Tales from trackside

M

mreed

Guest
I know some of you have been to lots of races over the years, and I'm sure you have some interesting stories to tell.
It's the off season, so lets hear the stories about some of the interesting things you've experienced at the track.


98 Coke 600.
I was listening to the 24 car with about 100 laps to go when I started noticing the "spotter" telling Gordon he was clear when he was not. I thought that was very strange and was wondering wth was going on with that, but didn't think too much about it.

A little later I started hearing someone on the 24 car's frequency saying things like "hit the wall, Jeff", and calling Jeff some pretty foul names. It seemed the later it got in the race, the worse the name calling and bad spotting became.

After a little while I realized, if I could hear this over the scanner, then Jeff must be hearing it too. I realized someone had hacked into the 24 car's frequency and was telling Jeff he was clear when he was beside a car, and saying things like "hit the wall you little f****t", and f*** you you little c********r. It got to the point that this guy was almost constantly harassing Jeff during the remainder of the race.

The only time anyone on the 24 team acknowledged this was when Jeff said something like "We have a problem with the radio". It was smart of them to ignore what was happening as trying to engage this guy over the radio would likely have only made it worse.

A few weeks later I saw a tiny little article about it near the back of the Winston Cup Scene. Someone had stolen one of the radio headsets from the 24 team, and was jamming them with fake spotter calls and generally harassing Jeff during the race.
I went to the last two races of the season that year which were Rockingham and Atlanta back then, and the 24 team were on a scrambled channel for the entirety of those races.

I don't know if they ever caught this guy, but he deserved to go to jail for a long time for what he did. It was more than just a theft. I was pretty pissed at the time to say the least. Not only for doing something so dastardly, but it resulted in not being able to listen to the 24 team on the scanner anymore that year because of it.
 
gordonite said:
I know some of you have been to lots of races over the years, and I'm sure you have some interesting stories to tell.
It's the off season, so lets hear the stories about some of the interesting things you've experienced at the track.


98 Coke 600.
I was listening to the 24 car with about 100 laps to go when I started noticing the "spotter" telling Gordon he was clear when he was not. I thought that was very strange and was wondering wth was going on with that, but didn't think too much about it.

A little later I started hearing someone on the 24 car's frequency saying things like "hit the wall, Jeff", and calling Jeff some pretty foul names. It seemed the later it got in the race, the worse the name calling and bad spotting became.

After a little while I realized, if I could hear this over the scanner, then Jeff must be hearing it too. I realized someone had hacked into the 24 car's frequency and was telling Jeff he was clear when he was beside a car, and saying things like "hit the wall you little f****t", and f*** you you little c********r. It got to the point that this guy was almost constantly harassing Jeff during the remainder of the race.

The only time anyone on the 24 team acknowledged this was when Jeff said something like "We have a problem with the radio". It was smart of them to ignore what was happening as trying to engage this guy over the radio would likely have only made it worse.

A few weeks later I saw a tiny little article about it near the back of the Winston Cup Scene. Someone had stolen one of the radio headsets from the 24 team, and was jamming them with fake spotter calls and generally harassing Jeff during the race.
I went to the last two races of the season that year which were Rockingham and Atlanta back then, and the 24 team were on a scrambled channel for the entirety of those races.

I don't know if they ever caught this guy, but he deserved to go to jail for a long time for what he did. It was more than just a theft. I was pretty pissed at the time to say the least. Not only for doing something so dastardly, but it resulted in not being able to listen to the 24 team on the scanner anymore that year because of it.
Click to expand...

Good post, I remember when that happened, but I didnt know all of the details.
 
Dude, that's ridiculous. I had never heard anything about that before. I wonder how the chump that stole the radio would have felt if he had caused the wreck he so desperately wanted and Jeff had gotten hurt...or worse.

Sucks that you couldn't listen in on your favorite driver's team radio for the rest of the year. All it takes is one moron to ruin it for everyone.
 
gordonite said:
I know some of you have been to lots of races over the years, and I'm sure you have some interesting stories to tell.
It's the off season, so lets hear the stories about some of the interesting things you've experienced at the track.


98 Coke 600.
I was listening to the 24 car with about 100 laps to go when I started noticing the "spotter" telling Gordon he was clear when he was not. I thought that was very strange and was wondering wth was going on with that, but didn't think too much about it.

A little later I started hearing someone on the 24 car's frequency saying things like "hit the wall, Jeff", and calling Jeff some pretty foul names. It seemed the later it got in the race, the worse the name calling and bad spotting became.

After a little while I realized, if I could hear this over the scanner, then Jeff must be hearing it too. I realized someone had hacked into the 24 car's frequency and was telling Jeff he was clear when he was beside a car, and saying things like "hit the wall you little f****t", and f*** you you little c********r. It got to the point that this guy was almost constantly harassing Jeff during the remainder of the race.

The only time anyone on the 24 team acknowledged this was when Jeff said something like "We have a problem with the radio". It was smart of them to ignore what was happening as trying to engage this guy over the radio would likely have only made it worse.

