Winner winner, get Jimmie another chicken dinner!  Jimmie Johnson won the Sprit Cup at Las Vegas Motor Speedway last weekend.  It wasn’t a super exciting race, the boys ran pretty clean all day long.  There were a couple of cautions, but some of them were mistakes.  There was one good crash on turn four when McMurray got a little bit loose and tried to take out Montoya.

I look forward to NASCAR weekend every year.  Its really my happy place.  The people are nice, friendly, and over all just happy to be there.  I love that.  I love hearing the national anthem sung by 150,000 americans.  And let me tell you, Terry Fator has a voice that is incredible.  Match that with the Thunder Birds fly over and you have the makings of an all american weekend.

I like to camp out on turn four during the race.  This seems to be the corner were things are likely to go sideways.  While I was there I found this little guy and his mom.  NASCAR fans start young.

This year the best place to be was pit road.  I love pit road before the race.  The cars are lined up, the fans are milling around, and there is a general air of excitement.

Then there is all the action during the race.  This year was the year for Pit Road.  Before my Mother asks, I wasn’t in the pit box, and I didn’t get in anyones way.  Promise!

All in all we had a great time.  If you haven’t heard it yet listen to The Vegas Tourist podcast with Ace and the Chippendale Magnet.  www.TheVegasTourist.com The folks go into great detail on all the fun and adventures we incountered.  Also is an excluse interview with Tony Stewart!

Next weekend we are back out at the track for the Lucas Oil trophy truck race.  This should be a fun one!  Trophy trucks on a tight dirt track built just for them.  We will all be on the track and I will be shooting from the dirt!  Don’t know what a trophy truck is?   Take a look…

We are up before dawn and hit the track.  We find clouds, wind, cold and the threat of rain.  No matter, this is NASCAR and our on track official assures us in our morning briefing that NASCAR will do everything possible to make the race happen today.  Good thing NASCAR fans are not afraid of a little rain!  They were out in full force today regardless of the weather.   Ace found this father daughter team having the time of their lives out on pit road.

Kind of reminded me of all the tracks dad and I went to when I was a kid. 

Fans lined up in the Neon Garage for looks at their favorite cars, drivers, and teams. 

We hit the track running this morning just in case the rain came early.  Got lots of photos of the cars, Nationwide drivers, practice, qualifying, and everything we could possibly find. 

Then we packed it all up and headed over to Lagasse’s Stadium at the Palazzo.  (after a two hour nap and a couple of showers)  We had a big interview lined up and we didn’t want to be late.  Here you can see Ace getting set up and ready to interview Tony Stewart.

The exclusive interview will be posted on The Vegas Tourist.  Check out www.TheVegasTourist.com for the latest updates from Ace and Tony.  After the interview we were on hand while Tony was presented with the Legends in Sports award by Lagasse’s.

Tomorrow is the big Shelby American race and your TVT Sports reporters will be on hand to bring you all the action.  The boys have been working hard, and I have photo’s for miles!  Everyone will be on the track tomorrow to catch everything we can! 

This year is all Amp’d Up baby!  We walked into the Neon Garage early this morning and we knew it would be different.  The energy filling this place was incredible.  We did our usual and got the base camp set up and then split up to see what we could find.  What we found were NASCAR fans everywhere!  This place was two and three deep on the viewing decks.  Getting special attention where the Go Daddy Team (Mark’s personal favorite) and Jimmie Johnson.

But then Jeff Gordon and Jaun Pablo Montoya walked thru the garages on the way to there cars and I thought the fans on the gate would lose it!

Look’s like NASCAR is cool once again.  Everyone is wearing their gear, myself included!  And it seems everyone is getting in on the action.  Kim Kardashian now has her face and name on a new car.

But my favorite of the day and the biggest crowd pleaser in the media room because of the free stuff was the Target shopping cart.  This cart was in the Neon Garage early this morning and Jaun Pablo was spoted going for a spin.  Its all about the marketing and the sponsors!

We did eventually get down to business.  The Ace reporter spent most of his day attending the media Q &A and we will have some great stuff on The Vegas Tourist podcast soon from that.  But before we go into our predictions for the big race on Sunday we have to talk about Danica.  The media frenzy surrounding her is out of this world and she is one of the reason’s this weekend will be so successful.  She was asked about all the media attention and was very down to earth when she said she was thankfull for it, and would miss it if it wasn’t there.

Most of you know that I am always rooting for the home town boys.  Kyle and Kurt Busch.  Kurt is all reved up and really wants to win at this track.  He is using information from his brothers success here last year to really dial it in.  So much so that he qualified first with a new track record of 188.79 miles an hour.  Last year Kyle was first on the pole and ended up starting last because of an engine change, this year Kurt will be on the pole and the home town is screaming for him to win it.

The TVT team is planning on hitting the ground running at 6:30 Saturday morning.  We have a meeting at 8 and a possible announcement by Garth Brooks and Jimmie Johnson at 9:40.  The weather man is calling for an 80% chance of rain for the Nationwide race tommarrow but we have poncho’s, no problem!  As soon as the race is over we are going to be racing to Lagasse’s Stadium of Tony Stewarts induction into the Legends of Sports.

So this last photo is for all our friends, family, husbands, wives, and co-workers we left behind this weekend.

We will be home on Monday, tired, hungry, limping, but happy.

While all the pretty trucks were headed down The Strip I was at the dirt track with Ace.  I love doing dirt tracks with Ace.  He knows all the stuff about the cars, classes, engines, teams, and just cool stuff.  He can also find trouble at any turn.

Notice Ace is watching the crash and not photographing it!  He later returned from the other side of the track with car pieces he found.  Not sure if he was planning on building his own, or just collecting!

