I was surfing through an online newletter I received in my email and noticed talk of an event happening for the first time in the history of NASCAR. This event was to take place on Wednesday, 9/12/2012 in Chicago, Illinois at the House of Blues. Since Chicagoland Speedway is the first track on the 10-race run to the championship, they decided to have all 12 of the Chase contenders on stage answering questions from the fans.
The tickets were $10 each and all proceeds were to benefit The NASCAR Foundation. My friend Kecia and I decided that this would be a good day trip so we left at 7:00am Wednesday morning and arrived in Chicago about 4 hours later. It's always such a joy navigating through the miles and miles of expressways and tollways and bridges. I must say Lake Shore Drive is my favorite as it runs along Lake Michigan. It's so beautiful and BUSY!
After a lovely jaunt through the city, we saw places that we didn't even know existed. At one point we lost satellite reception on the GPS after missing our turn. We were under the city running parallel to the river. It was dark and just plain spooky. But the cool part was suddenly seeing the sunlight and realizing we were right on Dearborn and 0.1 miles from the House of Blues and didn't realize it! We were super happy to leave that underground world behind us and try and find the parking for the venue.
We decided the easiest thing to do was to pay for valet parking which was located right behind the House of Blues. The buildings look like tall cylinders or ears of corn. It almost looked like a gigantic matchbox car holder from when we were kids. There were two of them right on the river so it makes a very easy landmark when you're trying to find the House of Blues. (Mental note)
After we dropped off the car, we decided to walk around the block and find a place to have a bite to eat. We ended up at Einsteins Bagel. Oh ya, yummi! I had a multi-grain bagel with egg whites, cheese, asparagus, mushrooms and spinach. It also had a real light sauce of some kind. Wow, talk about awesome! I think it was on the corner of Kinsie and Dearborn! I certainly would like to visit that place again.
After our bagel, we walked back up to the House of Blues to stand in line. This event was supposedly general admission even though our tickets had assigned sections and seat numbers. we really did not receive any additional information on the venue seating arrangements so I assumed it was as stated on the ticket.
We stood in line for a little over an hour and one of the people from Toyota Racing snapped our picture. No, we did not meet Clint Bowyer. He was digitally inserted into our picture.
I would guess we were around the 100th in line. The line stretched all the way down the block and over the bridge. I would guess there were probably close to 1000 people in the venue total, perhaps a little less.
I noticed that many of the fans were wearing tshirts or hats or other clothing with their favorite driver on it. Some people came sporting tattoos of their driver! There was ONE man walking around in tank top with two beer cans and a half bottle of some liquor on his head. He did that trick to keep them stuck on his head with no glue or tape. It was comical, but at the same time I knew as soon as I looked at him that he would make the news, FB, Twitter, etc and thus just another reason that NASCAR fans are stereotyped as rednecks! Kecia and I were not and we seemed to stick out like a sore thumb. We were dressed in plain blue jeans and shirts except of course I had my sterling silver necklace with Tony's #14 on it. But we were the "classy" NASCAR fans that we were accused of being in North Carolina if you remember my previous blog.
There were representatives from Toyota, Sprint and HOB outside with us. They were telling jokes and having trivia contests to keep us entertained. One of the Miss Sprint Cup ladies was having her picture taken with fans and others were of course pushing Toyota and Sprint products on us. That was a bonus because they made the time fly.
The House of Blues is a beautiful building but the first thing I noticed is that it would be a death trap in a fire. I'm sure they are up to code, but there is no clear way in and out. It's a maze of narrow staircases and the exits are not clearly marked. It was dark and old and I bet it's a great place to be on Halloween night! LOL
As we walked into the facility, we had to climb a huge staircase to the main floor of the venue. At the main floor you could see the stage and there were maybe 4 rows of people already standing in front of the stage. Much to my surprise, it was standing room only! No where on the event information did it say that! Well, I asked one of the HOB staff where we were allowed to stand based on our tickets and he looked at mine and directed me to the second balcony. Here I was, within striking distance of the stage and he directed me to the balcony. So, being the dutiful, lawbiding citizen, I hoofed it up a million flights of stairs and landed in the balcony. Here is what I could see...
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. You could not see the stage! I was furious. Gas is not cheap, parking is not cheap, plus add in tolls and food and you had one expensive day trip and I couldn't even see! The stage is literally down below the 1st balcony. WTH?!?