A few weeks later I saw a tiny little article about it near the back of the Winston Cup Scene. Someone had stolen one of the radio headsets from the 24 team, and was jamming them with fake spotter calls and generally harassing Jeff during the race.
I went to the last two races of the season that year which were Rockingham and Atlanta back then, and the 24 team were on a scrambled channel for the entirety of those races.

I don't know if they ever caught this guy, but he deserved to go to jail for a long time for what he did. It was more than just a theft. I was pretty pissed at the time to say the least. Not only for doing something so dastardly, but it resulted in not being able to listen to the 24 team on the scanner anymore that year because of it.
Click to expand...

Worlds full of idiots like that, it never fails that the folks that pay for the wrongdoings are the people that have done nothing wrong.
 
I was at a Charlotte race to see the 600 years ago and Tony Furr was the CC for a Hendrick car (the driver suffered a career ending injury and I don't have the heart to ridicule him by calling him out). Furr kept telling the young struggling driver to try a different line.

The driver told Furr to be quiet, and Furr set him straight. It was like a dad putting his boy in his place. RESPECT.
 
I think I know which Hendrick driver your talking about Greg, if it's who I think it is he beat Dale Sr at Atlanta for his lone Cup win. Well my tale is another Jeff Gordon story. So I don't know if he still doe's but used to be every year Jeff Gordon would come to Las Vegas & hold a charity poker tournament right around the time of the Cup event out here. So back in about 2005, I was in the diecast shop where I used to pickup a lot of my collectibles & another customer walks in & says that Gordon's at Caesars Palace & that he had just got his autograph. I said well then, let me jump in my car & see if I can also grab one. Before walking out, I bought a red sharpie & one of Gordon's Raced Version 1/24 Action collectibles 1/24 cars. I got there & found the room where his tournament was being held & stood outside with the car & marker in my hand. Jeff walked by me 3 times just staring as he went. I never said a word, or got in his way. Finally he came back by & stopped right in front of me & just said "Gimmie that". So I did, cool right? Problem was my marker was brand new & you know a new sharpie has to be shook first before it writes. So Jeff's standing there shaking my sharpie & staring at me cause it won't work. Finally ink come's out & he signs & hands the car back to me then says "Next time make sure it works". I happily said thank you Jeff & went back to the diecast shop to show my fellow collectors my bounty. Needless to say I don't let Sharpies give me anymore problems like that...
 
My Richard Petty encounter.
I think this happened at Rockingham the same year as the Gordon scanner incident.

I was walking around the track about an hour or so before the race. A beautiful sunny day. I was in the walkway between the regular grandstands and the tower section right next to the stairway leading up the tower section, when I heard a commotion above me.

I looked up and saw Richard freekin Petty walking slowly down the stairway stopping every once in a while to sign an autograph. I guess he was coming from the suites at the top of the tower section.

In an instant I hatched a plan to get his autograph. I had a sharpie, but the only thing I had for him to sign was my seat cushion. I figured I'd wait until just before he got down to where I was standing, then shove my seat cushion and sharpie between the railing for him to sign.
I thought about waiting for him to get near, then hop over the rail putting me right in front of him, but decided that was not a good idea because it would probably have freaked him out.

Now at the time the seat cushion I had was the type that had a metal frame with a fold up back rest. It was big and bulky.

So there I am waiting and watching. I'm like a cat stalking it's prey. He takes a few more steps down, he stops to sign some more, he's coming down again.
This is it! The King is just a few steps from being right in front of me, so I go to shove my seat cushion and sharpie through the rail, and the seat cushion won't fit through the damn rail!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! lol

By the time it took me a couple of times to try to get that damn big ass seat cushion through the rail, the King was gone!

I hung my head in defeat and withered away to a secluded spot because I realized that no one wanted to see a grown man cry. lol
 
In 2000, I was on my normal route up the highway on the way to college. It was early Sunday evening, on a NASCAR off week. I pulled in to the Wendy's joint that I almost always went to on a weekly basis when making this trip. Go inside, place my order, and I'm waiting for my food. The front door opened up, and I glanced over, and in walks Bill Elliot and Rusty Wallace, into a freakin' Wendy's. Apparently they were doing some testing in Michigan earlier that afternoon and were supposed to get back home via a helicopter. Something went wrong with the copter and was grounded, so they chose to high tail it back together in a rental car.
 
