NASCAR :: Day Two

Sorry for the delay!

Day Two was a piece of cake compared to day one. First off, I knew what I was doing now. I knew what was expected of me, and I knew my way around.

I again arrived at 7:00 bright and early after accidentally waking up at 4:00. My self and the other local UT's (pronounced 'Yuts' - think 'My Cousin Vinny') worked hard making sure that the dirt in the parking lot didn't blow away. At 9:30 we rewarded ourselves with a great big FOX provided lunch.

Have I mentioned yet how cool these union gigs are?

Anyway, after lunch we wandered over to the track and gathered our belongings. I was once again on battery, with the same crew. At around 12:45 we took our positions in the in field for the pre race festivities.

If I may divulge for a moment, I just want to declare my intentions to be a NASCAR driver, as I have come to find out that all NASCAR wives/girlfriends are really fucking hot.

That said, and no I don't have any pictures, I decided to wait in the pits for my crew, as yesterday in the Busch race they hopped in a pick up truck to do an interview and didn't need me. I figure why walk all the way across the infield (and I can't walk across the logo otherwise the NASCAR police will whip me) when I won't be needed.

Well guess what. They fucking needed me.

"21 BATTERY! WHERE ARE YOU?"
"UH, IN THE PITS, I'LL BE THERE IN A MINUTE!"

So I speed walked across the infield (my fatass is not going to attempt to run in front of 150,000 people...) only to find out that they just wanted my spare headset for the security guy.

Well whatever. So I hung out in the infield, got smacked around left and right by the drivers, the drivers wives/girlfriends, fans and security till finally we were able to run back to the pits for the national anthem and the flyover. The Thunderbirds, which are based out of Nellis, did it. Heh, the Busch race only got a bunch of unmarked F-16s.

The race went pretty quickly. A few cautions, and a couple of times where my crew tore off towards the garages to do interviews with drivers who were out of the race. Was kind of annoying to look at the race for a few moments only to see your crew bolting down pit road.

Not breaking my 'no running in front of 150,000 people' rule, I walked to catch up with them. I was in the zone on the batteries, so I knew they were okay.

I swapped out the camera battery twice and the transmitter and monitor batteries once. I did a pretty good job, I think. My job was to really only give them a new one when they asked for one, but I made a point of keeping an eye on things so that they wouldn't have to ask for one.

Hopefully next year I can move up to monitor or director or executive producer.

After the race was over (I forgot who won, but we were next to his pit all day) we all curried back to the FOX Sports compound and ate a yummy dinner. Then it was back to the track to tear everything down, pack it away, and jam it into the trailers, as they needed to hit the road and be in Atlanta in two days.

Of course what we were tearing down was on the roof of the fucking speedway. I don't do good with heights, but somehow I managed to keep my shit together and help them get everything taken care of.

We were eventually dismissed around 8:30. I hurried home quickly (quickly, as defined by the massive amounts of traffic leaving the race track even though the race was over for three hours, is one hour) and decided that I would take a quick one and a half hour nap before work.

My one and a half hour nap ended up being a three hour nap that encroached 45 minutes into my KLAS work shift! I hate waking to my phone ringing. But I think if they hadn't called me, I'd still be asleep!

No worries though, didn't miss any news and I skipped lunch which made up for my hour of sleeping. I officially decided that I would consider 12-1 my lunch hour.

My foot held up pretty well this weekend. It hurt, but not as bad as it normally did. I think it had a lot to do with the fact that I took twice the recommended dosage of Aleve Arthritis. I'm still alive, so apparently you can take more than three in a 24 hour period!

But don't forget, I'm fat so I have a lot more blood!

Can't wait till next year! Maybe I will get into NASCAR this year too, since I have Sunday's off!

More Pictures

More pictures can be found here! Click if you'd like!