Hump Day

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Wednesday was another busy day, with all kinds of different activity.  We ventured out  to get Spot some dog food, and we could see the traffic getting much heavier. The RV’s are still pouring in, and the check-in process is much more stringent than when we came in. They had dogs sniffing around compartments, and used mirrors to check underneath the rv’s.  There are an unbelievable number of motorhomes, trailers, and vehicles…all shapes and sizes.  There are even a few semi-cabs, that folks are using for their space at the track.  One group near us reserved two parking spaces…one for their motorhome and one for two complete sets of wicker lawn furniture, set up as a nice patio, complete with tropical plants!

We visited Tom again, and were treated like VIP’s, invited into his office in front of the hauler.  This is a shot of the engineers at work before practice.

It’s amazing what is inside of the haulers…very organized, neat and compact.  We got to see where they store the cars while they travel…it’s in the “attic” of the hauler.  What a great use of space!

 

The garage area was very quiet before practice, but became very busy later, when there was another big crash that took out 7 cars.  Unfortunately, there were several of the low budget teams involved, and one even had to pack up and go home because they do not have a backup car. 

There are always interesting sights in the garage area, like these tire covers that look like beer cans which made me smile. (the car is sponsored by Budweiser—pretty clever). 

We also watched them decal a car, putting on the “skin” of advertisers…very interesting to see how they do it

There is a $400 million renovation going on at the Speedway…called Daytona Rising.  They are rebuilding the front stretch grandstands…you can see it “rising” already, but will not be completed until 2016.  …65 million pounds of concrete have been poured to support the foundation!  It looks like it will be quite impressive when finished. 

 

 

We met a new friend last night…this Great Dane named Alex.  She was very friendly, and almost as big as her owner.  We spent the evening visiting with Alaska friends, Talladega friends and Daytona friends, stayed out too late, but enjoyed the great company.