in time to claim a spot in the overflow media room. There are so many people from all over the place that cover the events here at Daytona during Speedweeks that if you don’t get here early, you’re out of luck and may end up typing away on your computer sitting out in your car or on the sidewalk somewhere. But I was lucky, got all set up and took a deep breath. Time to get down to business.

By 9:15 the Nationwide Series fellows had taken to the track and the sound that brings us all here had filled the air. Yep, if someone said they’d feed me and give me a place to sleep, I’d follow these guys around to every track every week just so I could hear the sound when the engines fire up. Slightly pitiful…but oh so true.

I made my way toward the Fan Zone to get a better view of the cars as they headed out to the track, just in time to see a herd of them fly by as they were practicing. I was standing next to a group of fans that had their cameras out snapping away. They wore huge smiles and I could almost feel the excitement emanating from them as they soaked in their first experience at the Fan Zone. One of the fellows got on his phone and told the person on the other end that he had found the perfect place for the race. I bet if I was to go back out there in three hours, he’d still be standing there; I’ll have to check that out later.

But for now, let’s watch practice and see what our boys are going to do on this chilly Florida day. I’ll check it out and let you know….