The cars were all lined up in front of pit road before the race, and here the crews are pushing them towards their spots on pit road itself. Dale Jarrett's #88 Ford Thunderbird is the fourth car in line in this photo. |
Here you can see the rest of the cars being pushed down pit road before the national anthem. You can still see the tire tracks in the infield from the pre-race military demonstration. |
As the national anthem played, the tarps came out to cover the cars during a little delay due to the rain. The rain came and went many times before the end of the night. |
The track was soon dryed out, and the cars began rolling. As they did, I got caught up in the action and didn't take any photos of DJ taking the lead after a couple of laps, and dominating the early part of the race. |
We deceided to go down to the pits to see a real Winston Cup pit stop up close. It will probably be my only opportunity, and boy was it a memerable one. Here you can see DJ's crew up on the wall, ready to get him in and out without losing the lead... |
And there he is, at a dead stop after racing at over 170 m.p.h., waiting for his crew to drop the jack and maintain the lead. DJ was the first out of the pits, and we gave the crew a little cheer, but the crew didn't look too happy. At the rear of the car (where we couldn't see) one of the tires was mishandled, and it rolled all the way across the infield. DJ was penalized and had to move to the back of the longest line. He never made it back after that mistake, and ended up blowing his engine as he crossed the Finish Line. Not a happy ending, but an incedible weekend. I will remember it forever. |
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