If you ever have the chance to visit your local dirt track, look for the midget and sprint racing.  These little cars zoom around the track sideways, bounce, flip, and damn near do tricks.  Most the drivers in this class of racing are not technically old enough to drive, but they sure can race!  You don’t have to be a rich man to enjoy this class of racing.  Mostly you will find families, other race enthusiasts, and normal every day people who are out for the dollar dog and beer.

Ace and I like to use the dirt track as warm up practice for the NASCAR track.  Its gets the smell of gasoline in the air, you can feel the rumble beneath your feet, and it in general just puts me in a good mood and ready to go!  More updates coming from NASCAR shortly.  Watching the qualifying sessions today, and its looking like the big Nationwide race is looking to be rained out on Saturday.  But no worries, we have plenty to keep us busy!

Everyone on staff at The Vegas Tourist has new camera gear, earplugs, sugary snacks, and energy drinks.  We are packed and ready to go! 

See you at the track!

This game is like a giant game of hot potato, and the ball is the potato.  I had never witnessed a rugby game before covering the USA Sevens World Cup.  Now I can’t imagine missing a game!  The World Cup had 44 matches with teams from 16 countries all playing two 7 minute halves.  Its a very intense 7 minutes.  These guys take the field with no protective gear and beat the living daylights out of each other.

They make running tackles, gang up on who ever has the ball, regardless of team alliances.  Its crazy, barbaric, and very fun!  There doesn’t seem to be any rules when it comes to player contact.  Just about anything goes, and the more brutal the more the fans love it.  These guys are tough too.  They take the hits and just keep right on going.  Nothing seems to stop them.  Its like a field full of Supermen!

Before last weekend I had no idea how popular Rugby was.  The fans are rabid!  They love their team of choice and anyone who says different is in for a brawl.  The fans dress in costumes and wave flags and banners all day long.  Everyone is there for the action and to be a part of the teams success.  We saw more fans dressed for the occasion than not, talk about some premo people watching!

Just for the ladies… if you think this sport is too ruff for you let me be the one to remind you… all muscles, brawn, and yummy man-ness dressed in shorts and tight shirts!  Its never a bad combination!

Las Vegas will be hosting this event for the next three years.  I suspect we will see the crowds grow even larger as the years move on.  I for one will not miss it!  You can see more photos from this event at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thevegastourist/sets/72157623464048722/

Friday night I had the opportunity to be at Lagasse’s Stadium at the Palazzo for Smokin Joe Fraziers birthday party.  Lagasse’s presented Joe with the first “Legends” award.  Part of the presentation included clips from the film “Thrilla in Manilla”.  Joe Frazier is best known for his fights with Muhammed Ali, and the rivalry between the two of them.  Frazier first fought Ali in 1971 and that fight was the only fight he won agianst Ali.  The two would meet a couple of more times with the most memorable fight being the fight in Manilla.  This fight was one that would go down in the history books as one of the most exciting fights ever.  It went for an astonishing 14 rounds!

What was most interesting about this evening with Joe was to see how passionate he still is about the sport of boxing.  He still loves the sport, and my guess is if his body had held up he would still be in the ring at 66.  He sat and watched the footage of “Thrilla in Manilla” with us and then added his two cents.  It was great to hear some insider facts from back in the day.  That last fight with Ali, Joe confirmed that he was blind the last three rounds.  He had had a prior training accident that had left him blind in one eye, and Ali had beaten the other eye to the point he could no longer see.  The MC of the event asked how Joe kept going and he said pure instinct.  It was apparent from the movie that these two fighters were willing and able to fight to the death, literally.  Thankfully Joe’s cornerman eventually called the fight, just as the Ali team was getting ready to do the same.

The Legends award was well recieved and in my humble opinion couldn’t have gone to a better man.

This is the time of year that NASCAR holds news conferences, makes announcements, and teams re-align for the coming season.  All ready the 2010 season is looking to be like a winner.  Lets start with my home town favorite Kyle Busch.  Kyle won the nationwide series for 2009, and has big plans for the truck series in 2010.  He announced this week that his company, Kyle Busch Motorsports will field two Toyota trucks in the Camping World Truck Series for 2010.  With that announcement Kyle said he would be sharing driving duties in one of the trucks with protege Brian Ickler.

What Kyle doesn’t say in his announcement is that “sharing” the driving duties in the truck series could give him more time and energy to concentrate on the Sprint Cup Series driving.  He had a great year in the cup series but failed to make the cut.  Could 2010 be the year?  I personally would like to see Kyle concentrate on the Cup Series this year.  The man can drive like a bat out of hell.  Sure he can be a hot head sometimes, but to me that shows great passion.  He has grown up a lot in the last couple of years.  I believe 2010 could be the year he gets the balance right between his incredible talent and passion for the sport.

Now on to the worst kept secret in NASCAR.  Danica Patrick.  Danica announced this week that she would be driving a limited schedule in the Nationwide Series.  She will be driving limited dates around her Indy Car schedule for Jr. Motorsports.  Danica will be driving the number 7 Chevy sponsored by Go Daddy.com.  Her first race will be the IRCA race in February at Daytona.  There have been female drivers in the Nationwide Series before but none have made the transition to the Cup Series.  I think it will take a couple of years, but this girl can do it.  She is a hell of a driver, and talented enough to make the transition from open wheel to stock cars look easy.  Danica has proven she can not only keep up with the boys but also earn their respect.  She has paired up with the best possible team, Jr. Motorsports and Kelley Earnhardt.  Danica’s schedule has not yet been released, but you can expect her arrival at any Nationwide race to be a breath of fresh air that series badly needed.

I am hoping that she will be driving at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in February.  You can expect the whole TVT gang will be there to catch the action!