So this olelongrooffan spent another day out at the Daytona International Speedway today and did, in fact, score some swag. This time in the form of a NASCAR mandated restrictor plate gasket off

Danica Patrick’s number 7 GoDaddy.com Dale Earnhardt, Jr. owned Chevrolet “Impala.” I was watching the cars go through tech inspection after the Nationwide race and saw that plate being removed and figured what the hell? I followed that official carrying the restrictor plate over to turn it in to the dude in charge of cataloging them. As he put those, what looks like, cast aluminum plates in their proper resting place, he was tossing the gaskets into a nearby trash receptacle. As he was cataloging the #7’s plate, this olelongrooffan asked if I could have one of the gaskets? He looked up at me and I said, “Garage Art.” “It’s yours,” was his response. I took it, related my appreciation then beat it the hell out of there before he changed his mind.
(BTW, yes, that is lilwillie’s hoonimas note he included with my uber cool hoonimas gifts the gasket was photographed on. Thanks again Man.)
But man, this olelongrooffan is getting way ahead of myself.
My brother, thejeepjunkie, called me earlier today to see when I was heading out to the track. I told him I was fixing some sammiches and would be out there just after noon. He told me to meet him at the entrance to the NASCAR turn 4 tunnel as he was driving his ole Willys into the infield with a free pass provided by, yet another, friend. I have mentioned to my fellow Hoons previously thejeepjunkie was pretty well connected.
As such, I parked, this time even closer than the US Post Office in the median to the entrance to the Speedway Business Park. I parked there a couple days ago and upon exiting I saw a contingent of two wheeled Daytona Beach cops hanging around as I was leaving. When I arrived, I noticed my Comanche was still there, sans ticket or wheel boot. When I mentioned this to one of them, I asked if I could do it in the future. He looked me in the eye and said, “I don’t care. Besides, you’re a local.” Now don’t kill me my fellow Hoons. I would suspect there are many other locales where being a “local” is a good thing. Mine just happens to be here, two blocks from the track and free!
We hooked up and just before heading through that tunnel, thejeepjunkie recognizes a very attractive female motorcycle cop on one of the Daytona Beach Harleys they ride down here. He pulls up beside her and says “Hey Precious.” She looks over, drops that kickstand and come over and gives him a huge hug. They chat it up and she escorts us past those credential checking dudes and through that tunnel. Turns out he knows her, and a bunch of other cops, through work and she motioned we should follow her past another credential checking dude into “Tent City” located in the infield at NASCAR turns 3 and 4.

We arrived and there were half a dozen other cop bikes and a bunch of cop dudes and dudettes. The view of the race wasn’t all that great but I did get to meet a bunch of those public safety officers. Always a good thing for this olelongrooffan.


So, upon leaving that base camp, we headed over to the garage and pits area to see what was up. As we approached turn off to the garage area, in the Willys, thejeepjunkie says “Shall we see how far we can make it?” “jeepjunkie, what the hell can happen to us? Will they call one of your buddies to come arrest us?”
Well, my fellow Hoons, thejeepjunkie was able to negotiate his ole Willys right up to the street that runs along the garage area where he parked it in line with all of the teams golf carts. It is even shorter that those stretch ones they have!

The race had just started and we took a casual stroll through the pits and ended up with this just in front of us

while this was happening just behind us. Not a bad location to check out the action, if I do say so myself.

A little later we spotted these set of tires removed from the Dollar General Impala with 10 laps remaining. thejeepjunkie touched the fluid that was on the tire removed from the left rear of that racecar. “Gear oil,” was his diagnosis. A moment later, one of the bigwigs from that team came over, touched it, smelt it, and confirmed that diagnosis.

And, in an artsy fartsy moment, this olelongrooffan captured this image.

After the race, this olelongrooffan headed over to the garage area to view the post race inspection and, unbeknownst to me at the time, pick up some swag. Some of the racecars were unscathed.

While others had minor damage.

Yeah, after Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Danica Patrick received the loudest applause during the driver introductions.

And then there were other cars that received a little more damage.

NASCAR has some sort of guidelines by which they select racecars to undergo further tech inspections and, while Dale Jr.s’ Hellmans mayonaise (the official mayonaise of NASCAR, by the way) was selected due to his finish position, the number 99 piloted by Michael Waltrip was a random selection.

As was the Dollar General Impala, the one we had seen those tires come off of previously. I spotted this car come into the garage area in a group of others after most of those racecars had gone through tech. As I remembered the gear oil moment, I decided to follow it through. That car went down and, along with others, was filled with petrol and then went back to be weighed. While it was there, I saw one of those NASCAR officials hand the crew chief the following list of items NASCAR wanted to look at on this ride.

Holy Shit Batman! was all this olelongrooffan could think of. I bet lilwillie would charge a small fortune to remove these parts!

And, unlike previous years, this year, due to the new asphalt on the Daytona International Speedway, big packs of racecars are not the norm. Now it is just two cars running together and, if this olelongrooffan remembers the comment correctly, ramming each other in the rear and moving on. Anyway, look at the Impala decal on the above car and then

look at the one lack of one on the front of the race winning Kevin Harvick owned and Tony Stewart driven Chevy Impala.
This olelongrooffan then took my exit to hook back up with thejeepjunkie to get a ride back to my Comanche and head home to the Taj Mahal to help out with the Weekend Edition here on the Hooniverse.
Just after seeing the subject of tonite’s Last Call,

I spotted these race teams packing it up to head back to the garage and I thought that while these guys have a long season ahead of them, this olelongrooffan has just one more day of racing before him until the Brumos 250 in July.
But know this my fellow Hoons, tomorrow is another day and this olelongrooffan will be back out at the track to find something else fun!