So I stood there fuming. I was happy to be there, but this was NOT what I had in mind. Come to find out, it was general admission period and even though our tickets had seat numbers, we could have stood wherever we wanted to. I find this out AFTER the 100's of people behind me are now standing where I should have been standing! I could have been 2 feet from the stage. (yes, you can insert choice words here)
Finally the show started. First out onto the stage was former full-time NASCAR driver Kenny Wallace who introduced us to the grand prize winner of a contest they had. Second was Chris Meyers, NASCAR Analyst and sports broadcaster for mostly FOX but I think I've seen him on other networks. He had a sit down interview with Mike Helton, the President of NASCAR. I must say that was fascinating. Mike was asked a couple of questions and one was from a young fan who asked him what he would be doing if he was not President of NASCAR and Mike simply said he would be a fan just like everyone here because he loves this sport. He also made mention of how the Chase is currently designed at the suggestion and support of the NASCAR Fan Council. It's nice to know that fans really do have a say in this sport. Of course, that received a hearty round of applause from the audience.
Eventually, I became so irritated with the fact that you couldn't see anything that I ditched Kecia (truly, she said I could go) and headed down the maze of stairs to the main floor. Now, you remember right that I was already misdirected by one staff person, well, it happened a second time as well. Unbelievable, but as I think about it, I'm kind of happy it happened.
I climbed down about 3 flights of stairs and I'm totally confused as to where I'm at. So, I ask two HOB staff where I can get a drink and they point me to a bar that's off to my left. So I head over and the first clue I should have had was the fact they were ALL men and all of them were in some form of suits. In other words... CLASSY. I walk up next to this nice looking man and ask the bartender for a drink. She starts to get it and the guy next to me asks me if I'm ok. I of course said no, I was frustrated, blah, blah, blah. Man, he had beautiful blue eyes... I digress, sorry. The bartender comes back and says she's sorry but she can't serve me. I'm like, ok, why and she tells me I don't have a VIP tag. Oh for the love of Pete. I'm in the VIP section! WTH is it with the House of Blues staff and their directions???
I just shook my head, apologized and told her I was misdirected and where should I go? Ugh, I wasn't embarrassed because obviously, and here is the most important part to consider... I DIDN'T LOOK LIKE A TYPICAL NASCAR FAN SO NO ONE QUESTIONED ME ENTERING THE VIP SECTION!! Just think about that one for a second!
So I busted ass out of there, back to the two HOB staff who were clueless, told them that this was the VIP section and they apologized and sent me down another couple flights of stairs. By the time I hit the main floor, I said screw the drink because they were just getting ready to introduce the 12 drivers. So, I stood back and just watched. Here are some pictures I snapped. Some are slightly fuzzy because it was dark and the lighting made it difficult for my camera to focus.
Jimmie Johnson & Tony Stewart
Anyway, they were supposed to take questions from the fans but I think they only took 2 questions from the audience and a couple from facebook and twitter. I was thoroughly disappointed. They had the typical boring questions for the drivers and frankly I think even the drivers were bored with it. It wasn't until Clint Bowyer let loose with his awesome humor that the rest of the drivers seemed to relax and have fun.
At one point Clint pointed out that here we were in this awesome bar and they didn't have a cold one to drink. He just kept saying it in hopes that someone would bring out the beer. He named a few brands like Miller or Budweiser and suddenly he got a tweet from someone that reminded him that this event was sponsored by Coors Light. Clint had to tell us what a dumbass he was for screwing that up and shortly afterwards, they brought out trays full of Coors Light for the drivers to drink.
It's been a week now since the event so I can't remember everything I was going to say, but I will mention that they televised the event that following evening on Speed. Talk about disappointing! They took about an hour and a half worth of material and cut it down to about 35 minutes on tv. THEY CUT OUT ALL THE GOOD STUFF TOO! Well, not all but most of the humorous stuff. The took out all the funny things they said and the way they made fun of Kasey Kahne. They just ripped him up and by the end of the event all the fans were feeling sorry for him. The REAL stuff was gone and in it's place were all the cookie-cutter, sponsor loving, typical horse crap that we hear every week. Only the fans who attended really got to see the authentic event.
It was worth the 8 hours of driving and the 4.5 hours of standing to witness the 12 drivers on stage. It was fun to see how they interacted with each other. It was awesome when Jeff Gordon annouced to everyone what an awesome driver Tony Stewart is and when Clint picked on Jeff for being a member of the AARP. It was just neat to see them all at once and in such an intimate setting.
I hope they do it again next year because you can bet I'll be there!
Wow lady, sounds like fun! Thanks for sharing. Can't wait till we can have an adventure next year, gotta be a good one though! :)
ReplyDeleteSo far Shelley, everything I've done has been good so now my goal is to keep making it better!
DeleteI have to say that I was initially disappointed in the venue, but after the drivers got on stage it really was alot of fun, and I would do it all over again. They were just hysterical. Clint Boyer seemed as though he had partaken of his sponsors product...5 Hour energy. He was on a serious roll! And "june bug" (Dale Earnhardt Jr) as he is referred to by Darrel Waltrip, relly loosend up and had the crowd going. Sondra, I always have a great time with you and this was no exception.
ReplyDeleteDitto! It's been a fascinating year, let's make it even better next year!
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