My son had a great overall experience at his first race. The first race we took him to was the inaugural race at Kentucky Speedway in 2011. That was the traffic fiasco race, well, the whole place was a fiasco. We went all out since it was his first race. Pit passes, our seats were on top of the building that sits just behind pit road coming off turn 4. Catered food and drinks all day long, etc. We arrive at the track, luckily beating the traffic, and head to the memorabilia section. Michael Waltrip and Kevin Harvick were both signing at their trailers, so he was able to get autographs from both of them. Then we made our way over to the pits, where we saw Rutledge Wood and the SPEED crew. My son went over to say hi to Rutledge and see if he'd sign something for him, which of course he did, and posed for pictures with my son. Then Rutledge noticed my son had an "18" shaved into the back of his head for Kyle Busch, so he had the SPEED cameraman take a long shot of the back of his head, which, by the way, ended up making it onto Raceday that morning. Lol We make the trip up and down pit lane, looking at all the cars and pit boxes, then before everything starts, we make our way atop the building to our seats for the race. His favorite driver, Kyle, ends up winning the race. On our way to victory lane to watch the celebration, we stopped to watch the crews pass by as they were pushing the cars to the garage. Crew members from Gordon, Johnson, Harvick, Reutimann, and Kenseth all stopped to give my boy lugnuts that they had taken off the car during the race. Then we make our way to victory lane just as the 18 is pulling in. We are right up front to watch that celebration. As Kyle was leaving, my boy tried to get his autograph, but a bunch of grown ass men kept pushing him out of the way. I couldn't get up close enough to push back. Lol Afterwards, my son was in awe, and he's like "Dad, it's OK, I still got to reach out and touch him". LOL So we are standing there still taking pictures of the car in Victory Lane and the crew members start to push the car back to the garage. One of them looked over and seen my son decked out in his 18 gear, and he took off his Kentucky Speedway inaugural race winner victory lane hat and tossed it to my son. Still covered in confetti and champagne. Lol To a 9 year old, this was one of the best days of his life. I told him to not get used to it, because he had a great first experience at the track, all that stuff typically doesn't happen.
 
Over the summer I work at a shoe store on a vacation island. We've had the likes of Dan Marino, Jim Stuckey & Tiger Woods come strolling through checking out golf shoes so I had been pretty habitualized to servicing any sort of celeb. One day I was helping out an older lady put her shoes on and behind me I heard "excuse me sir?" I turned around to stare Jeff Burton right in the face. I kept my cool but on the inside I was exploding. I had never met a NASCAR driver & now I was catering to The Mayor. He eventually bought a pair of 8.5 sized ASICS that I recommended for comfort. He used a card & signed the receipt. That receipt still sits on my dresser, shhhhhhh.
 
I have worked as a medic at tracks since the 70's.

I have a lot of really cool stories to tell but the statute of limitations hasn't run out yet. :D
 
I was at the 2001 California Speedway race. A happy-as-a-clam 12 year old watching the race. It was the weekend of Dale Earnhardts 50th birthday(I believe) and only two months after he died. Just being there was a touching experience. About 15 laps into the race I hear "Rusty has moved from(can't remember) 19th to 12th.. I turn around and go "yeah well Gordon's moved up from 17th to 9th" The die-hard wallace fan laughs and says "oh is that how it's gonna be today?!"

So we pass friendly banter back and forth all afternoon. Gordon and Wallace both ended up dominating the race and had a great battle for the win, Wallace won by like a car length and this guy was elated. He had been a Rusty fan forever and had never got to see him win in person. He CRIED and gave me and my uncle a hug. The way it all worked out was awesome though.

First time I realized how lucky I was to be able to see my driver win in person and exactly how hard to come by cup wins were.
 
I know a guy that met Michael Waltrip in a Tim Hortons lol and hung out with BK for a few hours bragging about winning the Daytona 500 on a video game lol got him to sign his Miller Light Rusty Wallace coat before it was announced he would be in the 2 car.
 
gordonite said:
I know some of you have been to lots of races over the years, and I'm sure you have some interesting stories to tell.
It's the off season, so lets hear the stories about some of the interesting things you've experienced at the track.


98 Coke 600.
I was listening to the 24 car with about 100 laps to go when I started noticing the "spotter" telling Gordon he was clear when he was not. I thought that was very strange and was wondering wth was going on with that, but didn't think too much about it.

A little later I started hearing someone on the 24 car's frequency saying things like "hit the wall, Jeff", and calling Jeff some pretty foul names. It seemed the later it got in the race, the worse the name calling and bad spotting became.

After a little while I realized, if I could hear this over the scanner, then Jeff must be hearing it too. I realized someone had hacked into the 24 car's frequency and was telling Jeff he was clear when he was beside a car, and saying things like "hit the wall you little f****t", and f*** you you little c********r. It got to the point that this guy was almost constantly harassing Jeff during the remainder of the race.

The only time anyone on the 24 team acknowledged this was when Jeff said something like "We have a problem with the radio". It was smart of them to ignore what was happening as trying to engage this guy over the radio would likely have only made it worse.

A few weeks later I saw a tiny little article about it near the back of the Winston Cup Scene. Someone had stolen one of the radio headsets from the 24 team, and was jamming them with fake spotter calls and generally harassing Jeff during the race.
I went to the last two races of the season that year which were Rockingham and Atlanta back then, and the 24 team were on a scrambled channel for the entirety of those races.

I don't know if they ever caught this guy, but he deserved to go to jail for a long time for what he did. It was more than just a theft. I was pretty pissed at the time to say the least. Not only for doing something so dastardly, but it resulted in not being able to listen to the 24 team on the scanner anymore that year because of it.
Click to expand...
 
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